On-Locoweed

I would very much like to see a follow up to "You'll Play Your Part" in the S6 finale with Twi ft. the other princesses. Recapitulation, you know? Maybe a duet between Cadance and Shiny that's about the bonds of matrimonial love? (gross) Plus a heartfelt Celestia number in the vein of "Celestia's Ballad" about the changing times. Starlight Glimmer needs another song too, maybe with Sunburst, about how good friendship feels.

It's an aesthetic achievement of Western Animation of the last 10 years.

There's always room for one more on the friendship express!

I will settle for 24 more decent episodes including some really thoughtful ones and some good songs. (I was really surprised that there was no song in "The Crystalling", but oh well.) Also, I'm curious to see where they are going to take the story with Starlight, because until I saw the S6 premier I wasn't too convinced that it was going to be interesting. Babies in any show kind of sour the mood for me (a la "Baby Cakes") but Flurry Heart wasn't terribly annoying and the only time her babiness was annoying was when she did that sonic screaming shit and blowed up the Crystal Heart (oh no! how will we save the day this time, guys? ....typical.) But, as long as they tone down the baby business and make her role believable, I think everything's gonna be just fine. I want sum MA Larson and sum Meghan McCarthy episodes. I want a few less slice of life stories and some "important" episodes, you know, the kind you sit down and watch and then later say, "now that episode is why I watch this show!" You know what I'm talking bout. And, again, some more songs pls.

Too life-consuming. But maybe that's my fault.

October 10, y'all, October 10. International Love and Tolerance Day. ...as if.

Allow me to clarify: When I refer to Equestria as a utopia, I am speaking to the fact that it is firstly a fictional place, and secondly guided by a morality that corrects all problems eventually. No, it is not a utopia in the strict definition of the word, but it is a place that has guiding principles and morals enforced by destiny. Ponies are "superior" (though I take objection to using this word specifically) to humanity because in Equestria there is an overaching philosophy that drives every action and event to its logical, moral conclusion, eliminating individual error and immorality that befalls humans. It is a world commanded by good even when assailed by agents of destruction, chaos, or outright evil. Such a world was created to be aspirational, something that appeals to our idealistic nature, but is impossible without ultimate control by destiny, god, etc. Thus it is like a utopia because it is a more genuine and safer place than our own. It is true that because ponies resemble humanity they possess faults, fears, irrationality, and negative situations similar to what we might deal with, but, again, the distinction between ourselves and ponies is that, by virtue of Equestria being a moral, cartoon world, ponies will always return to a harmonious state of existence, snobby rich ponies, bitter, egotistic magicians, and industrialized communities notwithstanding.

One reason why I think people like ponies so much is because they are models of perfection; they live a very simple, idealistic lifestyle that looks highly desirable in place of the complicated modern world we occupy now. The virtues that ponies in Equestria enjoy are similar to what humans want and aspire to have (and have always aspired to have), so it's no wonder why everyone wants to go there, or ponify themselves online, or just entertain the thought of a perfect, happy lifestyle. Equestria is a utopia, true in itself, but highly unlikely in our reality. Equestria is like Earth, idealized. The point of fantasy, and situating oneself and one's interest to live out fantasy, is to come close to another reality and to enjoy the virtues of that reality, without fooling oneself into thinking such circumstances are real. Needless to say, it takes a certain awareness to know what is possible and what is not within the constraints of our reality, likely the only one we are to ever know.

Even though Spike's birthday is also Rainboom-Cutie Mark Day, I'm not sure they would need to keep celebrating the confluence of their destinies along with Spike's birthday. The realization and concluding group hug from "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" was enough to drive home the point that the Mane Six are important, but they aren't such an egotistic hive-mind that they should need, or even want, a day that re-emphasizes what they already know. You get your cutie mark, you get your Cuteceñera, you move on with your destiny, (then you die!). Spike's birthday also happens to be the day that other important shit happened, but the other important shit that happened does not make Spike or his birthday more important. It does, however, mean that his destiny is tied in with the destinies of the Mane Six, though his role in the mythology of the series is not nearly of such importance that would elevate the significance of his birth to the significance of the Rainboom and its effects. Lastly, I'm just going to pretend Starlight Glimmer didn't actually do any of that impetuous time travel crap. None of that fucking around with the past was of any consequence anyway.

Over the years the style has gotten more and more crisp and detailed, so I'm hoping for the movie they will build on the effects that have been used since the beginning of Season 4 when the animation quality really got turned up a notch. "Princess Twilight pts. 1&2" is really stunning to look at during some scenes, so I'd like more of that. Additionally, I would prefer no CGI, since previous applications of that style, like with the timberwolves, just looks hokey. For the movie, I can see the need to augment the existing Flash style so that its easier to look at given the drastic change in viewing format, but obviously I'd prefer those changes to not include CGI.

Friendship would most certainly exist in Equestria otherwise, but so far only the Mane Six have a bond of friendship powerful enough that enables them to wield the Elements of Harmony and play off one another's strengths to be a team of superheroes (and I'm not talking about Power Ponies here), and this is something not everypony is capable of--particularly, because other ponies were not fated to do so. You hit the nail right on its head, mentioning destiny there. The logic of the fictional universe in MLP:FiM relies on destiny to dictate every significant action that occurs in the series. One may think this brings into question the legitimacy of the Mane Six's friendship, since it appears to be artificially sewn together by fate rather than happening naturally. However, if you believe in destiny anyway, then their becoming friends makes perfect sense and was supposed to happen as easily as water flows downhill. I cannot stress enough destiny, destiny, destiny, fate, fate, predetermination. This is the fuel for all things in the connections between the Mane Six from the Cutie Mark Sonic Rainboom onward. It was all supposed to happen just the way it did and continues to. Some episodes along the way have emphasized that friendship is awesome, sometimes magic one might say, and sometimes magic can't be explained (tough shit, right?). The Mane Six share a friendship that other ponies can aspire to, yet will always be a little different because it serves a grand function in the history of Equestria. Not only are the Mane Six agents in the fate of Equestria, they are the fate of Equestria now. The model of fate controlling all actions and events in Equestria will inevitably raise problems and exceptions sometimes for which there is no easy or believable answer. In fact, whole narratives in the show can potentially be unraveled by finding holes in the logic of predetermination as it is presented in FiM. But, this show is fiction, and mistakes will come up because it is authored by a number of people who have varying interest in keeping a consistent continuity and writing fate as hand-waving any illogical blemish that might come up. I think destiny, or "divine intervention" as you put it, is the best way to make sense of the events in the show, the special friendship of the Mane Six, and, hey, friendship in general. Equestria is a weird place and putting it under a microscope proves it weirder and weirder. For all this effort and all this energy, I still feel like my arguments are only educated guesses at best. The story of Friendship is Magic is not yet done being told. There is still a lot of ground to cover and a lot of questions that may not get answered or even need answers (But hey, what are headcanons for?). After the show and movie are both complete we can look at the whole body of work and make sense of it, but for now I feel like some of what we know to be true could get undermined in a flash and that's the way it is. I'll stop before I get too fatalistic.

Pinkamena is a good and well-characterized addition to MLP fanon. She is not a careless, superficial perversion of Pinkie Pie's more manic traits, nor does she represent a cynical misinterpretation of Equestria. Pinkamena is not canon and so one has no obligation to like her if one disagrees with what happens in "Cupcakes", but I would argue that she deserves respect as an influential character in fanon and that "Cupcakes" is important because it is a fountainhead of all sorts of fan labor within the fandom. Pinkamena, presented as an alter ego to Pinkie Pie in the classic bedtime story "Cupcakes", is quite a believable character, actually. One reason why she scares people so much and why people hate her and the SergeantSprinkles story is because she is still in character (that is, in Pinkie's character) for the whole story. She has a motivation, her manners are consistent with Pinkie Pie's, and she is an effective villain. Pinkamena is not a clumsy flanderization of Pinkie Pie; Pinkamena is an interpretation of Pinkie Pie. She's a legitimate character inspired by an existing model but can stand on her own; she's a good character. Moreover, "Cupcakes" has a legacy that makes Pinkamena of far greater importance than her appearance in the original short story. Countless spinoff fan fics, fan-created songs and animations, and dramatic grimdark readings have been inspired and produced by people in the fandom who understand Pinkamena's value as a strong character as well as her being a scarily-believable alteration of Pinkie Pie. Pinkamena is one of the best alternate universe interpretations of a character from MLP because she is one of the most original and uncompromising creations of the early fandom. It isn't "bad" that someone took a character from a kids cartoon and did something inventive with it. It isn't "wrong" or "sick" that people like to write, draw, and perform a violent psychopath for expressive purposes. Pinkamena, while disagreeable to a number of bronies because of how intense she is, is actually one of the most valuable products of this fandom. If you don't appreciate her in the context of "Cupcakes", give the mare the respect of being an icon within her own canon of Pony Grimdark. Appreciating fan labor means accepting that people interpret the original product differently, and as is such, one shouldn't brush something because it might rub them the wrong way.

While I could headcanon all day to try to justify why Equestria would or would not function without the Mane Six, I think one must accept that "Friendship Magic" is always going to trump any threat (and is the only legitimate defense against any threat) because the moral of the show is that friendship, having friends that complete you as a person, is both necessary and desirable in one's life. This is not to say that without the Mane Six there is no such thing in Equestria as friendship, but rather the point of the Mane Six (and their being friends) being so essential to the destiny of Equestria is because the magic of friendship saves all. Community, camaraderie, and faithfulness are virtues that exist in Equestria and so friends will always defeat evil, disaffected, friendless villains. The Mane Six, because they are such true, true friends, are also more powerful than Celestia because she has no friends; Luna likewise has no friends, and it seems like she's on some sort of magical probation, having little more besides mentoring fillies in their dreams. Cadance and Shining Armor aren't friends--they're lovers. The show isn't about romance, so being married is symbolic more of maturity and procreation than about advanced friendship (if you call marriage that). I wouldn't call it sad that the Mane Six are Equestria's only hope (nor am I accusing you of making that argument), but I would say that it's just necessary that they are the most powerful, unstoppable force in Equestria because friendship will always win because its a good thing. Equestria, sans-Mane Six and Twilight's leadership, may not turn into a wasteland, but arguably it would be a far less desirable place to be because everyone would be empty and solipsistic- which is not a good thing. In the end, I'm always skeptical to criticize the show on issues that concern friendship, because, as the title of this show would imply, making friends is good. It's magic, even. So, what better way to make friends with an enemy (an enemy who is finally another pony not unlike the main character) than to kill her with kindness. I don't agree with the narrative of Starlight's reformation, but the formula is to make friends, not punish enemies, so everyone is going to be on the same page at the end of the day.