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Posts posted by Thrond
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Gee, I dunno, maybe we could explore new angles of their relationships, or give more detail to their current positions, or even have them do something unusual every once in a while. They don't need to be constantly moving towards a specific goal. Above all else, I want to see the mane six just taking life as it comes, like real people. I'm getting tired of people perpetuating this idea that they have nowhere left to go.
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13 minutes ago, Ryanmahaffe said:
Totally agree about Honest Apple though, belongs in the same trash bin as Applejacks Day Off, 28 Pranks Later, and the Mysterious Mare do Well.
You know, I actually sorta like "28 Pranks Later."
1 minute ago, Ryanmahaffe said:Well I could be wrong, but when I think overrated, I think people blowing things way out of proportion, like Frozen or Steven Universe feels.
That seems like the same thing to me. I perceive the word as subjective, so I try not to use it that often. But since I was already venting, I went with it.
3 minutes ago, Ryanmahaffe said:Don't worry, we have 4 episodes left until the finale, I guarantee you will love at least 1 of them
Nothing about this season feels certain at this point. But I have really enjoyed Twilight, so maybe the zeppelin episode will be okay.
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15 minutes ago, Ryanmahaffe said:
Is it really fair to call something overrated because you don't enjoy it that much?
You say season 2 was your favorite if I recall right, well I won't say it is overrated despite the fact most people like it more than I do.
I don't see what else "overrated" could mean. I don't like it, and everyone else seems very complementary towards it.
I'm just frustrated that I'm not enjoying this season as much as so many other people, honestly. Don't worry about it.
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Well, since you asked, might as well get some catharsis out of this absurdly overrated season.
- All Bottled Up rehashes character elements of Starlight's I find exasperating, and has Trixie's most irritating characterization yet.
- Fluttershy Leans In features a bland, wholly external conflict which is way too shallow for how seriously the episode takes itself.
- Forever Filly makes Rarity uncharacteristically insensitive and dense, and contrives every element to beat the moral into the audience's skulls.
- Hard to Say Anything expects us to watch characters acting toxic and unpleasant without anything but a moral in return.
- Honest Apple makes Applejack seem uncharacteristically insensitive and features some very dubious plot points.
- Fame and Misfortune is simplistic and mean-spirited, offering little nuance beyond an angry screed and activities it just assumes we find laughable. It also tries too hard to deflect earlier criticisms.
- Daring Done? is filled with noisy, obnoxious expository dialogue, plus it completely neglects everything interesting about its premise and completely wastes Rainbow Dash.
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2 hours ago, Dark Qiviut said:
Chrysalis knew that Starlight was Twilight's pupil, out of town, and could have her replaced if she wanted to. She chose not to:
QuoteQueen Chrysalis: Well, well, well. The Princess of Friendship's sole pupil. Honestly, I didn't think you were worth replacing with one of my drones.
She's saying SG isn't worth replacing. If she didn't know Starlight was ultra-powerful and smart, I'd be okay. But to suggest she knew about how much stock Twilight invests on her, yet let her go when they had the chance to capture her ahead of time turns her into a mega-idiot.
Chrysalis is also a major egotist who was probably convinced her plan was great enough that she didn't need to replace Starlight. An emotionally unstable pony without any political power? Not much use, and she nearly succeeded even with Starlight not accounted for. As @Babyyoshi309 said, Starlight's magic was accounted for, and she probably intended to capture Thorax, so what's the point of capturing Starlight?
Plus, Chrysalis being an arrogant hothead who makes serious oversights fits how I've always perceived her, and it doesn't make her any less entertaining to me. Besides, she always comes close to succeeding anyway.
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15 hours ago, Dark Qiviut said:
With it missing, the entire story makes no sense.
I really don't see how. Made perfect sense to me.
15 hours ago, Dark Qiviut said:For their entire lives, the changelings were raised to fight and steal the love from others. In the last five minutes, Starlight was able to verbally convince a brainwashed hive into changing their ways permanently.
I think you're approaching it the wrong way. The way Chrysalis ran things literally had Changelings on the brink of starvation. They were shown a way to not starve anymore, so it's not that hard to believe they'd take it. We're never shown that they followed Chrysalis for any reason other than not knowing any other way. Admittedly, the episode never explains how they transformed, but the why seems pretty clear.
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Well, I have my reasons, and have stated them in the past a few times. Here is my review from when it originally premiered. Here is a shorter take from my second viewing. Personally, I don't agree with every creative decision in the episode, and I think the mane six being captured off-screen is a pretty obvious plot shortcut, but I don't think either of those come close to cancelling out what the episode does right. And I think it's paced really well.
To summarize:
- The character interactions are consistently hilarious. Discord being a jerk, Trixie being creatively boastful (but, for once, not entirely self-centred), Thorax being adorable, and Starlight struggling to keep it all together are all highly entertaining to me.
- Plus, the characters themselves are frequently relatable simply because at least three of them are almost constantly expressing uncertainty and insecurity. This is, in my opinion, perhaps Starlight's best outing, rivalled only by this same season's premiere, and all three of the others have their moments as well.
- Because of this, the episode is about something. It's not entirely justified by the rest of the season - this finale assumes more serialization than My Little Pony is willing to offer - but I adore how Starlight not only proves herself to those around her, but to herself as well. We know she has reason to distrust herself, but then she goes and saves the world. That gives this episode a sense of purpose which the show doesn't always have.
- Chrysalis is deliciously hammy, and even creepy at points. I'm finally sold on this show having a recurring villain because of just how thoroughly fun it is to hate her. And having my interpretation of her as a tyrannical hothead basically confirmed was pretty nice.
- It's so much less pretentious than most other finales. The others want you to take them seriously and feel things because of them, but "To Where and Back Again" just wants you to have a good time. There's no metaphysical claptrap, there's no heavy-handed emotional swells, and there's no intense battle scenes. It's all character-driven adventure, and that's really refreshing.
So yeah, I like this episode because it's, y'know, fun. Like this show should be.
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I think she deserves more credit than the Mane Six for defeating Discord, given that she bailed them out once Discord had defeated them, so it's easily conceivable that she'd have a plan B.
Which is why I disagree with this:
On 9/26/2017 at 9:00 AM, RulesofRarity said:No. She wouldn't of. If the " Cutie remark" taught us anything it's that Celestia is incapable of combating the big bads without Twilight or the EOH.
Not that "The Cutie Re-Mark" actually acknowledges Celestia's part in defeating Discord. What, he would have won against ponies who already defeated him in the past just because ponies whom he successfully outsmarted weren't there? Bollocks.
Furthermore, I have numerous issues with the "Celestia planned everything" interpretation of the show. I don't want to get into them here, but I'll simply say that she must have understood her plan might not work, and since she ruled Equestria for some 1000 plus years, she must have known to have contingency plans.
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I don't think the MLP crew is al that concerned with quotas, to be honest. I think constantly pairing Rarity and Applejack together shows a degree of laziness regarding the two, but I'm unconvinced that those episodes exist just to give those characters some focus.
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I think Rainbow has her fair share of insecurities, but I don't think she has low self-esteem in general, and I certainly don't think she reads Daring Do to compensate. Her boasting is definitely linked to her insecurity, though, which is actually something I found "Newbie Dash" to be very perceptive about. But Rainbow isn't any more insecure than any of her friends, if you ask me.
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2 hours ago, Dark Qiviut said:
Zecora caught swamp fever immediately after the lily sneezed in her face. FS caught Zecora's disease because her immune system weakened.
Where did she catch it from?
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48 minutes ago, Dark Qiviut said:
It makes sense when you think about it. Twilight took care of herself via a solid night's sleep. Unlike her, Fluttershy stayed up all night, meaning she's more susceptible to contagious illness, and swamp fever (which she caught from Zecora) is one such example. Her lack of sleep took a toll on her physically, psychologically, and emotionally to the point where she experienced the disease's second-worst symptom (disorientation) really quickly. Had she not faint and sleep for three days, she could've died.
But Zecora showed symptoms immediately despite no evidence of being in poor shape beforehand. I admit to not knowing much about diseases, but why would Fluttershy's symptoms take so long to appear?
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Putting aside that its best episodes can be very funny and sometimes even emotionally involving, I find the characters relatable, and feel that they have a decent amount of depth. I particularly liked how the earlier seasons built up that depth without really calling attention to it. The character arcs aren't as big a deal as in many other shows, but they do grow over time, and I found that particularly apparent and compelling in the earlier seasons. Aside from that, I just think the general aesthetic has a lot of charm, and I enjoy the cheesy optimistic tone of the show. It's just cute, and when the writing is funny enough, that can make for some really nice lighthearted fun. I personally don't get that much out of the morals, because they're usually stuff I'm already aware of, but every once in a while the show offers up an interesting one.
Later seasons tried to give the show a little more seriousness and dignity, and all the technical aspects have gotten much better over time, so if you care enough to try them out, you may enjoy them more. Personally, I don't think the seasons after 3 are as good, but many disagree with me.
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If we can have both relative polish and actual fresh ideas, then it might confirm my current belief that this show is best in its even seasons. I adore season 2, season 4 has grown on me, and I felt like season 6 was a step in the right direction which season 7 has mostly trampled over. Fingers crossed.
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I really think season 6 gets more hate than it deserves. I personally liked it a lot more than the more popular seasons before and after it, and I think its two-partners are vastly underrated. There's a lot of gems there, and I don't think you should skip it.
I do think it could have done a few things better, though. "Newbie Dash" really should have been tightened up, and some of the season's flimsier episodes ("Cart Before the Ponies") should have been done away with. I think my biggest general frustration was with Twilight, who kept getting relegated to a mentor role, which I found incredibly boring. I'd be even more favourable to season 6 if it treated Twilight like season 7 has so far. Otherwise, my complaints were largely minor, though as with all of the last three seasons, they built up over time - just much less so in this case.
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2 hours ago, Ganondox said:
I think this is the one time I've seen someone use the word sapience when they probably should have used sentience, usually it's the other way around.
Maybe I'll just go with "consciousness" or something like that in the future to avoid showing my ignorance.
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1 hour ago, Jeric said:
Yep, that's definitely a keeper!
I had such a good time live-tweeting this. Not sure how you wound up attributing it to @Kyoshi, though.
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I had a really good time with this. The moral is really sympathetic and relatable, the plot moves at a high speed, and the episode is super funny from start to finish. I even kinda liked the "legends" stuff! There's some expository dialogue, and the characters all act like they had too much caffeine, but there's also a lot of intelligent character details which give this some surprising depth, some of which I only stumbled upon by writing my review.
Additional thoughts:
This is also the most fun I've had live-tweeting this show in a long time. Copying one of my favourite jokes:
FLUTTERSHY: "I cross-referenced books and discovered that ancient thing is real."
TWILIGHT: "Suddenly I am very attracted to you."
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4 minutes ago, Oleks said:
So, people are saying that this episode has a bit of grimdark feel because of that curse turning ponies into trees (and then furniture and houses are built from them).
What, was slowly being turned into a toxic tree for the rest of your life, hopefully losing all sapience in the process, not dark enough?
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4 minutes ago, Jeric said:
Nah. We saw them plant the tree, Granny didn't know it existed, and Health of Information states specifically that you turn into the tree that spreads the disease, not an Apple or Pear tree.
Looking back, the tree in "Perfect Pear" doesn't look much like the tree in "Health of Information" either, so I guess that's one bit of dark silliness debunked.
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2 hours ago, Dark Qiviut said:
- The drum roll representing Zecora's heartbeat. The doctor said that was bad, but the drum roll doesn't show us it's bad. Maybe something downplayed, like a quicke or irregular heartbeat.
I thought the presence of a drum roll instead of a heartbeat was the joke. We're surprised by there being a drum roll there, but the doctor talks as if he knows exactly what that means. Subverting expectations.
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Inspired by @Dark Qiviut, here's my ranking of the season so far, alongside my out-of-100 numerical scores:
- A Flurry of Emotions (93)
- The Perfect Pear (83)
- A Royal Problem (83)
- Parental Glideance (80)
- Discordant Harmony (80)
- Triple Threat (70)
- It Isn't the Mane Thing About You (65)
- Not Asking for Trouble (63)
- Rock Solid Friendship (60)
- To Change a Changeling (53)
- Campfire Tales (53)
- Celestial Advice (50)
- Forever Filly (48)
- Fame and Misfortune (45)
- Honest Apple (40)
- All Bottled Up (38)
- Daring Done? (35)
- Fluttershy Leans In (35)
- Hard to Say Anything (25)
Only "A Flurry of Emotions" is up there with my favourite episodes of all time, but "The Perfect Pear" is pretty close and may rise up on a second viewing. On the other hand, only "Hard to Say Anything" is guaranteed a spot on my bottom 10, but "Daring Done?" and "Fluttershy Leans In" do have a shot as well.
As for my general thoughts this season:
- It doesn't really fix season 6's polish and consistency issues. I'm significantly more bothered by Rarity in "Forever Filly" than in "Spice Up Your Life," and nearly every other mane six character has at least one episode which really flubs their characterization. More importantly, the details in episodes like "To Change a Changeling," "Honest Apple," and "Forever Filly" are dubious at best, and several premises feel every bit as contrived as the worst of season 6. And that's not even getting into disorganized messes like "Fame and Misfortune" and "To Change a Changeling."
- It's still very safe. Even "The Perfect Pear," as great as it is, shies away from actually confirming what happened to the Apple parents, and a good number of episodes are very predictable, like "Not Asking for Trouble" and even "Triple Threat." There's also a distinct lack of experimentation, as even when it switches up the setting like in "Not Asking for Trouble" or even "A Royal Problem," it follows a bunch of familiar plot beats. Only "The Perfect Pear" comes across to me like the writers really moving out of their comfort zone.
- There's a weird sterility to a majority of these episodes. An uncanny number of them feel reverse-engineered from the moral without accommodating the characters or better ideas which may come up. "Forever Filly" is my main punching bag in this regard, because nothing happens in that which doesn't tie directly into the moral, but "Daring Done?" dabbles in it too, and while "A Royal Problem" gets it right, it'd still be better with even the slightest bit of space to breathe. Some of the character issues in episodes like "Honest Apple" come across as the writers, whether through stubbornness or laziness, refusing to modify the story structure or moral to suit the characters.
- The second half is more varied than the first half. In the first half of the season, the majority of conflicts resulted from one character irritating another, usually without any sympathy or insight given to the irritant party. The second half, aside from "Fame and Misfortune," doesn't really engage in that, instead focusing on much more satisfying stories about ponies dealing with insecurity.
- Mane six are frequently used as ciphers. As an extension of some of the above issues, I think the reason some are losing interest in the mane six is because this season has very frequently used them as mouthpieces ("Daring Done?") or background elements ("Discordant Harmony"). The latter might not be a problem if it weren't for the former, but it doesn't feel like the mane six interest the current writers that much. There's still a few episodes which give them depth and use their personalities for humour, but it's disappointingly common for these characters to just shout bland exposition when they're not supporting characters in their own show.
- The story premises feel like checking off boxes. Other people call this "long-awaited fan requests" or something, but to me it adds to the feeling of this season being dispassionate. Fluttershy gets goal? Mandatory Rarity/Applejack episode? Check. Applejack's parents? Yeah, sure, here. Spike is given responsibilities? Check. Even at their best, there's something fundamentally unimaginative about the stories which are being told here.
- "Legends" stuff isn't terribly compelling. If this is supposed to be a story arc, it's really not all that energetic or creative. Half of these are super generic myths which aren't even original to the show. I don't really know how you lot are able to care about this.
- Unfortunately, Starlight is used very poorly this year. Starlight's roles almost never enhance episodes. At best, her role could have been filled by literally anyone with minimal changes ("Rock Solid Friendship," "Triple Threat") and at worst, she can't be left alone without messing everything up ("All Bottled Up," "A Royal Problem," "To Change a Changeling"). I don't feel she has any positive traits which couldn't be filled by literally anyone else, and her negative traits don't make her all that endearing. I've always considered her presence a replacement, but I don't feel she suffices anymore.
- With that said, Twilight is phenomenal. I'm sorry, I never liked how Twilight was written after becoming a princess. This season, she acts like she did in season 2, and I'm really thankful for it.
- Twilight's the only overarching trend I consider positive, though; aside from that, the only thing keeping me from considering this season a total disaster is the fact that it still has a handful of decent episodes. I'm really not a fan.
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1 hour ago, Sparklefan1234 said:
I'd like an episode where Twilight Sparkle turns evil, battles Princess Celestia & the Remane 5 have to save her in the end.
This reminds me of my wildest recurring idea, which seems wildly improbable at this point: "Lesson Zero," except Twilight is a princess and the issue is diplomatic in nature. I always imagine her turning Ponyville into an outright police state before someone snaps her out of it.
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Season 8 could potentially be the best season!
in MLP:FiM Canon Discussion
I'm with you there, honestly. I did not like season 5 at all. Although, I did quite enjoy season 6, so I guess I differ from the consensus on both counts.