Professional Horse

REEEEE THIS WAS GARBAGE DHX SUCKS I'm kidding, of course, but I have a feeling some folk won't be. These two episodes had some pretty nasty flaws. For example, retconning things for no good reason, some awkward dialogue, humour and writing in general, Trixie being a little too annoying, "boring" slice-of-life instead of the usual drama we have in two-parters -- which this was not. Not to mention that Starlight Glimmer is still here. But did I care? Nope. I mostly watch MLP for the comedy, and these two certainly delivered. So much silliness, fun character interaction and situational comedy, as well as satire! Speaking of which, that song at the end of "All Bottled Up" was a joke, and wasn't supposed to be good. When I first saw the M6 singing all of a sudden for no good reason, I was baffled, but then I laughed. I missed the days when MLP made fun of songs in children's entertainment. Those were good days, and these two reminded me of those. Another good thing was characterization. Holy moly, the characterization. Celestia was amazing, Twilight was adorable as always, Spike was the sarcastic straight man he should be, Trixie and Discord were glorious jerks and Starlight, uh, she was there too. It's almost as if the people who wrote these episodes know that characters are the backbone and forte of this show. Overall, while these two were definitely flawed, I really enjoyed watching them. Two thumbs up from me. You know what? I'm gonna give season 7 a chance. Maybe it's not gonna be as bad as I-- Next episode is a babysitting episode with Twilight. Baby Cakes + Lesson Zero 2.0. Oh crap.

WHY DO I FEEL AN URGE TO BUY THESE Pretty cool. Storm King actually looks imposing and badass, especially with that destroyed Canterlot in the background. Grubber or whatever still looks weird and now I'm 100% sure he'll be the annoying and stupid henchhog. The wingless griffon pirate captain looks cool and cute at the same time. The magic peg leg is interesting. Wonder what it will look like in the movie? Is this a MLP toy? He looks even weirder as a physical product. Oh well, I'm sure the furries will love him.

Seaquestria... I'm not sure how I should react. I want to laugh, face-palm and sigh at the same time. I mean, I suppose it's fitting because MLP has plenty of locations with pun names, but it still feels stupid. It's not worse than Manehattan or Yakyakistan, at least. I hope Ponk is amused by the name in the movie and says it's silly.

Uh... okay. Some weird hog-like thing. Again, looks a bit out of place like the cat character, but not as much. Obviously the henchhog of Storm King. I hope he won't be the cliched "idiot assistant"-style character who's there for "comic relief".

I'm giving him a chance. He just looks weird. Not completely out of place, but he really looks a lot like a furry OC: an anthropomorphic, clothed cat walking on two legs. Sure, we had the diamond dogs, but they had some features that made them different and unique, such as a gorilla-like walking style. Capper's just a humanized cat. Others say Tempest is edgy, but I like purple too much to hate her. Also that armour looks neat as heck.

Can we all agree that Capper is weird? Really didn't expect to see a furry OC in the movie. I hope he has a decent personality to make up for his bizarre appearance. I guess Captain Celeano and Capper are pirates, who will take the Mane 6 to the seapony kingdom (hopefully called Aquastria, heh), where the queen and the princess live. Storm king will be a villain and Tempest will be his henchhorse. It's odd to see them revealing the celebrity characters before a teaser or anything. I guess they want to build up hype this way. Have other movies promoted themselves like this?

I already posted my thoughts on this finale in the UK release thread, but I'm going to repost them here. Maybe someone might find my review mildly interesting. --- There's so, so many good things about this finale that I'm not really bothered by the flaws. Hey, let's make a list! Cheap internet tabloids and lazy youtubers love 'em! GOOD things: +++ THE GRRRREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE +++ Chrysalis is the best god damn villain. This is an objective fact. +++ FUCK YOUR REFORMATION! MWAHAHAHA (part of the above I suppose) +++ The clutzy draconequus +++ The changelings in general +++ Spades of humour! YES! ++ Great set-up in the first part, it was tense and exciting ++ Great character interactions ++ Magic users have to solve problems without magic! Yes! ++ The visuals and the setting! Esp. the hive! ++ Glimmy was alright, but her development in this episode was pretty fantastic ++ The animation in general ++ Princess Luna was pretty great ++ Discord and Fluttershy are good friends. Friends. I approve. + Thorax was cute I guess + Part 2 was good before the ending + Cute and funny meme faces BAD things: - No Sunburst (only mentioned) for some reason - No Ember or dragons, I would've liked to see them again - Glimmy and Trixie saw the changed mane 6 communicate with Chrysalis because... coincidence? No, lazy writing. - The darkstone throne felt like a cheap ass-pull. A cool ass-pull, though -- No song?! -- The reformation of the changelings was too fast and easy -- The ending in general left a bad taste in my mouth (so they all just shoot love out of their chests and... uh, what?) -- The new changeling designs look... weird. -- How was everyone captured again? You gonna explain that, or... --- No Spike! What the hell? He should've been in the B-team! It would've been perfect! Besides, this is Season Spike! Come on! --- Twilight did not talk to Starlight at the end, aside from asking "dafuq happened fam". Disapponting and odd. Why didn't they wrap up Starlight's sparse arc properly? So, I liked it. I think that Best Night Ever was a better finale and Return of Harmony a better two-parter, but this one was better than all the other ones. Really happy with this.

Lists! Who doesn't love lists! Everyone loves lists! Or, well, that's what the writers of clickbait internet articles think. THE EPISODES THAT DOUBLED THE FUN - Saddle Row Review Not my favourite, but pretty gosh darn funny. The setting didn't feel like MLP and I hate Manehattan, but the episode was a festival of hilarity. Because I value comedy the most in this show, it gets a lot of points. - To Where And Back Again The second half was rather meh and had some issues, but holy sweet sunny butt of Celestia, the first part was great. Not perfect, sure, but it built tension wonderfully, had some amazing character interactions, developed Starlight really well and made me like Trixie. Most importantly, Chrysalis was god damn amazing in this two-parter. As a big fan of her hammy character, I was squealing with joy. She was damn perfect. I especially loved how she kept tossing Starlight and shouting at everyone. LONG LIVE THE QUEEN! - Hearth's Warming Tail Why do people complain about this episode using a cliche/classic plot? They didn't play it straight and had some twists in the formula. And even if you had a problem with the same old formula being used, you have to admit that everything in this episode was wonderfully done, especially the music. Although I felt like this was a big wasted opportunity for fleshing out Starlight's character. - Stranger Than Manchildren Strange but awesome, and equally entertaining for both kids and adults. The comedy was surprisingly well written and Quibble's character was a good parody of nerdy fans. I hope more bornies would take its lesson to heart: liking different seasons is no cause for brutal digital warfare. - The Fault In Our Cutie Marks A heartwarming and cute episode. I can't think of any major flaws, really. It felt like pure, refined MLP and I liked that a lot. - Dungeons And Discords Discord is bloody hilarious. That is all. - Top Bolt WHY CAN'T VAPOR TRAIL BE MY WAIFU INSTEAD OF SKY'S AAAGH Ahem. Twilight and RD were great together and Spitfire was an entertaining drill sergeant. Not entirely happy with the plot, but who cares. Vapor Trail is the best pony of 2016. The episodes that were an academy record when it comes to being shit - Newbie Dash I don't hate this episode, but I feel like it was a gigantic wasted opportunity of unprecedented size. Dash simply isn't Wonderbolt material and those guys are assholes, so why not tell an emotional story about letting go of your dreams? Or about the price you have to pay to achieve them? Or about anything that isn't about hazing being okay or a yet another lesson about humility? The episode also raises many other questions. Why did Dash make those weird impersonations again? Why did the episode spend less than 1 minute making Dash a Wonderbolt? Why didn't Pinkie watch Dash perform? Why did oh gosh I'm having an aneurysm help - 28 Pranks Later, Applejack's Day Off, The Cart Before The Ponies, On Your Marks, Spice Up Your Life Weird episodes. Really, really weird. Or boring. Or unfunny. Or poorly written. I don't remember because they were so forgettable. Thank the gods for that. - The Crystalling Take all the parts I liked, the parts that include Starlight, Spike and Sunburst. Put them in an episode. Put everything else (esp. the exposition) in the garbage bin. Nothing of value was lost, and now we have a pretty solid 22 minute slice-of-life episode! Seriously, if this hadn't been a two-parter I would've been fine with it. Alas, it was, so I don't like it. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– This season is disappointing if you compare it to season 5. I talked about why exactly in other threads, but basically I feel like the show is stagnating or even backpedaling. I hope season 7 will be better.

Yes, that one. The arc wasn't a bad adaptation, but I remember having some issues with it. Not sure what exactly, it's been quite a while. In general, adaptations are disappointing to those who know the source material. Which is why I'd prefer if MLP didn't do any comic adaptations.

That'd be nice, but I'm pretty sure that the show staff doesn't read comics. Not entirely sure, because I recall seeing a few references to the comics in the show. But even if they do read them, I don't think they'd be allowed to borrow entire stories from them. Besides, maybe it's better if they don't do anything based on the comics. I remember a Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode that was based on a rather good comic and I didn't like the episode nearly as much. Adaptations always have problems :/

I already posted my thoughts on this episode before, but I'm going to also put them here: Once again, fairly solid episode. Loved the comedy (Spitfire's "I love my job" line and Dash falling asleep during class made me laugh pretty damn hard) and the new characters that were introduced. Vapor Trail was adorable as hell. I need extra cute fanart of her within the next 24 hours. I NEED IT. (5 days later edit: I NEED MOAR) The ending gag and the resolution to the conflict weren't very satisfying to me, however. The former felt forced and cliche while the latter felt too fast and easy. The shippers are going to have a field day with this episode.

A new villain would be nice, as long as he/she/it doesn't incapacitate Celestia and Luna with ease. The Worf effect is getting ridiculous at this point. The villain should have an interesting and unique motivation, like Starlight did in the season 5 premiere. I hope the mane 6 solve the conflict together. It's been a long time since that has happened. Starlight could join in, as long as she gets to interact with either Spike or Trixie. She needs foil, otherwise she's not too interesting. The two-parter should have a proper, neat ending for once. Why are they struggling so much with ending the finales and premieres properly? Just cut unnecessary scenes from the earlier parts so you have time to properly resolve the conflict and deal with denoument. Shouldn't be too hard. The premiere shouldn't rely on some gimmick and should focus on telling a good story instead. Twilight's Kingdom relied too much on the DBZ fight and Cutie Re-Mark relied too much on time travel and alternate timelines. The last finale was a step in the right direction.

The shippers are going to have a field day with this episode.

I say that. See my post in this thread. When season 5 ended, Thiessen, Rogers, Larson and McCarthy left and that definitely impacted the quality of season 6.

The throne was a cheap ass pull that raised many questions. The idea for it was fine, and it allowed for an interesting story to happen, but they could've done it better. Not to mention that they could've come up with something else instead of a throne and used it to kill two flies in one hit by explaining how the alicorns were captured. Heck, why not have Chrysalis say the following line to her drones at the Friendship Toy Castle: "It took us a long time to find the darkstone staff, but thanks to it, the ponies were unable to stop us!" Then have Thorax explain that it is an artifact that nullifies non-changeling magic in a large area around it and that he thought Chrysalis had given up looking for it. There we have it: an explanation with a nice bit of foreshadowing and mystery that also tells us what the changelings were doing after Canterlot Wedding. The comic origin story is weird, but kind of cool in my opinion. What exactly bothers you so much about it?

I don't think most people are demanding too much from the show. While I personally am fine with the newer seasons, I fully understand why many don't like them and complain about the show. This show's greatest strength is its characters. If the mane 6 were just the shallow archetypes they're based upon few would care about this show. And what do you do with good characters? You tell good stories with them. What makes a good story? Emotion. You want the audience to cheer for the hero, cry when someone close to them dies and shout in anger at the devious villain. So to be more specific, a story is good if it makes the audience feel an intended emotion. When I watch the ending of Cutie Re-Mark, I'm supposed to be crying. Yet I'm too busy scratching my head because Starlight's motivation made little sense. At the end of Newbie Dash, I'm supposed to feel proud of the blue lesbian horse, but I'm too busy mumbling to myself "Did they just say 'hazing is cool'?" When I'm watching the season finale, I'm supposed to root for Starlight, but I struggle because I realized that Every Little Thing She Does made her into a sociopath. Not even exaggerating. That's how she was portrayed there. This is bad writing. And this season has a lot of it. And it sucks. They have great characters, but they just can't tell good stories with them most of the time. Good episodes are, unfortunately, an exception. This doesn't make me angry, just sad. I don't want this show to be the best cartoon of this decade, but I want it to tell good stories because good stories made me truly fall in love with the show after the comedy and satire hooked me in. Stories like Best Night Ever, Suited For Success and Sleepless In Ponyville. They're not amazing stories, but they make me feel happy at the end. That's all I want from this show. I want to have a big dumb smile on my face when the credits roll, maybe with some tears in my eyes. This, however, isn't common nowadays, so I've lowered my standards a bit. I've always loved the comedy in this show and they keep delivering it. The visual style is nice, the animation is good, the music is great. In fact, everything but the writing is consistently good in this show. So that's why I keep watching it. This doesn't stop me or other people from wanting more and being frustrated when we're not given any. To quote Marceline, "I'm only hurting you because I love you." I hope season 7 will be good. I really do.

Understandable, but worrisome. It means DHX have a tighter schedule for making season 7. It never is a good thing. While season 6 wasn't bad (unless you really hate Starlight or love Rainbow Dash... I'm sorry for you), it wasn't as good as it could've been. The hiatus between seasons 5 and 6 might've been short, but it might've also hurt the quality of the show.

I don't know what this show is doing to me. I'm starting to think that a worm-like monstrosity and a yellow horse with wings are in a romantic relationship. I mean, she blushed when Discord hugged her, and Discord was pissed when he heard that Fluttershy was captured... can you really say that they're just friends? And I thought it was weird to ship a female despot made out of bubblegum and a 1000-year old teenage vampire.

I'd like to call this season a disappointment, but it isn't. Not necessarily because it was surprisingly good, but because my expectations were low. After season 5 ended, there were some troubling news: Jaysson stepped down from the position of director, Rogers left, Larson and McCarthy didn't write any scripts, Josh Haber became the story editor, the hiatus would only last half a year, there would be many new writers etc. Taking all this into account, the season fared alright. There were plenty of solid episodes like Saddle Row Review and Stranger Than Fanfiction and while the new writers struggle with plots, denoument and consistent characterization, they at least handle cartoon comedy pretty well, which makes me happy. Numerous average episodes and some really, really weird ones (Newbie Dash and Applejack's Day Off, for example), however, mean that it wasn't any better than "alright", which makes me sad. One thing that annoys me is the amount of wasted potential. There were a ton of good ideas for stories this season but the execution was often very average. Not to mention that season 5 felt like a step forward but season 6 feels like a step backwards. Season 5 acknowledged and even handled things such as brainwashing, losing your home, death, creative work turning into factory work, isolation, pregnancy, being a celebrity, self-harm and losing your pet. The show was getting slightly more mature and it got me excited... and then season 6 happened. Sigh. Oh well, at least we got Chrysalis being awesome. I fully agree with this! I've always been a fan of Spike, so this season has made me very, very happy in that regard. Go Spike!

Cringeworthiness (is that a word?) is very typical for this kind of plot, but I understand if you're bothered by it. Cringe isn't for everyone. Derpy is in the hospital, you can see her when AJ is running in the hallways looking for Big Mac (if I remember right).

Am I the only one who finds it odd how much the characters shake and quiver? Was there no other way to tell the viewer that the characters are afraid? It's a small thing but it bothers me. It's on DailyMotion, you can watch it there. There's also versions that have fixed speed so Twilight doesn't sound like a mouse. As an Adventure Time fan who sees 22-minute long finales as typical, this is baffling to me. You want more? 44 minutes is already an excessive luxury!

1) Here's some names: - Blinglings - Vomitlings - Haberlings - Colorlings - Goodlings - Weirdcolorschemelings - Gaylings - Toylings - Buttwinglings 2) I mean, I'd like to say yes and make the character designers innocent, but I just don't believe girls (or their parents, rather) will want to buy bug toys.

Why are people calling this episode terrible? It was pretty solid and executed the good old "lies spiral out of control"-plot pretty well, not to mention that the climax is Big Mac almost losing his leg, which was hilariously extreme and unexpected. Derpy with bandaged eyes was the worst and the best part. It's one of the saddest things I've seen in this show and it's in the background, just like that depressed yellow horse eating by himself from Twilight Time. What's the next extremely sad thing they're going to hide in the background?

Anderson makes really solid background music. He deserves more praise than he gets. And yes, I also think that the background music in the finale was great, especially in the second part. My favourite part was the juxtaposition of trombones and flutes when Chrysalis and Starlight argued about leadership.