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Thrond

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Everything posted by Thrond

  1. Thrond
    You post in old threads that haven't been active for years, many of which are outdated.
  2. Thrond
    Seasons 5 and 7 are my least favourite seasons of the show. Both have a handful of episodes I love, but those are very much in the minority those seasons, and the prevailing trends those seasons never interested me at all. If anything, I felt seasons 8 and 9 felt to me like the show loosening up a bit after the stodginess of season 7. I miss Equestria Girls way more than Friendship is Magic. That series ended too soon. And I really liked seeing the mane six in a down-to-earth setting again.
  3. Thrond
    The fact that she had a dark past makes it easier for her to relate to misbehaving students, therefore making it easier for her help them. And the fact that she went through so much to become a functioning member of society makes it easier for her to help everyone else.
  4. Thrond
    I don't think one of the main characters could possibly be the "most hated" character in the show. In fact, I personally remain a fan of her. Surely the most hated character is one of those one-time villains.
  5. Thrond
    I think Rainbow Rocks is head-and-shoulders above all of the others, though "Rollercoaster of Friendship" is also quite good. "Holidays Unwrapped" comes pretty close, but I don't think that should count as one special.
  6. Thrond
    Honestly, I think the fact that suddenly some of the characters are couples helps with the idea that this is some time in the future and a lot has changed. Which is useful because this is an episode about friendship surviving major changes in these ponies' lives. I don't think the romantic angle is an important part of this story otherwise.
  7. Thrond
    Honestly I think that episode was about how Scootaloo has bad parents. I mean yes the execution is weird but what happens in that episode is that her parents make a major change to her life out of nowhere despite having neglected her for years beforehand. Though perhaps that's a conversation for that episode's thread.
  8. Thrond
    The basic premise of the episode is that they're wrong to be saying that. Really not a fan of the mane six saying such things in the first place, though; I much preferred the previous season where they were standing against racism (speciesism?).
  9. Thrond
    The early seasons, where Rarity was often kinda selfish, aren't really my favourite period for that character, but at best ("Sweet and Elite") you see her actively struggle to balance her ambitions with her values. I think that's one of the things this show did best. But I'm also not bothered by the mane six not sticking to their elements.
  10. Thrond
    People hold the mane six too closely to the Elements of Harmony, and those characters are better for not embodying their element all the time. Twilight Sparkle becoming a princess was never a good idea. I like a lot of CMC episodes but would never list them among my favourite characters in the show. They should have been more distinct from each other. I find it kinda boring how much pony culture and history seems to just copy human culture and history. The non-pony species are so much more interesting, especially later in the show when they actually started to be taken seriously. Ponies are still the cutest though.
  11. Thrond
    My opinion has shifted several times with these two since I first posted here; they've both gone through periods where I really liked them and where I really did not. At the end, I would say that I like them both a lot at their best, but find them both very inconsistent. Starlight will probably never be one of my favourite characters, because she just doesn't feel distinctive; the only personality traits of hers I find entirely unique are her rudeness and her occasional disregard for others, the latter of which usually makes her unlikable. And those traits aren't always there. When she's more grounded, I feel it doesn't fit the show's tone, which leaves her feeling kinda bland to me. I liked her a fair bit in season 8, where she usually wasn't stealing the spotlight and was often a little rude in a way that was endearing and at times even productive. But then she was relegated to the sidelines in season 9 and was just Diet Twilight again in her few focus episodes, which was likeable enough but hardly something I was invested in. Depending on the episode, Sunset is either much better than Starlight or much worse. At her best, she's an appealing, well fleshed-out character nearly on par with the mane six. At her worst, she seems more like a bland avatar for the other characters to bounce off of. Whenever she develops a new interest or character trait, it tends to feel completely arbitrary because her base characterization is so inconsistent. I have a strong idea of who Sunset Shimmer should be, but not necessarily of who she is. A lot of shorts and specials strung throughout the Equestria Girls series made good use of her and establish what a properly developed version of Sunset might look like, but there were still too many where she barely seemed to have a personality at all. So I like both I guess but they both frustrate me.
  12. Thrond
    Ooh, it's tough. They all have their moments. Applejack seems like the most obvious pick to me, because she's tough and confident by nature - Twilight and Rainbow have both done more impressive stuff, but they're more self-conscious. But after some consideration I'm leaning towards Pinkie Pie, who is the only one who could wield Discord's chaos magic, however briefly. We all underestimate her because she's silly but she's capable of some crazy stuff. I even understand why some people might pick Rarity and Fluttershy - most of the time they would rather not be badass, but that makes it even more impressive when they are.
  13. Thrond
    Yeah, I just wasn't really into it by the end. In my opinion it peaked early and then mostly went downhill, with the occasional spike in quality. Honestly kinda felt like it went on too long; would have been just fine with it ending sooner.
  14. Thrond

    The School of Friendship may have been an awkward idea but I liked it a lot because

    1. It was a much-needed change of pace for a show which I felt was stagnating and running out of ideas for its main characters. 
    2. It seemed like a natural evolution of the main-six-as-teachers trend in the show, and introduced a bit more failure and uncertainty to those stories. 
    3. It let Twilight work as part of an educational institution, which I had always felt was the perfect line of work for her.
    4. It served as a symbol of acceptance and let the mane six stand against xenophobia, which was a positive development in the show's depiction of non-pony species. 
    5. It gave Starlight a clearer purpose in the show, which was especially nice because I felt that season was a major improvement for her characterization. 
    6. The main student characters are cute. 
    1. Show previous comments  1 more
    2. Lambdadelta

      Lambdadelta

      The school is one of the reasons i liked about season 8. Season 8 has the most well-round story setting in the show, that why i have so many problems with season 9 because it downplayed whatever season 8 has built. Season 8 is the last season of the show that i consider great.:oh_golly:

    3. Thrond

      Thrond

      @Megas

      Quote

      It suffers from the fact that the idea of an actual School centered around friendship is a really dumb idea, especially when it was established from the first episode that Friendship is something you can't just learn at school.

      That was always the elephant in the room, alongside the fact that the mane six also have other jobs, and it's probably the least creative gimmick they could have come up with. Still, by the end of season 7 they could have thrown in just about anything and I would have thought "hey, at least it's something different." 

      Quote

      Student Six themselves aren't bad in concept, but they suffer from the school as well. If they really wanted them, they should have just been the mane 6's personal students instead

      I like that the school offers natural opportunities for them to meet, and I like that the mane six are just "the teachers" to them. It gives us a fresh perspective on the ponies we know and love - something I wish had been a bigger part of those last two seasons. I do think they overcrowd the main cast, though. 

      @Lambdadelta

      Quote

      The school is one of the reasons i liked about season 8. Season 8 has the most well-round story setting in the show, that why i have so many problems with season 9 because it downplayed whatever season 8 has built. Season 8 is the last season of the show that i consider great.:oh_golly:

      Season 8 is fresh and benefits from a lot of increased sophistication but at that point I felt the storytelling often just didn't make sense. How do the mane six have time to both teach at the school and do their other jobs? How have Rainbow Dash and Rarity found no common interests in their years of friendship? Why is being bad at one musical instrument enough to send Pinkie Pie into a deep depression?! By that point it seemed like the writers didn't understand this show at all. 

    4. Lambdadelta

      Lambdadelta

      @AlexanderThrond

      Quote

       How do the mane six have time to both teach at the school and do their other jobs? Why is being bad at one musical instrument enough to send Pinkie Pie into a deep depression?! By that point it seemed like the writers didn't understand this show at all. 

      Yeah, it's very silly for the mane 6 who can save the world, do their usual chores and being full-time/or part-time teacher without having mental breakdown. Their stamina must be insane. :ButtercupLaugh:

      Quote

      How have Rainbow Dash and Rarity found no common interests in their years of friendship?

      It's hard to find any friendship problems between mane 6 at that stage of the show without making it too silly. I like when the show has more just 'friendship lesson' episodes. At least the later half of the episode was very entertaining, it didnt bother me that much.

      Quote

      Why is being bad at one musical instrument enough to send Pinkie Pie into a deep depression?!

      The most terrible episode came from Fox Bros. Please delete it from your memory.:awwthanks: How can they make Pinkie episode boring?

  15. Thrond
    I still lean towards mane six, even though Spike is pretty close to all six of them. He's pretty clearly part of that friend group, and has been grouped with them pretty often, and yet I always feel the age difference in his interactions with them; he doesn't feel like their peer. Maybe I'm just distracted by the fact that he's not a pony. Plus he doesn't casually hang out with them very much in the later seasons, by which point he has gotten a separate friend group. Starlight is clearly important to the show, but she was never integrated with the mane six. First she was connected to them solely through Twilight, then she started making her own friends outside of that group. When she saves the world, it's never with the mane six, except for the season 7 finale two-parter. She was hired as part of the school staff and then promptly went on to continue doing her own thing in most of the episodes she appeared in. Though in retrospect "main six" was a bit of a misleading phrase, since most episodes didn't feature all six of them, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were almost as prominent. Later we had the student six taking the spotlight as well; by the end, it could be argued that there were as many as 17 main characters. I'm under the impression that this is a relatively small cast for a show which exists to sell toys.
  16. Thrond
    Very, very carefully.
  17. Thrond
    I'm partial to "The Best Night Ever." I think it really embodies everything that makes the show great, especially in this period. I feel like I've watched it a hundred times.
  18. Thrond
    I still don't really like that first episode, alas.
  19. Thrond
    Seeing this thread revived is funny to me because at the time I would have disagreed but then every other time she appeared was gold.
  20. Thrond
    A long enough period where I wasn't enjoying the show at all, I guess... if any specific event were enough to have made me quit, I would probably have dropped the show a long time ago. Though changing the art style too much was apparently enough to keep me away from Pony Life.
  21. Thrond
    Still not 100% sure what the criteria are for becoming an alicorn but if Twilight meets them then the other five surely do as well. Though it's a little different if we factor in how every alicorn we see is a princess...
  22. Thrond
    Do you mean "The Saddle Row Review"? "P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View)" is the one where Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie have different stories about what happened on their boating trip. I do not believe that one was popular.
  23. Thrond
    The show's setting seems to have become more modern over time. Considering that, I find it makes sense for them to have conventions in hotels. Plus I don't think it's so crazy for this world to have different biomes and cultures in it, though having all of that within one country is slightly odd.
  24. Thrond
    I don't recall there being many times where Rainbow Dash befriends someone who likes her because she's Rainbow Dash. What do you mean? I didn't see it that way at all. See, I really didn't like that one. I found it rather bitter and mean-spirited, and it didn't seem like a self-contained story. Even "Slice of Life" is appealingly absurd on its own terms; "Fame and Misfortune" doesn't even try to be allegorical. That episode makes some fair points but I don't want to see strangers hijack a children's cartoon to vent about other strangers harassing them.
  25. Thrond
    Look I started watching at the end of season 2, so I wasn't there for the earliest hype, but to me those early seasons have a lot more depth than people give them credit for. Their stories may seem simple, but the characters are three-dimensional and relatable, and often showed unexpected sides of their personalities in one-off gags. And I would argue that, despite all of the worldbuilding and the more ambitious morals, the storytelling never became that much more complex than the early seasons. Even later on, I don't think that stuff is a big part of the series, but I do think that a lot of people who started watching later were attracted by those tidbits of fantasy action-adventure. It certainly seems like a lot of people who post on these forums want different things out of this show from me. To me the best episodes of the later seasons are the same as the best episodes of the early seasons - grounded stories about the ponies coming to terms with their insecurities. But I also wonder if people who got into it later might have been more accustomed to the idea of Twilight as an alicorn princess, so they didn't question it when they actually watch that episode.
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