The Recherche

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

23 hours ago, Iforgotmybrain said:

I feel like some of the fan service in the later seasons was a bit too much.

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.

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.

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.

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.

4 hours ago, Hadrien said:

Yeah, after the Royal Problem, they should've know better. And yeah, them ascending to Royal Godhood would've been silly indeed, but maybe it could've work if they somehow lost some of their power over time and needed to pass the throne to someone who can actually keep it ? But then again my problem stems from the fact that I don't like them leaving at all, and I dislike Twilight stepping in their shoes even less, so that wouldn't have solved anything hahaha.

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.

4 hours ago, Hadrien said:

Wait, wait, wait. Stop. Did you just make a Divine Comedy joke ? For me ? That was reaaaaaaally good  And one of my cat is named Vergil, because I love this story so much, so points for you for knowing your audience. Not only are you a great reviewer and analyst, you're quite the scholar too

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?

18 hours ago, Hadrien said:

That's the thing. After her reformation, she never was really as snarky as she was before. Like yeah she stood up to Twilight sometimes and make snarky remarks about the weirdness of it all, but she always felt subservient to Twilight most of the time. Her realtion with Spike was enjoyable, kind of like the "new hire" vs the "old man" at the job of being under Twilight.

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.

18 hours ago, Hadrien said:

I think they felt unimportant just because we knew it wasn't the thing that really mattered, and the fact Discord was there. Discord's the closest one that achieved a true "victory" against the Mane Six by turning their elements against themselves and everyone knows Sombra didn't stood a chance against him for real. But when you think about what Sombra wanted to achieve, he actually did a lot in the S9 Premier. He took advantage of the fact the sisters were gone to stage his return, and "almost" had it. For a villain, that's as close as we can get.

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.

18 hours ago, Hadrien said:

I wasn't a fan of the security protocol fact, I'll give you that. It really was inconsequential. But the Royal Problem did show a part of their dynamic I enjoyed : The fact that even after all they went through with Nightmare Night, when the routine sets in, you go back to your old habits. Celestia never really understood what Luna did and vice-versa. All they did was assume things about the other, and fought with those resentement, which in turn would lead to Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker all over again. But after that episode, they should've learned their lessons for good, since they *now* know what the other *really* does. Beside that, I agree with you that the more regal and measured aspect of them both was better suited for the show, I'm not a fan of the eccentricities (maaaaaaybe juuuuust a little). Which is why I don't like the plot point of them retireing in the last season, there really was no point to that beside putting Twilight on the throne for *reasons*. 

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.

14 hours ago, Hadrien said:

She feels very much like Diet Twilight Sparkle to me. All the things Twilight was, but toned down.

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.

14 hours ago, Hadrien said:

Again, they just feel like the Diet Mane Six to me.

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.

14 hours ago, Hadrien said:

100% agree. Their design is *on* *point*, but they're rather weak in intent and actual threat (except maaaaaybe Sombra who feels a bit more like a threat to me)

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.

14 hours ago, Hadrien said:

Sure, but they're still sisters. It would make sens that they would still be fighting over stupid things. Maybe not to an extent that it threathen the balance of things, but still.

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.

11 hours ago, Wolf of Shadows said:

I agree. Dark souls 3 does have the most epic boss fights but it lacks the originals flair.

Dark souls 2 was the game that introduced me to the series, so honestly I have a found respect for it. It's may not be the best, control wise but it was still a fun play regardless. Scholarship of the first sin edition can burn in the deepest pits though lol. That version made it worse lol.

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.

8 hours ago, Hadrien said:

I think this is what makes the first one so special to me, butbthe 3rd one is my favorite mechanically. I love the crafting system with the infusion, the weapons are cooler (the Astora Greatsword is still my fav weapon in all Soulsborne games, you can hit enemies 2 zipcodes away its great.)

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.

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.

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?

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.

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!

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.

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.

*~𝓔𝔁𝓬𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓕𝓐𝓑𝓤𝓛𝓞𝓤𝓢 𝓷𝓸𝓲𝓼𝓮𝓼~*

It is flooring how extortionately priced printer ink can be. Factoring in how much a cartridge holds, printer ink can be sold for thousands of dollars per gallon. All just to print some rubbish documents.

It's difficult to force yourself to take them, but I did indeed notice that my skin was quite glowing for the time when I was taking cold showers. The nice part is that it does not need to be frigid per se; it just needs to not be particularly hot. Tepid water will not hurt your skin; it is specifically hot water that can inflame or dehydrate your skin and hair.