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Batbrony

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  1. Batbrony
    Gooooood afternoon everypony, and welcome back to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews"!!!  Well... right now, I don't know what else to say but this...

    Why is that?  Well, that's the first word that comes to mind regarding the latest episode of MLP to premiere in the U.S., "Parental Glideance."  This episode simply had it all, every single thing that I could possibly love about a single episode of MLP rolled into one.  It was just a delightful, perfect 22 minutes of television, and to understand why, we need to dive into what makes an episode like this so very remarkable.  This is gonna be one hell of a review ya'll, so without wasting anymore time or dawdling about, let's dive right in.  This is "Parental Glideance."
    The 'It' Factors: Why This Episode Soars

    (1) Bow Hothoof and Windy Whistles
    Alright, so since at least Season 2 the fandom has been begging, and I do mean BEGGING, to see more of the Mane 6's parents, and to date our desire to see more of their parents has never been quite sated.  The closest we've come to doing so has been in some of Pinkie Pie's episodes featuring her family, including her parents (which I love since we usually get to see them in a more normal setting, even if Pinkie is usually there for special get-togethers) and Fluttershy's parents in "Flutter Brutter" (again, another very good appearance because we got to see her parents in their home, learn that they were retired, and the conflict was even centered around Fluttershy helping them get Zephyr Breeze out of the house).  That said, up until today we had never had an episode entirely centered around one of the Mane 6's parents themselves from start to finish, and our hunger for such an episode remained unsated.  After "Parental Glideance," however... well, if anything I want more episodes like this even more now, but I will admit that my hunger for an episode centered around a Mane 6 character's parents has been temporarily sated, at least. 
    This episode introduced us almost immediately to none other than Rainbow Dash's parents, Bow Hothoof and Windy Whistles (surprisingly distinct names when I think myself and many others in the fandom were long worried that their names would be rainbow-related as well in some fashion).  How were they?  The first word that comes to mind is delight, as in they were absolutely a delight!  These two are the walking, talking, living, breathing definition of "superfan parent."  Aside from a very hilarious gag at the beginning of the episode about how confused they both were by Scootaloo's shrieks of fangirling, Bow and Windy spent most of the episode just showing how much they adore their daughter in every single way possible, and probably also ways you never thought possible.  You wanna know what the most incredible part of it all was?  IT WORKED HERE!  The superfan parent, like so many other things in MLP, is not a concept that they invented or pulled out of a hat, this is something one encounters in both real life and popular media.  In both settings, superfan parents can very often, easily be insufferable, especially as characters, and it's easy to see why.  Superfan parents are by definition an extreme, and almost always when depicted in media operate in extremes; thus, here's how they usually get bucked up, (1) the parents come across to the audience as genuinely annoying when they're not supposed to, thereby undercutting anything that's supposed to be endearing about them, (2) the child or children of the superfan parents come off as overreacting to their parents love and adoration, thereby undercutting any degree to which we're supposed to sympathize with their exasperation at their parents behavior, or (3) the child and parents are both Flanderized and given the Mary Sue/Gary Stu treatment, meaning the child accepts the parents over-the-top behavior as perfectly normal and they and the parents get along in complete harmony, and we as the audience are supposed to enjoy this dynamic, when to the audience it simply seems that the parents live only for the child alone and all parties in the family are unrealistically perfect, if not downright obnoxious, in how much they love each other.  All three of these scenarios are failures of this trope that it is very easy for it to fall into, because, as I said, it does inherently require extreme behavior to some extent from the parents.  So while the failures are understandable, when they happen, they nonetheless make the superfan parent a trope that is all too easily more often than not an annoying one.
    This was, I am pleased to say, not the case in the slightest in this episode.  Bow Hothoof and Windy Whistles, despite being superfan parents in every sense of the word, despite having multiple rooms dedicated to their daughter (presumably an only child, but not yet officially confirmed, but c'mon, until I hear otherwise, I am assuming that RD is an only child), about a million types of cheers prepared for her and situations in which to cheer her on, and even a framed diaper of hers, never really came off as that annoying.  Oh don't get me wrong, you could understand at points why they were being too much for RD to handle, but that is required for the superfan parent trope to work.  It ensured that they did not just come off as a Mary Sue and Gary Stu, but instead as fallible parents prone to embarrassing their daughter in the course of showing how much they love her, as any parent should be.   That was really the secret to making them so likable.  Most other ponies, including RD and her Wonderbolt teammates, were aware that her parents were being a bit much, but besides RD almost everypony else took it in stride because they knew it was just a couple of parents loving their daughter.  These little interactions made it easier for us to accept their behavior as endearing; none of it was really causing any issues for RD, it's not like she was being threatened with losing her spot on the Wonderbolts (I can distinctly recall a number of times where the superfan parent trope has led to a situation where the child of the parents is threatened with losing their job or some other BS if their parents don't tone it down), the worst they did was go a little overboard in their praise for Rainbow Dash (the towel-hanging cheer was too much even for me) and do a couple of not-so-safe things like shoot fireworks at her show.

    Awwwwwwww, look how much they love watching their daughter!  SUPERFAN PARENTS ALL THE WAY!!!

    OK guys, that's enough, don't wanna get too excited now do we?

    C'mon guys, cut it- OH BUCK, THAT'S A FIREWORK CANNON, YUP, THAT'S A CANNON THAT IS FLINGING FIREWORKS, HOW DID YOU EVEN GET THAT IN HERE PAST SECURITY YOU CRAZY BUCKS!!! 
    Overall, however, my biggest takeaway from these two was just what a good thing their love for their daughter was.  Really, I mean it.  That's really the secret to making the superfan parent trope work as a whole; they need to seem both real, even fallible and embarrassing, but when all is said and done their love for their child must both be at the core of who they are as characters and a likable quality, even if it's a bit much at times.  That's what I got from start to finish here with these two.  They lived and breathed RD, but not in a way that was harmful to their own well-being or their daughter's.  Every fiber of their being was devoted to helping their daughter become the best pony she could be, letting her know that she was the best pony she could possibly be in their eyes no matter what she did, and letting as many ponies know as possible just how much they love their daughter.  It didn't come off as coddling, or overbearing, or their only character trait whatsoever.  From the little we gathered about the two of them at the start of their episode, they lead their own lives and RD is NOT their only pastime or hobby; Bow came off as perfectly normal when he was *snickers* mowing their cloud lawn at the start of the episode (speaking of which, I just realized he almost pushed the mower into Scootaloo's head... thankfully it was just an old fashioned push mower, otherwise I would've been more concerned about her safety), and Windy seems to have some kind of obsession with Princess Celestia based on her collection of both Princess Celestia commemorative plates and some kind of Princess Celestia figurines in the background.  But the love they have for their daughter is still a core of their character and who they are, but here it simply worked all the way through.  Sure they generally behaved in a manner that varied between energetic and highly kinetic to downright frantic, but that worked because they're Rainbow Dash's parents and she's acted the same way plenty of times.  The fact that they were like little schoolfillies whenever they talked about their daughter was downright adorable, and their cheering segments were some of the funniest parts of the entire episode.  Heck, it was so endearing that I found myself even wanting what they have, in a general sense; that kind of unhinged, unmitigated, unconditional love that only a parent could feel for their children in such indescribably wonderful ways, and hey, I'm very much hoping I do get the opportunity to feel that sensation some day!  All in all, I would love to see these two again after their first appearance.  They did what is the toughest thing for any new character in the show these days to do, they added a real layer of heart to the show, and it was especially gratifying to see the parents of a Mane 6 character do so.  What more can I say other than I totally dug these two, am totally onboard the Bow Hothoof/Windy Whistles bandwagon, and can't wait to see more of them.  Stand up and give these two a cheer everypony!  Just, eh, don't bring any firework cannons... 

    This... I want this... I want to give this some day to a kid of my own so badly now (well, even more than I did before)
    (2) Scootaloo
    The other heart of this episode, besides Rainbow Dash's parents, was oddly not Rainbow Dash at all, it was Scootaloo.  In fact, I'd say this episode was more of a Scootaloo episode than a Rainbow Dash episode.  Oh sure, Rainbow Dash learned the lesson here, but I don't think the point of this episode was the lesson learned, at least not entirely.  The point was contrasting Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash, stand-ins for two types of kids; those with incredibly loving parents who might embarrass them on occasion in how much they love them... and those without such parents.  Scootaloo flat out says at one point in this episode that she's never had the kind of parental support that Rainbow Dash has to this day from her parents; while this is not by any means a sure confirmation of the "Scootaloo is an orphan" fan theories, it's the closest we've ever come to it being confirmed.  There are now only two options left: (1) Scootaloo is an orphan, or (2) she has incredibly neglectful parents, both of which would be devastating.  I suppose there is a third scenario possible in which her parents knew from the start that she couldn't fly and so never really encouraged her to be her best in order to keep her safe, but I doubt that's the case.
    Anyways, without deviating too much, Scootaloo is in my estimation the heart of this episode.  Among the CMC, I would argue that right now she's actually the most innocent of the three still for a very particular reason (and no, it's not just because she sounds the youngest of them because her VA's voice has changed the least, though that does help).  We now know after this episode that Scootaloo has spent the entirety of the show kind of building herself a surrogate family, between her friends, Rainbow Dash, and now Bow Hothoof and Windy Whistles.  All her life she's wanted to follow Rainbow Dash's example, and in this episode she got so much joy just from seeing how Rainbow Dash turned out the way she was because of how her parents raised her.  My takeaway from this is that Scootaloo, more than Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle, is the most appreciative of the CMC of the simplest blessings and joys in life.  Things like RD's mom making RD her favorite sandwich, or her parents giving her a trophy room with all sorts of childhood mementos, scrapbooking every second of her life that they could, cheering her on at every opportunity that they could get, these are things which Scootaloo holds as precious because, based on what we've seen and she said, she's never had that.  She knows that it's not the effects of what they do that are what count, but just the fact that they're doing them, THAT'S the love, and that's what she wants more than anything else.  It's not being the best that matters to her (she may say she wants to be just like Rainbow Dash, but she's so different from Rainbow Dash, and not just physically), it's just having someone pushing you to be your best, someone there for you no matter what.  If nothing else, you could just tell how much joy it was bringing to Scootaloo to even feel like she was sharing in RD's family's experiences, even just a little bit.
    I think more than anything else, the final scene confirms that she is the true heart of this episode.  Rainbow Dash may have learned the biggest lesson here, but Scootaloo got the most out of all of this.  Not only did she get to learn where Rainbow Dash came from and what helped make her into the pony she'd become, but because of how she helped remind her of that in showing RD how great she had it in comparison to herself and so many other colts and fillies, she also got even more of a family out of it.  It seems that both her personality rubbing off on the two, as well as possibly RD telling her parents that Scootaloo could use a little more support in her own life, has led to Bow Hothoof and Windy Whistles treating her as something of a surrogate daughter by the end of the episode as well, much as Rainbow Dash treats Scootaloo already as a surrogate sister.  It's hard to exactly say how much this is the case since the most they do is give her a cheering section after getting her report grade, but the fact that they even made cheer-gear for her would suggest they're pretty serious about this, and the look on Scootaloo's face when they do so says it all.  Just look at her, she looks like she's about shed tears of joy!

    Rainbow got reminded of how important her family is to her by somepony who knows because there's probably nothing more she'd want than a family that's always there for her, and that filly may have just gotten her wish to some extent.  So here's hoping we see Scootaloo more with RD and her family, she had a great outing, one of her best episodes in quite some time, and hopefully got something she's always dreamed of, a family that loves her.
    Also, her fangirling was adorable as buck, I'm sorry, it just needed to be said.




    Hnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggg... TOO... CUTE!!! 
    (3) Backstory and Continuity... Lots and Lots of Backstory and Continuity... Spoken and Unspoken
    Jeric told me yesterday that the writer of this episode, Josh Hamilton (a first time MLP:FiM writer), has written in the past for Avatar: The Last Airbender and the The Legend of Korra.  So needless to say, he has some good credentials.  Nonetheless, the debut he made in this show was simply shocking for me, namely in his handling of show continuity.  This episode gives backstory galore, and not just with Rainbow Dash.  In fact, I finished this episode not thinking of it as the best Rainbow Dash episode ever, but rather the best episode about Rainbow Dash I've ever seen, if that makes sense.  In case it doesn't, let's just count all of the backstory we get in this episode.
    #1. Rainbow Dash's Backstory - so before this episode we knew how RD got her cutie mark and helped Fluttershy and the other Mane 6 get theirs (inadvertently), but we never knew much else besides that about her childhood.  Well here, we got filly RD galore.  The flashbacks themselves were pretty simple and just showed her on the podium for flying competitions (although they had far more depth than one would initially assume, but we'll get to that later), but there were dozens of photos (most of which we could make out) of Rainbow Dash littered throughout this episode. Most of them showed Rainbow as a filly or foal (which was adorable), and showed us either (1) some stage of her life, or (2) just served as testament to the many ways in which her parents loved her.  Regardless, it was a nice bit of silent backstory (which is what I mean by things unspoken, though it is hardly the only bit of backstory or continuity unspoken in this episode), and a nice recognition from the writers that not all backstory needs to be given in flashbacks or exposition alone.  You can convey things about characters lives in all kinds of ways, not just by straight up telling us.  Oh, but we're just getting started.
    #2. Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts - this was a nice little bit of continuity that would be easy to miss, but I think it came up enough that it's worth noting.  This was one of the first episodes where we really got to see Rainbow as a normal, full-fledged Wonderbolt, and it showed.  While I wouldn't say the Wonderbolts have treated her badly or anything since she joined them ("Newbie Dash" was way more RD's fault than theirs), she only joined them last season (approximately a season ago actually as of this episode), and since then it's still felt fresh.  Well here, it didn't, it actually felt like she was just another member, albeit an exceptional one, of the Wonderbolts.  She had a normal rapport with them, she knew her place in their routines, they're even doing favors for her.  Heck, even the ways they rib her felt normal; she's clearly still one of the younger ones, but Spitfire and Fleetfoot never gave her anymore crap about her parents than they should have.  In fact, Spitfire didn't really say anything at all other than get a little miffed initially by their training getting interrupted (oh, and getting her poor tail cut off, and frankly she should have been madder about that), and Fleetfoot spent a lot of the episode trying to reassure RD that her parents weren't being that bad (although she did steal RD's shit-eating grin from "Daring Don't," but I don't mind, because that smug face is spectacular and frankly we need to see it more, and it was perfectly called for in that scene... keep doing your thing Fleetfoot, I love when our favorite lisping pegasus gets all sassy).  Overall, like I said, it was really cool seeing RD just being another one of the Wonderbolts; she might be their captain someday considering she's that good of a flier, but frankly, right now, she's clearly just happy to be living her dream as one of the fliers she always dreamed of being.  I like that, and I'm glad we got to get a real look at that and her normal, Wonderbolt responsibilities.  Not to mention they were all super awesome for doing that really, really, really nice favor for her at the end, that was cool to see.  I love so much that at this point they're pretty much this other subset of friends for RD, albeit on a professional basis.

    Dayummmmmm girllllll, you just somehow captured, like, all of the sass and smugness in all of Equestria in one look, and it looks amazing!!!   Also, now that I think about it, this could double as a flirty look... I'm not gonna take that strain of thought any further, just think about it for yourselves and what scenario would demand THAT being used as a flirty look. 
    #3. Thunderlane's a Wonderbolt - Holy shit, Thunderlane's a Wonderbolt now!  When did this happen?  I don't know, but I don't care, it's just really cool that he's a Wonderbolt now.  I think we'd seen him in the Wonderbolt Reserves before, but based on the one shot of him in the Wonderbolts locker room, in an actual Wonderbolt uniform, not a Reserves uniform, I can only conclude that Thunderlane is now a Wonderbolt.  This is super cool because now RD is no longer even the only flier from Ponyville in the Wonderbolts; we've seen Thunderlane since Season 2 and as far as we know he still lives in Ponyville.  Also it makes it actually a little clearer how difficult it is to get into the Wonderbolts, or rather, the level of flying that is required.  Since RD was the flier we largely followed for six seasons trying to get into the Wonderbolts, it always seemed like it was damn near impossible to get in.  But Thunderlane is clearly just an exceptional flier, nowhere near RD's level, but very good nonetheless.  The fact that he's in now makes it clear that there is actually a bit of a range one encounters in the levels of talent among the fliers in the Wonderbolts.  Not all of them are going to be at RD's level or even close necessarily, they just have to be better than most fliers.  It's still an elite unit, but it's nice having a better sense of who gets in there now.

    #4. Other Wonderbolts Continuity - Not much to say here other than Vapor Trail and Sky Stinger showing up super briefly (in Wonderbolt Reserves uniforms), which was nice to see.  And at least Sky Stinger didn't talk this time; he may not be a douchebag anymore, but that doesn't change the fact that he still sounds like a douchebag.  Anyways, I did enjoy seeing those two ever so briefly, nice bit of Season 6 continuity there.

    He's so much less annoying when he's not talking, and she's as adorable as ever... YOU'RE STILL TOO GOOD FOR HIM, VAPOR!!! 
    #5. THE GREATEST THING YOU'LL EVER SEE - OK, so this may be just a bit of an exaggeration here, BUT this last bit of silent backstory was a real game changer.  Did it have anything to do with Rainbow Dash?  No, not really.  The Wonderbolts?  Not really, even though they're there too.  Well then who, you might ask?

    DERPY. BUCKING. HOOVES.  THAT'S WHO!!!

    In a span of about 10 seconds, Derpy got perhaps the most important piece of backstory we've ever seen her get, and it all comes down to her eyes.  In the flashback where Rainbow Dash is describing how embarrassing her parents were, we clearly see Derpy at first on top of the podium among the young fliers, clearly the best of them all.  When RD mentions that she was the youngest in that entire group, we learn quite a bit already, namely that Derpy (and about every other pony she was flying with there) is older than her (which actually makes sense, fans have long speculated that RD is one of the youngest of the Mane 6).  But then when RD starts showing her progression higher and higher in the flier standings, we see simultaneously Derpy getting lower and lower.  Why?  HER EYES!  Her eyes continue to get progressively worse as she gets lower in the standings.  Combine this with the single shot of her in the Ponyville Hospital in "Where the Apple Lies" with bandages over her eyes, and suddenly, without a single word being said about it, WE HAVE US A CANON BACKSTORY OF SOME KIND FOR DERPY HOOVES!  HOLY SHIT!



    What we know right now for sure is that (1) she used to be a really good flier, (2) her eyes used to be straight, (3) she got worse at flying, and probably clumsier, when her eyes started getting worse, (4) she tried and failed to get them fixed in her late teens or young adulthood, and (5) she is now perfectly happy living with them as they are.  Holy buck, that is a crapload of backstory for a bucking BACKGROUND PONY!!!  A BACKGROUND PONY!!!  Needless to say, this was the single most important thing in the episode for me seeing as it involves my best pony, and that's saying quite a lot considering this was a bucking great episode.  But this, I want so badly more backstory like THIS!!!  SO, SO, SO MUCH!!!  Josh Hamilton, thank you for such a lovely and unexpected treat, and writers, please take notes, we want more things like this.  For all I know, this could be even setting up a future Derpy-centric episode, and if it is, I am going to go NUTS!!!  I'm not even sure anyone will be able to console me and bring me down from the high that shall be achieved, it would be truly epic in its proportions.

    The Lesson, And What It Means To All The Rainbow Dashes and Scootaloos Out There
    So like I said, this is not a Rainbow Dash episode to me so much as an episode about Rainbow Dash.  And really, the lesson was not just directed at Rainbow Dash, or kids or adults like Rainbow Dash.  The lesson was directed at all the Rainbow Dashes AND Scootaloos out there.  For all like RD, the lesson was something akin to the same one that learned by a certain character in a certain recent Marvel flick (I won't spoil anything for those who haven't seen it, but I'll just leave this song here for those who have, and they'll know what I'm talking about), that being that there are things in life that, while you have them it's easy to take them for granted.  With parents, especially parents like RD's with love, praise, support, and encouragement so bottomless to the point that it can be embarrassing at times, it's REALLY easy for someone like RD to take them for granted.  But then she's confronted by Scootaloo, a pony who's never had what she had, and suddenly she's confronted with wondering what would have been if she never had her parents, or possibly even wondering what if she didn't have them tomorrow?  Suddenly, what RD was confronted with more than anything was the single question, "Had she taken them for granted, and what if they didn't really know how much she loved them for always being there for her?  What if they never knew?"  More important than anything she's ever achieved is simply that her parents have been there for her every step of the way, so the least RD figures she can do for them is try to be there for them as much as they've been there for her.  That's what family does, no matter what we end up doing with our lives, the very least and most we have to give each other is all the love and support that we can, and it's a wonderful lesson that RD learned, truly.
    As for Scootaloo, while she didn't really learn anything in quite the same way that RD did, I think what she did learn is to never stop hoping for the support and love that she's always wanted.  Even if she'll never get it from her actual parents, whether they're dead, abandoned her, or just really neglectful, she learned that there are other ponies out there ready at a moment's notice to give her the love and support she's always wanted.  It just took a little searching to find.  For all the other Scootaloos out there, it's a lesson to never give up hoping for the love you may not have gotten from those who should have given it to you most.  You just might have to find it elsewhere, and it may be hard, and there may be a lot of hurt along the way, but if you look hard enough, it just may be out there for you.  Overall, just never stop hoping and looking, because you'll never know when you might find it; before you know it, you might have your very own family lifting you on their shoulders (or hooves) cheering you on for the B you just got on your awesome report, moldy sandwich included.
    Aesthetic Notes
    Just a couple of things to note about the, as always, amazing animation.  First, it was great seeing so much of Cloudsdale, as well as seeing Scootaloo up there finally (though the best part of that was seeing how she got up there).  Second, wing expressions, I NEED MORE OF THESE!  They were incredibly creative and I feel like we haven't seen nearly enough of them.
    Finally, Windy Whistles was adorable as buck, and there were quite a few shots which you can compare to past RD stills and see quite a bit of similarity between the two.  So A-plus to the animators for giving her a distinct character design (and an adorable one at that) while still making her clearly RD's mom in appearance, especially in the face and some of her expressions.

    Minor, Minor, Minor Gripes
    OK, so despite saying this is a perfect episode, I have just a handful of minor, minor, minor things to bring up that weren't so perfect but do require being addressed.  First, how the buck did RD's parents not know she was a Wonderbolt?  I know they said at one point that they didn't go to Wonderbolt performances so long as she wasn't in them, and that it's not like they have television or the Internet, BUT they do have newspapers, which presumably have sports sections, and I have a hard time believing that it was never reported in a Cloudsdale newspaper that a national hero from that city had been inducted into the Wonderbolts.  They sure didn't look like they were living as hermits either.  I suppose I could believe that RD would be anal enough in her attempts to keep them from finding out that she'd be willing to steal their newspapers, but until I hear for sure that that's what she did, I'm just gonna chalk this up to a tiny bit of lazy writing.
    Second, there was only one section of this episode I didn't particularly care for, that being when Scootaloo had her exposition dump of RD's time in the Wonderbolt Reserves to RD's parents.  Don't get me wrong, I could totally see her telling them this stuff, I just don't know why we needed to see it.  It felt forced and awkward in its delivery (although her parents reactions, especially Windy Whistles, were pretty hilarious and adorable), but this felt more like exposition for the sake of audience members who never saw these episodes than anything that we needed to see her parents learn.  It wasn't awful, just wasn't executed particularly well.  Other than that, I literally have no other complaints for this episode, it was just that great.
    The Ideal Season 7 Episode
    I said to a friend after watching this episode (*cough* Jeric *cough*) that, overall, this episode encapsulates everything I'd want in a standard episode in the 7th season of MLP:FiM.  This show is so established at this point, that you can't just keep doing the same thing you've done in other seasons all the time.  You need to have payoff!  Payoff doesn't just have to be for long-term storylines, the most important in all the show; it can be for smaller story threads as well, things revolving around main characters like RD or Scootaloo, or even background/supporting characters like Derpy and Thunderlane.  The point is, this show has made it clear that there is a distinct passage of time by this point.  It may be difficult to follow at times, but it's safe to say that at least years have passed by this time in the show.  This isn't always made clear, but it's great when the show does recognize this, in big and small ways.
    Besides the triumphs of backstory and continuity, the introduction of RD's parents to the show was seamless.  This is not always the case when it comes to the parents of a main character; sometimes they're too similar to a character to be distinct, other times they're so different that you can't believe they even are the parents of a certain character.  But in this case, not only did Bow Hothoof and Windy Whistles most definitely seem just about right in their behavior to be RD's parents, but they were also plenty distinct.  They weren't freakish athletes just like her (as far as we know at least), they weren't trying to vicariously live through her by making her achievements their own, and they weren't her polar opposites.  They were just parents with a ridiculous amount of love for their daughter, and by the end of the episode showed themselves to have plenty of love to spare for others as well, in this case Scootaloo.  Their introduction was so smooth, so seamless, that the episode barely can be said to have revolved around them; oh sure, they were main characters of it, but they felt very much like they fit naturally alongside characters we've been following for over six seasons like Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash.  THAT is how you introduce parents of main characters at this point in the show.
    Overall, this is the greatest triumph of Season 7 thus far, just an absolutely phenomenal, nearly flawless episode in every which way possible.  If we get more episodes like this this season, you certainly won't find me complaining, and here's hoping we get more episodes featuring Mane 6 parents or even more backstory/continuity for characters like Derpy or Thunderlane.  That's all I've got for ya'll this week everypony.  Until next week, this is Batbrony signing off.  I'm off!!! *cue dramatic exit*

  2. Batbrony
    Good afternoon, everypony, and welcome back to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews"!  Today I'm taking a look at the latest Season 7 episode to debut in the U.S., "Forever Filly," a fun, albeit flawed, little slice-of-life episode.  Aside from this being noteworthy as being the first Rarity and technically CMC episode this season, there's not much else to say prior to getting into the review proper, so without further ado, let's begin.  This is "Forever Filly."
    So for the most part almost everything in this episode worked, but in the end I found myself simply thinking of it as good, not great.  This isn't on account of any kind of infuriating, obvious flaw, but rather something a little less noticeable and more subtle: the conflict set-up.  Not the conflict itself, mind you, in fact this conflict is actually a fairly common one in movies and television.  All we're dealing with here, in multiple plot arcs no less, is the "such and such loved one has gotten older and changed quite a bit and I haven't even noticed, and not only do I still want to treat them like I did when they were younger, but I'm also not ready to accept that they're older and have changed."  It's a super common story trope, especially in long-running shows where characters have presumably gotten older (you've probably seen such an episode in more than one family sitcom before, usually involving some staple child character in the show getting older, graduating, heading off to college, getting married, etc., or even say a wedding movie where the focus is on the parents of the groom or bride).  Heck, really this kind of story even falls into the broader category of the "coming of age" story, and is just one particular way of telling it, namely from the perspective not of the character who is coming of age, but of someone close to them watching them come of age.
    Here's the problem.  It's not that the conflict in and of itself was a bad one in its premise, it's that it wasn't executed properly, and I think I know why.  Poor pacing made certain character decisions seem impulsive and poorly thought out.  Rarity went from being perfectly level-headed in her business dealings in the very opening of the episode to being an emotional wreck all in a span of five seconds, and then spent the rest of the episode acting as though she hadn't seen Sweetie Belle in years.  Likewise, Zipporwhill (voiced again by, of course, Tabith St. Germain, because I swear if there's a character who needs a hilariously over-the-top or unusual voice, Tabitha is their go-to gal to voice her) seemed to be confronted with a problem that really shouldn't be a problem for her.  I mean, her cutie mark is presumably because she has some kind of talent at connecting with dogs, so one has to ask why such a pony wouldn't understand the notion of dogs growing up and their behavior changing as they get older?  I mean, don't get me wrong, I liked how her subplot tied into the final lesson, but more so because of how things wrapped up, not because of the conflict itself.  That conflict too was poor in its set-up because it just didn't seem like Zipporwhill, even if she is still a filly, even if this is her own pet we're talking about whom she has an emotional connection to, should have a problem figuring out what her dog wants when that is presumably her talent and she knows this already because she has her cutie mark.  And I mean seriously, it's a dog, plenty of dogs play with toys that they had as puppies if it's one of their favorites, and not to be mean to dogs or anything, but they're pretty simple in their wants and needs, they're nowhere near as picky as cats can be.  But the bigger problem with this subplot is that ultimately its presence forced the main conflict to be rushed in its own execution, which is why Rarity came across as being so impulsive and irrational in some of her decision-making.  If they'd simply removed the subplot, then they could have had a more basic but also more properly executed episode where Rarity had more time to set the conflict up and get it resolved.  She could have set up spending a day with her sister but not so frantically in the show's opening minutes, not as such an emotional wreck, and everything would have come across as feeling a bit more real in execution.  The ideas they were dealing with here are very realistic and relatable, I think everyone at some point (or multiple points) will realize that time has gone by quicker than they thought and that someone or something in their life has gotten far older than they used to be or changed a lot.  But again, the problem is that because they jammed a plot and a sub-plot together in order to teach the lesson, the conflict set-up in both plot and sub-plot felt rushed, forced, and a bit unrealistic.  The conflict set-up and pacing problems didn't ruin the episode or anything, they just kept an episode that was good to very good from being great, and that's just a bit of a shame.
     
    OK Jeric, this question is for you in particular; can't you just see Tabitha making this actual face in the recording booth?  I mean, seriously, I'm picturing it and it just makes so much sense for her.  I wouldn't be surprised if they animated it around whatever face she was making as she read the line.
    So what did I like here?  Oh, a whole lot, believe me, I liked a ton.  I did enjoy that they picked Rarity to have this conflict rather than Applejack; at first I thought AJ would be a better pick, but then I realized that AJ had to grow up from an early age (assuming her parents are dead) and would probably be more prepared for Apple Bloom getting older than Rarity was with Sweetie Belle.  Her problem is over-protectiveness, not coddling, when it comes to being a big sister.  Rarity, on the other hoof, moved out of the house at a pretty early age it seems, and didn't really grow closer to Sweetie Belle until Season 2 after the Sister Hooves Social.  Unlike Applejack, who sees family all the time, Rarity is a character who it would be easy for time to get away from between her adventures with the Mane 6 and all of her business ventures, even after she's gotten closer to Sweetie Belle.  So both the conflict makes sense for her, as do the emotional bouts; I just thought they happened too quickly, but really I have no problem with how emotional Rarity got over all of this because that does fit her character.  I just wish such emotion had been more built up and better paced, like the episode would have been better served starting with Rarity worriedly realizing she hadn't spent enough time with Sweetie Belle lately, but getting more emotional when she realized there was so much about Sweetie growing up that she'd missed.  But nonetheless, I like seeing focus placed on Rarity and Sweetie Belle's sisterhood, I liked this particular conflict, I liked that Rarity was put into this position both because it makes sense for her and for whatever reason seeing a character who in her own life (despite having a flamboyant personality) is usually so put-together and in control realize that there was so much she didn't know about someone so important to her, it just felt right.  It resonated, it made this message all the more powerful because it helped further illustrate that life can get away from all of us, even those of us who think we've got everything figured out (contrasting the lesson she learned with how put together Rarity is in running the Canterlot Boutique in the opening scene is a perfect example of this).  So aside from what I already highlighted as things that didn't work, I thought that Rarity was great here on the whole and loved that she was chosen for this particular type of episode.

    Sweetie Belle was another highlight, mostly in how she helped resolve the episode in the end but also because it was nice seeing the show recognize that there has been quite a passage of time since the start of the show and that characters have gotten older.  Now it would be nice if her actual body got bigger, or if they didn't make things confusing by making it seem as though Rarity hasn't seen Sweetie Belle in years, but still, I liked what we got here all the same.  The recognition of this passage of time was nice (which might have been further reinforced by how big Ripley, Zipporwhill's dog, now is as well as how much lower Zipporwhill's voice is than it was in her first episode back in Season 4), and I'd love to see more of it, especially in relation to the CMC.  It was nice too that Sweetie Belle didn't really get unduly mad at Rarity; sure she got mad, but not in a "Sister Hooves Social you're not my sister anymore, I hate you" kind of way, but more in a "we're sisters and you're frustrating me right now as only a sister could, so while I'll forgive you later, sorry but we're having a beef right now" kind of way.  She still helped Rarity learn her lesson indirectly (while learning it herself as well) by showing Zipporwhill what to do about Ripley, and even before getting mad she appreciated what Rarity was trying to do, just not how she was doing it.  Overall, this was just a very good example of how to show that a young character has gotten older in a show without being too flagrant about it; granted, I still argue that her body needs to get bigger because hearing things like Sweetie Belle is into experimental theater while still being as small as she ever has been is just a bit ridiculous and makes it harder to accept, but this was a very nice start and it works with how Claire Corlett's voice has changed over the years as well (though as a quick aside, I must say that Michelle Creber's voice sounds even older now than Claire's does, good Lord writers, PLEASE make the CMC bigger already!).

    This shot is seriously cute, and while it initially may seem a bit OOC for Rarity, c'mon, she's bonding with her sister, siblings do things they don't typically do with each other all the time.  Speaking as an older brother, I can totally buy it.
    Besides our two main characters, it was cool seeing the CMC finding new ways to assist ponies, namely in helping a pony like Zipporwhill who already has her cutie mark but felt disconnected from her special talent.  Granted it was imperfectly executed, but I like the idea because it makes sense that they won't always be showing ponies what to do to get their cutie marks (though I guess they already kinda did this with Bulk Biceps).  Zipporwhill's return was completely unexpected and, aside from the problems I already cited with her subplot, worked entirely for me, especially her lower voice; whether this was because she's older now or because the writer's decided the original pitch her voice was at in Season 4 was just ridiculous, doesn't matter to me, because it was a far better sounding voice than her original one and Tabitha did a great job with her accent.  Finally, Sassy Saddles for the little she was in the episode at the beginning was fantastic.  Her rapport with Rarity is great and I loved the little we got to see of the two of them working together, two ponies simultaneously very similar and very different in their talents and abilities and who when they're at the top of their game can equally appreciate what the other does in their establishment.  Some of Rarity's failed attempts to bond with Sweetie Belle were pretty funny, particularly the photo shoot, but others felt a tad ridiculous and forced, like the puppet show or the balloon-making scene.
    I did seriously love this scene
    I must also note that it's bizarre, now that we've seen Ripley age, that other pets like Winona have not visibly aged.  Still, the recognition of the passage of time in this episode, as well as its lesson of appreciating different stages of life while you have them (including for people in your life) because before you know it, they're gone, but when they are gone all you can do is appreciate what you have now rather than bemoan not having what was in the past anymore, that was all great and I appreciate it very much.  It leaves me slightly hopeful that at some point the show might just be willing to tackle the subject of death and loss on that level, possibly in relation to the Apples, but at the same time I know realistically that that remains a long shot.  All in all, this is a good to very good episode held back by a few very particular but not very maddening flaws, but important flaws nonetheless.  I'm sure I'll enjoy rewatching it, but it certainly won't be an instant classic in my book either.  That's all I've got for you this week everypony, thank you for your patience in waiting for my review, and I'll see you next week (probably late again as well since I might have work on Saturday).  Till next time, this is Batbrony signing off.  I'm off!!! *cue dramatic exit*

    But it's OK, cause they're Best Sisters Friends Forever!!!  But yeah, seriously, diabetes for sure... 

  3. Batbrony
    Good morning everypony, and welcome back to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews"!  Well today I have good news and bad news.  The good news is that this review shouldn't be all that long, but the bad news is it probably won't be that long because I thought this episode overall was just... eh, OK.  It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't amazing either, and I've seen far better episodes before about Fluttershy becoming more assertive or gaining confidence.  But let's not go over all of that here, instead, let's dive on into the full review itself, this is "Fluttershy Leans In."
    So last week's episode, "Rock Solid Friendship's," biggest flaw was Pinkie Pie with a ton of OOC behavior, and while that was a BIG problem, the episode as a whole was still very likable.  This episode, while it didn't have such a glaring flaw, had a bigger issue with the episode as a whole that brought it down to being just an OK episode: a contrived conflict.  Now it wasn't the need for an animal sanctuary that was the problem, uh-uh, but rather the issues that arose on the way there.  Frankly, it just felt entirely unnecessary that the three "experts" that the Mane 6 recommended to Fluttershy to bring in to help build her dream animal sanctuary be brought in in the first place; the only one of them who had any kind of expertise with animals in the first place was Wrangler, but even her talent for animal enclosures and herding had virtually nothing to do with building an animal sanctuary.  Hard Hat it should have been pretty clear only knew how to construct buildings and nothing else, and it seems like a landscaper or exterior designer of some kind would have been a far better choice to help than him.  And finally I have no idea what Dandy Grandeur was even doing there; it's not that the animal sanctuary didn't end up having interior "structures" or features of some kind, but I have no idea why Fluttershy or Rarity would have thought a guy who clearly seemed to know nothing but high end interior design would have anything worthwhile to contribute to an animal sanctuary project.  So when Fluttershy got mad at all three of them, I really didn't find myself getting mad at them either; if anything, Fluttershy kind of came off as douchey when she did because she just shouldn't have let them get involved in the first place.  Wrangler, Hard Hat, and Dandy Grandeur at one point before anything even began all seemed to know they didn't know what they were doing in this project, when they shared very nervous glances with one another.  But they tried to help anyway because they were happy to help a friend of Applejack, Pinkie Pie, or Rarity, respectively, so it's not like there was any malicious intent behind their buck ups, they just shouldn't have been brought in to help at all in the first place.  Frankly the Mane 6 deserved more of Fluttershy's ire than these new ponies did; the new supporting characters largely didn't know Fluttershy at all and were just doing what they knew how to do best, so technically as far as what they're good at, they were putting their best hoof forward.  The Mane 6, on the other hoof, kind of seemed to dump off helping Fluttershy on these three, and not only did that lead to all of these issues, but it was completely unnecessary and avoidable in the first place.  The Mane 6 when they work all together are more than capable of tackling a project like this, and as the episode ended up showing, in the end, that's all that was needed.  Fluttershy had a clear vision of what she wanted, and all they needed to do was follow her lead and give her the manpower she needed to bring it to life.  It was gratifying when we got to see Fluttershy lecture the other five at the end when they almost pulled the same crap that Wrangler, Hard Hat, and Dandy Grandeur did, but really she should have been even angrier at them.  I mean, she left things off with those other three badly, and for all we know they might be on bad terms with Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity too now, and once again, this was all avoidable if the Mane 6 had just offered to help Fluttershy instead themselves in the first place!  So overall, I just really didn't buy into the primary conflict in this episode.  It was contrived and completely avoidable, it's only purpose was to force Fluttershy to be more assertive (which she has done plenty of already in past seasons and in far better episodes that taught such a lesson far more effectively), and it felt forced to the point that I just didn't feel like picking sides like the episode wanted me to.  So as I said earlier, while Pinkie Pie was REALLY bad last week, I honestly felt like the contrived conflict that affected this entire episode brought this episode down far more than Pinkie did in last week's episode.

    Eheheheheh, ya sure ya want us getting involved?  I mean, just so you know, we may not know anything about what you want us helping you out with, but OK, if you insist that this plot goes where it will inevitably go if we stay involved, fine, we'll play along until it blows up in your face. 

    Also, can we please get more of Wrangler at least?  I don't know why, but I just really dug her design, the colors, the clothes, it all just worked for me.
    Other than a really contrived and forced conflict, the rest of the episode was largely harmless.  Besides how her assertive moments felt forced and needless, Fluttershy was very sweet and I really thought the best trait of hers on display in this episode was her kindness and how that translated into a beautiful dream becoming a reality.  My biggest takeaway was that her kindness, her love for all her animal friends, was what kept driving her, even when things got difficult, to finally make her dream of building an animal sanctuary a reality, and it was great seeing those simple, basic elements of Fluttershy on full display here.  Also it was pretty hilarious that it was her fault that all these animals were overrunning Dr. Fauna's clinic in the first place because she just couldn't help but recommend her to all her animal friends that she met all over Equestria.  Talk about word-of-mouth getting out of control.  
    Dr. Fauna was actually quite delightful, and like Nurse Redheart a couple of episodes ago, it was really nice seeing her in such an expanded role so unexpectedly.  She didn't contribute to the problem at all, in fact like I said it was really Fluttershy's fault that she had too many patients to handle in the first place, and she clearly loved animals about as much as Fluttershy did, it's just her expertise was more directly about animal health itself rather than their overall care like Fluttershy's is.  In fact, as far as new elements in this episode go, I'd say she was my favorite one; I know she wasn't a new character, but it was just nice seeing the writers so positively utilizing a supporting character in Ponyville when so often the Mane 6's problems either revolve around themselves or supporting characters are just there for comedic gags.  This time the Mane 6 helped make a permanent change to Ponyville that benefited the entire town, and one resident of Ponyville in particular, because she and her animal patients needed their help and intervention.  I honestly wish we saw more often the Mane 6 helping out Ponyville residents like that as part of their episode lessons, it'd just be a nice, simple way to get more of the entire town involved in their adventures.  The return of Big Daddy McColt was quite a bit of fun as well, (though it did beg the question even more as to why Fluttershy didn't just bring him in in the first place since she knew he had expertise that could actually aid her in this endeavor, thereby further undermining the contrived conflict of this episode, but I digress), and it was great to see him paying the help that Fluttershy and Twilight had given him and his family in the first place forward with kindness of his own.  So kudos DHX on both Dr. Fauna and Big Daddy McColt, this is exactly how you should be handling supporting characters in the show and involving them in it!

    Now that's a brohoof I never thought I'd see in this show

    The animals throughout the episode were pretty cute overall.  I did get quite a laugh out of Angle Bunny hurting himself in, of all things, a bucking parkour accident, and even better still being a rotten bastard to everyone afterwards.

    I shouldn't be so happy about this, but I am...

    ...and that is why. 
    Most of the animals in Dr. Fauna's office were cute, but two things did bug me.  First, that bear was a cheap, knockoff Harry the Bear and had nowhere close to the amount of swagger that Harry does; he was just a freeloading bum in Dr. Fauna's office and when you have a great bear like Harry already, why even both introducing another one when you know he'll be nowhere near as awesome as Harry is?

    I mean, seriously, get a load of this bum!  You ain't Harry, ya cheap knockoff!!! 
    Second, the giraffe was cute in design, but her presence there was very confusing to me.  Equestria is a world where we know that a number of animals are sapient; cows can talk and seem to have their own communities, or to even live among ponies (we've seen them buying stuff in Ponyville before but also seen them in dairy farms, but perhaps that's what they do as their jobs), and even sheep, despite being herd animals, can talk (though we haven't really seen that since Season 1, possibly because the writers don't want to raise anymore uncomfortable questions with it by even bringing them up again).  I was wrong earlier that giraffes are related to horses, they actually really aren't, but nonetheless I kind of always thought that if they were ever introduced, giraffes would be sapient animals too.  Heck, this giraffe's head resembled a pony's (at least by the show's own animation) so closely (she even had eyes like a ponies with the typical eyelashes they use to denote a female character) that it was downright bizarre not hearing this character talk.  So I guess giraffes are just "animals-animals" by Equestrian standards now, but I still find that bizarre.  Heck, I don't even know what to think about goats anymore; when we first saw them, sure, they didn't talk, but they were clearly assisting Iron Will with his show, which included running electronics and stage equipment, and yet since then we've seen them treated more and more like they too are "animals-animals" in this world.  I guess my bottom line is that in this episode, Equestrian biology and how the animal kingdom works in Equestria just got even more confusing for me.

    I am so confused! 
    Ah well, at least this episode had a super adorable sloth in it!  Sloths make everything better, always, like, not even joking, they just do.  And her name was Lola, too!!! 

    Uh, Fluttershy, you, uh, you got something on your leg, there...
    Finally, while I did have my beef with the Mane 6 as far as the overall conflict goes, besides that they were fine.  They really should have just helped Fluttershy build her animal sanctuary in the first place, but they made up for it in the end at least, and it's not like their hearts were ever in the wrong spot.  I did think some of the "emotional" moments they had when Fluttershy was describing her dream were a bit forced (like, we get it, you love Fluttershy, but you don't have to be on the brink of tears just because she has an awesome dream and is super cute describing it), but overall this was one of their first group episodes (at least in some parts) this season, and I'm always happy to see them all working together towards something as a group, even if it was only for some of this episode.  As I've said throughout this review, the animal sanctuary was a really cool idea and it was really neat seeing Fluttershy make such a cool dream a reality.  But as a whole, this episode was just OK; there wasn't really anything infuriating about it, but too much of it was too forced and needless for me to really care about this episode either.  I guess in that respect I'm OK with how Pinkie was in last week's episode since, even though I hated parts of it, I at least cared about her performance.  I will always take something I care about, whether I love it or hate it, over something I'm just plain apathetic about.  Still, an OK episode is still one worth checking out, and this one is definitely worth checking out for Fluttershy and her awesome animal sanctuary alone.  That's all I've got for ya'll this week everypony; next week my review may be a little late since I'm visiting my girlfriend on Saturday when we both take a trip to Lansing, but I promise to get it up as soon as I can.  Until next time, everypony, this is Batbrony signing off.  I'm off!!! *cue dramatic exit*

    I have no idea how I missed this face during the episode, but this face is AMAZING! 
  4. Batbrony
    Ahhhhhhhhhh, good afternoon everypony, and welcome back to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews."  First of all, my apologies for not getting this review posted yesterday, I was feeling tired and under the weather by the time I was able to write it so it just wasn't happening last night.  That said, I am glad I waited and rewatched the episode, because I now feel much better equipped to review this one than after my initial watch of it.  Let's not waste anymore time dawdling about and dive right into "Rock Solid Friendship"!!!
    So this review will largely be broken down by character analysis because I believe you can best review it by analyzing the three main characters in it, Pinkie Pie, Maud Pie, and Starlight Glimmer.  So to begin, let us start with Pinkie... in this instance, a bit of an elephant in the room.  It brings me no pleasure to write this, but upon watching this episode twice I have to say that this was the worst that Pinkie Pie has been written in the show since "MMMystery on the Friendship Express" back in Season 2.  Those of you who know me will recall that that is to this day my least favorite episode of the show, so yeah, this does not bode well.  The good news is that this episode on the whole is MUCH better than that one, namely because, unlike in that episode, the majority of the characters here are not vapid idiots, completely inconsiderate, or just plain OOC.  The bad news is that Pinkie is, and when Pinkie is written badly, she is written BADLY.  Pinkie Pie when written as a stereotype of herself is unbearable, and it feels insulting to the character, like the writers have forgotten that, despite being as hyper and energetic as she is, this is a character who has grown so much since the show began.  The perplexing news is that really she was only written terribly for the middle 11 minutes of this episode; she's actually alright in the first 5 minutes when the conflict is getting set up and the last 5 minutes when it's getting resolved, it's only when she's creating the conflict that she is horrible.  This somewhat makes sense since the biggest reason she was written so badly was simply so that a conflict would exist in the first place (much like in "MMMystery on the Friendship Express") and it is not excusable here anymore than it was there, in fact, even less so since this is Season 7 Pinkie.  Not only should she be mature enough by this point not to cause such a bad conflict, it just doesn't make sense for her character on a number of different levels.  First, Pinkie Pie has never considered herself to be a "friendship expert," so why does she here?  I could see Twilight having that problem, but Pinkie embodied the Element of Laughter from the start, NOT Friendship.  She's the fun expert, all things party and social gatherings and get-togethers and jamborees, that is her schtick!  Heck, just last week we even saw how this has been a part of how she's grown more mature; she's really got stuff that she's into down to a science at this point, like that list of every pony in Ponyville's favorite desserts, and that just makes sense for a character like her, she should be on top of stuff like that in an over-the-top way that somehow makes sense for her.  I don't even care if you use the excuse that this is because it involved her sister, because that brings up yet another reason why her behavior here doesn't make any sense.  When has Pinkie ever felt such distrust toward Maud?  From the first episode that Maud was introduced, Pinkie has done nothing but adore her and seems to have complete respect for her!  If anything else, Pinkie was probably the least aware of anypony else that there was anything unusual about Maud's behavior; she always loved Maud for who she is and never showed the slightest inkling that she understood that others wouldn't get her.  Heck, what about what Starlight and Maud were doing together even made Pinkie think they weren't getting along???  THEY WERE FLYING KITES TOGETHER WHEN PINKIE STARTED FREAKING OUT FOR PETE'S SAKE!!!  On top of that, she is Maud's YOUNGER sister!  We know that Limestone is the oldest of the Pie sisters, followed by Maud, and that Marble and Pinkie are twins, so why in Equestria would Pinkie belittle her older sister like that by being so clingy, protective, and doing just the most boneheaded, obvious behavior in the name of making a friendship work out that could only lead to running it into the ground?!  Heck, this type of behavior seems more suited for Applejack than Pinkie Pie, we've seen her go to over-the-top lengths for her family tons of times, especially being protective a ton to Apple Bloom.  Again, I don't care if the stakes were that Maud might move to Ponyville, because Pinkie has never even shown that she misses her family so much that she'd do anything for any of them to live by her.  I mean, I'm not surprised she was thrilled by the idea, but at the same time, I cannot justify any of Pinkie's behavior in the middle of this episode just because she really, really, really wanted Maud to move by her.  So many forced jokes (Lyra is a rock, really Pinkie???  Even when you're losing it I can't believe you'd seriously try something so stupid), so many boneheaded attempts at forcing a friendship to happen, and most of all, an inexcusable and unbelievable lack of faith in her own sister knowing when she'd found a friend, or even being capable of finding one.  I get the set-up, I get Pinkie wanting Maud to move by her.  And to be fair, the second Starlight pointed out her problem to her (hilariously, I might add) Pinkie realized her errors and resolved to fix them.  But that doesn't excuse that a conflict existed when it shouldn't have, and this conflict was very, very, very painfully forced to the detriment of Pinkie.  It is especially painful at this point in the show when any of the Mane 6 are written badly in the name of forcing a conflict because it just feels like they are being regressed and infantilized in the name of making a conflict work, especially when supporting characters like Maud and Starlight are involved who DO know FAR less about friendship than the Mane 6 do.  Pinkie should have been able to make a healthy contribution to Maud finding a friend, heck, SHE DID when she encouraged Maud to hang out with Starlight, but then for whatever reason the writers decided that she needed to have a hundred brain farts just so a lesson could be learned.  It was bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, and I did not like it at all.  Pinkie Pie, I'm sorry, but you get an F here, or rather, the writers who botched you do.  If you want to see Pinkie Pie losing it in a way that is believable for her character, there are far better episodes to watch that have just that, like "Party of One."

    Good Pinkie

    Bad, bad, BAD Pinkie!  Very bad!!!  Like... just don't... at all... please.
    Anddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd... exhaleeeeeeeeeeeeeee.  OK, rant over!!!  Did you have fun everypony?  Cause I sure did! 
    OK, now that that is out of the way, onto the good parts of the episode.  Because yes, unlike the irredeemable "MMMystery on the Friendship Express," this was a good episode all around.  Not great, but good, and that is largely because the primary plot point, that being Maud finding herself a friend outside of her family, was executed quite nicely (outside of anything involving Pinkie Pie).  First of all, it was pretty awesome and hilarious seeing Maud, oh I'm sorry, Maudalina Daisy Pie (which is amazing) getting her "rocktorate" that opening scene was just gold from start to finish, plus it's just damn cool that a kid's show would acknowledge the existence of doctorates as part of its canon and show a character actually earn one.  But on top of that, Maud probably developed here more than she ever has as a character, and I liked that a lot.  Really, it was necessary in order for her character to remain endearing at all, because just maintaining the status quo with her would be unbearable.  Some of her bits at the beginning were confusing, like I have no idea how she wasn't slightly impressed by Twilight's Castle, even if it was just to be a joke.  But all in all, the idea that she'd never found a pony who got her outside of her family was a good one and made sense (though I will ask how the Mane 6 don't qualify as friends for her?  I mean, they seem to enjoy her, and they may not entirely get her, but they certainly seem to appreciate her for who she is, it's not like they just tolerate her, I mean, heck, Rarity was thrilled to see Maud and not just because she could help her find a gem!).  Best of all, her interactions with Starlight were just plain fun, they had a very solid rapport with each other (I have some issues with some of it but I'll bring that up in Starlight's section).  It was especially fun getting more of a glimpse of Maud's sense of humor, as well as insight into why she likes rocks so much while still coming to grips with the fact that rocks aren't enough for her, even if she does love them.  I was happy that she's essentially living in Ponyville after this episode, and in a pretty cool new setting too, that underground cavern looked pretty snazzy (and hey, no rent, she basically got herself free real estate, unless of course she did have to buy the land, I wonder if that's the case, I mean, she clearly had to get it registered as a new address, we saw a mailbox there and everything).  So even if Pinkie Pie was written so stupidly so as to make Maud look like the more mature of the two (which she was), that doesn't mean that Maud wasn't executed well, she was, very much so.  Hopefully we'll get to see more of her around Ponyville now, cause when she and Pinkie have good rapport, they are awesome together.

    Finally, we come to Starlight, who was pretty solid as well.  I have a few issues, but mostly with just some of the ideas surrounding her presence, not her execution here.  First, that flashback connecting Starlight to Maud was as hilarious as it was deliciously evil; I have some problem with the idea that Maud wouldn't be concerned with pointing some pony to an object that could enslave others, BUT the execution was so good and snappy as a joke that I couldn't help but love it for what it was!  As I said before, she and Maud have great rapport together and were very fun to see being friends with one another.  It didn't feel like Starlight and Trixie do, where those two are clearly BFFs and Starlight very often has something to teach Trixie about friendship, this felt more like just a, ya know, friendship, where two individuals are just happy to share some interests with each other and spend some time together now and then.  I like that because sometimes that's all a friendship is, just digging someone's company now and then, and I can also see that being the type of friendship Maud would desire.  Although I don't exactly get why both of them said they didn't want to talk about feelings with each other when that's kind of exactly what they did when Maud explained to Starlight why she likes rocks, giving her insight into her own struggles with ponies, but whatever.  The bigger issue I had with Starlight's presence was the episode never really explained WHY Starlight gets Maud.  And really, why does she?  Why does she get Maud and the other Mane 6 supposedly don't?  As I said, I'm not quite sure why Maud doesn't even consider the Mane 6 to be friends.  Does she think they just like her because she's Pinkie's sister?  And again, what about Starlight makes her qualified to get Maud more than others?  Sure they've both struggled with making friends, but for totally different reasons.  Starlight just felt alone after Sunburst left her when they were younger, she never felt like ponies were judgmental about her.  She has even today a fairly grounded and even-keeled personality, and I don't even get why she thought that liking kites was some kind of weird thing she should largely keep to herself (don't get me wrong, that bit with the kites was hilarious and I loved learning that it's something she really likes, but I still don't get why she acted like it was some big secret, I mean, they're kites, sure not everyone is into them but nobody thinks you're weird for liking kites, they're just bucking kites!!!).  But overall, Starlight was fine here and had some great chemistry with Maud.  I don't want the show to start having her befriend every major supporting character outside of the Mane 6, because I don't want her to develop her own Mane 6 and don't want the show to send some kind of message that "Starlight is better at some kinds of friendships than the Mane 6 are, because... reasons," but this one I can dig because it felt different from a lot of the other friendships Starlight has made.  Overall, despite a few nitpicky issues, I really liked seeing little ol' Glim Glam here, and hopefully we get to see more of her, Maud, and their kites in the future!
    Oh, also, I completely agree with Starlight, jalapeno-red velvet-omelet-cupcakes sound terribly disgusting, c'mon Pinkie, what're you even thinking???

    These two, I totally dig these two 
    A few extra notes to wrap things up.  What was up with that Rarity scene?  Like, all of it.  What was up with it?  Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy did Rarity freak out when Maud told her that all of the gems there were common gems?  I figure Rarity might know more about gems by this point than even Maud, and it seems like in Equestria that gems grow almost as common as apples, so it seems like a ton of gems would be common.  I mean, she couldn't bedazzle the s*** out of so many dresses if they weren't.  On top of that, there were so many gems in that cave that how could they not be common???  I mean, it was literally covered in gems ground to ceiling, there's no way they could be anything but common!  I don't know, this is a nitpicky point, but it bugged me, because if gems were supposedly rare, it seems like Rarity would rather sell them then go to the trouble of putting so many on dresses.  But in this world, I've never gotten that impression about gems, heck, Rarity's not even the only one who puts them on dresses, that's how common they seem to be in Equestria, so I have no idea why she was on the verge of tears when Maud told her that, even if it was for laughs.  Confusing scene overall and in the end it had no major impact on the episode.
    The bit with Lyra and Bon Bon, while obnoxiously stupid as far as Pinkie Pie's contribution goes, was pretty hilarious on their end.  Lyra's terrified face was too funny and she just seemed so confused by what was going on (although oddly accepting of the idea that she was supposed to be a... rock, but hey, I guess that's just how scared ponies get of angry Pinkie), and Bon Bon looked so terribly annoyed at Pinkie (plus I'm not surprised that she wasn't taking any of her s*** either, I mean, she was a monster-hunting secret agent at one point).  The return to Ghastly Gorge and seeing the Quarray Eels make another appearance were both cool callbacks to Season 2, though I refuse to believe that Maud wasn't aware they were there when she was looking into moving there, she's too smart not to have thought of that.

    "Find your own mint pony, ya pink menace!"
    Finally, most importantly of all, DERPY HOOVES, BEST PONY FOREVER AND GREATEST GEM THIS SHOW HAS GIVEN US TO DATE, made her first appearance of Season 7, and it was most enjoyable indeed!  She first showed up when Maud and Starlight were in the market, just walking around, but then she had her own little bit when Pinkie Pie threw a pizza at her and she gleefully chased after it (hey, at least she got a free pizza out of Pinkie Pie's stupidity, that's more than most ponies can say in this episode about what they got from Pinkie's OOC behavior)!  I look forward to seeing more of best pony this season, and cannot wait for Derpy's next appearance.
    I apologize for all of these upcoming pics but I just had to post this as a sequence...



    Ha ha, best pony has pizza and you do not, BE JEALOUS, FEEL ENVY!!!
    Overall, this was the first episode of Season 7 that, for me, was just good.  It wasn't great, it wasn't terrible, maybe it wasn't even very good, but it was solidly just good, and given how bad Pinkie was here, it really should be commended for even being that good.  I did care about what was happening, I liked what ended up happening, and ultimately something was accomplished, Maud has a friend and lives adjacent to Ponyville, good stuff overall, even if the road there wasn't entirely smooth.  That's all I've got for you this time folks, until next time everypony, this is Batbrony signing off.  I'm off!!! *cue dramatic exit*

    HOLY S***, BUCK YES!!! 

  5. Batbrony
    Good afternoon everypony, and welcome back to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews."  Today we've got the first normal episode of Season 7 proper, following the two season premiere episodes, and I'm very pleased to say that this was a delightful episode indeed.  That's particularly important for the third episode of a season because, in past seasons, I've noticed that very often the third episode of any given season very much sets the tone for the general level of quality one encounters or can expect to encounter throughout the season.  This was definitely one of the best third episodes of a new season the show has had in some time, so without further ado, let's begin.  This is "A Flurry of Emotions."

    Hi, I'm Batbrony, and this is Flurry Heart... welcome to 'Jackass'!!!
    Alright, so the most important aspect of this episode was the first really full-episode feature of Flurry Heart since her first debut in "The Crystalling" last season.  While I found her to be perfectly harmless when she first showed up last season, there were a fair number of bronies who, to this day, weren't too crazy about her.  They thought she was just there for the sake of having an annoying baby character and weren't crazy about her being an alicorn either, and I always thought that was a little unfair to her as a character, even if the threat she presented in her debut was a little ridiculous.  That said, we didn't really get much else of her after those two episodes, so the show hadn't really given her defenders much of a chance since then to really justify her existence.  Today I'm glad to say that that has been fully rectified with this episode.  Flurry Heart was not only even more adorable and hilarious than when she first showed up, but was also still believable as a young foal while clearly having grown and developed (at least by baby standards) quite a bit since when we saw her in her debut when she was only days old.  She has long-term memory now, better control over her magic, and even something of a personality, and given the passage of time since she first appeared, this all makes sense.  But despite these new additions to her, she still behaved as a foal her age should, and what we got was a foal character that felt very natural and well-put together.  I was also very impressed that the show didn't try to pretend like Flurry Heart even had to learn a lesson here; oh sure, Twilight lectured her at the end, but that was largely just to calm her down in the moment because, well, she's a baby still and can only learn so much at this point in time.  Overall, I thought that Princess McFlurry was an absolute treat to watch this time around, and Tabitha St. Germain's splendid voice work on her did not hurt in the slightest either, hay, I'd even say it was a better job than her first time around!  So all in all I was very pleased with how Flurry Heart's return went, and I do hope we get to see more of her going forward (although I should note that I really hope the show at some point lets foal characters actually get older, because it makes NO sense that the Cake Twins are still around Flurry's age.  Heck, the first episode of the season pointed out why it makes no sense; Celestia mentioned that it has clearly been years since the show started in Equestrian time, and the Cake Twins have been around since Season 2, WHEN ARE THEY GONNA GET OLDER IN THE SHOW?!  But I digress).
    Oh, also, before we move on, if you thought this show couldn't find anymore ways to jam-pack adorableness into a 22 minute episode of MLP, then you were quite pleasantly surprised by how cute this episode was.  I mean, come on, take a look at this!




    Sweet Celestia, that's A LOT of cute!!! 
    Anyways, moving on we come to the main character of this episode, Twilight.  Through this first three episodes of this season, I've actually been quite pleased to find that the lessons that Twilight's been learning don't seem to be (1) redundant for her, or (2) something she should have learned already.  I bring this up because last season, while an excellent season all around, had quite a few instances of characters in the Mane 6 learning lessons that they really should have known by that point in the show, and oftentimes they came off as either jerks or stupid because of it.  Now while it may still be early in the new season, the fact that Twilight has been handled so well in the lesson department is an encouraging sign, to say the least.  Both lessons make sense as being ones she might have to learn at this point in the show.  She'd only just gotten used to being Starlight's teacher last season, so obviously having to let a student go on to her next step in life was something which she'd never done before and needed to learn how to do.  Likewise, in this episode we see that Twilight still has a lot to learn about being a responsible aunt, especially when she doesn't see Flurry Heart all that often, which can make it easy for her to just want to be a fun aunt for the young filly, but as we saw today, she doesn't have much experience with full-time care of a foal that age, much less a relative, and couldn't just try to squeeze her into her already packed schedule.  A foal Flurry's age needs 24/7 monitoring and care, and Twilight clearly underestimated how hard that'd be to do in this instance, especially while trying to juggle other responsibilities.  But like I said, this did not seem like a Season 1 or Season 2 Twilight problem, I could totally buy that she'd need to learn this now.  And the best part of it all in execution was that she learned it as the episode went on, not just all in one bunch at the end.  Season 1 or Season 2 Twilight would've tried to grin and bear it from start to ugly finish, maybe even deny until she absolutely couldn't any longer that anything was wrong at all.  But this is Season 7 Twilight, and by the time she got to the hospital, Twilight was already readily admitting that this day had gotten out of control and was quite the nightmare already, that she'd bucked up.  She was just trying to make the best of it at that point and get through the rest.  The only difference in the hospital scene was that Flurry finally caused enough of a disruption that Twilight needed to calm her down quite a few notches and admit to Flurry that she couldn't and shouldn't keep trying to drag her to all these places and just keep her off to the side.  It wasn't fair to Flurry, nor was it fair to the ponies Twilight was supposed to be helping or who were going out of their way to help Twilight, as evidenced by the toy store clerk, poor Cheerilee (whose mouth must just reek of chalk now, poor earth ponies and pegasi with no digits or levitation magic), and Pinkie Pie in Sugarcube Corner, along with the hospital staff and the sick fillies and colts at the hospital.  All in all, while not the deepest of lessons, I still really liked it just because I didn't mind that Twilight was learning it since it all made perfect sense.  Twilight's got a lot of experience in a lot of things at this point, but one thing she still doesn't have too much experience in is being a responsible aunt to her alicorn niece.  Very good lesson and very good characterization of Twilight.

    Off to supporting characters, we had quite a bunch of good stuff to go around.  First, Spike was awesome.  I've really enjoyed his rising maturity levels over the last 3 seasons now, and I feel like mentoring Starlight to a certain extent (in a big brother kind of way, even if he's younger and smaller than her) has really contributed to that.  He's much more confident in his ability to have a situation under control now and he's still Twilight's #1 assistant as always, if not even better than ever, and here he just wasn't messing around.  He knew the second Twilight proposed letting Flurry tag along that it'd mess up their entire schedule and he also knew that wasn't a good idea for many reasons; sadly, because Twilight needed to learn a lesson and (more likely connected to show canon) because Twilight still has a bad habit of not usually listening to Spike's advice until it's too late, Twilight did not listen, but still, Spike was very enjoyable all the same.  He didn't seem too phased by Twilight not listening to him, which means he's either getting used to it or was just perfectly happy to watch everything blow up in her face instead.    He also had some fun bits with Flurry Heart, like this bit with the Cake Twins where Flurry and Spike desperately tried to intervene to no avail and get the Cake Twins to stop fighting...

    "You see this s*** going on over here, dragon-dude?  Mannnnnnnnnn, it's not good!"
    I mean, c'mon, how funny is that s***?  Besides Spike we had a very fun subplot with Princess Cadance and Shining Armor, and I must say it's about damn time.  We've really only seen these two as a couple during season premiere or finale episodes, usually in the middle of some kind of a national crisis, so I was very gratified that we finally got to see these two, extensively, JUST as a couple doing couple things as they tried to get an afternoon to themselves to get a break from Flurry Heart.  Even better, I loved very much that the show was very real in that they went to something, an art show, which neither of them were particularly crazy about, but it was better than nothing at all and Twilight just happened to be in Ponyville too, so it worked, because that's just how much they needed a break from parenting a foal this age.  That was delightful in its accuracy, as I've heard of many a parental couple who get to a point when they have a young baby that they're willing to do anything if it means they're out of the house and get a day or an evening of a break from their parenting, even if it's not something they really like!  What was even more fun was the art show itself, namely because of Spearhead, Shining Armor's old Royal Guard buddy.  This guy was a blast!  As I said earlier, he's that rare type of "dude-bro" who, rather than being insufferable, was kind of awesome and hilarious; he wasn't full of himself, he just loves being a dude bro in every sense of the word, and I totally dug that.  His approach as an artist as well really worked for me.  Not the pieces themselves, but I kept seeing throughout this thread people commenting that they thought the writers were being snarky about modern art and people not liking it.  I think that's true to an extent, but I think it changed when Spearhead came in.  I don't think the writers were critiquing modern art, I think they were critiquing how some modern artists insist that their art have one interpretation alone.  THAT is what makes modern art really insufferable; not so much what it looks like (even if much of it is nowhere as impressive as classic pieces of art) but the idea that such vague and general art can only have one interpretation, which some insufferable modern artists do insist.  Spearhead here, however, made his art very accessible for others by insisting that enjoying his art was all about his patrons interpreting it as however they wished, injecting meaning into it that meant something to them.  His art meant something very specific to him, but he wasn't going to begrudge others having it mean something else to them, but rather encouraged it.  For such a seemingly simple character, and in a subplot no less, this was actually quite a nuanced and subtle message about how to appreciate art no matter what form you encounter it in.  For that, I have to give major props to the writers on such a well-written and fun new character.  I doubt we'll see more of him this season, but I wouldn't complain if we did, Spearhead was a blast!

    You're cool in my book, Spearhead, you're cool.  Dude-on mah dude-bro! 
    To close out the supporting characters we had some fun appearances from Nurse Redheart (I seriously can't remember the last time she had a speaking role, and it was fun seeing her softer side this time around as opposed to when she made herself Pinkie's mortal enemy when the Cake Twins were born), a new toy store clerk who absolutely unloaded some sass on Twilight about proper organization (and yes, I loved it ), Cheerilee who, as I mentioned earlier, got quite the shaft from having to write all those equations on a chalkboard all over again with the chalk in her mouth (but hey, at least Twilight is getting her apology cookies), but I do love getting to see Ponyville's favorite teacher getting small little bits like that now and then, really helps further bring the town alive when the supporting and background ponies there get to play more active roles, and finally a really funny scene with the Cake Twins and Pinkie Pie in which Flurry Heart had the most adorable, failed attempt ever at trying to teach the Cake Twins how to share (I'd count the hospital scene but there were so many background and supporting characters there that none really stood out aside from Redheart, and I guess we learned what the horsey hives are as well).  All in all, for a single episode, it was a pretty darn solid one as far as activity from supporting characters goes.
    Besides that, I don't have too much else to mention.  The animation as usual was lovely and I continue to appreciate the experimentation we continue to see the animators engaging in, ESPECIALLY in some of the faces they throw into the show (which I should also credit the storyboard artists for considering that's where a lot of that starts I'm sure).  I mean, get a load of this face, can you even imagine seeing something like this in Season 1 or Season 2?

    That's hilarious... OK, one more

    Perfection 
    Besides the facial animation, I was quite impressed by some of the magic animation in this episode, it was unusually ambitious for a slice-of-life episode.  Think about it, we had not one but two very powerful magic users (three if you count the few times Cadance used magic, but she barely did here), oftentimes using magic at the same time and sometimes on the same things, and one of them was also an infant, which meant that the magic had to look as though it were being employed, to some extent, by a baby who doesn't entirely know what she's doing all the time.  Very impressive, if I do say so myself, and it's hard to believe we've gotten all the way to this point in their magical animation since Season 1.  There was also a pretty neat reference to the G1 villain, Grogar (considered the second most evil G1 villain behind Tirek) in the story Twilight was telling to the fillies and colts at the hospital, but whether anything else comes of that remains to be seen.  He may be a canon character who shows up at some point, but for right now he's at the very least a fictional character in Equestrian lore, if not an actual historical one, we don't know.  If something more comes of that, it'll be very cool indeed that they mentioned him earlier this season.
    Overall, this episode was a blast and a very, very, VERY solid third episode of the season, which bodes well for the entirety of Season 7.  I can't wait to see what comes next, but for now I'll settle for rewatching an episode as immensely enjoyable as this one.  This has been another edition of "Batbrony Reviews," everypony!  Until next time, everypony, this is Batbrony signing off.  I'm off! *cue dramatic exit*
  6. Batbrony
    Good evening everypony, and welcome back to another edition (and a brand new MLP:FiM season) of "Batbrony Reviews"!!!  Tonight, for the season premiere, I'm in the unusual position of having to review two episodes that were not a part of a single story arc.  Yes, for the first time in the entire running of MLP:FiM, DHX decided not to have the opening be a massive two-parter where the girls had to battle some threat to all of Equestria and... frankly, this change was probably a season overdue considering that last season's opener (while delightful) involved the Crystal Empire being threatened by a newborn alicorn.  Yeah, it's not easy coming up with new threats to all of Equestria on a seasonal basis (especially seven seasons in), much less twice a season, so frankly I'm quite happy they finally decided to do this.  And it worked really well since the first episode pretty much picked up immediately from where the last episode in Season 6 left off (and the closure it brought to such a momentous event in Equestria as relations getting normalized with the Changelings was very gratifying to see).  But enough of my introductory ramblings, let's get to the real meat of my review... which is mostly me rambling.  This is "Celestial Advice" and "All Bottled Up"!!!

    Awwwwwwwwww, giant wing hug, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! 
    So starting with "Celestial Advice," this episode was important and needed for a number of reasons.  As I said, we got really good closure following the Season 6 finale, in particular seeing Starlight and her band of friends hailed as heroes (in many ways it was a fun and silly contrast to the Season 2 "Star Wars" celebration for the Mane 6 in the season opener, particularly because Starlight's group is nowhere nearly as tight as the Mane 6 were by that point and probably never will be since the only two who see each other on a regular basis are Starlight and Trixie).  That entire scene was executed very nicely; I was particularly pleased to see such a wide array of Equestrian citizens and their closest friends and allies mingling in the same spot, including the reformed Changelings and Crystal Ponies (though it was odd that neither Princess Cadance nor Shining Armor were there, though I'm guessing that's going to be explained in next week's episode based on the preview for it).  But it was also important because Twili- ah screw it, no more beating around the bush, CELESTIA GOT SOME DAMN MEANINGFUL SCREENTIME!!!
    Wowwwwwwwwwwww, you have no idea how great it was to write that.  And seriously, I'm holding off talking about anything else good about this episode until I get this spiel about of the way.  First of all, this is what I had to say about Celestia's treatment in Season 6 (and pretty much since Season 4) in my Season 6 review:
    Oh me oh my, why can't poor Celly get any love on this show it seems? Between time and time again being incapable of actually solving a national crisis (a plot device that seems a bit tired at this point, I mean, it was ridiculously easy for the Changelings to capture both her and Princess Luna, buck, all of Equestria's royalty was bucking useless in that so I can only hope that that was one bucking stealthy operation the Changelings launched) and just disappearing for stretches at a time, this character just can't catch a break these days. Let's not forget that there was a time in this show where pretty much EVERY MAJOR EVENT revolved around Celestia to some extent. She was the main catalyst in sending Twilight to Ponyville and getting her to regularly learn lessons of friendship and report them to her, she bucking made Twilight a princess for crying out loud, and she's supposed to be her dearest mentor, and a mentor and leader to all ponies. Needless to say, since the end of Season 4, that has not been the case and it is NOTICEABLE!!! This is a character who is simply too big in her importance to both the show's setting and main characters to be ignored the way she has the last two seasons by the writers without it coming off as ridiculous. SHE CONTROLS THE BUCKING SUN FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, AND YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT THE HIGH POINT OF HER SEASON WAS A GAG ABOUT HER BEING UNAMUSED IN "No Second Prances" IN WHICH SHE DIDN'T EVEN SAY A BUCKING WORD?!?! It's too much, at this point, it's simply too much. Many of us in the fandom have long been asking for more Celestia, going all the way back to the early seasons, but instead she just had her worst season ever and this NEEDS TO CHANGE!!! She needs an episode next season, to put it mildly, she simply does. Nicole Oliver for one is too good in this role to ignore, but back to the character herself, this is a character that deserves better! Princess Luna has rightfully had a character arc across all six of these seasons, Princess Cadance has even had a character arc and sometimes major appearances in episodes (even if she maybe hasn't ever faced a friendship problem, unless you count "The Times They Are a Changeling"), but Princess Celestia, the sole ruler of Equestria for 1000 years, STILL DOESN'T HAVE A SOLO EPISODE?!?!? BUCKING RIDICULOUS!!! Writers, at this point I'm just begging for anything, anything at all. A fun little slice-of-life episode, maybe about a day in the life of Celestia or a romp with some other character on some random adventure, more about her and Twilight's relationship, maybe a look into her own mind and what her own fears and insecurities are, SOMETHING, ANYTHING!!! But the show simply can't keep ignoring such a big character without it coming off as a major flaw, and until that changes, until Princess Celestia finally gets the proper attention she deserves in the show, even in just one episode focused on her as an actual main character, it will remain quite possibly the biggest long-standing flaw of the show, and it's a shame that a season that was so strong for the most part in its handling of new and old supporting characters was so marred by such a glaring absence.
    Andddddddddddd... exhale.  OK, it appears that the show runners at DHX have taken note of this... GLARING problem, to say the least.  As you can see, Celestia's been getting the shaft, and the entire show was going to keep getting brought down for it if such an important character was continually treated so poorly.  NOW, I am not yet letting them entirely off the hook because this was NOT a solo-Celestia episode.  BUT she was more or less the season opener's deuteragonist, and that is much more than she has been in any single episode for a long, long, long, long, long, long, long time.  So for that, major props DHX, I can only hope you're going to build off of this solid foundation of Celly-love and not just let it be a single bone thrown her way.  Anyways, yeah, Celestia was great here (and it should be obvious from the title alone that she'd be a major character, I mean, ya know, "Celestial Advice" and all).  This is a Celestia I've wanted to see in the show for a long time, with a combination of new character elements we learned about her along with old staples about her that we already loved.  The second Twilight asked her for help, I already felt like the show had entered a comfort zone it hadn't been in in a longggggggggg time, too long, in fact.  Frankly, it was just nice seeing the show do something it doesn't do enough anymore; have the main characters go to their elders for help.  I know some people may be like, "Well, it's cliche or old fashioned," but come on, the main character of this show has a mentor who's over a thousand years old and has ruled Equestria, the greatest country in the entire show, most of her life in relative peace and harmony.  The fact that she had barely sought her advice for any major decisions or friendship problems, onscreen, since pretty much becoming the Princess of Friendship (there were exceptions, but not enough), was not just criminal from a storytelling point of view, but stupid, ridiculously stupid.  Too often for some time now either the characters have easily learned most lessons on their own, OR Twilight has taught them; I know the former is easy enough to accept for most friendship problems in this show (especially for the veteran members of the Mane 6), and that the latter makes sense in establishing Twilight as the Princess of Friendship in actions and not just in title, BUT come on, surely they could have found more for Celestia to do before now.  Anyways, yes, Twilight asking Celestia for help and advice not only made sense, but was great to see, especially in getting to contrast how Celestia is as a teacher to Twilight vs. Twilight as a teacher to Starlight.

    "I was not aware that I was an expression."
    Best bucking line in the entire premiere!!! 

    She really just forgot which kitchen her cake was in that day 
    Most of the time Celestia was just calmly listening to Twilight, and when she spoke, it was only because she knew exactly what she needed to say, no more, no less (aside from an innocent joke here or there).  Considering how many ponies she's ruled and helped in all her years, this makes a lot of sense; it's probably hard to phase Celestia with much at this point, and she knows the value of hearing all that you need to know before speaking one word.  Twilight on the other hoof, when it comes to Starlight, is always either worried that she's not doing enough to mentor Starlight or doing too little.  She's not the OCD wreck she used to be, but she will always have a natural inclination to have all her ducks in a row in any professional activity as Princess of Friendship, that's just who she is.  An interesting Star Wars analogy occurred to me in thinking of this trio of ponies today: Celestia is very much a Yoda to Twilight's Obi Wan, the former serene and having the utmost confidence in both her students and how she teaches them, while the latter is obsessed with mastering and practicing and perfecting every last bit of whatever it is she's invested herself in to the fullest, and then again, and again, and again.  Twilight too is Obi Wan to Starlight's Anakin, but that analogy works in a different way that I'll discuss later.  Besides of course knowing exactly what Twilight needed to be told, Celestia gave us some wonderful backstory on both her buildup to sending Twilight to Ponyville (a decision that evidently took her quite some time, most likely months given both the obviously difficulty with which she made her decision as well as the fact that getting the library secured for Twilight must've involved at least some paperwork) and what she was experiencing emotionally in making that decision.  She was as afraid for Twilight as she was herself, because it was clear that at that point, Twilight was one of her closest friends (though I got the feeling that Twilight probably didn't think of it in the same way at the time, more like at best a maternal, but first and foremost regal, mentor considering how little she understood about friendship at the time), and she had no way of knowing if somepony as close to her as her sister could truly be saved even after she returned.  She had big plans for Twilight already, and unfortunately for her, those plans meant letting the wonderful status quo of having such a wonderful, dear friend by her side almost constantly come to an end.  It was great seeing how painful and hard that was for Celestia, and added a level of vulnerability to her we've only rarely gotten to see.  And of course, the experience allowed her to tell Twilight with the utmost confidence that part of being a great mentor in anything is knowing when your students are ready to cut loose on their own, no matter in what or how painful it may be for the mentor or student, or even downright scary.  All around, I couldn't have asked for a more solid start to the season for Celestia, but that said, she still needs a solo episode at some point, so stick to it DHX, and hopefully you'll deliver just that this season.

    AHA!  BEHOLD, THE RETURN OF TROLLESTIA, BOW BEFORE HER, MORTALS!!!
    As for the rest of the episode, it was all good stuff.  Twilight's increasing, OCD paranoia about what could happen to Starlight on her own was hilarious, and the lesson she learned and actions she took as a result was great too.  As far as I can tell, Starlight (while still living in Ponyville, which, given how quickly she decided to do that after they set up so much her getting sent away, felt like a bit of a cop out, even if I was happy for it) is no longer directly being mentored by Twilight about friendship.  She'll still live in the castle for the time being, but there appears to be no fixed agenda for her, she's just going about learning how to be a better friend and maybe helping teach others along the way in her day-to-day business.  Hopefully this means she might get paired with other members of the Mane 6 besides Twilight, because I would like to see her grow closer to the other Mane 6 individually, though I get the feeling that a huge portion of her adventures this season will be with Trixie.  Basically she's kind of where Twilight was at somewhere around middle-to-end of Season 2 or Season 3, at least I think she is.

    Dat's racist

    Dat's... also racist.  Man, Twilight has some deep-seeded racial insecurities, doesn't she? 
    Discord, while hardly a villain, was quite a good troll here in setting off Twilight's latest freaking-out episode, and it was kinda nice seeing him for the most part just lightheartedly screwing around rather than making himself constantly the center of attention.  He felt, oddly enough, like a more normal member of that crowd.  The reformed Changelings were adorable and hilarious (though Thorax's voice really doesn't work with that beefed up new look, just doesn't sound right coming out of him), the Mane 6 had some OK bits, the animation was just lovely, Starlight and her friends were great, Spike was once again a low key voice of reason, and all in all everything here just worked.  Very solid opening episode, I very much enjoyed watching how everything played out in this one.
    Moving on to "All Bottled Up," the lesser of the two episodes, but not by much.  I still thoroughly loved it very much, and for good reason.  It still felt very much connected to the first episode in that here, we got to see what kind of life Starlight is beginning to make for herself now that she's no longer directly reporting to Twilight on a regular basis.  It seems she's starting by trying to teach her best friend, Trixie, how to be better at magic in general (since, to be honest, Trixie could stand to improve by quite a bit).  This actually presented quite a few contrasts between Starlight and Twilight that I rather enjoyed and which fit very much into how we've seen both of them develop as characters.  Going back to the Star Wars analogies, Twilight is the Obi-Wan to Starlight's Anakin in the magical department in the sense that, as far as we know, Starlight's the more powerful of the two when it comes to raw power.  Let's keep in mind that when Twilight battled her in Season 5, Twilight was an alicorn and had (and probably still has) more book-learning about magic than Starlight did, and yet somehow Starlight stayed on par with her.  Twilight is the learning obsessed master of technique who's greatest skill in mastering anything magical is doing so by practicing it 200 times a day and just getting it down to a T.  Hence, Obi-Wan.  Starlight, on the other hand, seems to have greater raw power and while she is still probably even in power with Twilight, the fact that she is as a unicorn is ridiculous to say the least and goes to show just what kind of stuff she's made of.  While Twilight's calling is clearly as the Princess of Friendship (and that certainly involves plenty of magic, especially since friendship is probably the most powerful magic in Equestria, literally), Starlight, I get the feeling, may eventually go into a more explicitly magical field.  I just don't see her being a friendship teacher in the same way Twilight is.  As far as friends go, Twilight was not a natural leader to begin with.  She was a recluse and anti-social, so it makes sense that like everything else, she taught friendship when she got into it like a project that she had to master through as much study and repetition as possible.  Don't get me wrong, she's a great friend, but there are many ways in which she still approaches friendship as she has from the beginning, and it's for those reasons that she's the glue that holds together a group like the Mane 6.  Starlight, on the other hoof, IS a natural leader it seems, or at least we have seen that she possesses the will to be.  Her problem with friendship was insecurity, not disinterest, and there will probably always be a part of her that fears that she could hurt others if she isn't careful because of her past mistakes.  Hence, I foresee her never having a Mane 6 group like Twilight, and frankly I'm OK with that.  The show really doesn't need such an arrangement for any reason, it would come off as tired and lazy, and it just doesn't fit Starlight.  She will have friends, but unlike Twilight, her closest friends won't be a big group that all are dear to each other as well; her friendships are going to be fewer and far more personal to Starlight, one-on-one so to speak.  I mean, to date, it seems that her three truly closest friends are Trixie, Sunburst, and Spike, none of whom are friends with each other in particular (not in the same way at least).  Trixie is her best friend, Sunburst is more of a very close childhood friend, and Spike is like a combination of mentor and little brother.  Twilight is a super close friend too, but more as a mentor, and to this day you always get the sense that ever since the end of Season 5 Starlight's been kind of in awe of Twilight and in no way considers herself to be on the same level as her as a friend.  What I like about this is that it highlights that there are all kinds of different ways to have friends in one's life (something the show has highlighted many times, but this is particularly noteworthy since it's main characters we're talking about).  Some people have a solid group like Twilight and the Mane 6, others have few friends but super close ones like Starlight and Trixie.  Valuable lesson to be taught, even if it was only in the background here.
    So the actual lesson was pretty great too (if a bit obvious).  Starlight was literally bottling her anger at Trixie because she feared that if she blew her top at her, Trixie wouldn't want to be her friend anymore.  This was a little confusing because I'm pretty sure they've had spats before of some kind, but it largely worked because, just like some of Twilight's early friendship problems in Season 1 when she knew little about friendship, Starlight too is still super cautious when it comes to aspects of friendship that she doesn't understand.  The idea that getting into a fight with your best friend is OK was clearly bizarre to her, and Trixie's ego probably didn't help convince her she'd take Starlight being angry at her OK.  But in the end, doing so only made things worse, and Starlight and Trixie were able to come to an understanding that sometimes, friends need to be brutally honest with each other, and even if they fight as a result, that doesn't mean things won't be OK between them in the end.  A good, if simple, lesson, but it got the job done.
    The real highlights of this episode were the entertaining bits, and boy were there a lot.  Trixie was insufferable (even more than usual) in this episode, but hilariously so (her predilection for junkfood seems to be becoming something of a running gag, and I nearly fell out of my seat when she birthed an Eldritch horror in that teacup poodle and insisted that a bag of pretzels were a suitable replacement for homemade teacupcakes... twice).  It's nice to see that certain aspects of her personality haven't changed, that her magic is getting better (though there are still things she just bucks up for the strangest of reasons... I think she might be a magical klutz), and hopefully she might even start embarking on more of a character arc than she has to date as, possibly, a developing main character!



    Pffftttt, OK, in all honesty, she kind of needed a nut cart to be thrown on top of her at some point in this episode... which thankfully happened.  Cheeky little bastard used up about 50 too many of her Get Out of Jail Free cards.  Also...

    DAT'S A LOTTA NUTS!!! 
    Spike was very solid here; I love seeing him as now the most low key member of the main characters, and his rapport with Starlight remains fun to watch as he throws out good advice to her here and there, but nowhere near as pushy as Twilight would.  Also, his terror of Trixie's magic and her wanting to use him as a teleportation guinea pig was hilarious.  The Mane 6's subplot (while largely pointless) was pretty funny.  I loved their assistant who clearly knew who they were and just didn't give a buck because he most likely gets paid two bits an hour to do this s*** all day for whoever comes through, and his pleasure at their two second failure at the end was amazing.  The song they sang was pretty standard, but was amazing payoff as a joke set up earlier by Starlight that they'd most likely sing a song at some point; really, it was just that standard because the show was being self aware in that moment how cliche this is (there really was no good reason that the girls would sing a song about something so banal as beating a fun puzzle game), and the best part of all was the fact that they sung that song in real time is what kept them from beating the course record.  Amazing payoff to a greatly set up joke, and it's great to see that the show runner's still have no problem poking fun at themselves and their beloved show now and then when it's warranted or just in harmless fun.
     
    And finally, Bulk Biceps, Granny Smith, and that... new townspony, whoever she was, were all hilarious, both before and when they got possessed by Starlight's bottled up anger.  If I had any complaints, it was simply that we've never seen Starlight's anger manifest as a magical entity, and probably won't ever again, so where the buck did that actually come from here?  But other than that, this was a pair of lovely episodes to kick off what will hopefully prove to be another wonderful season of MLP:FiM.  Join me again next week everypony when I review the next new episode of Season 7.  Until then, this is Batbrony signing off.  I'm off!!! *cue dramatic exit*
  7. Batbrony
    Good evening everypony, and welcome back to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews"! Tonight, I'm reviewing the latest installment of "Equestria Girls," a series which I originally loathed (at least in concept) but has steadily grown on me in its own way since it first came out. That's obviously not to say that the series as a whole is perfect, but it has certainly earned its place in the MLP-verse and I no longer mind seeing new installments added to it, if only for the things which it tends to do REALLY right, even if other elements are a bit cliche or predictable at this point. Without further ado, let's begin, this is "My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Legend of Everfree"!!!
     
    So interestingly this is the first installment of the series which, aside from Sunset Shimmer (and that kind of doesn't count since she's been in the human world for years by now), did not involve any character from Equestria itself, namely Twilight Sparkle (our Twilight, not the Human Twilight). I actually liked this decision for the most part since it further allowed more attention to be given to the characters in this particular setting. If you're going to have the alternate universe setting, might as well focus on IT and the characters who actually inhabit it rather than a fish-out-of-water plotline like the first film did (and really, that would only work for the first film since Twilight would increasingly not be surprised by the setting itself as she goes there more and more). Another element about the setting which I really liked was the summer camp setting. Now granted, we've seen this type of setting a TON in cartoons before, and like in all of those the camp is usually ridiculous "nice" looking and not dirty at all by real-world standards, but cartoon logic so whatever, that doesn't bother me. Really, I felt that the writers took advantage of this setting as much as they possibly could, namely in how the story felt a little smaller than "Friendship Games" did. A huge problem I had with "Friendship Games" was that there were simply too many characters involved to the point that both the HuMane 6 (besides Human Twilight) and their Crystal Prep Academy counterparts got very limited screentime (although the HuMane 6 did fare better there than in "Rainbow Rocks"). This setting, however, had literally only a busload of students and a couple of camp counselors, and you could tell that not all of Canterlot High's student body was there. The most notable absence was the human CMC, but really I didn't mind this one bit. Such a small pool of characters allowed for more time to be devoted to a smaller cast overall, even for little things like funny gags. Heck, human Derpy even had a line for once, that was awesome! But the HuMane 6 fared pretty well here too and it wasn't JUST the Twilight and Sunset show, even if those two were still obviously the main characters. Besides that, I thought that for a summer camp-storyline, the writers did as best they could; these never for amazing storylines, but if they're clearly just entertaining, one-time adventures and treated as such, they're fun enough at their best.
     
    Building off of that point, the story was once again somewhat predictable and frustrating in its predictableness. Most frustrating of all is that now it appears they're trying to make Human Twilight the main character of this series, and after "Rainbow Rocks," that just feels like a disservice to Sunset Shimmer. I was never opposed to a Human Twilight showing up, but why does the spotlight have to be on her? Oh sure, you could argue they were both main characters, but Sunset to me was clearly a deuteragonist to Twilight's protagonist. Sunset didn't have a problem, she was there to give advice and pep talks to Twilight, and while I like seeing how far she's come since the first film, I just wish she were the main focus still. I don't know who's making these choices on the writing for these, but I don't like them. It's not even that I don't sympathize with the problem that Twilight was facing, I actually really liked the idea of her fearing that Midnight Sparkle was a part of her still (the segments kind of reminded me of some of what Luna went through with the Tantabus), but I guess the reason it still feels like a disservice to Sunset is because, technically, Human Twilight is a character we've only known for two films now. She may have some characteristics similar to our Twilight, but she's a tad bit more shy (she sometimes has a Coco Pommel vibe to her), and sometimes has almost a Mary Sue vibe to her. Her nerdiness wasn't even able to be utilized that much here since, well, they were in the woods, not too many opportunities for a character like that to nerd out in a summer camp setting (which probably explains the many, many, MANY nerd jokes between her and Timber Spruce). Bottom line is I just really don't care for Human Twilight being the focus of these films; it felt after "Rainbow Rocks" (still the best of these films by a long shot) that the main character was going to become Sunset Shimmer and focus would be on her growing more and more, possibly to a point that she might one day, even if only temporarily, go back to Equestria. Now I really don't know what the direction's supposed to be. Maybe it'll turn back to Sunset after having Twilight get over some of her initial insecurities which we saw here, but I don't know.
     
    Speaking of Sunset, she was great, and every time she was onscreen only made me lament them making Twilight the main character even more. She's matured so much and really seems to be the leading voice among the HuMane 6 at this point, and there's an excitable inquisitiveness about her that I love to watch as well. When she realized there might be magic at the camp, she jumped right into to figuring out what was up in such an upbeat way, not very much like pony Twilight's bookish way of going about things; there's an energy to the way Sunset tries to figure out if Equestrian magic is affecting a place and she seems to always hope it might be used for good in some way. In many ways, we're probably getting to see what type of a student she was at her best under Celestia, and it's nice that she's not just a carbon copy of Twilight in that respect. You can see her old ambition there, except now of course it's being channeled for good. She also had the best solo of the movie which didn't hurt, and even opened up a few new character threads which, surprisingly for me, I'd like to see explored more in the future (more on that later). But yeah, while I loved everything from Sunset here, her appearance still left me disappointed in that it was clear we weren't supposed to think of her as the main character, but rather the deuteragonist. I can only hope that changes in future installments and that, like in "Rainbow Rocks," ol' Bacon Hair becomes the focus of the EQG-verse again.
     




     
     
     

    Goodness, that's a saucy look for a kid's movie! Er... not that I'm complaining... oh don't look at me like that, you know you're not complaining either!!!


     

    As I said earlier, the HuMane 6 had one of their better outings, similar to "Friendship Games." They weren't just an afterthought, but they still felt like cliche versions of their Equestrian counterparts. Like, it always seemed like all of them (except maybe Applejack who didn't say one thing about apples) had to get in a line that identified their most superficial character trait. Rarity in particular couldn't shut up about fashion in this one, and while I love Rarity (both the pony and human ones) it just felt forced here, probably because of the camp setting and this just not being a natural place for the types of things she was getting up to, like all-out fashion shows (I feel like even pony Rarity would call that a bit much and simply try to have some R&R while at summer camp). Now don't misunderstand, they were still plenty fun to watch and had some delightful gags (AJ and Rarity had some great chemistry as usual, Fluttershy had some funny gags with animals, and Pinkie had the best gag of the movie when Sunset saw what was going on in her mind), but again, as long as they're never the focus of these things, they'll probably just always come off as cardboard cutouts of their Equestrian versions. That's the nature of these movies, not much time for character growth in an ensemble like that except for the most basic of things. Still, no real harm, no real foul.
     




     
     
     

    Well, we always wondered, and now we know, for better or worse, just what she's thinking...


     

    As far as supporting characters go, let's start with both old supporting characters and background characters just to make things simpler. I thought Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna were a lot of fun to see (although sadly enough Celestia here had probably more lines, screen time, and an impact on events than Celestia in the show did in all of Season 6), and their bit about the sundial they helped make was especially funny. The background characters, given that there were far fewer than usual in these movies, made the most of their screen time, especially Bulk Biceps and Derpy who were just all over the place! And now let's get to the big surprise of this thing for me: Flash Sentry. Those of you who have read my reviews before on EQG know I hate this motherbucker with a passion, not because he's some "waifu-stealer," but because he's been a waste-of-space as a character who's contributed nothing at all to this series or justified his existence.
     
    Well... I can't believe I'm saying this, but for the first time ever, I... didn't mind Flash. Don't get me wrong, he still didn't actually do much in the story itself, but he DID actually feel like a real character for once. Firstly, SOMEBODY at DHX clearly gave the writers on EQG this message:
     




     

    Yes, I am pretty sure that they are officially killing off FlashLight from EQG and THANK THE LORD!!! Besides the fact that, as Sunset pointed out, Flash and Twilight really won't see each other most of the time, it always had a creepy vibe to it. Like, Flash is aware that this is someone who is a pony most of the time, and he still had the hots for her... and look, I know that SunFlash or whatever you call their ship might happen, but that's different, especially if Sunset chooses to live out her days in the human world. Anyways, the fact that we can lay that nonsense-ship to rest for good made me VERY happy and showed that DHX realized there really wasn't anything they could do with this ship besides having those two blush like idiots for the 5 minutes they were around each other, cause that's such a "fulfilling" relationship. The other thing that worked was really the two conversations Flash had with Sunset. They were actually two of the best moments in the whole film (mostly because so much focus was on Sunset in them), but it was really the first time that Flash came off as an actual character and not some "laid-back, cool highschooler" stereotype like he always has. The fact that he didn't have his stupid jacket on or a guitar anywhere in sight probably helped, but yeah, Flash was surprisingly subdued and shared as much with Sunset, and even seemed lonely realizing that Twilight and him probably wouldn't work out and he had no real reason to try to do the same with HuMan Twilight. I actually find myself interested if those two (Sunset and Flash) will eventually become a thing again, and just the fact that he showed renewed interest in her was an oddly fascinating character trait. Sunset didn't show much interest here, but this is clearly probably not the last we've seen of these two, and dear Lord, if he can actually become a real character for once, more and more, then ship away, DHX, ship away!!!
     
    Speaking of ships, let's get into the two new characters, Timber Spruce and Gloriosa Day. Timber Spruce... ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. That's really all I have to say. My nickname for him is "Diet Flash" because really, he came off as the diet version of Flash in the first three films, less infuriating, but also less helpful. Aside from some exposition he really didn't do anything, and I was NOT feeling that ship between him and Twilight. Sure they had a cute moment here and there but I couldn't figure out the guy's age and that kinda freaked me out; he struck me as more of a college age guy than high school (I mean come on, he's running a business with his sister WITHOUT their... presumably dead parents, I suppose), and if that's the case, that's kinda creepy. Besides that, yeah, he just left me feeling nothing but "mehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" every time he was onscreen, so I really have no care for this ship if it becomes a thing.
     




     
     
     

    BEHOLD! Diet Flash Sentry!!!


     

    Gloriosa Day was... the second best villain of this series, but that's not saying much. It's not hard to beat out Principal Cinch (easily the worst MLP villain ever, whose most evil, dangerous actions were a result of stupidity and nothing else) and EQG 1 Sunset Shimmer (whose plan to take over Equestria was still laughably bad), and really all Gloriosa was was a well-intentioned villain who got carried away by a power she couldn't control (all too similar to what happened to Human Twilight in "Friendship Games"). She only showed up for about 10 minutes and was laughably easy to beat at the end, plus her defeat could only be so satisfying given that she was sympathetic to begin with, unlike the deliciously, unapologetically evil Dazzlings whom you couldn't wait to see get their comeuppance. Again, she was harmless enough as a villain and her situation was sympathetic (although I wasn't crazy about Human Filthy Rich being a douche nozzle), but more than anything she just kind of underwhelmed, plus she had some pretty bad lines which were delivered somewhat forcefully at times. I DID kind of love the build-up to her going full villain, how she was just increasingly driving herself crazy by telling everyone with a smile on her face "I got this!" There were some hilarious moments along the way where she just looked ready to snap any moment and really that was her best character trait, the "older sibling who's burdened herself with too many responsibilities to handle alone" character arc. Overall, while she was barely OK as a villain, as a character overall she was perfectly fine (not that I expect to see more of her).
     




     
     
     

    Dear Lord, she looks like a Captain Planet villain!


     

    Some things came off as sheer nonsense, like the Gaia Everfree red-herring. Granted, it added an air of mystery to events, BUT the payoff when we learned what was really going on was more underwhelming than the red herring itself. It was just some Equestrian crystals with magic in them, nothing more, and honestly if some being called Gaia Everfree had been causing magical disruptions instead, that would've been more interesting. Granted it'll be interesting seeing in the future what the magical rift back at Canterlot High causes, but for this movie alone, the payoff to the mystery set up at the start just didn't really deliver. What DID deliver was the best running gag of the movie, the dock. HOLY CRAP, these poor bastards trying to fix this dock! No less than three times (if not more) did they try to fix this dock, and even with the help of magic, every time they did inevitably that bucker got destroyed! It was amazing, and the film went out on the perfect after-credits scene in which, once more, the dock got blown up, by Pinkie Pie no less! Actually that's probably my favorite after-credits scene of these movies yet, no set-up for the next one, just this hilarious scene that won't get brought up again. It kinda reminded me of the schwarma scene in Avengers in its randomness. Needless to say, that's how you do a running gag, and boy oh boy was it funny. Besides that, there was plenty of other funny bits, though they were just a tad limited by their setting in the range of jokes they could make.
     
    Musically this one was on oddball. It's probably the least or second least impressive of the EQG movies so far overall (only six songs and none of them except two particularly memorable), BUT strangely enough the best song of the movie was the opening credits one! I can't recall the last time that happened in ANYTHING I watched! "Legend of the Everfree (Intro)" is this incredibly fun, bouncy, country tune with a great beat and backed up by great ensemble vocals, piano, and what I believe was a banjo. It doesn't really slow down at any point (unusual given that intro songs in these films usually have far slower tempos), the lyrics don't even have much to do with the plot itself, and it's not even something the characters themselves are singing in the film, but it's just a great song with a great intro sequence and, boy oh boy, let me tell you, IT WILL GET STUCK IN YOUR HEAD AND YOU WILL BE HUMMING IT FOR HOURS!!!
     





     

    Of course the one down-side of the best song being your intro song is that none of the others after that point will be as good, and yeah, most of the others weren't that memorable besides this sweet solo from Sunset.
     





     
     
     
     
     

    Seriously, can she sing more? Please??? WHY AREN'T YOU THE MAIN CHARACTER OF THIS!?!??!


     

    And yeah, that's nice and all, and really nicely highlights what a leader she's become to these girls, but clearly nothing here really compares to the amazingness of "Rainbow Rocks" soundtrack overall (even if, again, that's the best intro song for any of these movies I've ever heard). But at the same time, it didn't ever feel like Daniel Ingram really NEEDED to throw in his best songs ever into this or as many as he could, so overall, even though most of the songs are just ho-hum and not that memorable, I can't really complain. The soundtrack's pretty much just what the movie needed, nothing more, nothing less.
     
    The animation continues to get nicer and nicer for these films, and I was particularly impressed with their handling of the outdoor environments since those are something we see increasingly less in the show itself (seriously, I can't recall the last time we had an episode largely set in the Everfree Forest). It was a pretty basic summer camp setting, but it worked, and some of the background characters were a ton of fun to watch. The gawdy outfits that we've come to expect in these climaxes (along with the by-now standard "semi-horse" transformations) were just... mehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I guess Sunset's last dress was pretty nice, but I've really never cared for these outfits and they seem to be purely there just to sell new doll-lines, and they're just so sparkly and blah, but whatever. It even feels at this point like the animators themselves are phoning in some of these designs just to give Hasbro something to put on new dolls, because they are SO glittery it's ridiculous! Now the ones at the concert were a bit nicer (like the aforementioned last dress Sunset wore), but the big-battle climax ones, not so much, those were a bit much.
     




     
     
     

    OK, I have to admit, this one I LOVED!!! Goodness me, can AJ please wear that in every scene of EQG from now on? Pretty please???


     

    All in all, this is a pretty standard outing for the EQG-verse at this point. My hope remains that at some point a new film here might reach the same level of awesome that "Rainbow Rocks," did, ideally by shifting focus back to Sunset Shimmer as the main character and having a strong villain again like the Dazzlings, but I can't say whether or not that will happen at any point. But for this, it is what it is; it was entertaining enough, didn't have anything infuriating in it (and honestly was better than "Friendship Games"), and is a fun sit for 75 minutes. Hardly the pinnacle of achievement for DHX, but not something that'll make you slam your head against the wall, and I am still thoroughly impressed that for the first time ever I actually kind of like Flash Sentry since he seemed to be an actual character for once. If you haven't checked "Legend of Everfree" out yet, I'd definitely recommend it if you have an hour and a half to kill some afternoon, it's a fun, lazy sit, nothing more, nothing less. That's all I got for you everypony, until next time, this is Batbrony signing off! I'm off!!! *cue dramatic exit*
     
    P.S. As a bonus, enjoy the amazing "Legend of Everfree Bloopers"
     





     
     
     

    Sunset: "Did... did Pinkie just ask me out???"


  8. Batbrony
    Good evening everypony! Well, another year, another season of MLP. As we've come to expect from the quality of this show, Season 6, like virtually every season of MLP G4, was simply delightful in every sense of the word, and a fun ride to take with all you bronies and pegasisters as always. It was also capped by a very good (though not perfect) season finale, bringing to a close a great season with many exciting developments in the show for the story, characters, and setting. It's set the stage for many new and exciting things to come, but to close this season out, let's take a look back at both the season finale and the season as a whole. Without further ado, this is my full review of Season 6 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, including my thoughts on "To Where and Back Again: Part 1 and Part 2." Enjoy!
     




     

    The Story
     
    Season 6 was very much, thematically, a natural continuation of Season 5 in story, world building, and character development. I described last season as having something of a relaxed feel to it because there wasn't necessarily a clear end goal throughout the season that we were heading to in the story; granted we knew Starlight was going to come back seeking revenge, BUT none of the characters knew that like in Season 4 when they were all trying to get the right components the whole season to open up the box bestowed upon them by the Tree of Harmony. Similarly, this season didn't have any clear end point it was heading to either, which again made for a more relaxed feel for the entire season similar to Seasons 1, 2, and 5; most episodes stood on their own while also being a part of a greater whole. The focus of the season, however, was pretty clear, and again a natural continuation of Season 5; Starlight Glimmer was probably the most important focus of the season, as well as (1) more world building and the addition of new characters, (2) more new character development for older characters like the Mane 6, Spike, and the CMC, very different from their earlier developments in that the lessons they learned were often clearly for the more mature characters they've grown into, and also usually involved major changes happening in their lives (i.e. Rainbow Dash becoming a Wonderbolt, Rarity expanding her business, Twilight continually becoming more comfortable as a princess, etc.), and (3) continued payoff in the story from more developments in earlier seasons (like Starlight's reformation, RD and Gilda making up, the Mane 6 discovering Daring Do is real, the CMC getting their cutie marks, etc.). There was definitely a sense this season as it went on that, going forward, the show is only going to continue to expand in its scope in a number of ways; more supporting characters are most likely going to play increasingly important roles in Season 7 after what happened this season, we may see character combinations we've never seen before, and Equestria and the lands around it will most likely be explored further as well. All in all, I really have no complaints with any of this. There was just the right balance of plenty of new things this season with that which we're by now more than familiar with and love about this show, and really I for one will have no complaints if they take that exact same blueprint for this season and apply it to Season 7. It gives the writers plenty of room for growth and development in the show while hardly abandoning anything we already love about it, and for any show this old at this point, it's kind of an ideal situation. MLP's base is more than already established, and there's tons of canon for the setting, story, and characters, so now the creators get to take advantage of that by utilizing a nice, healthy balance of both new and old elements in fun, creative ways. I can't wait to see more, but for now, here are my Top 3 plot developments of Season 6, each wonderful in its own special way!
     
    Top 3 Plot Developments:
     
    (1) Main Cast Expands (possibly more than we even realize): In the long run, Season 6's biggest impact on the show will probably be the way it contributed to the show's world-building, but not just in a setting sense. After all, this is hardly the first season in which we've seen the show take us to new locations. Rather, the biggest area of world-building was character-driven, namely in how for the first time in a long time, it could be argued that the main cast expanded or has been set up to expand in ways we haven't seen since first introduced to the Mane 6 in Season 1. On the surface of course, we have obvious changes like Starlight Glimmer being a regular member of the main cast, or Spike having possibly his best season to date. But there were other changes that suggest greater expansions to the main cast may be on their way. Here's just a few for starters: (1) Trixie and Starlight are now best friends, (2) Spike befriended the first friendly Changeling on the show, Thorax, and Thorax in turn has become a part of pony society and, after the events of the finale, is now the new king of the reformed Changelings, (3) Discord interacted in a far more normal manner (for him, at least) with ponies that aren't Fluttershy, and (4) the CMC now have a griffon in their ranks, Gabby. After the events of the finale, it is not a far cry to believe that many of these changes may have more permanent effects on the show; Trixie, Discord, and Thorax, along with Starlight as their leader, all participated in a nation-saving event, and with Thorax's new position as well it's very likely we may see these characters (maybe not Discord, but certainly the other three) as featuring characters in episodes next season. The Cutie Map will most likely continue to be a thing, but who's to say that new combinations of characters couldn't happen? Perhaps Trixie and Twilight will set out on an adventure in which they finally make up with each other as well, or Starlight will accompany a member of the Mane 6 on one, who knows? Perhaps Spike will embark on an adventure with Thorax, or Discord will do more with Big Mac and Spike next season. Finally, there is a great potential that we will get more episodes like the delightfully surprising "Where the Apple Lies" which will provide more backstory for the Mane 6, and giving us a look at both these characters in their youth and Equestria at a different time than the present-day setting. In many ways, this season overall, while ultimately revolving around Starlight, also laid the foundation for more changes truly coming to fruition next season, and I can't wait to see where Season 7 goes as a result of everything that happened this season.
     
    (2) Cutie Mark Map Still Matters: on the surface this might not seem like much since only about three episodes dealt with it, but this was a nice bit of continuity from last season that I'm glad they stuck with. It showed that the Mane 6's greater existential mission (especially Princess Twilight's), if you will, remains latched to the Cutie Map itself and that it wasn't just a one-season fad, and in many ways continued to utilize this plot device even better than last season did. Character-pairings like Rarity and Pinkie Pie, Twilight and Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy and Applejack worked wonderfully, and as I alluded to in my last point, it's possible that we may see different character combinations that go beyond the Mane 6 next season in regards to the Cutie Mark Map, even though other characters were not Element Bearers. But overall, I'd say the best part about this remains the continuity aspect; MLP has a chronology at this point, things that happen in the plot matter and create permanent changes to the entire setting, and few things highlighted this better than the Cutie Mark Map's return this season.
     
    (3) Cutie Mark Crusaders New Mission: after the HUGE development last season that was the CMC finally getting their cutie marks, many long time viewers feared that the transition to their lives after getting them would be rough, from a writing perspective that is. Thankfully, these fears were laid to rest as the CMC have swiftly embarked on a new mission of trying to help others find their purpose in life while trying new pursuits of their own as well. What this means for their later professional careers isn't exactly clear yet, but like the Mane 6, they too have an existential mission of their own connected to their cutie marks, and this was most wonderfully encapsulated when they befriended their new friend Gabby the griffon and helped her "find her cutie mark" in discovering that she too was great at helping others just like they are. It was nice too that, in the "The Cart Before the Ponies" episode we had a CMC episode that didn't revolve around this purpose, since as always, slice of life episodes in general in this show don't have to revolve around the greater plot changes or character developments. I look forward to seeing them more in Season 7 (possibly older versions at long last considering the VAs, especially Michelle Creber and Claire Corlett, continue to get older), and hopefully the CMC itself continues to expand.
     
    Honorable Mentions
     
    Mane 6 Life Goals: This is a small but important point, since it ties into what I said earlier about continuity in this show. As the show has continued, one of the best ways we've seen continuity is in characters, particularly the Mane 6, achieving dreams they've had since Season 1. In Season 6's case, this was most apparent with Rarity and Rainbow Dash. Rarity opened up yet another clothing store, this time in Manehattan (bringing her total stores to three at this point), a plot point which was handled in a couple of episodes. Likewise, Rainbow Dash finally achieved her life's dream of becoming a Wonderbolt, and while the episode in question in which this happened may have disappointed some, the significance of the development itself cannot be denied, and having seen her since then as a Wonderbolt, it is clear that this is not changing any time soon. Major developments like this are always great to see, and hopefully we see more next season.
     
    A Royal Filly is Born: Aside from the season opener, this too didn't have huge effect on the show, but nonetheless we finally got a solid payoff from the news in Season 5 that Cadance and Shining Armor were expecting a child. Right at the start we got just that and got to meet Flurry Heart, and while she cannot yet speak (though I must say that Tabitha St. Germain's baby-noises are hilarious and adorable) and some people thought that her design and initial power levels were a bit ridiculous, all around she's been quite lovable so far and just the fact that two major characters in the show had a child should be commended. What they do with her in the future is anypony's guess, but for now I'm quite pleased with how Flurry Heart's turned out so far.
     




     
     
     

    Hmmmmmmm... yeah, I could buy that's how it went


     

    Top 3 Worst Episodes
     
    This season was very much like Season 5 in that, for most episodes, there were none that I straight up didn't like as a whole so much as simply had very problematic elements to them. In Season 6's case, the most problematic episodes either bucked up their premise or had flawed premises to begin with, as we shall see. Another recurring problem was episodes which felt like they belonged in earlier seasons, not Season 6.
     
    (1) "28 Pranks Later": This was undoubtedly my least favorite episode of the season, and the shame of it is that it bucked up a good premise. When I heard the episode title, the idea of a ponies-zombies crossover was DELICIOUS to think about. Unfortunately, it left much to be desired in execution. It was basically "The Mysterious Mare Do Well" lesson for Rainbow Dash all over again (this time about taking pranking too far instead of bragging too far) for starters, and therein lies the problem. I know some people have their problems with the Mare Do Well episode (I am not one of them), BUT that lesson at least fit Season 2; RD was undoubtedly more immature at that time and prone to brag about her feats. But a problem with taking pranking too far in Season 6? It just felt too OOC for RD at this point, especially when she made Fluttershy cry at the very beginning of the episode, a pony she should know not to prank at this point in the show. Besides that, the zombie crossover also underwhelmed; no matter what problems anyone may have with "The Mysterious Mare Do Well," no one can deny that the comic book aspects and shout-outs in that episode are delicious and do not disappoint in the slightest. Here, the zombie aspects did. For one, the title was misleading; it's a send-up to "28 Days Later," which would make one think that the zombie crossover might in some way resemble the terrifying zombies in that film, but instead the only zombie aspects were all "Night of the Living Dead" ones. On top of that, the way they were "zombified" was kind of lame and just not that funny; it felt like a joke more designed for younger kids than kids and adults alike, and given that zombies are such a beloved part of today's pop culture, that was especially disappointing. Overall, this is the only one of the bad episodes this season that was through-and-through more bad than good.
     
    (2) "P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View)": While the execution of this episode was very good and it also had a unique premise, it had one very major flaw: it suggested that this spat between AJ, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity could actually end their friendship. These are friendships that have lasted and developed for years by now, so the idea that something as small as their dispute here over a bad vacation could end it was simply ridiculous and something befitting Season 1 at best. Its presence in Season 6 was confusing to say the least, and again, while the episode itself was executed very nicely, the conflict simply doesn't work by virtue of when the episode was taking place. There is no way that this spat should have gotten that out of control at this point, and in Season 6, I can't ignore that as a problem with this episode.
     
    (3) "The Cart Before the Ponies": This episode's biggest flaw is very similar to "P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View)"'s, just to a lesser extent. Whereas in "P.P.O.V." the flawed premise was very hard to ignore despite good execution of the episode, in "The Cart Before the Ponies" the flawed premise was obvious but easy to ignore because of the good execution of the episode. The flaw is that the episode required three Mane 6 characters, RD, Rarity, and AJ, to act far more stupid, ignorant, immature, and selfish than any of them should reasonably be expected to (with their sisters/sister figure no less) at this point in the show in order to teach the lesson in the first place, that is, the younger characters teaching the older ones a lesson. This is not the first time any show has had an episode like this, but as I said in my original review, while this flaw was obvious, it was very easy to ignore because the episode itself was wonderfully handled. The flaw itself is still too obvious to ignore, but for the episode as a whole, it mostly doesn't matter, aside from still being an episode which would work better in Season 1 or Season 2.
     
    The Characters
     
    The Mane 6
     
    Twilight: This season largely saw Twilight in one of two roles, (1) as Starlight's primary mentor figure, and (2) supporting character, usually a calming voice of reason. Both of these roles make sense in her longer, ongoing character arc given that she's been the Princess of Friendship for three seasons now and has a protege of her own, similar to how Celestia mentored her in her younger years. While she was not the primary focus of this season, Twilight very much shined in this regard in that it's wonderful to really see her now no longer doubting herself as the Princess of Friendship and just very comfortable in the role. She hosts events at her castle and clearly treats it more like home, she's great at giving advice to her friends without fixing their problems for them, but rather guiding them as they figure out how to fix them themselves, and she just seemed for the most part to be very calm and levelheaded the whole season (aside from the occasional flashes of her losing her cool if situations got particularly crazy). While I expect Twilight will always be the main character of the show and may have a little more of the spotlight next season, overall she was great this season and I very much enjoyed this new, more mature side of her and hope to see more of it next season.
     
    Applejack: Applejack had a very strong slice-of-life season without really any appearance in an earth-shattering or heartstring tugging episode. In fact, her strongest episode of the season oddly enough was one largely about backstory on her, "Where the Apple Lies." But there's nothing wrong with the kind of season she had, not at all. While I always love getting emotionally powerful Applejack episodes, it felt fine that we didn't get any this season, probably because the most emotionally powerful moments seemed to be largely reserved for Spike or Starlight. Plus it served as a nice reminder that at the end of the day, Applejack's about as down-to-earth a member of the Mane 6 as you can ask for. While she was in two of the "worst" episodes of the season, AJ herself was always a pleasure to watch and had some great pairings in episodes with RD, Fluttershy, and Rarity/Pinkie Pie. I myself was particularly pleased that we finally got a solid AJ/Fluttershy episode in "Viva Las Pegasus," which made up for the incredibly disappointing "Bats!" episode of Season 4, in which AJ was entirely depicted in the wrong the entire time while Fluttershy was totally in the right, when really the conflict was far less black-and-white than as depicted. Here, we got to see them work with each other wonderfully. Their similarities and differences were on full display and used to the episode's advantage, even when they had a spat which led them looking for different friendship problems altogether, and it was just nice to finally see that pair of two of the most down-to-earth of the Mane 6 work. Overall, while this was hardly AJ's best season to date, it was a very strong one, particularly in the second half of the season, and as always I look forward to seeing more of our favorite apple farming pony next season, and possibly finally learning more about what happened to her parents (there were definitely some interesting implications raised by "Where the Apple Lies," even if they weren't addressed in the episode).
     
    Rarity: Rarity had a very similar season as Applejack (in fact, you're going to see this a lot with most of the Mane 6 since, again, the main group was not really at any point the major focus of Season 6, despite featuring in plenty of it). Lots of feature roles in slice-of-life episodes, when she wasn't doing that a lot of supporting roles of varying importance. Strangely enough, in two of her episodes in which she was in a leading role, Rarity was paired up with Pinkie Pie. This was both an unusual pairing in the show in general, but made even more strange by the fact that it happened twice. It surprisingly worked quite well in that, like Fluttershy and AJ, Rarity and Pinkie Pie are a pair with as many similarities as they have differences. They're both very outgoing and energetic, even having a common flair for the dramatic, but obviously Pinkie Pie is a bit more impulsive in contrast to Rarity's more measured approaches to situations. Point is, it was a good pairing and fun to see it show up not just once but twice (the addition of Maud in one of the episodes was appreciated as well). The closest to any sort of emotional arc Rarity had was her setting up her new business in Manehattan, obviously a major point of pride for her even if it's more of a character arc than really heavy emotional moment for her, but that was very nice to see all the same. I also particularly liked "Applejack's Day Off," it was just nice seeing Rarity look out for AJ like that and trying to get her to relax a bit more (even if I would've liked to see a bit more emphasis on the relaxing). Though I do have to admit that this season could've done with a bit more RariJack moments, that's still my favorite pair of friends in the Mane 6, and while "Applejack's Day Off" was perfectly fine, it has been too long since we had a really strong, powerful RariJack episode and I'd like to possibly see one next season. Besides that, Rarity was her generous self as always with new and old friends, Tabitha St. Germain delivered some delightfully entertaining performances as our favorite pony fashionista, and all in all she had a solid Season 6, what more could you want?
     
    Fluttershy: Very interestingly, I would argue that along with Twilight, Fluttershy had the strongest season of any member of the Mane 6, for very similar reasons. While Twilight got to show off how comfortable she now is in the role of Princess of Friendship, Fluttershy was afforded many opportunities, both in starring and supporting roles, to show off how much she too has grown as a character. Sometimes this came across in little ways, like her interaction with Discord at the start of "Dungeons and Discords" where she very much illustrated how well she understands Discord at this point and how to influence his decision-making in her own, Fluttershy kind of way. But it was probably best highlighted in her strongest appearance of the season in the episode "Flutter Brutter." That episode was a perfect illustration of how far Fluttershy has come since Season 1; in it, we got to see that she has longstanding frustrations with her little brother's behavior going back to their childhood. Her parents shared her frustrations and yet they had a very timid demeanor similar to her old one, which explained a lot about her. Yet it was only now that Fluttershy was willing and able to take charge and do something about it, giving her little brother a dose of some much-needed tough love. This was quite clearly a result of how much Fluttershy has learned to stand up for herself since Season 1, and it was a delight to see her being so firm and assertive at this point. Of course she was still her lovable, gentle self for plenty of the season, and her timidity came through plenty of times too (sometimes in good ways such as in "Buckball Season," where she was quite adorable, sometimes not so well, like in "28 Pranks Later," though to be fair the problem there wasn't that Fluttershy got scared, but rather that Rainbow Dash was pranking her in the first place). Episodes like "Viva Las Pegasus" mixed things up nicely for her as well, and overall, like I said, Fluttershy's season was both surprisingly strong and varied, both unusual for a character like her, but I'm very happy with how things turned out for her. Here's hoping she has just as good of a season next season.
     
    Rainbow Dash: Rainbow Dash had a surprisingly polarizing season, probably more so than any of the other Mane 6. That's not even to say that she had some of her worst appearances ever, just that some of the more problematic episodes involved her. Her finally joining the Wonderbolts is a perfect example of this; the development itself is huge, considering it's been RD's life goal since the show began, and it appears that it will rightfully be permanent and should have a major impact on RD's life as a whole. That said, as especially RD fans will attest, her actually joining them could have been handled better, namely in how the writers handled the idea of her being hazed as part of her "initiation" into the Wonderbolts by the rest of them. More than anything, it seemed needless and unnecessary, especially for such an important moment in her life. "28 Pranks Later," the worst episode of the season, was the other major example of a polarizing RD episode; on the one hand the premise was interesting, but on the other the execution left much to be desired and RD exhibited behavior I'd expect out of her in Season 1 or Season 2, not Season 6. That said, she had some great appearances as well. She was phenomenal (as were the rest of the Mane 6) in "Saddle Row Review," she had great supporting appearances (unusual for her considering RD is so good at being the center of attention so often) in episodes like "Applejack's Day Off" and "Flutter Brutter," and she had phenomenal starring appearances in "Stranger Than Fan Fiction," "Buckball Season," and "Top Bolt" (the latter was probably her best episode of the season, that or "Stranger Than Fan Fiction"). So again, despite some weak episodes, it would be wrong to say this was RD's worst season. Far from it, when she was depicted well, she REALLY was, and we got to see some of the best we ever have from Rainbow Dash, very much exhibiting just how far she has come and matured since Season 1. Combine that with the massive importance of her finally becoming a Wonderbolt, and overall Rainbow Dash had a very solid season, and certainly some very strong starring appearances (even a rare solo-outing in "Stranger Than Fan Fiction" in which she was really the only Mane 6 member involved).
     
    Pinkie Pie: Every season it seems like there is one member of the Mane 6 who doesn't get QUITE as much attention or solo-appearances as the others. This season, it was Pinkie Pie, which isn't the worst thing in the world and actually kind of makes sense and works. When you think about it, Pinkie Pie had only two real starring appearances in Season 6 (in "The Gift of the Maud Pie" and "Spice Up Your Life"), and three sort-of feature roles in "The Saddle Row Review," "28 Pranks Later," and "Buckball Season." Besides that? Lots, and lots, and lots, and lots of SUPPORTING APPEARANCES. This works for Pinkie Pie, however, because she's such an energetic character that even when she's in a supporting role, she can easily manage to leave a major impression on viewers because, more than likely she'll do something outrageous. What's interesting about her true starring appearances is that both of them were alongside Rarity; I commented earlier that this is an unusual pair in the show but it actually worked quite well in both instances. Still, Pinkie probably showed up less this season than she has in awhile, and in many ways I don't quite mind that. With a character like her, it's easy to fall into the trap of leaning on her as a crutch, namely for quick comedy or random bits. There have been times in the show where it's felt like she's just there to be the funny one or say something silly. So while her absence at times was a bit unusual or noticeable, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing; still, I would like to see a few more starring appearances for Pinkie next season, especially more involving her family besides Maud. Overall, however, I'd say Pinkie had a perfectly fine Season 6; nothing particularly major happened in developing her character, but she was the same old, lovable Pinkie that she's always been.
     




     

    Spike: oh boy, now THIS guy, this guy had himself a season! While as I said before Starlight Glimmer was most definitely the main character of Season 6, our lovable baby dragon, Spike, had himself his best season ever. By extension, this means that Spike had the best Season 6 out of all main characters who have been a part of the show since Season 1, and that's damn impressive! From the season opener, I think we had a really good feeling about how Spike's season was gonna turn out; he played a great supporting role there as an adviser and confidant for Starlight and really showed how much he'd grown over the years. But it just got SO MUCH BETTER from there. Spike was the star of easily two of the best episodes of the season, "Gauntlet of Fire" and "The Times They Are a Changeling." The former had one of the best new characters of the show (and dragon-lord waifu) Princess/Dragon Lord Ember and featured Spike just being an all around BAMF, while the latter was probably the emotional high-point of the season, showing Spike channel many unspoken emotions of his own, most likely stemming from his own dragon-heritage and adopted status, in convincing his pony friends to give a kind Changeling a chance (and getting his first solo song ever to boot). Besides that he also starred in one of the funnier episodes of Season 6, "Dungeons and Discord," and had some great appearances in supporting roles as well. Overall, I don't see how anyone could dispute that this was Spike the Dragon's best season ever, hands down, and all I can say is that it's going to be near impossible for them to top this season for him next season.
     




     
     
     
     
     

    Spike, in his finest moment, in his finest season


     

    Starlight Glimmer: Our newest main character also happened to be the primary focus of Season 6, which was very pleasant to see. In many ways, many of Starlight's episodes felt like we were focused on a Season 1 character placed in a Season 6 setting, and while that could've been bad, it largely worked wonderfully the whole season. Seeing Starlight overcome her own misgivings and insecurities about herself and her ability to befriend ponies outside of the Mane 6 was a very compelling arc to follow from the opening of the season to the end when Starlight finally realized she can be not just a great friend but also a great leader in her own right, if only she believes in herself and sets her mind to it. All of her major developments across the season were great as well, namely because they were unique in their own ways; she first (1) made up with her childhood friend Sunburst, and in the process helped save the Crystal Empire, (2) made her first friend all on her own, her new BFF Trixie, thereby helping Twilight as well patch things up with her old S1 antagonist (though I would argue Twilight and Trixie might still have some ways to go), (3) she then learned how to truly appreciate a pony holiday, Hearth's Warming Eve, which she didn't really think was that meaningful, which makes sense for someone who has spent most of her life distancing herself from the things most ponies care about, (4) she was confronted (in a small supporting role, no less) with the challenge to accept a Changeling as a friend, and in the process clearly reminded of her own past mistakes and the ways she had been forgiven by so many ponies for them, (5) she bucked up majorly when trying to once again take a shortcut in learning friendship lessons, relying on her raw talent in magic to solve her problems and in the process learning that she was actually making things much harder on herself than she needed to, and (6) finally closed the season helping to save all of Equestria from Queen Chrysalis, in the process learning that she is both a great friend and a great leader and shouldn't fear being herself or realizing her potential to the best of her ability. So yeah, needless to say, this mare was rather busy this season and went through some great character arcs time and time again, even sometimes when she wasn't a main character in an episode. I will say that the one strange quality of Starlight's presence this season was that in some episodes it was like she wasn't even around town, which felt odd at times, but that's literally my biggest complaint about her this season. Overall, Starlight really proved herself as a main character this season and made me for one look forward to seeing more of her next season in hopefully many more episodes to come. Can't wait to see what's next for ya, Starlight!
     




     
     
     
     
     

    I won't lie, these two are kind of adorable BFFs together


     

    CMC: I pretty much covered most of the major developments with the CMC already in my earlier point about how strong their arc was this season, so I won't repeat myself very much here. As characters, I thought this was one of their better CMC-as-a-group seasons; the downside is that the only CMC episode that was really focused on any of them individually was "On Your Marks" and sort-of "Where The Apple Lies" (in both cases Apple Bloom, though AJ's the real focus of the latter episode), but it was nice to see how close they were all functioning for the most part this season now that they've figured out what they're supposed to do after getting their cutie marks. I do hope we get one or two more episodes that focus on individual CMC next season (especially Sweetie Belle or Scootaloo since I think there may be more potential to change things up with them than with Apple Bloom), and some signs of aging among them might be nice as well (especially since Michelle Creber and Claire Corlett are clearly aging and it's starting to get far harder, if not impossibly, for them to do voices at the same pitch as they have for Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle). Plus I'd really love to see more from CMC members who have joined them over the last few seasons, like Babs or Gabby the Griffon. But overall, they had a really good season, especially coming off the emotional climax of getting their cutie marks last season. Can't wait to see more of these girls and hopefully they continue adding more members to the CMC and helping ponies discover their purpose.
     




     
     
     
     
     

    Ah, same old lovable CMC- WAIT! Hmmmmmmmmm... one of these things is not like the other, but I can't quite put my finger on what it is...


     

    Supporting Characters: Season 6 was a strange season as far as supporting characters go, for really only one big reason which I'll highlight at the end of this section. On the whole, it was largely fine. First of all we had some really great new supporting characters added all season long, and I would argue it was stronger in that department than even Season 5 was. Let's list 'em just to illustrate this point: there was (1) Sunburst in the season opener, (2) Princess/Dragon Lord/Dragon Waifu Ember in "Gauntlet of Fire," (3) Coriander Cumin and Saffron Masala in "Spice Up Your Life," (4) Quibble Pants (voiced spectacularly by Patton Oswalt) in "Stranger Than Fan Fiction," (5) Thorax, our first ever friendly Changeling, in "The Times They Are a Changeling," (6) the adorable Gabby the Griffon in "The Fault in Our Cutie Marks," (7) a whole bevvy of colorful characters in "Viva Las Pegasus," and (8) the adorable Vapor Trail in "Top Bolt." There were also some great returning appearances from old supporting characters, including Discord, Trixie, Flim and Flam, Snails (even I can't believe that one), Princess Cadance and Shining Armor (and their new bundle of joy in Princess Flurry Heart), Princess Luna, Maud, Cheerilee, Big Mac, and even Filthy Rich and Spoiled Rich had some notable appearances.
     




     
     
     
     
     

    Bow down to your new Dragon Waifu everypony! BOW I SAY!!!


     

    There were a couple of not so strong new supporting characters, like Zephyr Breeze and Sky Stinger (both of whom were extremely annoying to the point that I didn't even care that it was intentional it still made it hard for me to like them at all). These two didn't come close to being likable until about the last five minutes of both of their episodes, and boy did it make it hard to come around to them (though I did love seeing Fluttershy getting so assertive and mad at Zephyr, that was great). Some long time supporting characters also didn't feature too much; despite a couple of notable appearances Princess Luna largely was absent for most of the season, and Zecora didn't once make a major appearance. But now we come to the biggest disappointment of Season 6's supporting characters: PRINCESS CELESTIA.
     
    Oh me oh my, why can't poor Celly get any love on this show it seems? Between time and time again being incapable of actually solving a national crisis (a plot device that seems a bit tired at this point, I mean, it was ridiculously easy for the Changelings to capture both her and Princess Luna, buck, all of Equestria's royalty was bucking useless in that so I can only help that that was one bucking stealthy operation the Changelings launched) and just disappearing for stretches at a time, this character just can't catch a break these days. Let's not forget that there was a time in this show where pretty much EVERY MAJOR EVENT revolved around Celestia to some extent. She was the main catalyst in sending Twilight to Ponyville and getting her to regularly learn lessons of friendship and report them to her, she bucking made Twilight a princess for crying out loud, and she's supposed to be her dearest mentor, and a mentor and leader to all ponies. Needless to say, since the end of Season 4, that has not been the case and it is NOTICEABLE!!! This is a character who is simply too big in her importance to both the show's setting and main characters to be ignored the way she has the last two seasons by the writers without it coming off as ridiculous. SHE CONTROLS THE BUCKING SUN FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, AND YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT THE HIGH POINT OF HER SEASON WAS A GAG ABOUT HER BEING UNAMUSED IN "No Second Prances" IN WHICH SHE DIDN'T EVEN SAY A BUCKING WORD?!?! It's too much, at this point, it's simply too much. Many of us in the fandom have long been asking for more Celestia, going all the way back to the early seasons, but instead she just had her worst season ever and this NEEDS TO CHANGE!!! She needs an episode next season, to put it mildly, she simply does. Nicole Oliver for one is too good in this role to ignore, but back to the character herself, this is a character that deserves better! Princess Luna has rightfully had a character arc across all six of these seasons, Princess Cadance has even had a character arc and sometimes major appearances in episodes (even if she maybe hasn't ever faced a friendship problem, unless you count "The Times They Are a Changeling"), but Princess Celestia, the sole ruler of Equestria for 1000 years, STILL DOESN'T HAVE A SOLO EPISODE?!?!? BUCKING RIDICULOUS!!! Writers, at this point I'm just begging for anything, anything at all. A fun little slice-of-life episode, maybe about a day in the life of Celestia or a romp with some other character on some random adventure, more about her and Twilight's relationship, maybe a look into her own mind and what her own fears and insecurities are, SOMETHING, ANYTHING!!! But the show simply can't keep ignoring such a big character without it coming off as a major flaw, and until that changes, until Princess Celestia finally gets the proper attention she deserves in the show, even in just one episode focused on her as an actual main character, it will remain quite possibly the biggest long-standing flaw of the show, and it's a shame that a season that was so strong for the most part in its handling of new and old supporting characters was so marred by such a glaring absence.
     




     

    *sigh* Another season, another year of Celestia being largely forgotten by the show-writers... CURSES!!!


     
    Background Characters: Season 6 was a far more standard season for MLP background characters than Season 5 was, and really that's to be expected. I didn't think going in that we'd get an episode like "Slice of Life" last season. That said, there were still plenty of highlights. The Spa sisters, Aloe and Lotus, actually got a rather notable supporting appearance in the episode "Applejack's Day Off," Bulk Biceps did as well in "On Your Marks," lots of the mainstays like Vinyl, Octavia, Lyra, and Bon Bon had plenty of small appearances here and there, and of course Derpy unsurprisingly had probably the most notable and best appearances of any background character this season. Derpy had herself fun cameo after fun cameo, the best being in "No Second Prances," "A Hearth's Warming Tale," and "To Where and Back Again," and every time she was just her lovable, cute, hilariously adorable self. One of the more important developments with her also was that there were at least two times where she appeared with Dinky, possibly confirming that Dinky is her daughter (which has been popular fanon for a LONG time). I would still like in the future to maybe see some of the background characters feature in slice of life episodes, perhaps with the Mane 6 or other main characters helping them with their own friendship problems, and I certainly think there's a lot of potential with an idea like that, but I also understand it might not happen (although it certainly would be easier for the writers than having to keep coming up with new characters for slice of life episodes). I'd also love to see bat ponies/thestrals feature as a canon race beyond their only appearance in Season 2, but again, that may or may not happen, we'll just have to wait and see. Overall, while our background characters didn't have the wow-factor that they did last season, they still had a very, very good Season 6 overall and I can't wait to see more of them next season!
     




     

    Derpy Hooves: The true "star" of Season 6! Heh, see what I did there? Heh, heh, wink wink, nudge nudge!


     

    Aesthetic Quality
     
    Animation
     
    Animation as usual was simply gorgeous on the show, and as usual it was also harder than ever for DHX to really improve on their animation. They certainly did, it was just a little more difficult to figure out how this season. This year, they really seemed to experiment with pony body-types and facial expressions more; in the former category I would say they were largely successful, ponies like Coriander Cumin had very unusual designs for characters in this show and the body movements on him as well were great, he really felt like he was moving like a pony his size should be. Facial expressions, on the other hand, were a bit wonky this season; half the time they worked really well and some of the newer or more unusual expressions were really funny, OTHER times however it felt like a bit much. The biggest offender would definitely be Pinkie Pie this year, there were times where, no joke, they made her face so exaggerated that her head would suddenly become 3x larger than her body and she sometimes wore these absolutely bizarre expressions that seemed like they'd be even a bit much in a show like classic Looney Tunes. I get that they were experimenting, but it just felt out of place in a show like MLP; it's a cartoon, sure, but it's not a cartoon like Looney Tunes is (even for a physics-defying character like Pinkie), there are laws of physics here and the characters can't just distort their body like, say, the Animaniacs could. So hopefully they just dial it down just a tad next season. I'll leave a couple of the worst offenders below to show you what I mean by "excessive" facial expressions. Overall, however, the animation was stunning, the colors crisp and vibrant, and the movement flowed as beautifully as ever.
     
    Comedy
     
    Boy oh boy, was this season funny. Pretty much every episode, even the more serious ones, had laughs to offer, but with gems like "Saddle Row Review" (which was an absolutely fantastically put together episode), "Flutter Brutter," "Stranger Than Fan Fiction" (which was capped with a fantastic ad-lib credits-performance by Patton Oswalt), "Dungeons and Discords," and "Every Little Thing She Does," this was a funny, funny, FUNNY season! And really, the comedy played a big role in establishing the tone of this season; this was a heavily slice-of-life season, and that's indicative by the fact that really its main focus in the larger plot was on one character, Starlight Glimmer, more so than any other character. Ergo, the writers had a lot of room to throw in a lot more lighthearted episodes, and that was a lot of fun to see for sure. If there's a similar level of comedy next season, I will neither be surprised nor disappointed. MLP remains one of the funniest cartoon shows today, with a great blend of humor that both kids and adults can enjoy. What's not to love about that?
     
    Songs
     
    While Daniel Ingram remains great as ever, this was an odd season of songs for MLP. That's not to say the songs weren't enjoyable, but they were spaced out oddly. The season was mostly frontloaded with songs and, since a lot of those came in one episode ("A Hearth's Warming Tale"), only seven episodes of this season had any songs in them (12 total), compared to 16 songs in eight episodes of MLP last season (two episodes of which had multiple songs in them). The other strange thing about this season is that a couple of songs came out of nowhere and didn't leave much of an impression. "Can I Do It On My Own" in "Flutter Brutter" and "Derby Racers" in "The Cart Before the Ponies" are probably the two best examples of this, and while "Derby Racers" was a plenty pleasant tune, "Can I Do It On My Own" remains a puzzling song and about as underwhelming as a song in this show can be. It was downright bizarre that there was not a single song in the season opener OR the season finale, that is something we haven't seen in the show in awhile, and we didn't have a single song in the season after Episode 19! How weird is that?! But like I said, the songs themselves remained great for the most part, why wouldn't they, this is Daniel Ingram we're talking about? So with that out of the way, here's the best that Season 6 had to offer musically.
     
    Top 3 Season 6 Songs
     
    (1) Every Song in "A Hearth's Warming Tale": I'm cheating a bit on this one since this is not a single song but rather a collection of songs in a musical episode, BUT in my defense, each one of these songs compliments each other so perfectly that I couldn't imagine separating them, and the ways in which they compliment each other amplify them into the first position on this list for me. I would go so far as to argue that the full collection of songs in "A Hearth's Warming Tale" is the most impressive example of a musical episode in the show to date. Each song was effectively used to tell the story without ever feeling like anything was getting crammed in, and it made for one of the most impressively paced episodes in the entire show ever. Besides that, every single one of these songs were delightful in their own; "Hearth's Warming Eve is Here Once Again," was a fantastic opener and reprisal to close the episode out, "Say Goodbye to the Holiday" was a great villain song (can Starlight just please keep singing those, she's kinda great at them?), "The Seeds of the Past" was perfect for AJ and had a sad, sweet somber tone to it, "Pinkie's Present" was just the BEST holiday song Pinkie could ever sing, and "Luna's Future" had a weight to it that very much fit Luna's vocals. All in all, this was the finest musical achievement of Season 6 and Daniel Ingram and company should be damn proud of what they put together here, and I can't wait to see how they try to top it next season.
     





     

    (2) "A Changeling Can Change": While I could not name this the best musical achievement of the season, "A Changeling Can Change" was undeniably the emotional high point of any song in MLP this season, for a number of good reasons. First, it was Spike's first solo, something we've been waiting for for a LONG time in this show. Second, there was a lot going on here, with Spike just pouring his heart out for a friend he hadn't even met that long ago and was really risking a lot for here, just because it was the right thing to do. Third, it was based on John Lennon's "Imagine" which, while not my favorite song in the world, is undeniably a powerful song, and Ingram very much channeled its spirit here. While Spike's vocals aren't exactly the most musically amazing, there was a heavy sincerity to it all (helped by the fact that, I'm pretty sure Cathy Weseluck herself handled the vocals), and that just made it a song that stuck with you more than any other this season, emotionally at least. Not quite the amazingness that was "The Magic Inside" last season, but again, undeniably the emotional high point of any song this season.
     
    (3) "Find the Purpose in Your Life": This was, hands down, the best CMC song of the season, and while a part of that has to do with how pleasant it was, really it has more to do with what was going on. It was a great storytelling song in that it simultaneously showed how the CMC were becoming increasingly perplexed at how to help their new griffon friend Gabby, and at the same time it illustrated just how great Gabby is at helping others, hinting at what her special talent was. The combination of the CMC's group vocals with Gabby's own, plucky voice made for an all around pleasant experience and it was just a really, really lovely song.
     
    Honorable Mentions
     
    "Spice Up Your Life": This song gets an honorable mention mostly because it was a very fun musical experiment, especially instrumentally, on Ingram's part, with very East Asian/Indian background instrumentals. Not exactly high culture or anything, but it was cool seeing him futz around with something newer like that, and Rarity and Pinkie Pie's vocals very much helped. If anything holds it back, it's just the fact that it's clear in the course of such a fun song that both of these friends are on totally different pages and on their way to bucking things up, which is exactly what happens. Still, the song itself is very nice.
     
    "Derby Racers": This is really just a pleasant song and that's really the only reason I'm giving it an honorable mention. It really didn't need to even happen but, unlike "Can I Do It On My Own," I actually enjoyed this one, and really why not? You got the whole town of Ponyville singing along, a fun, bouncy tune, and cheerleader Cheerilee, what's not to like? But yeah, not a very impactful so it can't get too high of a rank, but a very pleasing tune and pleasant song to listen to all the same.
     




     

    Concluding Remarks
     
    In many ways, Season 6 was actually very much like Season 3. While it was nowhere near as thematically or philosophically ambitious as Season 5 was, it definitely felt like a lot of important things were being set up or established for future seasons this season. Just as Season 3 set up a ton for Seasons 4 and 5, this season saw a ton of new characters and settings added, new developments for Equestria, including political given how things ended up with the Changelings, and most importantly of all, at least one and possibly more characters added/possibly added to the main cast. For the first time in awhile, I really don't have any idea where the next season of MLP will go from here, but I like to think of that as a good thing. It's nice knowing there's still so many things they can do in this show and not knowing what DHX will come up with next. I for one can't wait to find out, so until Season 7 everypony, this is Batbrony signing off one last time. I'm off!!! *cue dramatic Season 6 exit*
  9. Batbrony
    So for those who haven't heard, Disney and Jon Favreau have confirmed that the latter has been pegged to direct a "live-action" (i.e. CGI) remake of their beloved 1994 classic, "The Lion King."
     



     
    OK... I have some thoughts...
     



     
    Sorry, needed to get that out of the way. Ahem, now that that's over, let me proceed to tell you all why this is a horrible, bad, terrible, no-good, rotten, dumb, asinine, and completely nonsensical idea. First, some background. For some years now Disney has been engaging in a rather lazy and obvious cash grab by remaking many of their past films, both classic and obscure, as live-action remakes. Their justification for this is that they are "updating" the stories for modern audiences. While the quality of these films varies, most of the ones they've released so far can be justified for a variety of reasons:
     
    (1) "Maleficent": while the movie itself ranges from bad to mediocre, the idea of focusing on the villain in retelling the story is a good one, it just wasn't executed well because Disney went for the easy "oh, the villain is just misunderstood and is really a tragic and good character" cliche, which especially doesn't work for a villain as unapologetically evil as Maleficent.
     
    (2) "Cinderella": again, while the film actually failed in some of the ways it tried to update the original (prominent Internet critics like Doug Walker have pointed out that Cinderella actually comes off as more incompetent and less in control of her life in the new one than in the original) it makes sense that a movie as old as this one, and a classic fairy tale no less, could get a modern retelling. However, that modern retelling already exists in the far superior "Ever After" starring Drew Barrymore. Still, the justification for making the film is there.
     
    (3) "The Jungle Book": it's weird even calling this a remake since all it remade was the Disney film from the 1960s, which has virtually nothing to do with Rudyard Kipling's far more interesting collection of stories. The biggest justification for remaking it is in having an actual child actor (and an Indian one no less) starring in it, and as a technological achievement it's pretty amazing. That said, most online critics I've watched who reviewed it have said that while it's perfectly harmless, it also felt completely unnecessary, and elements from the original that they tried to call back to were awkwardly shoehorned into that film (more on that later as it pertains to "The Lion King").
     
    (4) "Pete's Dragon": this movie was so obscure to begin with that no one in their right mind would even give a flying buck that it was being remade. The remake itself sounds like it's perfectly fine, and there's absolutely no surprise there considering it's not some beloved classic to begin with, hence the filmmakers probably had plenty of freedom to just make a perfectly original update. It got good reviews but very much underperformed compared to these other remakes, most likely because, again, who the buck was asking for a "Pete's Dragon" remake?
     
    Disney is also releasing and/or planning to have remakes for "Beauty and the Beast," "Mulan," "The Little Mermaid," "Peter Pan," "Tinker Bell" (not sure how that qualifies considering there's no original Tinker Bell movie besides "Peter Pan"), and most likely many more.
     
    Now that this quick overview is out of the way, let's get into why Disney may be pushing their luck with these remakes, and why "The Lion King" is the perfect example of a movie they should DEFINITELY not be making.
     
    (1) What does 'timeless' mean to Disney anymore?
     
    As you can see, with most of these films, Disney has justified them by saying that they "need" to be updated for modern audiences. Now none of these remakes needed to be made, BUT so far there has been nothing wrong in and of itself with the idea of remaking them (although Disney has most definitely exaggerated how many updates have been made, the importance of them, or how they've "enhanced" these stories). But now we're REALLY getting into the cream of the crop of Disney classics. To this point, the closest to classics that Disney has remade were Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, both of which, while certainly beloved, were both old, old films and also drawn from fairy tales themselves, hence there is plenty of room for retelling. Today, however, Disney's walking on thinner ice with some of these, namely in the proposition to remake their landmark titles from the Disney Renaissance which are barely over 20 years old.
     
    These movies, upon release, were hailed as instant classics: "The Little Mermaid," "Aladdin," "Beauty and the Beast," and "The Lion King." They're Disney at its finest doing what it does best, and people young and old hold them dearly today. But if they're so great (which Disney has no trouble proclaiming), then one has to ask, why remake them in the first place? If a movie's timeless, it's presumably perfectly fine as it is, with no need to change it. Thus, Disney can't simultaneously proclaim a movie a timeless classic while also going forward with remaking it; either the movie's not a timeless classic and thus in need of a remake, OR Disney is just lying to us in order to poorly justify remaking a movie that doesn't need a remake. The phrase "nothing is sacred" gets thrown around a bit too liberally sometime, but here it actually seems apt to use it; Disney is sacrificing the creative integrity of its studios (which are doing plenty fine as is with no need of these remakes) for the sake of making a few more dollars. Hardly surprising, but from a creative standpoint, deeply disappointing.
     
    (2) The new medium doesn't work for "The Lion King"
     
    Another element that has been key in Disney justifying these remakes is the idea of having live action, human characters thrown into these classic settings from animated movies. Even "The Jungle Book" was able to do this with Mowgli, even if the rest of that movie was all CGI. Again, this is a weak justification, but it at least somewhat justifies the new medium, to a certain extent.
     
    In the case of "The Lion King," however, the justification completely falls apart and we see how weak it really is for any of these remakes. Simply put, there are no human characters in "The Lion King." It's a very human story (heck, it's based off of Hamlet for crying out loud), BUT the setting is inhabited entirely by animals. Why did such a story work so well as an animated film in the first place? For very much the same reason "Bambi" works as a film as well; in both instances, the filmmakers utilized the strengths of their medium to their advantage. Animation allowed them to make the animal characters look very realistic while also giving them just enough human features to come across as characters with human mannerisms and emotions recognizable to human audiences. The animals make facial expressions that their real life counterparts cannot, and display an emotional spectrum that only humans possess. In animation, this is acceptable because it's a part of how one tells a story in that medium; people don't expect animation to perfectly reflect real life, but rather depict it's own set of characters in its own particular setting in its own particular way. This is also why in animation, you can have such a wide range of characters in film or television and still tell a story that audiences can latch onto; whether it's something as outrageous off the walls as Ren and Stimpy, as cheap looking as South Park, as massive as anime like Gurren Lagann, as small-scale as a show like Rugrats, or, yes, as seemingly naturalistic looking as Bambi or The Lion King, in all of these humans are able to accept the characters presented to them as characters somewhat like them because they understand that they inhabit an animated medium, where liberties can be taken with appearances and the laws of physics.
     
    The animated medium also allows for musical numbers to be seamlessly blended into the storytelling in a way that even the best live musicals/musical films can't do. One minute Simba and Nala can be talking to each other about ditching Zazu, the next minute they can be bursting into song with dozens of other animals that have really no reason to be singing with them, and we as an audience accept it because we know it's an animated setting, where something like that can just happen and then never be brought up ever again. In "The Lion King," the liberties afforded to the animated medium are on display in ways that many animated features do not capture. The anthropomorphism of the animals in that film is a very strange balance of naturalism with fantasy; they look for the most part like their real life counterparts, and they even exist in an ecology which reflects a real life savanna ecology, but at the same time, they display emotions, mannerisms, and facial expressions that only humans can, some look more cartoonish than others (like Timon and Pumbaa, Zazu, and the Hyenas), break out into song on occasion, and even have things happen like a lion cub getting raised by a warthog and a meerkat and growing up to live beside them. All of these elements were critical in telling the story that the makers of "The Lion King" had unfold in their film.
     
    Now then, having said all that, we must ask ourselves this very important question: can you do ALL of this in a CGI/live action medium which is supposed to depict the animals as realistically as possible? I for one do not believe that it's possible. Let's take a look at the film that will probably closely resemble this proposed Lion King remake the most, the 2016 Jungle Book.
     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noZF9Mh4y08

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUi5rquFiB8

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKkm2h8STrY

     
    Right away, there's a couple things one notices. Now, as far as CGI goes, this all looks gorgeous, no doubt. HOWEVER, if one is comparing it as a remake of an animated film populated by anthropomorphic animal characters, then it fails UTTERLY. How so? The expressions. ALL of the emotion conveyed by any of the animal characters here hinges ENTIRELY on the voice acting. There are a FEW things they can do with the mouths and the eyes, but not much; in making the animals look so much like their real life counterparts, they've sacrificed a major storytelling feature of the animated medium. The most interesting character to look at is Mowgli, since he's played by a real kid, and "The Lion King" won't even have a character like that. Thus, faces like the following will be entirely impossible for the remake to achieve.
     



     



     



     



     
    These are CLEARLY all facial expressions that animals do not make in real life, and thus in the remake, we shall lose a CRITICAL element of what made the characters in "The Lion King" come to life. All emotion will be purely conveyed through the voice acting or body movements, but NOT the faces! It doesn't help that character designs like Scar's won't even be possible; Scar is clearly very exaggerated and cartoonish in his appearance, which helps convey his status as villain. I anticipate that the live-action one by comparison will look far more dull and generic.
     
    In addition, you'll notice a rather jarring musical transition in the second clip with Mowgli and Baloo. The song "The Bare Necessities" just kind of... starts out of nowhere. The bad singing doesn't help, but more than anything it just comes across as completely awkward because you have no idea WHY they're even singing in the first place! This again shows a damning limitation of the CGI/live action medium, particularly when it comes to remaking films largely if not entirely populated by animals. Transitions to singing in live action are tricky things to handle no matter who the characters are; in musicals, the audience is just supposed to accept that it's a thing that happens, but even then they need to be led into because the characters themselves are the ones always breaking out into song. Animation, however, affords some flexibility, and "The Lion King" is a perfect example of this. There are two types of songs in that film: (1) songs which the characters sing in real time (i.e. "I Just Can't Wait To Be King," "Be Prepared," and "Hakuna Matata") and (2) songs which are sung off-screen or in the character's minds (i.e. "The Circle of Life" and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight"). Again, these work in the animation medium because they function as a part of telling the story in their own way.
     
    However, I have NO idea how this is supposed to work in a CGI/live action remake, ESPECIALLY for "The Lion King." If the animals LOOK as realistic as possible, then it is simply not possible for a song like "I Just Can't Wait To Be King" or "Be Prepared" to happen. ANIMALS DON'T DO THAT, hence it would simply be entirely bizarre for two lion cubs that looks like this-
     



     
    -to suddenly start singing in real time. They MAY be able to keep "The Circle of Life" and "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" since, again, those songs are sung offscreen, and I'm sure they'll find a way to shoehorn in "Hakuna Matata," but again, in a movie that is supposed to be entirely populated with as realistic looking animals as possible, making it a musical simply doesn't work!
     
    (3) What is there to add?
     
    This ties back into my question about timelessness earlier, but more specifically in the case of "The Lion King," what is there to add? If the film is as timeless as most people seem to think it is, what could Disney possibly add to it? Making it "live-action" clearly isn't something, because as I've already covered, this will most likely take more away from the film than it adds to it, namely so much of what made the original film work. There are storylines that got cut out of the film (some of which were added to the Broadway musical) which they could add, but these would not work for a family film. The most prominent I can think of is if they choose to expand Nala's part in the story (in a bid to say that they're "expanding the most important female character's role," and don't get me wrong, I love Nala, but that would be such a weak way to promote it) by adding in "The Madness of King Scar" scene. For those of you who don't know, this scene was originally shelved from the Lion King film but added to the Broadway musical; in it, King Scar's madness is on display as he basically attempts to seduce, and then nearly rapes, Nala, prompting her to flee the Pridelands in search of help. In the Broadway musical it works very effectively, namely because of the unique and beautiful way in which that story is told through a blend of live actors and GORGEOUS puppetry, but it was very wisely shelved from the film. Children would not understand such a scene and it might very well scare them to see such a thing as potential sexual violence depicted in a family film. Naturalistic looking animals, many of which at many points in "The Lion King" are chasing characters to either eat or kill them, will also look very unsettling to children; in an animated medium, they can look intimidating one moment but then the next second normal, hilarious, or even adorable. But again, as CGI/live action animals, there are only so many expressions they can give them, hence some of the perilous situations in the film may be too much for children to handle. The warmth and charm of the original will most certainly be updated, but in its place will be cold realism and naturalism; that doesn't exactly sound like a worthwhile update. So again, I am left asking myself, what is there to add to such a timeless classic as "The Lion King."
     
    In conclusion, let me just put it this way... this seems like a bad idea. I can't pretend to be unbiased; "The Lion King" is my all-time favorite Disney movie and holds a VERY special place in my heart. But these questions I raised don't just apply to "The Lion King"; many of them, I believe, are going to increasingly apply to more and more of these planned Disney remakes. Is every Disney remake a bad idea? Of course not! But some of them seem at best completely unnecessary, and in "The Lion King's" case we find a project which seems to have every potential to utterly fail as a remake to a movie that quite frankly didn't need it and surely won't be improved by making its characters look more realistic. Sometimes, timeless is just that, and doesn't need to be touched one bit. Let's hope a majority of audiences agree and decide not to reward Disney if this cycle of remakes starts to get out of hand.
     
    Feel free to leave your thoughts below, I'm interested in what everyone else has to say about this rotten news.
  10. Batbrony
    Let's state this off first and foremost: I DON'T CARE IF YOU LIKE OR DISLIKE THIS FILM! Like what you like, dislike what you dislike, it doesn't matter to me as everyone has their own tastes. That's not to say that things aren't objectively good or bad, but you're not a worse person even if you like something like some of Adam Sandler's worst fare. I might think you have poor taste, but it won't judge what I think of you as a person. So yeah, this is a no-flame war zone.
     
    So that out of the way, here's my review of Suicide Squad. I liked it a whole lot! I really did, I really really did. I came in wanting a fun time with a story that I figured wouldn't leave a huge impact on the DCEU, and that's what I got. Was it perfect? No, heck no, but I got what I wanted. A great cast having fun in some crazy roles which I would like to see more of in the future, along with some cool action, cool worldbuilding here and there, and a rocking soundtrack.
     
    Will Smith and Margot Robbie (as Deadshot and Harley Quinn, respectively) deserve the lions share of praise, though major props to Jai Courtney, I would really love to see more of his Captain Boomerang in the future. Viola Davis was PERFECT as Amanda Waller, she just WAS that character through and through and definitely did her homework. Killer Croc didn't talk much but he had a few good one-liners here and there and his character shouldn't talk much anyways, Killer Croc isn't smart and doesn't have many thought-provoking things to say. Katana could use more development for sure, but I think there's a good chance she could show up in something like a Birds of Prey movie. El Diablo was a cool character all in all and I really enjoyed his character arc, and Joel Kinnaman was solid as Rick Flagg, as was Cara Delevigne as Enchantress. I can't really judge Jared Leto's Joker at this point, I think people are gonna be split on the performance, but for me it felt like I was watching his audition for the role. I did leave wanting to see more of him, and I think if he has a better writer for his role (it felt like Ayer was afraid of giving him too much to do at risk that the Joker might steal attention from the other characters) in a far expanded role, say in a Batman-solo flick, that he'll really get to shine and polish his performance.
     
    The villain I would say was average, but I didn't need a great villain in this film, not when the film focuses on a team of villains already. I'd say she was on par with Ronan in Guardians of the Galaxy, he's not a very good villain either, but he works for that film's needs. The plot doesn't really matter, and there aren't really too many character arcs going on, but I didn't expect these villains to really redeem themselves or anything. And yeah, the editing was shoddy in many places but I was having so much fun that I didn't care. The action was very cool, particularly one of Deadshot's set-pieces and getting to see all these characters with these different powers and styles of fighting fighting alongside each other.
     
    After the film, I was chatting on Twitter with a good pal of mine who's a huge DC fan herself. The thing we both loved most is that this was definitely the first DCEU movie that felt like it was happening in a comic book world. There's this whole bevy of crazy characters who exist alongside each other, but the world just accepts that they exist, and I loved that. Magic is now canon in this universe, and not the Marvel tech-magic that they've developed in the MCU, actual, honest-to-gosh magic, which means things like JL Dark can happen! We finally have hope that the DCEU will start embracing the inherently fun-loving nature of comic books, and I think they're on their way to righting the DCEU ship. The mid-credits sequence was very good, and I can't wait for Wonder Woman and Justice League.
     
    'Suicide Squad' is a blast, but reviews are a dumpster fire of hyperbole
     
    Do I think this movie deserves to be criticized? Sure, it's hardly perfect, and definitely has flaws. But a Forbes review which I've posted above best explains what's going on right now with this film, particularly with critics. I don't think there's a conspiracy or anything, but it's biggest sin to the critics who just seem dead set on destroying Suicide Squad is really that it's not a Marvel film. Not because it's not distributed by Disney, but because the Marvel formula exists already. Heaven help your superhero film if it doesn't follow that formula these days, and with DC, that's impossible, their characters and world are different in nature from Marvel's. There is something unfair going on here, and I think while the fanboy backlash has been too much, many critics are taking an elitist attitude about this movie. They think that people who like it have poor taste, or that their opinion matters more than others. One of the weakest defenses I've heard this week from critics is that "they just want to make sure people don't see movies they shouldn't and would go see if they didn't speak up." That's a terribly elitist thing to say! People are more than capable of determining for themselves what they like on their own. If someone listens to your opinion or shares it, you should be thankful they took the time to listen and follow your advice. You shouldn't simply assume that your opinion matters more than others and that audiences are obligated to share your opinion. Does that mean people always go to movies they should? Of course not, plenty of films that are bad are successful at the box office. But it's up to people to decide what they want to see, and there is no obligation for someone not to buy a movie because the critics didn't dig it, because critics are just as likely to be wrong as they are right. We've seen plenty of times where critics take very forgiving attitudes to films either because of who is pushing out the films (Disney in particular has gotten some softball reviews this year, I mean, The Jungle Book remake getting 100%, Pete's Dragon getting over 80%, come on!), or because of who directed them. This is not always the case of course, but critics are just as human as the rest of us, their word and opinions are not gospel truth, and neither is mine. Also, I should say that I have some problems with the Rotten Tomatoes formula in general; for one, it can't take into account when one movie gets far more reviews than another (like 5 or 30 vs 200+), but for another, it seems odd to try to mathematically measure the merit of a film in such a manner. Film is art, and art is to some extent subjective in the nature of how it is received. So while it may seem natural trying to quantify the merit of a film, I am starting to realize just what a weird system that is, especially how RT does it, and increasingly find myself not buying it given that there's many variables RT can't take into account.
     
    I can't guarantee you'll like this film, I can just tell you what I thought. As a DC fan, I had fun and left hopeful for the DCEU going forward. Not even the critics can damper the blast I had here. If you don't like it, I understand if the editing is too bad for you or if it's just not a superhero movie you like. Everyone's different, but for me, this spells good things going forward and if DC can just continue to do more worldbuilding like they did here, we might get increasingly special projects going forward. We need a foundation for the DCEU, and this was the first very comic-booky foundation it's gotten, that alone made it worthwhile for me, and if it's just as fun and worthwhile for you, I'm happy for ya! I think you should check it out as soon as you can, maybe bring some friends, and look forward to what will probably be a good time for ya. Have a nice one ya'll, and hope this review helps.
  11. Batbrony
    Good afternoon ya'll, so sorry I didn't get this up earlier, been busy with the Ward Jenkins Q&A and some other Poniverse business. Anyways, welcome, welcome, welcome back to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews" and me oh my do we have a splendid episode to go over today!!! I really need to watch this episode again before I can determine whether or not I think it's the best of Season 6 so far, at least in my opinion, but I would say for sure that I definitely believe it to be the most exciting episode of the season so far. To put it into the appropriate perspective, longtime viewers like myself have been waiting for this episode, THE return of the Changelings in some capacity that actually affects the MLP setting and the Changelings' place in it, in a major way since the end of Season 2. This was a species that immediately grabbed our attention because of how unique they were in the setting, and to this day they have remained a fan favorite group, as evidenced by all the fan art and fan fiction centered around them. Today, we finally got that, and I have to say it did not disappoint in the least, in fact, it pretty much delivered as much as it could have. The only way it could have been any better were if it were a two-parter episode, but that was clearly not necessary here. Without further ado, this is "The Times They Are a Changeling," let's begin!
     



     

    "Oh, thank goodness it's Spike! For a second there we thought you were Carrot Top; man, that guy is the worst, not funny at all!"


     



     

    What? Seems legit, I'd ship it!


     



     

    Cadance, you... you do realize you can't use that as a test for ANYPONY ELSE right? Gosh, no wonder they were all freaking out, pony security against Changelings is apparently still crap!


     
    So let's start with our main character, Spike. Oh Spike, your character has developed so, so, SO very well at this point! Spike for way too long has been a character that the writers were inconsistent with, for good reason to be fair. He started out largely as a comic relief character; it wasn't mean-spirited comic relief, on the contrary it usually made sense since he's, well, a baby dragon with a different level of maturity. But given how long the show has been going, he obviously could not stay the same, and as early as Season 2 I would say the writers started playing around with how they could advance and develop. It was still hit and miss and that point, though plenty of highlights have come in Seasons 3, 4, and 5 for the lil' guy. Season 6, however, has probably been his most consistent season ever where it has been most evident that this is clearly no longer the same Spike as in earlier seasons. In fact, he's not even just another Mane 6 member; Spike has a very distinct understanding of friendship that is unique to himself, namely because of his dragon heritage. He is very much aware that he has (up until he met Princess Ember, that is) been one of a kind among his own kind, and in large part because, by a fluke of fate, he had the opportunity to grow up among ponies. What's normal for them couldn't be further from the norm for his kind, and he appreciates the opportunities he's been given and the friendship and love that has been extended to him his whole life. This has never been more apparent than in "The Times They Are a Changeling," even if his heritage did not ever once get directly addressed. We've seen already Spike's capacity, stemming I believe from his appreciation of the opportunities afforded to him, to give others a chance or second chances. This season alone, he has extended kindness and friendship to both Starlight Glimmer, being one of the first in Ponyville to really warm up to her and try to help her in her friendship lessons, and Princess Ember, giving in effect his entire species a second chance at changing for the better by helping Ember ascend to Dragon Lord but, more importantly, learn the value of friendship for herself and dragonkind.
     



     

    Yeah, I won't lie, I loved this gag


     
    This time around, however, saw Spike's bravest act of kindness and friendship yet in his entire character's arc through all six seasons. Neither befriending Starlight nor Ember ever risked Spike's place among ponies; Starlight had already been forgiven by most everypony, and with Ember the biggest risk involved was losing any support or chance at friendship among his own kind, not ponies. But in this episode, Spike risked A LOT. The fact that this took place in the Crystal Empire was very important for a couple of reasons. One, the place has a very good reason for being as paranoid as it was about Changelings; for starters, the Crystal Ponies have never had to deal with Changelings, at least to our knowledge, but to make matters worst, their rulers were the ponies most negatively affected by the Changelings the last time they attacked ponykind. So right off the bat you have two ingredients for a paranoid populace the second any news about Changelings crops up (doesn't help that the royal family had a newborn foal as well to worry about). Second, Spike's best reputation in all of Equestria is in the Crystal Empire; he's not just beloved there, he's a friggin' two-time national hero!!! There was a lot on the line for him in trying to befriend a Changeling and get others to do it, and his faltering in the second half of the episode makes a lot of sense. Who would be willing to risk as much personally as he did for a total stranger he just met who's a member of a reviled group? But in the end, he stepped up in what is easily his finest moment in the show yet, yes, even better than his saving the Crystal Empire, befriending Starlight Glimmer, and befriending Princess Ember. He didn't just apply the lessons he's learned his whole life, he used them to teach his own friends who needed some reminding about what makes them so special in the first place. Friendship and extending it to others isn't always supposed to be something that's easy or second-nature; it should be hard to do sometimes, as should be believing in others, especially when those others have either let you down in the past or been downright malevolent. In a beautiful conclusion for the episode and his own character, Spike reminded his friends and family that part of friendship and befriending others is having the capacity to have faith in others, even when you can't be sure if your faith will pay off. It's about taking risks, not just saying you'll be a friend to those you know you can count on, but being willing to befriend those you can't be sure about either but are willing to believe in. Everyone deserves a chance at friendship, a chance to prove their capacity to be good and kind and decent, and Spike reminded his friends how important that is and also that such an opportunity was afforded to him and a risk taken on him by virtue of ponies allowing him to grow up with them at all. A beautiful moment for his character, definitely the pinnacle of his development thus far in the entire show, and just all around a wonderfully done episode for the little guy, I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.
     



     
    Next, of course we have to discuss the new character Thorax, our first ever friendly Changeling! Voiced wonderfully by Kyle Rideout (a VA with not too many acting credits to his name), I feel like the writers came up with a great balance of fan head canon in developing this character and GREATLY expanding on the backstory for Changelings. In his origins, we saw that most Changelings are naturally inclined to a predatory nature, which fits about as many head canons as it doesn't, but works for me personally. At the same time, they conveyed that, as evidenced by Thorax, Changelings are capable of changing by nature, they aren't JUST born "evil," and if they're not just born that way, then, with presumably a lot of work, they could also possibly change as well (although I still hope this doesn't happen with Queen Chrysalis since I believe she has more autonomy than your average Changeling to start with, and did come across as genuinely evil and malevolent). So what we have is a happy balance of head canons; generally Changelings have been depicted as either entirely instinctive to an almost animalistic extent in fan work, OR conversely each is individual and unique in their own ways. I'm sure we'll continue to see this in fan work, but here we have a Changeling who is both instinctive (he had trouble controlling natural urges to predatorily react to the presence of love or kindness) but also a unique individual, a happy balance that I appreciate. In fact, it pretty much fits my own head canon on Changelings; I like the idea that they are capable of feeding off of love in a passive, non-predatory manner, simply by getting it from others who genuinely care about them, and giving it in return. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if we see the writers expand upon this idea in the future.
     



     

    This is... very oddly adorable


     



     

    Oh yeah, pretty sure she's still evil as ever


     
    Furthermore, Thorax in general was just super likable, and his plight very believable and sympathetic. This is a guy who's clearly been an outsider everywhere he's gone his whole life. He wasn't like any of his own kind, but he rightfully feared that ponies would never accept him either. Frankly, the fact that he survived this long is rather impressive, almost miraculous, and I anticipate that we're going to see some great fan fiction that does a great job of playing around with his backstory. The voice work on him was great, he didn't ever come off as a Gary Stu (the fact that he had natural urges he had to fight, and even reacted angrily at Spike's earlier dejection in the last third of the episode, definitely ensured that), and the animators and storyboard artists did a WONDERFUL job really conveying his emotions and what made him different from the rest of his kind in his body language. Ward Jenkins (who did storyboard art on this episode) mentioned earlier today that they had to be very expressive with his head/face and body in order to convey his emotions properly, because his eyes can't convey much emotion since Changelings don't have pupils like ponies do. I was very impressed with the job they did in that regard, and it never felt like the show was reaching either or being forced any time he got very emotional to the point of tears. It felt real, it felt earned, and this is how this type of character needed to be introduced. Definitely the best new character of the season thus far, exactly what the Changelings needed in order to advance them like this (and for that matter reintroduce them to the show in a serious manner), and just something I've waited to see for a long, long time in this show.
     



     

    I for one definitely believed moments like these, very well done if I do say so myself


     
    The final major element of this episode to cover was the latest song, "A Changeling Can Change." This was something we've been waiting for a long time by virtue of the fact that we've waited over five seasons for Spike to get a solo song. At this point, it had to be a song like this if it were ever gonna happen, it couldn't just be a fun song. It had to be something that hammered the message of the episode away, and on top of that it had to be a damn good message. Well, it was a damn good message in a damn good song in a damn great episode! Spike's vocals are hardly something to write home about, his voice alone ensures that, but that lends to the simple, quiet beauty of the song. The song isn't really beautiful because of the lyrics, or the tune, or the voice work; it's beautiful because it comes from such a deep place for Spike. He's never done this before, and I don't just mean sing a solo; he's never really tried to teach his friends a lesson like this before, ponies he's looked up to and learned from his entire life. On top of that, it was his way of repenting for his earlier failing his new friend, Thorax. And finally, the quiet nature of the song and Spike's impassioned pleas hammered away that this was coming from a very real, desperate, sincere place for him as a character. These elements combined to make a song that is beautiful, unusually so for this show, largely not because of the tune itself, but almost entirely because of the substance of the song and the character of the one singing it. Great song, I'm sure it'll be a fan favorite for this season, and I can't wait to listen to it myself.
     
    Of this episode I really have no complaints, just things that I believe could have SLIGHTLY improved it. For one, I wouldn't have minded Spike's dragon heritage being mentioned at some point, but I believe that the idea of it playing a role in his development in this episode was still plenty there beneath the surface. I also kind of wanted Cadance rather than Twilight to be the first pony to listen to Spike and reach out to Thorax; I didn't mind that Twilight did and it made sense since she's both a sister and mother to him and also the Princess of Friendship, but I thought there might have been an added element of weight to it seeing the pony who most suffered because of the Changelings last time around (and probably has some trauma from that ordeal still considering she was abducted and held hostage, essentially) being the first to forgive them and try to make peace with at least this one, but again, it worked out just fine. It was great seeing Sunburst and Starlight Glimmer again, especially because, as some have pointed out, Starlight could very much relate to this Changeling seeking redemption, friendship, and just a place to call his own, to call home. Seeing Flurry Heart as well was great, she's as adorable as ever and I loved getting to see her make nice with Thorax too. I also thought it was impressive that none of the ponies ever came off as unreasonable, which would have been really easy to do here; I mean, let's face it, they had plenty of good reasons to be afraid of a Changeling infiltration. Some of the visual gags, like the mirror one (which Ward Jenkins said he drew inspiration for from I Love Lucy) were a lot of fun to see, as well.
     



     

    BEHOLD, a baby! No, before you ask, you cannot eat the baby


     
    Overall, this episode I would say was exactly what we wanted it to be. I don't think anyone wanted the entire Changeling race to be redeemed in a single episode or story arc, but to see that they have the capacity for good is exactly what we wanted. This baby step in that direction is exactly how one should do something like that, and it reminds me of similar treatments that both dragons and the griffons have received, although neither of them had quite the same stigma attached to them by ponies that Changelings do. I really hope we get to see more of Thorax in the future as well as further stories with the Changelings as a result of this episode, but for now, let's just revel in how very well done this episode alone was. This is exactly what MLP is supposed to be all about folks, doesn't get much better than this. That's all I've got for this week everypony, until next week this is Batbrony signing off. I'm off! *cue dramatic exit*
  12. Batbrony
    OK, good afternoon everypony, and welcome to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews." Sorry for taking so long to get around to this review, just been preoccupied since the episode. This should be a pretty short review anyways overall, not a whole lot to say with this episode since, well, it was a pretty basic and simple episode. Without further ado, let's dive into "28 Pranks Later"!
     



     

    Somepony, help me!!!


     
    So let's get this out of the way, this is just an alright episode. It's not outstanding, it might have some stuff that might tick people off, but overall, it's just OK, and sometimes OK is fine. In this case, I certainly think that is so. The lesson is serviceable, and actually has broader applications beyond the episode context. Basically, it's all about when joking in general goes too far. We all probably know a coworker or some friend or family member who doesn't know when enough is enough when it comes to joking (and this doesn't just have to apply to pranking). This is actually a more serious character flaw than one might think at first glance, after all, who doesn't like a good joke? But when you think about it, people who get too hung up on joking and being humorous ALL THE TIME can come off as flippant, frivolous, and not to be taken seriously because they don't seem to take anything seriously. That's what Dash's problem was here; she was making jokes at the expense of others, not taking their reception of her behavior into account. In an attempt to prove she was the best at something (as Dash is want to do when she believes she's been challenged), she actually proved to be the worst in becoming to zealous in her efforts. If nobody besides her was enjoying the pranks, what was the point? Now some of the pranks by themselves might seem harmless enough, but let's keep in mind that the whole town clearly knew what she was up to by the middle of the episode. This is no different than when the town turned on the CMC after they discovered they were the ones running a gossip column. It was a collective anger and annoyance which made perfect sense and was perfectly reasonable and understandable.
     



     

    Huh, apparently RD is part bat-pony... HUZZAH!


     



     

    How is this face scarier than ANY of the zom-pony bits were?


     
    As for Dash herself, I didn't think she was out of character. Some people will immediately point to her scaring Fluttershy as the biggest sin of the episode given that she and Pinkie had agreed in the past not to prank her. But consider a few things. First, that was ALL the way back in Season 1; just because she's matured doesn't mean Dash, anymore than the rest of the Mane 6, is any less capable of still screwing up or doing something wrong. No one else was around to tell her otherwise, and she was probably just bored the first time. The second time she was out at that point to prank everyone because, to reiterate, she felt like her pride and prowess had been challenged, and the episode did right by having all her friends point out that it wasn't just mean, but also lazy to prank a pony as easy to scare as Fluttershy, so there was an awareness from the episode itself that it was unusual for her to do so. Overall, Dash was just being a knucklehead, and I don't see why that's hard to believe her doing, even in Season 6; she's still one of the more stubborn characters, plenty liable to making a mistake, certainly not a Mary Sue. I thought she was fine, and she learned her lesson more than enough in the end. It was interesting too that, if you paid attention, she didn't really go after Pinkie Pie in her pranking; she gave her a soft prank, probably for two reasons, (1) she was scared that if she got her too bad that Pinkie would retaliate, and (2) Pinkie didn't really go against her at the beginning. Very interesting to consider both of those points, if you think about it.
     



     

    Seriously, is RD loaded or something, how much money did she spend on these pranks?!


     
    Finally, the humor, while not gut-busting, worked for the most part. I was slightly disappointed that the zom-pony bit didn't go further, but it worked for the most part. I think the most disappointing aspect of it was the title; being called 28 Pranks Later, I kinda wanted them to spoof 28 Days Later and have the "zom-ponies" be super fast. But no, like we've seen in many, many cartoon zombie spoofs, it was a Night of the Living Dead spoof, and a pretty basic one at that, but it was still pretty funny. Honestly the two biggest laughs came from Harry the Bear (seriously, he just steals the show when he gets decent screen time) and RD's last bit where she pretended like she hadn't learned her lesson. Overall though, like I said earlier, this was just an OK episode, but I'm OK with that. It was pretty clear that a new writer had worked on it (which has been kind of apparent a couple of times this season), but again, not every episode has to be a masterpiece. This did what it wanted to, and I'm fine with it for what it is. That's all I got for ya this week everypony, until next week this is Batbrony signing off. I'm off! *cue dramatic exit*
  13. Batbrony
    Alright, good afternoon everypony, apologies for taking some time to get around to this review. This morning we got what I would call an average episode with an exceptional ending, at least by Season 6 standards. That's not to say I didn't enjoy "The Cart Before the Ponies," but it hit beats that were very predictable in many regards, as we'll see. Without further ado, let's begin, this is "The Cart Before the Ponies."
     
    So this episode's biggest problem really comes down to the type of story it's telling. We've seen this story in a million different ways before, the "older sibling/parent helping out the youngster with something, and getting carried away by their own ambitions/nostalgia and in the process forgetting what the activity's really about" storyline. It's not a story thread I'm a particular fan of, for one big reason: it demands that the adult character act more immaturely than the younger character. This isn't to say you can't do that, you certainly can; adults are often stupid or immature in their own ways, far too often. The reason it doesn't work a lot of the time in this particular type of story is because the adults are usually being immature about something very petty, in this case a derby race. This felt very out of character for all three of the Mane 6 here, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity, ESPECIALLY when one considers that this is a Season 6 episode. If this had happened in Season 1 or Season 2, I could've bought it at the very least, but this is Season 6 and all three of them were being ridiculous for the first 2/3 of this episode. They felt like stereotypes of themselves, and not in a good or even humorous way. But like I said, I don't blame this on the episode or the characters so much as just the particular type of story that was being told, and thankfully the episode had enough redeeming points to overcome the bad story-type.
     



     

    I need that hat... I NEED IT


     
    First of all, Cheerilee featured prominently for the first time in a while, and I remembered how much I love when that happens, for a couple of reasons. (1) Cheerilee's adorable and I have a soft spot for her since my mom's a teacher, so a good teacher character will always win me over, (2) she's voiced by Nicole Oliver, who doesn't get NEARLY enough screentime in the show between Cheerilee and Princess Celestia these days, simply shameful considering she's a great VA who has so much fun in both roles. Cheerilee was basically what she always is, hilarious and adorable. She has a very deadpan sense of humor where she usually just gets fed up with something stupid going on around her, while somehow remaining chipper all the same, and her cheerleader outfit in the final scene was TOO CUTE!!! She was also the most mature adult pony here and called RD, AJ, and Rarity out for their BS at the end, which was gratifying to see.
     



     

    WOO, YEAH, TAKE IT OFF- uh, I mean, yeah, go Cheerleader Cheerilee, go Cheerilee, go!


     



     

    "Getting real tired of your BS, Rarity."


     
    Secondly the humor was top notch, especially for a slice of life episode that really brought Ponyville to life. We got to see A LOT of side characters and background ponies in prominent roles, and that's always fun and gave it a very early-seasons feel. I was especially pleased by how much of my best pony, Derpy, there was (and her possible brother/nephew/son??? Seriously, who the buck was that colt???), and she got the biggest laugh from me in that flashback scene with Rarity (don't ever underestimate how creative my best pony is, ya'll! ). The whole town came alive here, and that's always one of my favorite things to see in the show. Also, Scootaloo wanted to make a chicken-cart, THAT IS EPIC TROLLING FROM THE WRITERS/ANIMATORS!!!
     



     

    Who are you, mysterious colt?!


     



     

    FLAWLESS VICTORY, EPIC CELEBRATION! Never underestimate a mailmare!


     
    Third, we got a killer song at the end despite the fact that it was basically RD, AJ, and Rarity singing about how much they were bucking up. It was fun, the whole town was involved, and it had a killer tune to it. Not much else to say about that other than I liked it.
     



     

    Did they just make a bucking Wacky Races reference? Brohoof if you know what the buck I'm talking about!


     



     

    THIS STORY THREAD IS SO FRUSTRATING, GAHHHH!!!!


     



     

    Ponies: you know they're cute when they look adorable even in this!


     
    Finally, the resolution was satisfying despite the fact that I could see the message coming from a mile away. Pretty much everypony in town was ticked off at RD, AJ, and Rarity, and rightfully so because they screwed up the whole derby for everyone. The CMC got to vent their frustrations as much as they should have, the Mane 6 members learned their lesson well, everypony got to have fun in the end and all was made right. Overall, while this episode was utterly predictable and utilized a very tired and not terribly good story thread, it was satisfying enough in its execution to be enjoyable enough. It wasn't great, but it was better than average on the whole, and I'm perfectly fine with that. Should be fun to rewatch, especially for the little things that elevated it. That's all for this week everypony, until next week this is Batbrony signing off. I'm off! *cue dramatic exit*
  14. Batbrony
    OK, so finally saw Batman v Superman's Ultimate Edition last night, and unsurprisingly, it vastly improved the film. There were things I couldn't even believe they cut, like a whole bevvy of scenes and clips which fleshed out and explained Lex's plan and motivations so much better (the one that really shocked me was about 30 seconds of dialogue he speaks right before letting loose Doomsday which made it ABUNDANTLY clear that killing Superman first and foremost was always his goal), or little scenes which helped flesh out Superman and Metropolis much more and make it far more of a Tale of Two Cities so to speak between Batman/Gotham and Superman/Metropolis. The Clark Kent persona of Superman was quite a bit improved in that at least we got to see him as a reporter, even though I think to a certain extent Zack Snyder still doesn't get that aspect of Superman's personality.
     
    But the thing which I think improved the most from the extensions, however, was that the film as a trial analogy in multiple respects (there's a reason it's titled Batman v Superman in the legal sense which I was aware of already) felt far more fulfilled in that regard. You have the idea of two types of superheroes on trial for most of the movie, trying to figure out if they can tolerate the other or coexist, or which one of them the world needs; these individual superheroes dealing with their own inner trials (i.e. Superman not knowing if the world can or will accept him now that it knows he exists, Batman becoming much more intense and violent in response to Superman's presence and preparing for what he thinks will be the most important fight of his life for the fate of the world); the world via media putting these heroes on trial in the public space. I knew that this analogy and these themes were there in the theatrical cut, but they were MUCH better realized in the 3 hour edition. As a result of the trial themes, the heroes themselves are in a state of limbo for most of the film; the heroing takes a backseat and they aren't sure what their place in the world going forward is meant to be, and that's very much intentional and an intriguing idea to see executed. I think overall that in the future this film will be reassessed as being far better than it was initially received upon release, and I definitely recommend anyone who hasn't that you check out the Ultimate Edition as soon as you can (though it is admittedly long, if you have to watch it in two sittings, I'd say stop it after the big moment in Washington about halfway through, you know the one). It may not change your overall opinion of whether you liked it or not, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it's definitely the film as it was supposed to be released, so there's that at least. Me, I already dug what Snyder was going for in the theatrical version but knew fully well that it was a roughly edited film; this still had some rough editing bits but was overall much more polished and smoother, and I appreciate that we have the option of seeing this version instead.
     




  15. Batbrony
    OK, good afternoon everypony, and welcome back to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews"! Well, well, well, did we get a treat this morning to kick off the second half of Season 6, or what??? Oh my goodness, "Stranger Than Fan Fiction." It's been awhile since the show had a love letter to the fans, but man oh man, when they do a love letter they bucking hit it out of the PARK! Let's dive into a real treat folks, without further ado, this is "Stranger Than Fan Fiction."
     



     

    Being nerdy is AWESOME!!! It must be so if Rainbow Dash is one!


     
    So given how much of a love letter to the fans this was, let's just focus on that. The plot isn't all that important, nor even the characters (at least not old ones like Rainbow Dash), though it did have a very heartfelt and well-delivered message. Basically, the whole episode is a celebration of all things fandom and nerdy, as well as a really well thought out examination of what makes for a good nerd and one who's taking things too far. This all centers around Quibble Pants, the AMAZING new supporting pony voiced by Patton Oswalt basically playing himself, because Patton Oswalt is a bonified nerd but also one who's very self aware of nerd tropes. Anyways, for most of the episode he exemplifies the "Nitpicky Nerd." We all know the type, and we've probably been that type at some point in our time as a nerd. The nerd who gets hung up over tiny details that might not matter, or who thinks that any nerd who disagrees with them on something is somehow less of a nerd than them because of it.
     
    Now here's the beauty of this episode and this character. The episode does not flat out say he's wrong. It becomes clear as the adventure continues that, yes, Daring Do's adventures are kind of ridiculous. Her enemies are very stupid and predictable at times, the most unrealistic coincidences just happen, and seemingly impossible feats are regularly pulled off. BUT what the episode does is turn that around on Quibble Pants by the end so that he finally realizes that all those elements, things he's never liked about the newer Daring Do novels/adventures, are things worthy of praise as well, even they're not his cup of tea. The seemingly impossible feats and over-the-top adventures, those are just as great as the smarter aspects of Daring Do like her puzzle solving and sharp wits. And we've all been there. I know I for one love, love, LOVE the original Star Wars trilogy so much more than the prequels, to the point that I have a hard time even thinking of them belonging to the same franchise. But if someone enjoys the prequels, who am I to say they can't or shouldn't; after all, there is still a lot of cool world-building in the Star Wars universe that came from them, so that's something to be sure! The point of the episode is that there is no such thing as "Nerd Group Think." Each and every nerd, like people in general, are their own unique individual with their own unique tastes. Take me for example! I count Batman/DC, MLP, Marvel, Star Wars, anime, and classic films among the things I most nerd out about. What a wide, wide array of things, right?! And there's a beauty in that diversity, a beauty in the notion of all these different types of fans who love all these properties for so many different reasons. In many ways, this episode retread themes very similar to the Season 5 opening, just in a less serious and more nerd-focused manner. But it was a beautiful love letter to MLP fans and nerds everywhere, with a wise lesson to boot, and that alone makes it a great episode.
     
    Of course, there were other things as well. Honestly, my favorite half of the episode was the first one. Don't get me wrong, the Daring Do adventure was a lot of fun, mostly because Quibble Pants added a whole new element to it. BUT the Daring Do convention was PURE JOY! I am so, so happy that I went to BronyCon before this, because otherwise I might not have appreciated that bit nearly as much. But now that I've been to a con, I can seriously say that they without a doubt NAILED THAT!!! Everything about the con setting was amazing, the vendors hall, the cosplaying, the nerdy arguments, heck, Rainbow Dash meeting Quibble Pants! Things like that happen, I met so many people whose names I didn't even learn but who I just talked with because we were nerding out over MLP that weekend! This was a con, a very, very accurate representation of one, and I was honestly sad when they left the con setting. There were even some really hilarious jokes for the adults in the audience. I mean, apparently in this kids show it is now canon that there are body pillows of Daring Do, including one depicting her bound! That... is... AMAZING (and kinky).
     



     

    ...


     

    What?


     



     

    What???


     



     

    I don't know, but I have so many confusing feelings in my head right now!


     

    ...


     

    ...


     

    I'll take one of the tied up ones


     

    ...


     

    ...


     

    ...


     

    DON'T JUDGE ME!!!


     
    Cosplaying is now canon, fan fiction got brought up yet again, there was fan art, vendors, even a HILARIOUS food vendor who took way too much joy in Rainbow Dash and Quibble Pants' original spat in the background (seriously, watch for her in that scene, she is HILARIOUS!!!). This whole con setting was just pure joy through and through, and seeing Rainbow Dash at it of all ponies was simply the best. I mean, she can't deny it out, she is a total nerd. I loved every single moment of that part of the episode, and it made me just want to get back to another con again.
     



     

    "Heheheh, bucking nerds."


     

    Give this pony a boop! Her amusement is hilarious.


     



     



     

    Nerds and cosplaying, nerds and cosplaying EVERYWHERE!


     
    Besides that, this was easily Rainbow Dash's best episode of the season so far. It's been too long since we've seen nerdy Rainbow Dash, and it's always so much fun to see that side of her personality ever since Season 2 and how unapologetic she is about it. Seeing Daring Do return was great as well, she's always a fun character and my only complaint was that we didn't see more of her. Also, Caballeron as the villain was just the best. First of all, he needed more screen time since usually most focus has been on Ahuizotl as Daring Do's archnemesis, but man oh man were the jokes just flying with Caballeron, particularly Quibble Pants's insistence that he was a cheap, knock-off actor playing a villain poorly.
     



     

    Rainbow, what are you doing? Rainbow, stahp.


     
    Finally, this episode just had some of the most self-aware, meta humor we've ever seen in the show and I loved every minute of it. This could've gone very badly, but the writing was incredibly clever and again, the fact that they were able to balance so much humor with an actually really good message is to be commended. Overall, we couldn't have asked for a better episode to kick off the second half of the season, nor a better love letter to the fans and nerds everywhere. Pony on everypony, and welcome to the herd Patton Oswalt, we're so happy to have you! That's it for this week everypony. Until next week, this is Batbrony signing off. I'm off! *cue dramatic exit*
     
    P.S. HOLY CRAP, SURPRISE DERPY COSPLAYING APPEARANCE WHICH I DIDN'T EVEN CATCH!!!
     



     

    Best cosplay hooves down, she gonna win ALL the cosplay contests!


  16. Batbrony
    Good evening everypony, Batbrony here with some minor updates on, well, me. First of all, in some unusual news for me for those of you who know me, I actually have an actual ponysona OC now. Everypony, meet Silver Lining!
     



     
    As you can see, this little cutie is a thestral (more commonly known as a bat pony, but I prefer the former name myself for their species). He's very friendly, outgoing, and well-read, and his special talent is writing stories, particularly ones related to subjects or themes of the night. He's curious about the world and always yearning to learn more about it and using that knowledge to help and benefit others however he can. His name is derived both from his coat and mane but also reflects the optimistic, upbeat nature of his personality.
     
    Now, I'm not about to create a super in-depth backstory for him since I'm not about to start RPing with this guy or anything, but it is kind of nice finally having an actual OC of my own to reflect some of my personality. Those of you who know me know that for the longest time I've contended that my semi-OC is Derpy as the Batmare, and while I'll still always consider her to be a semi-OC near and dear to my heart, I figured it was time I got an actual OC since so many folks here, including those on staff, have one, and why not get one that's best pony species while I'm at it? A big thank you to my great friend SFyr for drawing up and designing this little guy for me, and also helping me pick out the name; I couldn't have asked for a better looking OC and it was very kind of you to take the time to draw him for me.
     
    Second, in the last week I've also created a Twitter account for myself, or rather, specifically my Poniverse and pony fandom related activities. You can find it here: Batbrony Twitter Account. Feel free to follow me if you so desire, and I'll be sure to follow you back.
     
    Well, that's all for today everypony! Until next time this is Batbrony signing off; I'm off!!! *cue dramatic exit*
  17. Batbrony
    On Monday, when I got on the highway in Grand Rapids after two early morning flights, I balled my eyes out for about 30 minutes straight. I mean it, I was crying like crazy and just could not stop. These were not bad tears, though, no, no, far from it. These were some of the best tears I've had in a long time. My tears came from one place and one place only: the sheer shock I felt and still feel at how very much BronyCon 2016 met and far exceeded my expectations in oh so many ways.
     
    I cannot possibly cover every single thing that happened to me at BronyCon 2016, not only my first ever BronyCon, not only my first ever pony convention, but my first ever convention in general. To do so would result in an obscenely long blog post even for me. But what I can cover is exactly what this event showed me, that being namely this: that every single good thing about this fandom that I have encountered in over four years of being in it solely online is the real deal. Bronies are the real deal. Together, they live what they preach online, and it is something to behold, let me tell you.
     
    In those three days, time and time again I encountered indescribable, wonderful expressions of kindness, generosity, fun, laughter, camaraderie, love, and friendship between friends, family, and total strangers, thousands of them. Bronies of all shapes, sizes, ages, genders, ethnicities, and backgrounds gathered together to celebrate in something as simple and silly as a television show we all love, and it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, simply because it was so real. By the end of the weekend, it was clear that none of us were here first and foremost for the show, the merchandise, or the special guests; first and foremost, we were here for each other and to be with each other. We were here because friendship is magic and we all, each and every one of us, truly believe that and try our best to live it.
     
    It took me awhile to get a feel for all of this on the first day. Going in, I was nervous that either the con wouldn't meet my high expectations or I would be a fish out of water seeing as I'd never been to a con before. The idea of being around so many bronies, famous fandom members and special guests was intimidating, especially since many of them were either such big names or were rather seasoned con-goers. I also feared that this was going to be the climax of my time in the brony fandom, that from here on out I might drift further and further away. One last hurrah for me.
     
    This sentiment couldn't have been further from the truth. My first exposure was the opening ceremonies, and right away I was presented with something I'd never seen before; thousands of bronies, just like me, all packed in one room, all smiling and having a blast with each other. Since none of the other staff were there, I sat by myself, just sort of soaking things in for the time being. After that, I wandered around the vendors hall and attended the first big VA panel, gradually getting a better and better feel. It certainly didn't hurt seeing what goofs the VAs were with each other in front of all of us.
     




     
     
     

    Balloons, the only thing as common at pony conventions as bronies


     
     
     



     
     
     

    Ever wanted to go to something where your favorite pony VAs are just as likely to drop into character as they are to bring up VERY embarrassing and NSFW stories about the VA business? Look no further people, VA panels are where it's at!!!


     

    But I think the real turning point came when I finally got to meet Jenn Blake. Here was someone who wasn't just a horse famous member of the fandom; she was a legitimate VIP, a ridiculously talented artist for the actual IDW MLP comic books, and someone I'd also chatted with online before. In those chats, she'd always been friendly (and I figured she had to be given that she'd been kind enough to do a Q&A with us for our last MCM as well as donate some of her own art for it to be auctioned off), and we'd even discovered that we shared a love of all things DC comics, to the point that I decided to grab her a little gift for the con. But all the same, I couldn't help but wonder if things wouldn't be the same in person; would she even remember my username or who I was, would she be too busy or just there for business, would it just be awkward meeting her in person in spite of all the evidence I had that said I had nothing to fear?
     
    Well, as it turned out, I had nothing to fear! Jenn was just as friendly in person as she has always been when we've chatted online, much to my delight! She was kind, funny, very generous with her time and more than happy to talk about whatever, from DC comics and movies to her upcoming projects. When that happened, I think that was the first time when it finally hit me just how real all of this was. Everyone here was genuinely happy to see each other no matter who they were. Everyone was here... for each other! After buying a gorgeous print from Jenn (which was ridiculously reasonable in price given its quality) and getting it signed, followed by taking a selfie and sharing a hug with someone I'd just met in person for the first time about 10 minutes ago, it was like my eyes were suddenly opened to just how amazing this all was! From that point on, I realized I wasn't just an observer; I was a part of all this, and knowing that was one of the greatest feelings I've ever had.
     




     
     
     

    The lovely Jenn Blake, a.k.a., Patron Saint of Lesbians, or as I like to call her, Super Awesome Fueled-by-Fireball McArtsypants (yes I just made up that last one, why do you ask?)


     

    The things that happened after that, gosh, I don't even know where to start. It was all just so wonderful. I met great artist after great artist, folks I have followed on DeviantArt for a LONG time but never so much as sent a PM to, and they were all so very wonderful to talk to! NC Mares, White Diamonds, DennyVixen, and so many more, they were all great and it was such a treat just getting to tell them how wonderful their art was in person and just getting to see the genuine smiles and gratitude on their faces when I said that. I chatted with fellow fanfiction authors and attended panels on the art of writing it, and to get to share our ideas on writing with one another, face to face, my gosh was that great! I got to make brony history along with thousands of other bronies and see for the first time ever all four of the Mane 6's VAs gathered together at the same con, and to top it all off, they read a fan-script written by Tabitha St. Germain herself (so yes, Tabitha St. Germain basically writes fanfiction). I jammed at BronyPalooza for a bit late on Saturday and sang karaoke too, and I can't even tell you how wonderful it was having a choral background getting to finally sing an MLP song, "The Magic Inside of You" no less, in front of so many fellow bronies, each one cheering me on! I even won the Appleloosan Poker Tournament on Friday night and walked away with a prize of my first plushies ever, the three mascots of BronyCon, Hoof Beatz, Blank Canvas, and Mane Event in plushie form!!!
     




     
     
     

    Ponies Court: Where a simple family dispute between a fashionista and her rambunctious little sister can escalate into a murder case in an instant (at least if Discord's the judge... and yes, that's exactly what happened)


     
     
     



     
     
     

    /\



    Bronies: we even make signs better. I mean really, have you ever seen more adorable signs?!



    \/


     
     
     



     
     
     



     
     
     

    Something I could have seriously used more of (probably why I ended up getting one of these mugs
    )

     

    But it wasn't just the events themselves, it was everyone there, just every single one. Wherever you went, a conversation with a total stranger was waiting to be had. We didn't even usually exchange names, but time and time again I chatted with brony after brony about the show, the con, or whatever! Meeting my fellow Poniverse staffers too was just as great; like Jenn, they turned out to be just as great and even more than I could have ever expected they'd be, and were most definitely one of the biggest parts of making this weekend such a gem! From Simon and Stitch to Koukatsu, SFyr, Path, Simeon, and Victor, I just couldn't get enough of any of them, and being with them in person only renewed and grew my love for Poniverse and doing my best to make it as great as can be. Thankfully, I'm glad to say that our Saturday panel went rather smashingly if I do say so myself, and that too was a wonderful experience to participate in, getting to tell so many people, face to face, what makes our little corner of the Internet such a great place to hang out!
     
    This and oh so much more went into making this a weekend I'll never forget. But if you thought I'd covered it all, ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh my are you oh so wrong. No no no, I'm saving the best for last, but I'm afraid it will have to wait for the time being. Otherwise, certain surprises may be ruined beforehand. Until next time everypony, when I will finish regaling you on the wonder that is BronyCon, this is Batbrony signing off. I'm off! *cue dramatic exit*
  18. Batbrony
    Ponies + Indian Food = This


     




     
    Now that that's out of the way, good morning everypony, and welcome to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews," our last for a while I'm afraid given that the Season 6 hiatus is upon us. Thankfully, I am glad to say that today's episode was most delightful indeed, even if it wasn't perfect. A nice return to the Friendship Map formula of last season with a fun pair of ponies we've already seen once this season, let's dive into "Spice Up Your Life."
     



     
    So, in this case I feel compelled to get what I thought didn't work in this episode out of the way first, because it bugged me as the episode unfolded. I was honestly having a hard time figuring out what the lesson was supposed to be. That is not to say that the episode didn't have a message, oh no, it did indeed. But I think it was the Friendship Map formula in general that threw me off; the presumption was that the quarrel Rarity and Pinkie had to solve was that between Coriander Cumin and Saffron Masala. Now there clearly was a quarrel, but I don't think that's actually what Rarity and Pinkie had to do (though the episode didn't do a very good job of explaining that). The nature of the quarrel wasn't very well explained; obviously both ponies were fighting a lot since their business was struggling, but I never really got a sense for what Coriander wanted to do differently from his daughter. Rarity pretty much handled everything in the music montage on his end, and Coriander was just kind of grumpy the whole time. In the end, the action did not center around those two at all, at least not salvaging their relationship. It also wasn't just about saving their business, because that's not really a friendship problem either.
     



     

    Yelp and RT reviewers manifested as a pony; as one can imagine, she sucked as much as you would think she would :crackle:


     
    No, in actuality, the message is actually quite nuanced, if not a little too subtle until the very end. I think the friendship lesson that they had to teach was to all of Restaurant Row in Canterlot, not just Coriander and Saffron. The crux of the conflict was that nopony in Canterlot would even try their food because they didn't have a hoof rating from Zesty Gourmand. Up till the very end, even after tons of other ponies in Canterlot were trying and clearly loving their food, Zesty still refused, contending that it was beneath her to do so and would ruin her reputation. What we have here, oddly enough, is a critique of critic culture, specifically critics who write for published and major media sources. Critics can sway public opinion quite a bit, and that can often be a good thing if the critic is good; but the problem with critic culture, sometimes, is that critics can sometimes become too full of their own opinions for their own good. They care more about the weight of their critique than remembering that they have their own personal tastes just like everyone else, and sometimes it can be so bad that it even prevents them from giving something new a chance, or judging something based on its own context/what it's trying to be instead of measuring it against things it simply shouldn't be. An Indian restaurant should be an Indian restaurant, not a place of high, cultured food. A blockbuster should try to be a great blockbuster, not an art house film, just as an art house film shouldn't try to be a blockbuster. Forming one's opinion, especially if voiced in public with the power to sway others, is a heady responsibility that should not be taken lightly, especially if you do have the social standing to sway others, and sometimes it's all too easy for people to forget that they could be wrong or just not like something that most others will if they actually can influence others' opinions. I very much liked this message, but again, I feel like it was not delivered, until the last few minutes of the episode, in a way that was readily understood, at least as the center of the episode's theme. Like I said, the friendship problem was not readily apparent at any point in the episode, but I think it came down to the episode title; people shouldn't be afraid of spicing up their lives, trying something new or giving something a chance, and shouldn't let the opinions of others prevent them from trying something if they think they'll like it or actually do like it. If you have a different opinion or tastes than someone else, that doesn't make you less of a person for it; all it means is that your ideas of what's enjoyable are different from what others find enjoyable. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that most of the time, and like I said, I really like this message; I just think it could have been delivered better.
     



     

    I love this guy! Coriander just does not have any time for any of your BS, Rarity; don't take it personally darling, he doesn't have any time for anyone's BS, and he thinks that everything is BS 99% of the time


     
    Now that that's out of the way, let's get to what I loved. Really, I loved everything about how this episode looked and felt. The style was great; getting to see Canterlot again, great; getting to see more Rarity and Pinkie Pie, great; getting a father/daughter conflict, great; father/daughter turn out to be Indian, very unique and awesome to see the writers branching out their character types in such a diverse way; the song, just as unique and awesome, combining familiar musical talents with a style of music we've never heard in the show. Basically, this FELT and LOOKED exactly as I hope new slice of life MLP episodes should; enough familiar elements combined with new ones to add some great flair and style, with just a dash of nice world building to boot. Admittedly, Rarity made a few more mistakes than Pinkie Pie, but really they both just weren't doing the right job from the get go; Pinkie Pie was just as bad at attracting customers to a restaurant in Canterlot as Rarity was at preparing the decor of the place, and in that regard the episode again felt a tad confused as to what it was trying to tell us about them. I think it came down to each of them working off of each other's strengths as the situation demanded; Rarity was still great at converting the restaurant, but that simply wasn't what needed to be done. Likewise, nobody questions that Pinkie Pie is as friendly as can be, but she wasn't about to attract new customers in Canterlot simply by being outgoing. This goes back to the episode's message; in Rarity, we see how the opinion of one with social standing can be turned to good in helping nudge others along to trying something new. In Pinkie Pie, we get obviously the tried and true message that, if you love what you do and know that others can and should love it too, then you shouldn't conform to the point that what makes your product unique and special in the first place is entirely absent from the finished product.
     



     

    Pinkie, that's not helping anyone


     
    Coriander and Saffron were a great addition to the show; again, the nature of their conflict with each other wasn't explained the greatest, but Saffron was perfectly friendly and Coriander was a hoot when he was grumpy, with his constant, deadpan expression and complete disinterest in everything (very nicely captured in his movements; I thought the animators did a wonderful job of making Coriander actually LOOK as heavy-set as he was drawn through his very slow, drawn-out movements). Zesty Gourmand was genuinely unlikable, and it was very nice how the episode showed she was so stubbornly set in her ways and had such a high opinion of her own opinion that she wouldn't even taste Coriander and Saffron's food. She missed out on a great chance for some great food all because she thought too highly of herself. As I said, I loved the Canterlot setting, and aesthetically the episode was extremely bright, colorful, and vibrant, very befitting an episode with this title. The music too, as I mentioned earlier, was a real treat and, although unique for the show, felt perfectly at home in it all the same. Overall, while this was hardly a perfect episode, it was a very delightful episode all the same, and if you can figure out the messages, they're actually very good ones. They're just a little hard to catch in the episode's actual execution. Until next time everypony, which may be a few months given the hiatus, this is Batbrony, as always, signing off. I'm off! *cue dramatic exit*
     



     

    That's not helping anyone either, Pinkie


     
    P.S. Before I forget, it was great seeing Starlight at the start of the episode with the rest of the Mane 6, in an actual slice of life episode, and on top of that fixing the Friendship Map with Twilight. Very nice to see the writers working her in like that finally in a small, supporting role.
  19. Batbrony
    Alrighty, good morning everypony, and welcome to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews". This was a pretty darn good episode we had today, though I did go so far as to vote that I loved it. I did so because I thought that the lesson itself and the way it was delivered earned that, even if the rest of the episode was just perfectly fine and nothing amazing. Without further ado, let's get into "Applejack's "Day" Off".
     



     

    Sadly, contrary to what this pic suggests, there was no applebucking to be found in this episode!


     



     

    Nopppppppppppppeeeeeeeeee. Nope. Nope nope nope. So. Much. Nope!


     



     

    My thoughts exactly, AJ


     
    I would describe this, first and foremost, as a quintessential Applejack episode for the problem and lesson learned alone. The problem presented was one that, out of all the Mane 6, Applejack was most likely to fall into, and the way the lesson was learned was also pretty much how AJ of all the girls would learn a lesson like that. The problem and lesson were both quite simple. Applejack got stuck in a lot of work routines she was used to that were adding more work than was needed, and needed to simplify how she was doing things. Pretty straightforward. The reason it worked real well was all in the execution. The problem was set up very nicely in showing Applejack handle a very similar problem for the Ponyville Spa, and it was a nice touch as well that she was the one who inadvertently delivered the lesson of the episode while displaying the same problem. That's pretty much AJ right there; she likes keeping her routines because she's comfortable running her farm in the same manner day in and day out, but she's practical and hard working enough that she'd recognize the wisdom of simplifying things. She just thought she had simplified things as much as she could, so what she needed was the same thing the Spa Ponies needed, an outside party to tell her how she could make things more efficient and make less work for herself.
     



     

    Secret Butt Fun: You're doing it wrong


     



     

    Just call her 'Applejack the Science Pony!' Seriously, she taught us much more about steam and pipes than I certainly expected we'd learn in this episode


     



     

    TIME FOR A PLUMBING MONTAGE, YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!


     
    The biggest reason I really appreciated this lesson is twofold. One, they were very, very patient in how they taught the lesson. The episode's pacing could be a bit slow at times, but it did make for the lesson being very clear in how it came across. Two, this is a lesson that you rarely see taught in kids shows, mostly because we all like getting into routines, and sometimes it's difficult to know when a routine is doing more harm than good. Routines are comfortable to us because they're something we're used to, so sometimes we really need friends or family to tell us if we need to change things up in how we're doing something. I thought the lesson was very nuanced, thoughtful, and incredibly well-executed in its delivery, and again, the mere subject matter alone is to be commended. This would have been a simple episode no matter what, so they did about as good of a job with it as they could have.
     



     

    Ya'll don't like mah Scootaloo impression?


     



     

    Lol, what the hay am I even doin'?


     

    Such farmer, much barn work, wowwwwwwwwww


     
    Besides that, there's not a whole lot to cover. It was really nice that we got to see a lot more of Sweet Apple Acres and, especially, the Ponyville Spa, and the fact that the episode was largely centered on those two settings alone meant that we got to spend a lot more time at both (especially the latter) than we normally do and got to see a lot more. Getting to see so much of Aloe and some of the other Spa Ponies was a delight, if only because her accent was adorable, plus it was super fun seeing AJ, Rarity, and even Rainbow Dash at the spa. I really liked the little touch that not only at some point between Season 2 and this episode it was made clear that RD not only got over her hooficure/hoof-touching phobia and started enjoying pampering herself (albeit, in secret, though that seems to have changed by the end of the episode), but also that at no point was Applejack ever once turned off by the idea of going to the spa. The episode made it quite clear that she has routinely enjoyed spa days with Rarity, and given how long all the girls have been friends with each other, that really shouldn't be surprising at this point; after five and a half seasons, it's only natural that AJ would be far more comfortable than she used to be with tapping into her feminine side, plus it makes perfect sense that she'd be cool with the spa since it's a prime place to unwind and relax after a long, hard day's work.
     



     

    Spike, this Mission Impossible recreation is going terribly! Let's take it from the top


     



     

    Why yes, I am indeed a pretty, pretty pony, how nice of you to notice!


     
    Like I said, the pacing was a bit slow at times, which was most noticeable since not too much in particular happened, and on top of that I was actually disappointed that we didn't actually get to see Applejack truly relaxing at the spa, just talking about it the whole time with Rarity. That might sound weird, but I don't know, I think I feel that way because I enjoy seeing characters in situations we normally don't see them in; it was nice to hear AJ say how much she was going to enjoy the spa, sure, but it would have been nice all the same to see her actually getting to do it. I think it's comparable to like when Batman and Jim Gordon shared a cup of coffee on New Year's Eve (apparently an annual tradition of theirs) in B:TAS, or the Christmas episode of the Justice League animated series when we got to see Hawkgirl and Green Lantern celebrating at an alien bar, Flash making sure some orphans had a Merry Christmas, and Martian Manhunter spending Christmas with Clark Kent in Smallville and coming to understand it. The charm of these scenarios is that they give us the chance to see sides of characters we don't usually get to see, or just them doing things we don't usually get to see them do. It's a little thing, but those little things can be some of our favorite character moments, so I would have liked if maybe they had sped up some of the episode's pacing just so they could have a bit with the end where we got to see AJ reaping the rewards of her hard work and lesson learned.
     
    Other than that, however, I have no complaints. It wasn't an amazing episode, but a perfectly fine one with a very, very commendable and excellently executed message, and one that fit its main character, Applejack, to a T. Nopony felt uncharacteristically stupid, neither AJ nor Twilight and Spike, and it made perfect sense that the latter were stumped by her convoluted list of steps needed just to feed the pigs. It had a very slice of life feel to it and felt like it would have perfectly belonged in Season 1, but it worked plenty fine as a Season 6 episode as well. Overall, I really enjoyed this one for what it was and was trying to be, which I think it perfectly succeeded at: a quintessential, slice of life Applejack episode with a problem and lesson tailor made for her. That's all I got for you today everypony. Until next week, this is Batbrony signing off. I'm off! *cue dramatic exit*
  20. Batbrony
    Shoosh Rarity, your episode already debuted


     
    Good evening, everypony, and welcome back to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews"! My apologies for being so late in getting my review out, but I have a good excuse; I spent about 4 hours total driving yesterday so I could spend time with my family celebrating my mom's, grandpa's, and grandma's birthdays in Frankenmuth, MI, otherwise known as Little Bavaria, seeing as all of their birthdays are in May. I had some great food and a great time with my fam, but the driving took quite some time, admittedly. Anyways, I have now seen this episode twice and I must say it is absolutely delightful in every which way. Nick Confalone is proving to be a fabulous addition to the writing staff, and this was certainly the funniest episode in quite some time, possibly the funniest one since "Slice of Life" last season. Without further ado, let's begin.
     



     
    So thankfully, I don't have a whole lot to say about this one because there's not much point in going into specific events or characters. It was an ensemble episode, but not like earlier seasons where you'd expect really momentous stuff to happen when the entire gang was involved, or even a significant slice of life lesson. The fact of the matter is that the show is old enough at this point, the story and characters developed enough that they can have an episode like this, one where there's just a lot of silly stuff happening and not much in the way of a lesson or plot. And it was executed wonderfully in this instance, I am happy to say. The most impressive aspect of it all was the execution. Recap episodes like this do not always work, and they were very creative with the timeline here. I've seen TV episodes like this before where you get events that have already happened recapped by different characters, but the manner in which they did it here, with an ongoing newspaper interview where different characters were getting interviewed (at different times, as SUPER CLEVERLY indicated by the different background characters at booths in the diner, especially with RD and AJ where it was clear they were getting interviewed at almost the same time because they not only appeared together but also had the same background character at the booth behind them in their scenes) was incredibly clever and inventive. It also helped establish and maintain the pacing of the episode; the episode was essentially just a string of gags that different characters were going through, and we've seen that before, but the interview allowed us to get insight into character's thoughts and reactions to what they did which we normally wouldn't be able to get. It was like watching a DVD commentary of a show or movie, except instead of the creators, the characters themselves were commenting on themselves. The cherry on top, of course, was that their interview was being conducted by J. Jonah Jameson pony, which, being the superhero lover I am, absolutely killed me in all the right ways (not to mention they also squeezed a fantastic Pulp Fiction reference in that diner as well).
     



     

    Even her schneezes are graceful! D'awwwww, I just wanna give her a hug, SHE'S TOO CUTE!!!


     



     

    LAMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!


     



     

    See? These girls know what I'm talking about


     
    As for the gags themselves, again, I see no point in going into the specific ones because there were just so many of them, and most of them worked. What I think was most notable about these gags, compared to others we've seen in past episodes (because this is certainly not the first time we've seen situations get out of control) is that they not only fit the Mane 6 to a T, but they brought Manehattan to life as a setting. Every time the show has been in Manehattan we've gotten to learn more and more about it. BUT I would argue we've never really seen the city in such a normal context. The girls are almost always either sightseeing or busy with something of their own that just happens to be in the city, but doesn't involve it too much. Here, Manehattan, as Ponyville has been so many times in the past, was an actual character because everything they were dealing with was just big city, Manehattan problems. Rarity's in a pretty rundown place where her pushy landlord could easily jack up the prices because real estate is at a premium in the city, there are raccoons, a big city diner, a dance club above Rarity's shop with ponies who apparently spend all day just jamming, the list goes on. Everything here affected the characters, it wasn't just something to point to for the audience and go "hey look, we got this big city reference in!" That's not to say I haven't liked Manehattan in the past, but this felt like a great development for it, because everything going on felt normal, not like the girls were just visiting (even though that's exactly what they were doing). City's being their own characters is important in order for a setting to take on new meaning, that's why getting a place like Gotham City right for Batman is so critical when writing that character. So yeah, overall, I was really, really happy with Manehattan's depiction here; it didn't feel like a tourist destination for the girls, but really lived and breathed here.
     



     



     

    Organization's my fetish! Got a sock drawer that needs rearranging?


     
    This is not to say that I think the episode was flawless, I do not. My biggest complaint is Plaid Stripes, the weirdo daughter of Rarity's pushy landlord. I have nothing wrong with a character, especially in an episode like this, being weird, but almost all of her humor felt really, really forced. Like, I know she was young and "eccentric" but I just couldn't buy that even someone like her would propose some of these ideas, and that made the humor from her less funny. Thankfully, the episode is so quick-paced and funny already that, upon a second viewing, I realized it's really easy to ignore how unfunny her stuff is because so much other funny stuff is going on around her. Highlights for me in particular would be Twilight's organization fetish (what else do you call it at this point?), Rarity demanding no spoilers, the raccoons freak out when Fluttershy told them they had to leave, the dance club ponies (especially the one with the giant pigtails), Pinkie's Rarity-devil and Rarity-angle, and RD and AJ's brohoof, and that's just to name a few, so with all that, yeah, it's easy to ignore the forced jokes from Plaid Stripes. What I can't ignore is that for some bizarre reason some bucker decided the last shot of the episode, after a perfectly nice moment with the Mane 6, had to be this 5 second bit with Plaid Stripes in which she did nothing but suck from a spoon and put on this stupid smile. I don't get it, it wasn't funny, and just felt really awkward. But again, it's a very minor complaint.
     



     
    Overall, this was just the show having fun with its main cast, taking advantage of how phenomenal they know all their VAs are (seriously, every single one of them had some amazing deliveries on these lines here, especially Tabitha, she deserves special recognition), and just giving them a fun episode without much of a plot or a lesson. It was really just about how much the girls know that, despite how different they are, they can all rely on each other through pretty much anything at this point, even if it's as goofy as some of the stuff they were dealing with here. There's absolutely nothing wrong with a show this seasoned just taking a break and having fun, and I'm glad they did it here. It was a blast and a reminder of why we love this show and its characters so much; not just because they're well written and developed and because the show is seriously one of the smartest children's shows on television today, but also because sometimes the show knows when to just kick back, relax, and have unadulterated, pure, unfiltered fun. That's all I got everypony, until next week (in an episode I have been VERY much anticipating), this is Batbrony signing off. I'm off! *cue dramatic exit*
     



     

    Ow... they usually go much better than this


  21. Batbrony
    OK, sorry I'm a bit late to the party everypony, I just needed to absorb and process how amazing that episode was. Welcome back to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews". Today's episode is what I would describe as quintessential MLP; something that captured everything we love about the show to begin with while also doing something new (surprisingly considering this holiday, and the story they recycled, are both very well-established). It also highlighted what I love about Starlight's addition to the main cast this season, namely the fact that her presence gives them the opportunity to retread old stories or themes while making them still seem fresh and new since, obviously, she has not participated in most of the Mane 6's adventures in the past and still has a lot to learn about friendship. Without further ado, let's dive into "A Hearth's Warming Tale".
     
    So let's get this out of the way first: the only bad thing about this episode, the single worst thing about it, is the fact that it released in the middle of May. That's about as hilarious and ridiculous timing for a Christmas-themed episode as you can get, and it's completely unseasonal in every sense of the word. It's not a big deal in the slightest, it's just funny is all.
     



     

    Hee hee, pissed off Starlight Glimmer pleases me


     
    That out of the way, let's begin. So the story is essentially MLP's take on Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" with some minor elements of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" thrown in there. It's Hearth's Warming Eve (yet again, man this show is getting inconsistent with the seasons, I cannot keep track of how they work in Equestria at this point), and everypony in Ponyville is loving it. Everypony, that is, except Starlight Glimmer. Turns out she's grown to not see the big deal in Hearth's Warming. She doesn't think most ponies care about its origins and that the stuff they really care about is superficial, so to fix that, Twilight sets out to tell her her favorite Hearth's Warming story, "A Hearth's Warming Tale".
     



     
    We've seen this setup for Christmas episodes in A LOT of shows, but as so often happens in MLP with similar setups like this, what made this stand out was how fantastically everything was executed. First and foremost, the fact that Twilight approaches this problem by reading Starlight a story is perfect for her! The show likes to remind us a lot that Twilight is an egghead, but usually for jokes or just to begin solving problems. An entire episode is rarely covered by her love of reading, so it's nice to see her channeling her bookishness so positively throughout an entire episode. The other way it surpasses other shows that have done a similar setup before is how it conveys the themes. There's a lot of parallels you can draw between Starlight's concern that ponies don't really care about the origins of Hearth's Warming and just stuff like presents and parties instead and both Christmas media and people in real life who fear that it's just a superficial, materialistic holiday these days where people don't really care about the more religious aspects of it. A lot of Christmas media take this approach, but the difference is what conclusion they come to and how they get there. In some cases you have people try to get people to abandon the materialistic aspects altogether and wholesale go back to the spiritual roots; it's rare, but sometimes happens, and those can be done well, but oftentimes aren't. The best example of this I can think of is "A Charlie Brown Christmas," which almost entirely foregoes any materialistic aspects of the holiday in favor for a very somber message. More commonly you have the compromise approach; someone tries to show how the materialistic and spiritual sides of the holiday can complement each other and are both equally important. This can be executed very well, or horribly. An example of doing it well would probably be "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"; conversely, a horrible way to do it is in Kirk Cameron's wretched and dreadful "Saving Christmas".
     
    What makes this stand out is that it's super rare that a 22 minute television episode could cover these themes as well as MLP does here. In an episode which includes setup and a conclusion before the actual meat of the episode, we get a wonderful message about how presents, parties, and celebrations with friends and family can, when approached correctly, embody as much of the spirit of a Christmas-like holiday as understanding its roots and celebrating those as well. Neither aspect is thrown under the bus; Hearth's Warming's origins are just as important as what holiday it has become, so long as they're about the celebration first and foremost. The celebration of the holiday is what's most important, embodying all the good of where it comes from and what it's led to. This is as nuanced a message as a full-length Christmas movie could be which convinces an audience that the good to be found in giving presents at Christmas is just as much what Christmas is about as celebrating the birth of Christ, as long as both come from the same place. It also works perfectly for MLP's setting considering friendship and community, we know by this point, are quite possibly the most central aspect of the most powerful magic in Equestria. Overall, it was just a wonderful handling of tried and true themes, made all the more impressive by the short amount of time they had to cover them all, and MLP writing at its best.
     



     



     

    Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh, these sets are GORGEOUS!!!


     
    A huge part of how they were able to execute this episode and deliver its message so well was the fact that it was a musical episode, and a delightful one at that. First of all, it's about time we got a musical Hearth's Warming Eve episode, not just with one song thrown in at the end. All of the songs did a great job of telling the story, capturing the spirit of the holiday, and just bringing the episode to life. This is Daniel Ingram at his best, and my goodness it was delightful to see him get to make music for a holiday episode finally. It also helps that they chose some of the characters with the best singing voices to carry these songs. The opening ensemble in Ponyville was fantastic, Starlight Glimmer's Snowfall Frost had yet another great villain song, Ashleigh Ball proved yet again (in my personal favorite song of the episode) that Applejack has possibly the most underrated, gorgeous singing voice on the show in her delightfully simple and nostalgia-inducing number as the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Past, Pinkie had a surprisingly touching but still incredibly bouncy number as the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Presents (HA), and Luna came out of bucking nowhere as the Spirit of Hearth's Warmings Yet to Come and, in her first number since "You'll Play Your Part" since Season 4 (and first solo ever) absolutely KILLED IT!!! Finally, the episode ended on a lovely ensemble with all the ponies celebrating. Through and through, each number was delightful and thematically seemed to cover different aspects of the holiday season, making for an excellent way to convey the episode's message and themes. The tunes themselves did not just tell the story, they told the themes, and that's quite impressive if you ask me. By far one of the most impressive musical achievements on the show in some time, I loved every minute of the music in this episode and once again have to tip my cap to the always phenomenal Daniel Ingram on an incredible job well-done.
     




     

    I was particularly fond of this number, but they were all phenomenal in their own ways


     



     



     

    Dang, Luna got HUGE! You been working out girl?


     
    Besides those two big points, there's not too much more to cover. It was "A Christmas Carol" MLP-style, so no reason to go over the story really, they just updated it in a few ways for the purposes of the setting. The fact that main characters yet again assumed the roles of these story characters was a nice callback to the first Hearth's Warming episode where they staged the pageant in Canterlot together. Twilight was adorable as she told the story, especially when it was suggested that she was actually singing the song numbers as she read. I would have liked to see a bit more of Starlight's reactions as the story went on, but that's forgivable considering they could only fit so much into one episode.
     
    The animation was probably the most gorgeous we've ever had for a Hearth's Warming episode; we've never seen Ponyville celebrating it, and it did not disappoint, the whole town and Twilight's castle simply came to life entirely as they should for this celebration, not to mention the animators also got to play around with lovely 19th century Victorian-style animation for the "A Hearth's Warming Tale" setting in old Canterlot and other surrounding towns. That Snape-pony was kind of hilarious (seriously, who else could they possibly be referencing with that guy?), and I seriously couldn't get enough of that older setting, especially the outfits! Holy cheese, those outfits were amazing!!! My personal favorite was Applejack's and Rarity's, and for the former that's quite a testament to how great the design and animation were considering AJ was pretty much one color palette in her whole design. It just had this simple elegance to it as so many other dresses AJ has worn have had, and showed once again why I adore little things like that with her character when they just tweak her ever so slightly and have her step outside of her comfort zone and adorn things she normally wouldn't.
     



     

    Get rekt, m8


     
    Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the background ponies. In the both the present and story-setting we got to see some of our favorite familiar faces from around Ponyville (I was especially pleased to see Blossomforth and Cloud Kicker get some nice screen time, those two sometimes get overlooked), and it was loads of fun getting to see all of Ponyville celebrating the holiday. My personal favorite of course (because I'm me) was Derpy becoming the best Hearth's Warming Eve star EVER, but nearly all of the major background ponies got some sort of fun appearance, and you can tell that the animators had a lot of fun playing around with them on this one. Overall, as I said earlier, this was about as quintessential MLP as we can get: it had a great message, story, pacing, animation, music, humor, and just great everything in general. It's possibly my favorite Hearth's Warming episode they've done to date, though I'll have to think about that carefully considering the Season 2 one is pretty darn amazing in its own right. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out as soon as you can; as for me, I can't wait to see it a second time as soon as possible. That's all I got for ya'll today, everypony. Until next week, this is Batbrony signing out. I'm off! *cue dramatic exit*
     



     



     

    I think we can all agree that best Hearth's Warming Tree Star was the best part of this episode


  22. Batbrony
    Good afternoon, everypony! My apologies for being late once again with a review, but once again I was indisposed on Saturday as I was away in Bay City, MI, judging for Michigan State History Day (which honestly was more exhausting than it was fun, if I'm being totally honest). But I got around to seeing the new episode twice now, and I have to say that I loved it. No Second Prances (aside from having a horrible pun in the episode title) was a very nice opportunity for the writers to give some closure to older story arcs, and man oh man did they nail it. Once again, since this was largely a character driven episode, I'll be focusing on the primary players in this one, namely Starlight, Trixie, and Twilight. Without further ado, let's begin.
     



     

    Now that's friggin' adorable


     



     

    My Little Pony: Passive-Aggressiveness is Magic


     
    So first of all, I have to say that I really thought that every major character here was very well balanced. Nobody was a Mary Sue and nobody was ridiculously evil or stupid; they made mistakes you'd expect them to make, and it worked out very nicely. In Starlight's case, her biggest mistake was probably not being more discerning about who exactly Trixie was. She saw similarities between their pasts on the surface, but she didn't delve in further with Trixie, and that probably would have helped her earlier on get a better understanding for Trixie. Trixie's always been far more narcissistic and ego-driven than Starlight ever was, and that might have helped Starlight be more careful and discerning as to why exactly Trixie was befriending her. Other than that, she mostly taught Twilight a valuable lesson about giving second chances in a very clever way; the "second chances" storyline has been seen a million times in all sorts of properties, but here it was clever because we have a newer character who arguably has done worse things being, far more easily, given a second chance (Starlight) than an older character who even at her worst didn't almost destroy Equestria. Starlight's able to nicely juxtapose how hypocritical Twilight is being if she's OK with Starlight but not Trixie, and it raises some interesting questions, namely, does Twilight simply think that only certain kinds of friendship can work, or with only certain types of ponies? Obviously that's not the case in the end, but the circumstances themselves with Starlight at the center made this episode far smarter in its delivery than it could have been. She ended the episode making a brand new friend of her own, and hopefully this is yet another great step for her in learning about friendship. Solid second episode for the new Starlight, and can't wait to see what's next for her.
     



     

    I'm not hopping on the TrixLight bandwagon, but these two are adorable together


     



     
    Building off of that, let's talk about Twilight. While I at times found some of her distrust of Trixie and hounding of Starlight a bit head scratching and out of character, it still made sense enough for two different reasons. In Starlight's case, having a student like this is still very new for Twilight, not to mention she had the added pressure of making a good impression on her own mentor, Princess Celestia. In Trixie's case, it really turned out that she didn't distrust Trixie because of what she'd done (because, again, it was peanuts compared to Starlight's past crimes), but rather, because of who she was. She and Trixie had never particularly gotten along very well, mostly because of Trixie's out of control ego; even the last time we saw Trixie, they didn't truly make up at the end. And even here, I actually really liked that they didn't become thick as thieves at the end. They made up, and will probably get along far better from now on, but the primary redemption for Trixie or reconciliation was not a result of Twilight or between her and Trixie. She helped Starlight, but Starlight was the primary catalyst here, not her, and I liked that. She's going to take longer than Starlight will to trust Trixie because she has an actual past with her, which makes plenty sense. Heck, even her three friends at Trixie's show (AJ, Pinkie, and Fluttershy) seemed alright with Trixie, far more than Twilight did. Top that off with some hilarious panicky, OCD Twilight, and she had a very good showing here.
     



     

    Are you happy now, Twilight? Are you happy???


     



     
    Finally, Trixie herself had a very nice return. The one thing that threw me off about her was her voice; it sounded fine, but very, very different from how it sounded in her first two appearances, and I have no idea if they switched VAs for her or what. Other than that, this was the redemption episode she deserved. She's still bombastic and completely full of herself, but she's clearly getting better and trying just to be a good entertainer now. Very interestingly, she also seemed a bit depressed, and I think we also really got a great sense of how awkward and anti-social she is. It's not hard to understand how someone as odd as her, who regularly refers to herself in the third person and talks very loudly, could have a hard time her whole life making friends. This could also explain her extreme reaction to Starlight nearly ending their friendship when she, more or less, almost throws her life away to a manticore; again, normal ponies wouldn't react to losing a friend this way, but someone who's super socially awkward to the point that, well into adulthood, they've never managed to maintain a single friendship, could if they were feeling down enough. But thankfully they didn't make Trixie a Mary Sue either; she's still narcissistic and annoying in her own way, especially to Twilight, namely because she still doesn't like Twilight. She resents that Twilight seems like one of those ponies who just constantly walk on gold paved roads, and that became apparent when she nearly lost Starlight's friendship over her joy at screwing up Twilight's plans. As I said, this was exactly the redemption she needed; much better than that 30 second apology at the end of her last episode, but also hardly your run of the mill "second chances" episode either. Trixie is still a character in that she has flaws and makes many of the same mistakes she used to, but she's also clearly getting better, and it should be much easier for her to grow now that she has an actual best friend for the first time in her life.
     



     

    I loved this bit so much


     



     

    The Great and Inebriated Trixie


     
    Last but not least, let's give credit to the comedic beats in this episode. This was a bucking funny episode loaded with funny bits from the Mane 6, background ponies, the main characters of the episode, you name it (they even had this amazing gag where Starlight, inexplicably, is apparently the one pony who Angel the Devil Bunny actually adores, I loved that!). The only one that really felt forced was the Mrs. Cake bit for a couple of reasons, but it was more than made up for in the Princess Celestia gags with Derpy, Vinyl, and Cranky. Oh my word, those were some of the funniest background pony/princess gags EVER, and they couldn't have ended the episode on a funnier gag if they tried! Some of the faces also helped nail the comedy down too, and I love that DHX continues to experiment with the characters' facial expressions. Overall, this was as solid as this episode could be. Was it perfect? No, but not in a way that I'd complain about it. Any flaws it has were super minor and pale in comparison to the things it did so, so right. Great episode with some great humor and great developments. I'd say this episode was great and powerful, indeed.
     



     

    The happiest pony in this episode; all Derpy needs is her muffins


  23. Batbrony
    Good morning, everypony, and welcome to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews"! First of all, I want to apologize for taking so long to get around to this review; last week was a nightmare as far as school work was concerned, and I had two honking big papers to finish up. Thankfully, that's all done, so that out of the way I now bring you my thoughts on "Gauntlet of Fire."
     
    And... well, this might just be my favorite Spike episode ever. It appears the DHX folks have resoundingly learned from their mistakes in some of the clunkier Spike episodes in earlier seasons and must have some writers there who just GET how to write Spike, because he's had some great episodes in the last two seasons. He held his own great in the season finale, but this episode was even better. In summing up what made this episode so great, we really need to look at two things: world building and characters.
     
    Starting with the former, this was a great world building episode. We learned a lot more about dragons than we knew before, we got to see a really cool new environment, and it added overall just another nice layer to the already huge world of MLP. I think the one thing that put me off a bit was that we didn't see any large adult dragons around besides the Dragon Lord Torch, and that was confusing considering we've seen plenty of dragons close to his size before. Maybe only younger dragons were allowed to compete for the title of Dragon Lord, I don't know, but it was a bit odd (though admittedly, it would've been unrealistic for Spike to win if he were competing against dragons that big). I did love the various dragons we got to see, some of them had very cool designs. And this last bit may not count as world building, but I absolutely adored that Celestia and Luna showed up at the beginning of the episode. I've been wanting to see them doing just day-to-day stuff for the longest time, so to actually see it was great and hopefully a harbinger of things to come this season, including, hopefully, the long-awaited Celestia-focused episode. Plus it made sense that they'd know what the call of the Dragon Lord is considering how long they've been around.
     
    Moving on, the rest of the review will largely focus on characters, starting with Spike. Man... this was a GREAT Spike episode, I cannot reiterate that enough. He wasn't treated like a Gary Stu, but it was great that they highlighted just how different he is from the rest of his kind, in a good way. This actually was a very nice continuation of the Season 2 episode Dragon Quest; in that episode, Spike wanted to be more like a dragon in order to connect with his roots, but realized he didn't have to do so when he realized it would mean needlessly being a jerk to others. He walked away from that episode determined to be the best dragon he could be by living the way his pony friends had taught him to, and he re-entered the world of dragons in this episode determined more than ever to do just that. It wasn't a lecture or great power on his part that won the day. It was just boundless kindness, determination, and optimism that won out, and I loved that. It was not only a reflection of how much the ponies have taught Spike, but how much he's learned and matured since Season 1. All he did was keep showing how much better things are to the rest of his kind when you just try to get to others through kindness and friendship rather than hostility, and he very well by the end of the episode may have laid down the foundations for a better future for his whole people. That's awesome, and Spike is awesome. I can only hope we get to see more Spike episodes like this this season.
     



     



     

    Spike: Dragon Lord of the Friend-zone!


     



     

    OK, that's badass


     
    Moving on, we come to the NEW character that everyone cannot stop talking about, for very, very, VERY good reason. Princess (now Dragon Lord) Ember. This character... let me put it this way. After I saw how crazy the fandom was going over her, I was worried that she wouldn't live up to the hype and expectations. I am glad to say I was 110% wrong! Ember was a delight. This was a happy instance of a new character (1) having a great design, (2) having a voice actress that perfectly represented what the character needed to be, (3) went through a character arc where she went from being grumpy and distrustful of others like the rest of her kind to open and receptive to the idea of friendship in just one episode, but it didn't feel forced or artificial, and (4) was just plain adorable, in a very tsundere manner (if you don't know what that is, it's basically how AJ and RD are adorable to; characters, typically female, who hide behind a tough exterior but eventually their warmer side comes out, usually making them more adorable in the process). I really, really dug this character in just about every respect. It felt like the type of character dragons needed. In Dragon Quest, all of the new dragons that Spike met were just over-the-top caricatures of teenage stereotypes. It made some sense, but it was also kinda boring and predictable. Here, we got to meet a character who was intelligent but also fairly set in dragons' ways just because she'd never heard of an alternative, or at least seen any in action. She proved herself, however, to be receptive to new ideas when she saw both the apparent and inherent value of friendship. She didn't just help Spike in the end for utilitarian purposes, she made a decision as well that friendship was something worth fighting for for its own sake. Spike taught all this to her just by being a good guy and showing her a good example, and I thought it made sense that he would leave such an impression on a character as intelligent as her. Overall, I just really, really, REALLY dug Ember, and I really hope we get to see more of this character going forward. She was just kinda awesome all around.
     

    BEHOLD, YOUR NEW DRAGON WAIFU!!!


     



     



     



     



     

    You will believe a dragon can be adorable


     
    While we're still on the topic of dragons, let's talk about our antagonist, Garble. Honestly, I thought even he was improved by this episode. In his first appearance, he was just kind of a really annoying jerk, but not much of a threat. He was a teenager stereotype, and that made for some laughs, but at the same time I never could take him seriously. Here, they actually struck the right balance. He was still a jerk and an idiot, but he felt plenty threatening as well, especially because of what he planned to do to ponies if he became Dragon Lord. Some of his scenes also made for great Spike scenes, particularly whenever we saw Spike stubbornly remaining his kind and helpful self even to Garble, despite the latter remaining a jerk and a bully to him. It was a great way of emphasizing that Spike was not going to make the same mistakes he did in Dragon Quest and fall for Garble's ways. To top it all off, he got a great comeuppance at the end that felt perfect for him without being too mean-spirited.
     



     

    I don't know why, but I absolutely loved it when he made this face


     
    Finally, to round things off with the dragons, I absolutely adored Dragon Lord Torch. This guy was, in a word, HILARIOUS. He had an ego to match his size, and it made for some of the best humorous bits in the episode. Plus I can't help but feel that he genuinely does care about his daughter and was just hiding it behind his extra, extra gruff, scaly exterior the entire episode, especially considering he didn't want her to compete for the Bloodstone Scepter. But all in all, this guy was just plain hilarious, and I really hope we get to see a bit more of him in future episodes, even if he no longer is Dragon Lord.
     



     

    Best line in the whole episode


     



     

    Gosh I love this guy


     
    On one final note, I thought Rarity and Twilight were great here. They didn't do a whole lot aside from giving Spike moral support, but even that played a key role in the end in how Ember learned about the true value of friendship. Twilight geeking out over dragons was pretty funny, and it was nice too to see that Rarity still takes a special interest in Spike's well-being. It's a testament to how close he is to both characters that they were the two to come along and accompany him.
     
    Besides the characters, the animation was very nice as always, they put together a nice musical score for this episode, and the episode had a nice balance of action and humor. All in all, this was a very fun and rousing episode with a surprisingly very good and well-delivered message. Right now, it's my favorite stand alone episode of the season, and one of the better ones we've had in awhile. It's nice to see Spike getting treated so well, and I can only hope this continues as the season progresses. That's all I've got for this one everypony, until later this morning, this is Batbrony signing off. I'm off!!! *cue dramatic exit*
  24. Batbrony
    Good morning, everypony, and welcome back to another edition of "Batbrony Reviews." Well, well, well, that was a delightful episode,wasn't it? A very lovely introduction to the CMC this season, as well as a smashing follow up to their grand finale last season culminating in their getting their cutie marks. Without further ado, let's dive into things, this is "On Your Marks."
     
    So I think the best way to review this particular episode is to first and foremost highlight its pacing, structure, and themes. This episode, for covering as much as it did, was wonderfully paced and structured. They set up the problem nicely, and resolved it just as nicely as well. Nothing felt rushed or forced, but very natural in how quickly it was addressed. So what exactly was the problem here? Well, the CMC, quite naturally, need to figure out what they're going to do now. Not as far as their special talents go, no, they quickly remind themselves that their purpose as the CMC is to help others with cutie mark and special talent problems. The problem, they quickly realize, is that they're still fillies, pretty much limited to doing stuff in Ponyville, and there are only so many cutie mark/special talent problems in Ponyville.
     



     

    Suddenly this show wants us to look at ponies plots even more than usual. I don't know how to feel about that...


     
    Astonishingly, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo quickly realize the answer to this conundrum. They both have a lot of other activities they'd like to do, but also realize that the other two CMC might not be so crazy about them, so they resolve that they should be able to do some things on their own, away from each other. As the leader of the CMC, and the one (arguably) most reliant on the group dynamic (no surprise given how important family is in her life), Apple Bloom is most uncomfortable with this arrangement. She's not sure what else she could possibly want to do besides stuff with her friends (although this is a bit odd considering we saw her earlier in the episode quite handily handling some potions at Zecora's), and eventually starts despairing as to what her life will be when she's not with the CMC. Things get resolved nicely when her friends point out that she doesn't have to do things she's just good at, but things she just enjoys for the sake of enjoying them, and they close things by assisting a new friend they've run into overcome his stage fright and earn his cutie mark in dancing.
     



     

    Wait a minute... is this confirmation that Berry Punch and Cherry Berry are vintners? That's... AWESOME!!!


     
    Like I said, this episode stands out to me both for its pacing and handling of its thematic elements. It seems like DHX just keeps getting better and better at handling the CMC, and episodes like this prove that point. While it does get a little old at times that AB so often gets the lion's share of CMC focus, this problem made a lot of sense for her to have; like I said, she's arguably the most reliant of all the CMC on close social networks, between her friends and extended family, so it makes a lot of sense that she'd have anxiety at the thought of doing activities without them or others. It was nice as well that Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle figured out on their own what was the best thing to do, as well as the fact that they got different results. Scootaloo seems quite good at bungie jumping, whereas Sweetie Belle is not very good at crocheting, but they both enjoy those activities just as much all the same.
     



     



     

    OK, WE GET IT, YOU WANT US TO LOOK AT YOUR BUTTS!!!
    Even Sea Swirl and Sassaflash seem uncertain how to feel about this

     
    The first new song of the season was quite nice, nothing spectacular or very memorable, but a nice sequence all the same. I would be remiss if I did not mention that it is very, very clear at this point that puberty is hitting Michelle Creber and Claire Corlett HARD!!! I mean, their voices are so low now; gone are the days of Sweetie Squeak. It's sad, but it's not like they don't still sound good in the roles, and it kind of gives the impression that they're getting older. It's just weird still that Scootaloo sounds the most like she did when the show started out of all three at this point. There were some creative and fun looking new supporting and background ponies introduced, most notably Tender Taps, good, typical CMC humor, and all in all the episode just had a nice, relaxed, Ponyville slice-of-life feel to it, despite, as I've mentioned quite a bit, hitting on some important themes. I don't have a whole lot to say about this one, but what I do have is nothing but praise. This was a great start in the season for the CMC, and I can't wait to see where they go from here. Until next time everypony, this is Batbrony signing off. I'm off! *cue dramatic exit*
  25. Batbrony
    First off, don't worry, this is NOT a cancellation of Batmare Begins and I am NOT leaving MLP Forums or anything like that. I have every intention of getting back to my fic as soon as I possibly can (which will hopefully be sometime this week) and remaining an active member here. But I need to be open and honest with you right now, since I owe you an update given how patient you've all been.
     
    Well, no easy way of saying this, so let me just be frank: I've bucked up. In a lot of areas of my life, this past month. Things are just pretty rough right now, in general, and most of it's self-inflicted. I've been frivolously wasting my time doing things I know I shouldn't be doing, which leave me with not enough time to devote to both my real life work and things I care about very much like Batmare Begins. I haven't been to church in quite a while and am currently not devoting enough time to God or my Christianity. One of my cats at my mom's house had to be put down this past weekend, and since she's almost three hours away I wasn't able to say goodbye to him (not that I'm angry at her about that, it was very sudden and took all of us off guard and it's still sinking in that I'll never get to see the little guy ever again). And I've been worrying way too much about my future to the point that I have paralyzed myself into inactivity in almost any endeavor I truly care about. In short, things are just a mess for me right now, and a lot of it is just because of poor decision-making and use of my time on my part. I need more self-discipline and self-control in my life, and that's not the case right now.
     
    Now, I'm not asking for your help. You don't owe me anything. I just felt I need to be honest with you all since I've kind of been off the grid for some time. I needed to let you know why, mostly to get it off my chest and to give me some good incentive for getting back on the right track. I just need to do better at motivating myself right now to use my time better and make better decisions in my life, and I think being open and honest with friends like you, people who have been there for me in this fandom for a long time now, is a good place to start. So now that you know what's up, I promise you that I am working hard to turn things around, and that includes regularly showing up around here, getting back hard at work on Batmare Begins and getting these latest updates up as soon as possible. Thank you for your continued support, and once again everyone, I'm very sorry.
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