Thrond

Turns out the real Equestria Girl... was love. 

SEASON 7, RANKED:

1. A Flurry of Emotions
2. Once Upon a Zeppelin
3. The Perfect Pear
4. A Royal Problem
5. A Health of Information
6. Parental Glideance
7. Discordant Harmony
8. Triple Threat
9. It Isn't the Mane Thing About You
10. Not Asking for Trouble
11. Secrets adn Pies
12. Rock Solid Friendship
13. To Change a Changeling
14. Campfire Tales
15. Celestial Advice
16. Uncommon Bond
17. Shadow Play
18. Forever Filly
19. Fame and Misfortune
20. Marks and Recreation
21. Honest Apple
22. All Bottled Up
23. Daring Done?
24. Fluttershy Leans In
25. Hard to Say Anything

Idea: an episode, maybe a two-parter, where an older Flurry Heart goes back in time, perhaps to help stop some kind of time travelling villain, and gets to see her parents at a younger age, and learn firsthand how troublesome a baby she was. 

"Shadow Play" - Has small moments of charm, but nothing all that special, and there's a few plot points here which only occur because the mane six make decisions which doesn't fit what I've come to expect from them. I still don't find Starlight interesting at all, and this is very self-serious and focuses overwhelmingly on the show's increasingly crappy mythology. Plus it's incredibly formulaic and predictable, and doesn't even offer the interesting themes or imagery of other self-serious finales. By objective standards, this may not be the worst two-parter to date ("Princess Twilight Sparkle" is hard to top), but it's blatantly the least impressive, and I don't know what you all are seeing in it. 

I feel like this isn't the same show I fell in love with. I'll start season 8, but if it doesn't demonstrate a significant change within three episodes, I'm just done. I can't deal with this show anymore. 

I think about Equestria Girls: Friendship Games very often, and I just figured out how the climax fits into my preferred interpretation of the movie's themes. I might need to write at length about this at some point, but to summarize: Midnight Sparkle = product of a toxic environment; Daydream Shimmer = supportive environment reaching out. Nature vs. nurture: Twilight was raised in the toxic environment, and even though she likes the supportive environment, she doesn't realize it can get her more. Daydream represents the supportive environment showing her more. 

For those of you who want Equestria Girls to "stand alone": what would the hook be? So far I've found the My Little Pony link to be 80% of what makes that series interesting. 

So the movie has now dropped below 50% on the Tomatometer, like it deserves. 

"Uncommon Bond" - Okay, Sunburst hanging out with Starlight's friends is cute enough, but I just don't know why I should care that Starlight is having a harder time relating to Sunburst. I mean, it's relatable enough, I guess, and it's an okay moral, but I'm not that invested in a relationship which Starlight and Sunburst barely rekindled in a single two-parter which aired two seasons ago, and I just feel this coasts on that lesson and mildly charming plot beats without doing anything particularly exciting or memorable. And I just don't like Starlight anymore. I still don't feel like I have a strong sense of what she does whenever plot isn't happening to her, and I still get the sense that she has a hard time considering others' feelings. I don't want her to act like this anymore. 

"Secrets and Pies" - Probably one of the dumbest things this show has ever done, and the sheer extent to which this is based on poor communication feels out-of-place in season 7. That said, this is also absolutely hilarious, and while it's a bit loud for my taste, basically every single joke lands. Plus, there's a nice moral and a bit of emotional context which makes the character immaturity a little easier to swallow. Feels a bit off in tone for the show, but when it's this fun, who cares? 

Goddamit, now I wanna see Scootaloo's lesbian aunts in the show. That's the second time these books have produced backstory the cartoon will never give me. 

For all my complaints, I must admit a strong degree of affection for how great season 7 has been to Twilight. Almost every single appearance she's had has been phenomenal, and she's actually allowed to be a person again rather than the flattened shell of herself she had become in seasons 4-6. It's just so exciting to like my favourite character again!

The movie is more or less what I expected, which is to say that it's pretty bad. The songs are forgettable but fine, and there's some dark parts I enjoyed, but the story is really banal, the jokes suck, and it does nothing to initiate newcomers. Kinda liked Tempest, but she needed way more development. 

You know, I'm still not used to all the people who make forum posts filled with pictures in episode threads. I get why they do it, it just always catches me off guard. 

I get the strong feeling that a lot of people have decided to like My Little Pony: The Movie before even seeing it, to the extent that they'll probably dismiss nearly all negative reviews from non-fans. 

Early MLP movie reviews sure are exactly what I expected. 

So, re: Apple parents... I was always under the impression that people wanted to know where they are now, so I'm surprised that they're considering flashbacks and vague implications to have "delivered." I don't feel like I know that much more about them than I did before, and I don't know if this adds anything whatsoever to the series. 

Thought I would have gotten used to the MLP movie art style by now, but all those promos still just look cheap and awkward to me. And the faces, oh god, the faces. 

"Marks and Recreation" - I hate to sound like a broken record, but this lacks humour and subtext. I hate to keep saying that, but maybe I wouldn't have to if the show would stop being boring. Like "Daring Done?," this completely avoids the most interesting parts of its own premise, and becomes utterly predictable as a result. And how do you even apply a moral about cutie marks to the real world? I guess it's nice to get some development for Thunderlane and Rumble, but even that is pretty rudimentary and shallow. 

I really feel like Fluttershy and Twilight are one of the show's more underrated pairings. "The Hooffields & the McColts" isn't that much like "A Health of Information," but both are hilarious. 

"A Health of Information" - Maybe too manic for its own good - all the characters are practically bouncing off the walls - but this is fast-paced, funny, exciting, and surprisingly intense. Meadowbrook is my favourite legendary character so far, the worldbuilding is possibly the best this season, there's a genuine sense of danger, and Fluttershy being so concerned for Zecora's well-being is adorable. A lot of the dialogue is just exposition, but it's exposition with a little personality thrown in. I kinda loved this. 

I appreciate that season 7 is constantly following up on old ideas, delivering much-requested storylines, and trying to force progression wherever possible, but I often feel like all of that is just checking off boxes rather than coming up with actually creative storylines. If the fanservice is being used as a crutch, then that would explain a lot of my issues with this season. In many ways, it feels like season 5, which kept shooting for high emotion and bombast to cover up the fact that it didn't have a lot of fresh ideas. No coincidence that those are my least favourite seasons; wonder what it says that they're so popular around these parts. 

I have kind of a bad feeling about this "Legends" stuff everyone's talking about, but it's too early to pass judgment. The finale better not tell an impersonal story...

Now I want to see an Equestria Girls thing where the Rainbooms go full pop punk. 

I distinctly remember once reading about people complaining that "The Return of Harmony" was too dark. Imagine what they thought of "The Cutie Map," if they were still watching the show by that point.