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The Recherche

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Everything posted by The Recherche

  1. With hindsight, I can say that the Changelings are something special; they are one of the few truly original fantasy races/creatures that Friendship is Magic came up with, and they were actually quite compelling. Not exceptionally intimidating or even original, but their unique designs and vicious behavior really sold their insect-hive-mind gimmick. I give Chrysalis a lot of grief for being a lame villain, but to her credit, she had quite a lot of screen presence in Canterlot Wedding. Seeing her stand in the throne room with swarms of her minions right outside the windows is just cool, plain and simple. So to discard this right after To Where and Back Again just felt a bit like a waste. I think the Changeling reformation would have been received better if it didn't happen so suddenly, and perhaps if they toned down the gauche colors. It wasn't just their appearance that changed either; To Change a Changeling shows that many of them have just become Skittle-Barf Hippies who can't handle conflict at all. I didn't end up minding the changelings by the end really, but I will say that they should have been a sort of sub-species, or something similar. As is, the reformed Changelings barely resemble the originals at all, and the latter are simply more interesting.
  2. Starlight Glimmer is one of those characters that I never got a feel for. I tend to like her, but I struggle to actually describe her. Her gimmick seems to be that she is too brash, and is obsessive over certain things like her magic, or the activities she used to partake in with Sunburst. Outside of that, she doesn't seem to have a whole lot going on; she seems much more at the mercy of the episode plots, post-reformation. Her relationships with Maud and especially Trixie are interesting, since they are much more "misfit" characters, so to speak. It is a nice contrast from the perhaps overtly-wholesome Mane Six. Even so, I think Starlight needed a more concrete goal than to learn friendship with Twilight, or to be a friendship councilor. I honestly think she made a better villain that protagonist, even if I would still say that I like her in the end. Her obsessive, brash personality just seems to fit a villain better than a hero. I still vote Yay, but with a bit of an asterisk.
  3. I tend not to go to them anymore, due to their extortionate pricing, but I choose either Wendy's or Chic-Fil-A whenever I do. The former since they are closer to my workplace, and the latter for when I make special trips and want a treat. I will occasionally have Burger King as well, but that's a rarity.
  4. 2023 is honestly an improvement over the garbage fires that were 2020 and 2021, but that's fairly faint praise. This has been another nothing year for me really; nothing of particular significance happened. It is becoming clearer to me that I need to find out what career I wish to pursue, but no concrete steps have been taken on my end yet. I will stick with a 5/10 for now, unless some miracle or tragedy happens come December.
  5. It is a play on words. Recherche means something that is generally unknown, that is used in stylish ways. I am quite sure you can connect the dots.
  6. My 'origin story' is a peculiar one. I was very into the Creepypastas of the 2010's, back when I was a teenager. I couldn't say why really; in hindsight, most of them were tacky, lame attempts at horror. It didn't matter to me much at the time though; I was young and naive enough to where just about anything vaguely spooky made me jittery. Among the those videos I watched, I inevitably stumbled upon the Luna Game playthroughs, if you remember those. It was a cruddy, barely scary game really, but it was somehow enough to get me interested in the MLP fandom at the time. I never made the dive until about 2018, but I was something of an onlooker for a few years, browsing fanart and such. It took much, much longer for to actual watch and finish Friendship is Magic though. I had seen bits and pieces of it for ages, but it was only this year when I decided to sit down and watch the whole series, its specials, and the movies. It was an interesting journey getting here, but I don't regret it.
  7. Possibly my least favorite season finale, aside from School Raze. I actually don't mind Starlight being the focus; she was fairly scarce throughout most of Season 6, so I am not against her finally being able to do something, alongside her own group of misfits. The issues are, in short: Chrysalis is lame villain. She has a cool design, and the Changelings are in general fairly interesting. Her actual character is as stock and boring as they come though. Any novelty she had from A Canterlot Wedding is long gone. The pacing is bad. The first part of the finale was decent, but the second half was just very plodding, and the Changeling reformation just happened way too fast. The Changelings all seemed to be a group of sinister bug fiends, until Starlight gives one mediocre speech. Then they all of a sudden turn into a bunch of Skittles Hippies. Starlight in general being the focus of the finale is a fine idea, but it feels forced because of how little focus there was on her before this point. She has developed as a character a little bit by this point, but she is still not on the level of the Mane Six in terms of characterization. Her being accompanied by Discord, Trixie, and Thorax makes for a fun dynamic, but even that was purely a novelty, rather than a truly compelling story beat.
  8. Spike is an essential part of the main Friendship is Magic cast, and I will stand by that. His focus episodes tend to be fairly bad, but his progression from Season 1 all the way to 9 was palpable. Twilight promoting Spike to her friendship councilor was one of my favorite parts of Season 9, since it was a perfect culmination of both his growth and the close bond he had with her from the very beginning. In general, Spike is the only character in this series to have a more or less upward trajectory in my eyes. Most other characters are all over the place. Discord could have qualified in the earlier seasons, but Seasons 8 and especially 9 ruined that. Big Mac could qualify as well thanks to Brotherhooves Social alone, but his episodes mostly focused on Sugar Belle toward the end, and those were mostly just decent, rather than truly great.
  9. I agree with this, and I will go a step further as well. Much of the fanservice came across as ways for them to weasel their way out of paying attention to characters' individual arcs. That may sound odd, but the simplest example I can give is Trivial Pursuit. The entire episode is full of call-backs to past episodes: Zap-Apples. Ghastly Gorge, Cutie Pox, Daring Do, Tirek and Scorpan, Snowfall Frost, and a few other lore bits are referenced throughout the episode. This is also the upteenth episode where Twilight spazzes out, even after learning how to control herself 5 seasons ago. Even with that aside, Twilight relapses on her perfectionism as well, when this was literally covered 11 episodes prior. These kinds of things are why I just did not enjoy Season 9 very much. Some character regression is acceptable now and then, but this just happened way too many times in latter-day FiM. Especially since most of the time, it seems they weren't even aware that the characters were regressing in the first place. Season 5 Twilight Sparkle feels like a more complete character than Season 9 Twilight Sparkle does at times.
  10. Christmas music is explicitly December 1st through 31st for me. It allows time for you to get in the mood, and the grace period after Christmas itself lets you hear and appreciate the songs a few more times before the season ends. That said, it is a narrow enough window of time for you to not too too sick of it either. Sadly, most retail outlets and radio stations don't seem to agree. It seems more like November 24th through January 7th to them. It's an improvement of how it was in the early 2000's, where the music started right after Halloween, but that time frame still feels wrong.
  11. Foodfight! borders on this for me. Its worst moments are so bad as to just be abjectly terrible, but it does sometimes have some gloriously lame humor as well. The fact that it is freely available on YouTube doesn't hurt either.
  12. I always assure any spiders in my home a safe trip outside. Any time I think of squashing one, I always think "Hm, how many insects could this creature have killed in my stead?" Perhaps not an upstanding reason, but nonetheless a very justified one.
  13. Indeed, it seems like the whole 'retirement' idea for the Royal Sisters was ill-conceived from the word go. It could have worked; Twilight was meant to be Celestia's successor in the beginning anyhow, but what we got was... questionable. The Last Problem was at least good enough to forgive that issue, if nothing else. Ooooh, good guess. I was however thinking of one of its derivatives, being the Dante and Vergil from Devil May Cry. If you're unfamiliar with them, the short version is that they are two half-demon brothers who are always eager to get in fights to the death with each other. Doesn't sound very far off from Celestia and Luna from the later seasons, no?
  14. I would agree. Starlight Glimmer's character as a whole felt fairly ill-defined after Cutie Re-Mark. Her brainwashing Our Town is brought up a lot after the fact, but this only really matters in Shadow Play. I did actually enjoy Starlight's role there, and I would still consider her a net positive overall in the series. Even so, I don't think i ever warmed to her the way I did to the Mane Six and Spike, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, or any of the other major characters. it's likely as good as what could be realistically allowed, but Beginning of the End in general just felt awfully silly and insincere to me. Everything about the story, to the melodramatic tone, the goofy decisions such as the Royal Sisters battling the Everfree Forest vines and leaving their capital defenseless, and Sombra's defeat being so quick and easy after everything he did made it all ring hollow. I do appreciate the fact that he was allowed to actually do something at least, but it did not make me like Sombra any more than I already did; quite the opposite, really. I am actually fine with Royal Problem in a vacuum; I am not a huge fan of the sisters' behavior in that episode, but them still struggling to truly understand each other makes sense at the very least. My issues start after that episode, where almost every time they appear together, they are fighting about something. They seem to have it out for each other more than Dante and Vergil. As for the retirement plot point... I don't completely loathe it honestly, but the earlier drafts of Season 9 had them ascending to a higher plane of existence, which would have been a bit silly, but it would make Twilight needing to step up more sensible. As is, it just seemed that the sisters were lazy and eager to pass the responsibilities onto someone else.
  15. I imagine the intent was for them to introduce a new unicorn Twilight after Twilicorn happened, which I do understand I suppose. Twilight had developed a lot in the first 4 seasons, and had thus become more "boring." I can understand the desire to have a more snarky nerd in the cast again, but even as the show was coming to a close, I never quite "got" Starlight Glimmer. She was fairly mishandled I would say; the only element of her character I truly enjoyed was her friendships with Spike and Trixie. She otherwise felt a bit too banal. The idea of the Student Six was good on paper; with how many sentient species existed in Equestria after 7 seasons, the concept of a friend group developing among all of them after they had been segregated for so long is a sound one. The issue is, to your point: it is basically the Mane Six again with extra steps. All of the Mane Six came from wildly different backgrounds, but learned to forge friendships together in spite of their differences. The Student Six do the exact same thing in a flashier way, but we never got to know them well enough for it to resonate as well, I would say. I actually did like Sombra quite a lot in the Season 3 premiere; he was never going to be allowed to do anything particularly heinous, so keeping him in the shadows and making him a sort of looming, ticking time-bomb of a threat was a good way to build tension. I don't like his Season 9 reappearance however; even looking past the silly voice acting, his achievements of destroying the Elements of Harmony and conquering the Crystal Empire and Canterlot just don't resonate because of how unimportant they were. Especially once you know that Discord was ultimately responsible for all of it. It is ultimately a matter of preference; I think most people enjoyed the more eccentric Royal Sisters of latter day MLP, but I honestly just did not. I primarily enjoyed how much mystique and tragedy surrounded them in the earlier seasons; Celestia especially came across as a very regal, but illusive and melancholy figure. Her story is basically one of an ancient being losing all of her closest friends over time, often with her at fault in some way. A lot of folks say that early season Celestia lacked any character depth; perhaps true, but the unstated aspects of her character made her fascinating for me. Luna's side of the story goes without saying as well. To phrase it another, less obtuse way, think of Celestia specifically as I did. An ancient, incredibly powerful being that is nonetheless haunted by her past, losing three of her closets friends: Sunset Shimmer, Starswirl, and most importantly, Luna. Despite this, she remains a warm and compassionate figure for her students, and keeps a regal demeanor. Luna was driven to become Nightmare Moon by her resentment, and was banished and separated from her sister for millennia because of it. The Nightmare Moon incident was both of their defining character moments, in a way. But then these two have spats over things like security protocol, with Royal Problem specifically saying that Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker could be unleashed if they kept fighting. My interpretation of the Royal Sisters was evidently different from what the creative team had, which isn't a problem really. Nonetheless, I do not like how these two were handled the further the show went on.
  16. Scholarship definitely amped up the gank squads, which was quite annoying. I did appreciate the addition of Aldia's character though; he is possibly one of the most interesting, not to mention quotable, characters in the Souls Trilogy. The DLC also added some much needed good boss fights as well. Dark Souls 2 is the least polished of the games for sure, but I still really enjoy its tone and atmosphere. It truly does feel like an epic quest, but one rife with doubt and sorrow. The Vendrick reveal is among my favorite moments in the entire franchise because of this; it completely recontextualizes everything you have done up to that point, without making any of it feel pointless. I truthfully never bothered with infusion, but having so many options is indeed very cool. I am partial to the Black Knight weapons myself; especially the greataxe. I adore how much crunch and impact it has.
  17. I adore basically all of these games, even Dark Souls 2 to a degree. Picking a favorite is tough, but of the Souls games specifically, I would say that the third is my favorite. It lacks the sort of Metroidvania quality of the first game, but it makes up for it with some truly incredible boss fights, especially in the DLC. I never did get into the multiplayer portions of the game though, mostly since I don't pay for online subscriptions.
  18. Aw, I am late to the party. Damn you, real life obligations! It truly is wild how old Friendship is Magic and its fandom is. It feels like it was only yesterday I was hearing bronies rave about Twilight's Kingdom, or when those silly Creepypastas and other random fangames permeated YouTube. Or perhaps that was merely my childhood curiosity leading me to unsavory places; it is all water under the bridge, regardless. I can likely echo a lot of what many folks here say, about being a "closeted" brony for a time. I was hesitant to even admit that I was mildly interested in MLP all those years ago, but it all came to a head right before I joined this forum. Even so, It took me until this year to actually sit down and watch the rest of the show; it really was puzzling how I got so sidetracked here so badly, as to not even watch the series the website is named after. Really, I have had major issues procrastinating My Little Pony things ever since I first witnessed it. It took me ages to just engage with the community at all, and another epoch for me to even watch the show for good measure. I digress though. I can probably say a million and one things about MLPF as a whole, or mention every soul who has sent ripples throughout even my waking life. I don't believe that is necessary though; the effects MLPF has had on us all is obvious, and if you have already spoken to me a good deal? You know who you are. Thank you all for the memories! Now let's see how this little haven of ours holds up for Generation 5's run, hm?
  19. I would have adored to see an episode where Celestia got to see Sunset Shimmer, Starswirl, and Luna all together again. These three were among her closest friends, and she was separated from all of them in the course of her life. It was only until Twilight's journey that the three of them finally returned or reformed, and I would have liked to see her acknowledge that a bit more. Perhaps Celestia is feeling a bit stressed and purposeless for a time, but Twilight gets these three together to remind her of how important she truly is. The episode starts with Celestia raising the sun alone on a balcony, and it ends with her raising the sun once more, but alongside Twilight, Luna, Sunset, and Starswirl this time. Something heartwarming and poetic is what I am really asking for. Really, I wish Celestia's episodes were a bit more atmospheric and focused a bit more on the tragedy of her character in general.
  20. I just woke up in a BUCKING steamin' mood, yeah? 'Cause I live in a PITHOLE! Y'know what I mean!? Trottingham is a BUCKING PITHOLE! I hate the bucking place! I bucking hate it! It's full of thickheads! I BUCKING hate it!
  21. Ah, very cool! Thank you for the links. It seems I was thinking of something else. It's amazing how incompetent Sony is in regards to animated films, really; the Spiderverse franchise seems to be their only real saving grace. I suppose it makes sense that they wouldn't want very strict continuity in a movie aimed at young girls, but I really doubt a creative writing team wouldn't be able to get around that somehow. It is something I really disliked about the later seasons, Season 8 and 9 especially. They are FULL of references to past episodes, which just came across as them trying to weasel out of actually watching the series proper. Friendship is Magic did not need to appeal to people who don't know what an Alicorn is, or who don't think that the Mane Six don't have a personality, sans Rarity. It especially did not need to contrive a reason for its characters to end up in the real world either, especially after Equestria Girls. You are welcome; it is the least I could do after posting this typhoon of words. I truthfully don't have a preference on the style of song in MLP; I enjoy things like You'll Play Your Part, Celestia's Ballad, Blank Flanks Forever, Rules of Rarity, We'll Make our Mark, and Luna's Future all the same. I do think that the overall quality of the songs dipped a bit, but it never got to truly bad levels, outside of To Change a Changeling. I do agree about Equestria Girls though; the special's soundtrack is deceptively great, especially when compared to Seasons 8 and 9. They don't have anything quite like The Other Side, All Good, Let it Rain, or We've Come So Far. The last one especially is among my absolute favorite Generation 4 songs as a whole; it encapsulates Sunset's character development perfectly. One final thing I will say is that I was taken aback at how much I enjoyed the CMC's arc in general. I can't say that I enjoyed their final episode, but most everything else they were in was surprisingly great, especially the leadup to them getting their Cutie Marks. Faust had an idea to make a CMC spinoff, but I am truthfully glad that never happened; I doubt Crusaders of the Lost Mark would have been as great if they were forced into their own show. Even after that though, they still managed to be very entertaining, and taught surprisingly poignant morals much of the time as well. I think an inferior show would have used the CMC as a reason to just not try at all, but Friendship is Magic really went the extra mile with them.
  22. I am ultimately rather indifferent toward Starlight Glimmer as a protagonist. I like her overall, but she always felt more banal and ill-defined after she reformed. I tend not to mind the Student Six either; not in concept, at least. Except for Yona, but that is more because they characterized every Yak as an obnoxious barbarian. Basically every single Friendship is Magic villain is hard-carried by their designs. In practice, most are fairly lame threats that fold to the power of friendship too easily. I strongly dislike the latter-day season's characterization of the Royal Sisters. Seeing them constantly fighting over trivial things is just bewildering after what they went through together. I adored every single one of the musical episodes, including Magical Mystery Cure. Crusaders of the Lost Mark is my favorite, but that part is likely not unpopular.
  23. Fluttercord, absolutely not. I am not fond of shipping as a whole, much less this one. Discord and Fluttershy honestly both come across as too unstable to have a sort of functional relationship. Speaking specifically of his character, I do overall like him, but Discord is probably the character hurt most by hindsight. I enjoyed his arc in Season 4: it was clear that he was still very new to the idea of friendship, and while he enjoyed Fluttershy's company, he was still overall a very unreadable and insidious character. He could have solved the premiere's conflict in a snap if he wanted; he was even the reason the plundervines were wreaking havoc at all. He simply chose not to, just to mess with Twilight. He only realized how much he took friendship for granted after Tirek had double-crossed him. That was a very interesting way of truly reforming Discord; it was a very slow process, but Twilight's faith in Discord allowed him to show that he could be a true friend after all. Everything that comes afterward is significantly more dubious. He was always going to have a sort of obnoxious, trollish presence, really. This got way too out of hand in the later seasons however, where he is constantly a source of danger for our protagonists, with the Grogar catastrophe being the most egregious example. It really is no wonder why many people say that Discord should not have been reformed; it is not a position I agree with, but with how it turned out? I can't blame them for disliking the result. I still like Discord, more or less. His character is a never-ending barrage of visual gags, carried by an exceptional performance courtesy of John De Lancie. It is just very difficult to stomach where his character went after Season 4.
  24. And many of the other jokes were dated memes or references. Hearing Rarity say "I simply, cannot, EVEN!," or the mole creature saying "Heeeere's Verko!" was insipid back when the film debuted, but even moreso now. Shrek was indeed a great movie, but the influence it had on animated movies to come has been dubious. Even in attempting to be charitable to the movie, the best thing I can say about it is that it is an extended Season finale with spruced up visuals, but even that belies just how bloated the movie feels. Now that you mention it, I would say that basically every one of the Friendship is Magic films felt like made-for-TV movies. The first Equestria Girls especially, with the short length, and how vapid the premise and plot were, but every other movie afterward still never felt like a 'cinematic' experience. The 2017 movie at least felt the most like one, but that's just because it aped a lot of animated feature tropes. The visuals didn't hurt either; in spite of how drab they are, I do at least appreciate that it was a 2D animated movie, which are a dying breed these days. I am unfamiliar with the leaks you are referring to though; I only knew that Scorpan was supposed to appear in the movie somehow. I will have to look into that.
  25. I am glad that you enjoyed it. It was quite the undertaking, but it was well worth it, I would say. And I am pleased that you had this much to add! As for everything you added in your own little essay... Ouch, my fingers are tired now. Jokes aside... I will likely get to those one day soon enough. I believe I may be Pony-d out for the time being though; too much of a good thing, and all that. I will take you up on your offer soon, regardless! This is indeed one of those episodes that I was conflicted on, when it comes to ratings. The only reason it slipped to not-that-good territory for me was that I simply didn't enjoy the Daring Do portion of it, even if she was still a fictional entity at this point. It is a bit too on-the-nose with the Indiana Jones references. This isn't the point of the episode though, and to say otherwise would be a bad faith assertion on my part, but it does nevertheless make the episode a little bit more of a drag. it is otherwise fine though, I would say; if I was doing decimals, it would probably be a 2.5. Yeah, the overall fairly basic plot and moral of the episode felt fairly regressive as far as the show is concerned. Applejack and especially Rainbow Dash's dismal track records probably make Buckball Season a bit better than it might actually be. Even so, I found it at least marginally enjoyable overall. Agreed; Dashing Through the Mall likely was the best of the shorts for me for not only that reason, but also the hilarious title, and the very cute ending. Saving Pinkie's Pie could also qualify too, if only for how amusingly absurd it is to see a Saving Private Ryan homage in My Little Pony, of all things. Both are miles ahead of Cider Louse Fools for obvious reasons, as I am sure you would agree. I don't blame you for cutting Season Nine out of your headcanon though. I thought it was a net positive myself, thanks to stuff like Sparkle's Seven and especially The Last Problem, but there truly were some rubbish episodes as the show was reaching its conclusion. 246 Greaaat and Trivial Pursuit especially were utterly loathsome. Even putting those aside, Season Nine was overall quite lame for a final season, when all is said and done.
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