The My Little Pony: Frienship Is Magic Thread

[Happygun]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=29&v=mf8stv8PpkQ

AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! *deep breath* AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

(It's an April Fools joke, but still....AHHHHHH!)

[Ganthan]

Sweetie Belle: "How does Apple Bloom change her clothes?"

Scootaloo: "The same way she does everything: with sass."

[bar1scorpio]

Watch preview for new season of MLP: FiM.

Watch tumblrina reaction.

Wow. Love & Tolerate really isn't enough for the SJW, is it?

[Ganthan]

The Cutie Map

This one seemed condsideribly less dramatic for a season premier, yet it still managed to be attention grabbing. It was like Charlie the Unicorn meets The Stepford Wives meets Harrison Bergeron.

Edit: Oh yeah. I think this is also the first time since Magical Mystery Cure where somepony actually noticed that Twilight is an alicorn.

[Happygun]

Things I liked about the season premier: The villain was arguably one of the best in the series so far. She wasn't a corrupted former princess who wanted to plunge the world into eternal darkness because ponies didn't appreciate her enough. She wasn't a manifestation of primordial chaos who wanted to spread discord simply for the lols. She wasn't an shapeshifting insect queen who wanted to enslave the population of Equestria so her minions could feed off their love. No no no, she was simply a pony with an extreme philosophical belief. And on its surface, not an objectionable one, as Twilight and Fluttershy observed early on. What made her so evil was her willingness to force her beliefs on others, reliance on deception, and hypocrisy, the latter of which, while partially excusable given she couldn't spread her ideology if she practiced what she preached, demonstrated she was more interested in exerting power than adhering to her philosophy. This is a very common, very mundane, dare I say it, human character, which makes her far more interesting and relatable (and loathsome). I'm glad they didn't kill her off or have her pull a heel face turn and hope they don't have her do the latter. The series could do a lot with villain who, despite not being made of pure evil or darkness, is basically irredeemable* yet not psychotic.

Things I didn't like about the season premier: Twilight Sparkle's Magical Action Friendship Castle Playset(TM) with Holographic Friendship Alert(TM) Villain Detector(TM). Ohhh-ho-ho, child, this is a step in the wrong direction. Instead of organically identifying and dealing with dilemmas as they arise, now whenever there's a problem the Mane 6 will be magically directed to it by Twilight Sparkle's gaudy Evil Radar like some kind of horrible pastel colored Super Sentai team (err, hold on...). Any ambiguity as to whether an individual or situation presents a serious threat to the well-being of Equestria, in part or as a whole, is out the window. The characters no longer have to figure out if there's something amiss at all and learn from the experience. The pointer just says "There's evil here. Deal with it!" Yes, I'm aware the show was originally intended to run more like a magical girl anime and still mostly exists to sell plastic things to girls in the 6-10 demographic, but the higher ratio of slice-of-life to adventure episodes made the world the ponies live in feel more real, more complex and richer. It was more Pixar than Disney (before the latter bought the former, that is). Rainbow Power was one thing, but this...Christ!

And damn it, I liked Twilght's old home a lot more than Generic Crystal Palace of Light and Shininess Serial No. 73620-X-A! I darkly suspect Hasbro's marketing or toy design department forced this change on the writers because it's easier to manufacture and sell a crystal palace playset than a treehouse library one. Yes, it's destruction did serve to emphasize just how evil Tirek was and heightened the drama, but it still felt kind of token, kind of thrown in their for the sake of selling the new toy.

And seriously, what entity or force created the Tree of Harmony, Twilight's new castle and evil radar?

*Her cute mark, her special talent, was removing cute marks! That's pretty messed up.

[bar1scorpio]

Yeah... they did their research on cults. And totalitarian Communism....

Damn that was a creepy episode. The equal signs.

Oh! I know the name of the Village! "Ponytemkin".

And I don't think it'll be an auto villain detector. There may be more going on about spreading friendship.

[Happygun]

[Ganthan]

Peeping Fluttershy

[Happygun]

The return of crazy workaholic Twilight! Huzzah!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjkN3yUBh1A

[Ganthan]

Those pamcakes look REALLY good.

At least it's not a Rarity realdoll.



Bulk Biceps is now the Kool Aid Man.

[Happygun]

[Ganthan]

Bloom and Gloom

I was ambivalent towards this episode at first. It was cool to have a prior character, even a minor one, get her canon cutie mark, although I'm wondering how an earth pony is going to use scissors.

On the other hoof, it was yet another 'Luna helps somepony through their dreams' episode. Haven't we already had two of those? I know she's the Princess of the Night and all, but I'd like to see her doing some other stuff now and then. Then I realized that all three of these have involved each of the CMC, first Scootaloo, then Sweetie Belle, and now Apple Bloom. That can't be a coincidence.

Something tells me that this will be the season that the CMC finally get their cutie marks.

I just really hope that those twittermites were only a dream and not real. Holy shit, those things are ten times worse than parasprites. Also, between Bloom and Gloom and The Cutie Map 2, how many more times is the show gonna make fun of Twitter?

[Kris@WLP]

Think about "Bloom and Gloom" this way: now we know how Luna ended up falling to Nightmare Moon. Imagine that shadow in Apple Bloom's dreams... in an alicorn's dreams... when the alicorn didn't have anypony to watch over HER OWN dreams... and so the shadow keeps whispering and nudging and deluding until... boom.

Other thought: "THE CRUSADE WILL LAST FOREVER!" Nightmare Cutie.

[Happygun]

I'm not sure if it was intentional, but the way the shadow referred to cutie marks seemed to hint that the antagonist from the season premiere, Starlight Glimmer, was haunting Apple Bloom's dreams. Nice little red herring if it was.

[Ganthan]

[Ganthan]

Tanks for the Memories

"Let's see. Ideas for episodes, ummmm...... Hmmmm..... Tank wants to hibernate for the winter, but Rainbow Dash doesn't want him to and tries to stop him."

"And?"

"And that's it. Make a whole episode out of that. Give Rainbow Dash her own song for the first time and the bronies will be happy anyway."

[Happygun]

...And have her attempt to sabotage winter and not even get a slap on her hoof.

Plus, she's a weather pony, and therefore should be at least somewhat aware why seasons must pass. I would have expected this from season 1 Rainbow Dash...but she was holding the Idiot Ball BIG TIME in this episode. That and a Karma Houdini extraordinaire!

A lot of potential memes in this one - so many I'm pretty sure it was intentional on the writers' part.

Winter...is coming!
A pony version of the :awesome: emoticon.
DO I LOOK ANGRY!!!?
Rainbow Dash Grinch Steals Winter
Where do these clouds go? Over by clear skies. She's right over there!
Applejack cries on the inside! It's true.

[Kris@WLP]

It seemed like they were trying to do a "how to deal with the grief of losing a loved one" episode without actually having death in it. And it just plain did not work.

The "Who's On First" pony names gag wasn't badly written, but GOD the voices used. UGH. Even more annoying than Double Diamond.

And Rainbow's song had a great tune... and words so forgettable they vanish before the line's even over.

[Happygun]

...And it just hit me that Dash went through the five stages of grief. Denial, anger (DO I LOOK ANGRY??!!), bargaining, depression, acceptance.

[Ganthan]

Appleoosa's Most Wanted

It seems like you guys always wait for me to say something about a new episode before talking about it yourself. The only thing I can really think of is that so far Season Five seems to be focusing heavily on cutie marks.

Also, what the crap was the point of Sweetie Belle magically sneaking the keys out of the jailhouse if they were gonna wake up the sheriff and send him to the rodeo anyway? That's like Family Guy level of non sequitur.

[Kris@WLP]

[Kris@WLP]

[Kris@WLP]

Oh, and Ugly: the way the ponies blew a string of accidents into a one-pony conspiracy to wreck all rodeos forever. Only in Equestria would Troubleshoes become Public Enemy Number One for even so much as five seconds.

[Happygun]

Yeah, overall another 'meh' Cutie Mark Crusader episode.

And the writers outright stated that this season will focus on the significance and true power of cutie marks.

[Kris@WLP]

So, had on "Make New Friends But Keep Discord" while working today.

I think I might have a benchmark for Worst MLP:FiM episode ever.

Seriously, the whole episode depends on everyone, but especially Fluttershy- considerate, empathetic, observant Fluttershy- being completely oblivious to Discord's emotional state. I mean, what did he need to do to convey the message I AM VERY UPSET to the others- conjure a blinking neon sign with fifty foot tall letters?

And the ending bit with Celestia is a choice bit of Fridge Logic- Celestia, who has more cause than any other pony in Equestria to distrust and dislike Discord, who has just witnessed him using his powers to threaten a pony with as-good-as-death... and she is ENTERTAINED?

This ep depended on every pony carrying the Idiot Ball. It says a lot when Pinkie Pie is the most intelligent of the main cast in an episode. (Her sister Maud wins for most intelligent in episode, full stop.)

Gotta say, this season so far is proving to be a bit disappointing.