Yes, there is a nearly two minute live action music video for the upcoming Hub premier for Equestria Girls. Not that live action, with people. Now, I'm not a big consumer of the youngsters dancing genera, but this wasn't bad. It certainly was not "teh wurst thing evar!!!!1" Seriously, a lot of people in the brony community need to quit the drama shit. Hasbro still has a target demographic that it is, aah, targeting, and it ain't us so settle down. We lose what little credibility we have when we overreact to every little thing.
Enjoy (or don't).
Just a little overthinking My Little Pony Friendship is Magic.
Friday, August 30, 2013
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Is Fluttershy Funemployed?
Someponys' professions are obvious: Applejack is a farmer on the family owned farm Sweet Apple Acres, Pinkie Pie is an apprentice baker at Sugarcube Corner, Rarity is an entrepreneur, she owns and operates the Carousel Boutique where she designes and manufactures her own clothing. Twilight Sparkle is not employed, per se, but is the personal protégée of the god-empress Princess Celestia, and as such is living off a royal stipend. She comes from Canterlot, her brother is the Captain of the Royal Guard, and she was raised by royalty, so it is safe to say that her family is very wealthy and she has no financial concerns.
Rainbow Dash is a bit harder to place. She longs to be a Wonderbolt stunt performer, and has take steps toward that end, as seen in "Wonderbolt Academy" (though the ending was ambiguous as to whether RD is still in training as nothing more has been said in any subsequent episodes!). Her day job appears to be weatherpony for Ponyville; a job she does not seem to relish in the least as she is most often seen practicing her stunts, goofing off, or sleeping.
Fluttershy is the odd pony out. I can't seem to figure out what her profession is, and if I sent some Spartans to ask she would run and hide.
Fluttershy obviously has money. We've seen her paying inflated rates for goods at the market in "Putting Your Hoof Down." She has a whole huge menagerie to take care of, and even if animal feed were very cheap the vast quantities she would have to buy would still demand a healthy sum. And it is those animals who demand the bulk of her time and attention. She not only feeds, and houses, and cares for the hundreds of animals that she lives with, she also helps wild animals too, like that bear with the shoulder problem and the beavers who were arguing with Applejack.
Wild animals don't have money, and it seems doubtful she gets paid to have a whole lot of pets (if a welfare system existed in Equestria then Applejack wouldn't have to work so hard to pay for Granny Smith's hip surgery, her old age medical benefit would). The little time Fluttershy has that is not spent taking care of her animals is spent with her friends going on crazy adventures she would rather sit out. To date (as far as I can tell) we have never seen Fluttershy perform any job for money, leaving me to wonder how she is able to support herself financially.
It is true that she has had a few one off jobs, such as conducting a bird chorus for state events such as the Summer Sun Celebration and the wedding between Cadance and Shining Armor, but even if she did perform at these events for money how long would that sustain her? She was also a successful fashion model once (a job she hated), but only for a short time. We can't expect her earnings from that job to last forever, and she clearly was living quite comfortably before that, so she has to have some other form of income. The question remains, what is it? If Fluttershy does have a job we will have to wait for some future episode to find out.
Rainbow Dash is a bit harder to place. She longs to be a Wonderbolt stunt performer, and has take steps toward that end, as seen in "Wonderbolt Academy" (though the ending was ambiguous as to whether RD is still in training as nothing more has been said in any subsequent episodes!). Her day job appears to be weatherpony for Ponyville; a job she does not seem to relish in the least as she is most often seen practicing her stunts, goofing off, or sleeping.
Fluttershy is the odd pony out. I can't seem to figure out what her profession is, and if I sent some Spartans to ask she would run and hide.
Fluttershy obviously has money. We've seen her paying inflated rates for goods at the market in "Putting Your Hoof Down." She has a whole huge menagerie to take care of, and even if animal feed were very cheap the vast quantities she would have to buy would still demand a healthy sum. And it is those animals who demand the bulk of her time and attention. She not only feeds, and houses, and cares for the hundreds of animals that she lives with, she also helps wild animals too, like that bear with the shoulder problem and the beavers who were arguing with Applejack.
Wild animals don't have money, and it seems doubtful she gets paid to have a whole lot of pets (if a welfare system existed in Equestria then Applejack wouldn't have to work so hard to pay for Granny Smith's hip surgery, her old age medical benefit would). The little time Fluttershy has that is not spent taking care of her animals is spent with her friends going on crazy adventures she would rather sit out. To date (as far as I can tell) we have never seen Fluttershy perform any job for money, leaving me to wonder how she is able to support herself financially.
It is true that she has had a few one off jobs, such as conducting a bird chorus for state events such as the Summer Sun Celebration and the wedding between Cadance and Shining Armor, but even if she did perform at these events for money how long would that sustain her? She was also a successful fashion model once (a job she hated), but only for a short time. We can't expect her earnings from that job to last forever, and she clearly was living quite comfortably before that, so she has to have some other form of income. The question remains, what is it? If Fluttershy does have a job we will have to wait for some future episode to find out.
Monday, August 26, 2013
The Window
At BronyCon this year I attended the Conversion Bureau panel on a whim and was so inspired that I wrote three pages of notes for my own story right there. The story is still in the works, but here is the cover that will go with it.
How does Discord get the Elements of Harmony, what happens when he gets them, how is he finally defeated? I don't know the answers to any of those questions yet.
How does Discord get the Elements of Harmony, what happens when he gets them, how is he finally defeated? I don't know the answers to any of those questions yet.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
A Canterlot Wedding
This episode of My Little Critiques with BronyCurious is absolute genius. I loved every minute of it, especially the end.
Monday, August 12, 2013
The Original Equestria Girls
This is back from when the original Equestria Girls promo video aired on the Hub in May 2011.
If you're not prepared you may explode twice! If you are prepared you definitely will!
Bronies finally get recognition!
This aired on The Hub (the television network Hasbro owns) on 28 May! It was very exciting seeing this video released officially on television.
If you're not prepared you may explode twice! If you are prepared you definitely will!
Bronies finally get recognition!
This aired on The Hub (the television network Hasbro owns) on 28 May! It was very exciting seeing this video released officially on television.
Sunday, August 11, 2013
100 Things I Learned From My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
The original from The Urban Mystic. The most popular post by far. This was written between seasons one and two. A lot has changed since then, so much of this list is out of date.
(In no particular order)
1. Friendship is magic
2. Brushing apples isn't nearly as fun as brushing ponies
3. Rainbow Dash is living the dream
4. Ponies are sexually dimorphic: females have round faces and males have square faces
5. REAL men wear gowns (from a prostate commercial of all places!)
6. *twitch-a-twitch --> something BAD happens
7. You WILL love Fluttershy or you will regret it
8. Dragon eggs can't hatch without unicorn magic
9. What's with the tin can?
10. Stick a cupcake in your eye
11. Doughnuts are the equivalent of alcohol (at least for dragons)
12. Pegasi have cute little chicken wings
13. Celestia's hair blows about even in the absence of wind
14. Rarity doesn't know she's naked
15. Forest animals can't clean their own homes in spring, ponies have to do it for them
16. Bears like to go to the beach but no one can agree on what they do when they get there
17. Pinkie Pie is the only one in her family without drab colours
18. Doctors in Equestria do hip replacements
19. Hitler didn't like ponies
20. The population of Equestria is vegetarian, so the population of wild animals is kept in control through some other means
21. Ponies celebrate several as yet unidentified winter holidays
22. I watch it for the plot!
23. Celestia toys come in pink and sometimes blue but never white for some reason
24. You shouldn't hit books, you should read them
25. Gilda has to watch you like a hawk because she can't watch you like a griffon
26. Cheerilee was in fewer episodes than a lot of characters yet she still got her own toy at McDonalds
27. Believe it or not, Fluttershy was quite shy as a child
28. Rocks can't just be found in the ground like on Earth, they have to be farmed
29. Pinkie Pie never did get her sasparilla
30. Applejack has an accent even though she lives within walking distance of everyone else
31. Applejack loses her accent when she sings
32. Boots are worn on all four feet but slippers are only worn on the front two
33. Pinkie Pie barely teeters on the edge of sanity
34. Applejack is a terrible liar (Pinkie Pie can tell when she's lying but not anyone else)
35. Rainbow Dash can clear the skies over Ponyville in ten seconds flat and is the only known pony to create a sonic rainboom but she still can't escape Pinkie Pie
36. A single bathtub can contain all the water in Ponyville for seven hours without anyone finding out where the water has gone
37. Pinkie Pie's hair changes depending on her mood
38. Grown men and little girls have more in common than is socially acceptable to admit
39. If there was a contest for the best singer in Equestria Twilight Sparkle would win hands down
40. Whoever played the guitar for the Cutie Mark Crusaders should go pro
41. Pinkie Pie is not affected by gravity or distance
42. Scootaloo is the cutest
43. The groundskeeper at the Grand Galloping Gala doesn't have a cutie mark despite being very old. He must not have any special talent
44. Celestia and Luna DIDN'T lez out to create Twilight Sparkle after all
45. The Grand Galloping Gala blows and Celestia knew it yet she still invited Twilight Sparkle, her loyal student, to crush her dreams and call it a lesson
46. Celestia created a glaringly sub-optimal world where the inhabitants must literally change the seasons, possibly because she enjoys watching ponies toil miserably and attack each other every time the seasons have to be changed (at least until Twilight came along and took control of the situation)
47. Equestria has seasons and bird migration, so we can assume it has distinct hemispheres
48. Ponyville is in the northern hemisphere as birds migrate south for the winter
49. Seasons in Equestria happen in reverse of seasons on Earth
50.
51. Losing a friend's trust is the fastest way to lose a friend forever!
52. Gold is used for money but jewels are eaten by dragons
53. The "Cupcakes" fanfic isn't nearly as gross or horrible as people make it out to be, although the author was trying way to hard to make it out to be, and the story doesn't make sense in light of Pinkie Pie's admission that all ponies are vegetarian.
54. Gummy has no teeth, and since alligators regrow lost teeth that means Gummy is either a mutant or Pinkie Pie is constantly pulling out all his teeth
55. FOREVER!!!!!
56. Cows are intelligent creatures that are none-the-less exploited for their milk
57. Rarity's fashion logo is actually pretty creepy
58. Fluttershy is a year older than Pinkie Pie
59. Fluttershy is off limits to pranks
60. And then I said "Oatmeal? Are you crazy?"
61. Though Fluttershy's stare can put even horrible monsters in their place the animals at the Grand Galloping Gala still run away from her
62. Either Granny Pie taught Pinkie to laugh at scary things after the sonic rainboom incident or she's very different from other members of her family
63. Canterlot has a back entrance (the front is a sheer cliff)
64. Prince Blueblood is said to be Princess Celestia's nephew, so he is either Princess Luna's son or Celestia has other siblings that were never introduced
65. If he is Luna's son that means he's over 1000 years old or was born sometime while she was trapped inside the moon and he was let out for some reason, and that ponies can have children of different species, somehow
66. Neither Celestia or Luna aged at all in the past 1000 years, yet Luna is noticably younger, meaning she must be younger by several tens of thousands or even millions of years
67. Assuming Celestia and Luna created Equestria together (since they "created harmony" together with their sun and moon raising), Celestia had to wait a long time before doing anything (according to # 66)
68. Since both sisters are different ages they couldn't have existed forever, so something or somepony must have brought them into existence
69. Celestia needs the Elements of Harmony to defeat her sister, so even though she's older she's the weaker of the two
70. It needs to be about 20% cooler
71. Twilight Sparkle never gets a turn
72. Pillow fights are fun!
73. FOREVER!!!!!
74. Spike is right handed
75. Pony language is written and read left to right and includes such symbols (letters?) as a horseshoe, star, unicorn head, clockwise spiral, and lightning bolt
76. Ponyville uses both the imperial and metric systems
77. Twilight Sparkle's balloon in the opening song appears nowhere else
78. All the ponies in this town are crazy!
79. Short tails are in this season
80. It was under "E"
81. Newborn dragons suck their tails even though the sucking reflex is a mammalian trait
82. Hot sauce bottles are poorly labeled
83. Many of the tools in Equestria are clearly designed for use by humanoid hands despite none of the inhabitants possessing such features
84. The Ponyville library, where Twilight Sparkle lives, surprisingly has few books yet all the furnishings one would find in a home; also, no one is ever seen going there to use the library as a library, only to visit Twilight
85. Pony names often match their personality/talent/cutie mark, meaning ponies are either named presciently or naming a pony has a deterministic effect on their future development (this brings up interesting consequences with such ponies as Granny Smith, who would be called "granny" even as a little filly!)
86. It wasn't nearly that cold at the top of the mountain after all
87. Equestria is sometimes a country
88. The Apple family either has a high percentage of twins or someone got lazy when drawing the crowd scene (the blue ponies with the yellow manes are triplets, two are wearing the same green scarf, and at least two other ponies have the exact same cutie mark!)
89. The Great and Powerful Trixie is a tragic pony who is homeless and had to live in a cart that she had to drag around herself, which is now destroyed, and even though she was just hiding behind a jerkass facade because she's sad and alone no one in Ponyville cut her any slack, except Twilight Sparkle, when she did nothing worse than Rainbow Dash (who has her friends to reign her in, Trixie has no one), and certainly nowhere near as bad as Gilda, yet Gilda got a Pinkie Pie party whereas Trixie only got derision and the obsequious fawning of mindless sycophants who got her into serious trouble through no fault of her own
90. Haters gonna hate
91. Pinkie Pie eats like a black hole
92. Princess Celestia may have created Equestria, but she doesn't know what parasprites are
93. The introduction of horses was actually the single greatest benefit to the lives of the Plains Indians
94. Fluttershy is literally afraid of her own shadow
95. Good Lord, Fluttershy repeats
96. If Rainbow Dash were a human she would be willing to do some freaky things
97. Pinkie Pie sometimes doesn't understand what she is doing or why she is doing it
98. It's a bad idea to encourage Sweetie Belle to sing, especially at bed time
99. Whatever you do, DO NOT FEED THE PARASPRITES!
100. Since there is no official Trixie figure I will have to carve, sand, paint, and sand again Twilight Sparkle to look like Trixie
Pinkie Pie inspired the most things on this list, 19, and Twilight Sparkle inspired the second most, 12.
(In no particular order)
1. Friendship is magic
2. Brushing apples isn't nearly as fun as brushing ponies
3. Rainbow Dash is living the dream
4. Ponies are sexually dimorphic: females have round faces and males have square faces
5. REAL men wear gowns (from a prostate commercial of all places!)
6. *twitch-a-twitch --> something BAD happens
7. You WILL love Fluttershy or you will regret it
8. Dragon eggs can't hatch without unicorn magic
9. What's with the tin can?
10. Stick a cupcake in your eye
11. Doughnuts are the equivalent of alcohol (at least for dragons)
12. Pegasi have cute little chicken wings
13. Celestia's hair blows about even in the absence of wind
14. Rarity doesn't know she's naked
15. Forest animals can't clean their own homes in spring, ponies have to do it for them
16. Bears like to go to the beach but no one can agree on what they do when they get there
17. Pinkie Pie is the only one in her family without drab colours
18. Doctors in Equestria do hip replacements
19. Hitler didn't like ponies
20. The population of Equestria is vegetarian, so the population of wild animals is kept in control through some other means
21. Ponies celebrate several as yet unidentified winter holidays
22. I watch it for the plot!
23. Celestia toys come in pink and sometimes blue but never white for some reason
24. You shouldn't hit books, you should read them
25. Gilda has to watch you like a hawk because she can't watch you like a griffon
26. Cheerilee was in fewer episodes than a lot of characters yet she still got her own toy at McDonalds
27. Believe it or not, Fluttershy was quite shy as a child
28. Rocks can't just be found in the ground like on Earth, they have to be farmed
29. Pinkie Pie never did get her sasparilla
30. Applejack has an accent even though she lives within walking distance of everyone else
31. Applejack loses her accent when she sings
32. Boots are worn on all four feet but slippers are only worn on the front two
33. Pinkie Pie barely teeters on the edge of sanity
34. Applejack is a terrible liar (Pinkie Pie can tell when she's lying but not anyone else)
35. Rainbow Dash can clear the skies over Ponyville in ten seconds flat and is the only known pony to create a sonic rainboom but she still can't escape Pinkie Pie
36. A single bathtub can contain all the water in Ponyville for seven hours without anyone finding out where the water has gone
37. Pinkie Pie's hair changes depending on her mood
38. Grown men and little girls have more in common than is socially acceptable to admit
39. If there was a contest for the best singer in Equestria Twilight Sparkle would win hands down
40. Whoever played the guitar for the Cutie Mark Crusaders should go pro
41. Pinkie Pie is not affected by gravity or distance
42. Scootaloo is the cutest
43. The groundskeeper at the Grand Galloping Gala doesn't have a cutie mark despite being very old. He must not have any special talent
44. Celestia and Luna DIDN'T lez out to create Twilight Sparkle after all
45. The Grand Galloping Gala blows and Celestia knew it yet she still invited Twilight Sparkle, her loyal student, to crush her dreams and call it a lesson
46. Celestia created a glaringly sub-optimal world where the inhabitants must literally change the seasons, possibly because she enjoys watching ponies toil miserably and attack each other every time the seasons have to be changed (at least until Twilight came along and took control of the situation)
47. Equestria has seasons and bird migration, so we can assume it has distinct hemispheres
48. Ponyville is in the northern hemisphere as birds migrate south for the winter
49. Seasons in Equestria happen in reverse of seasons on Earth
50.
51. Losing a friend's trust is the fastest way to lose a friend forever!
52. Gold is used for money but jewels are eaten by dragons
53. The "Cupcakes" fanfic isn't nearly as gross or horrible as people make it out to be, although the author was trying way to hard to make it out to be, and the story doesn't make sense in light of Pinkie Pie's admission that all ponies are vegetarian.
54. Gummy has no teeth, and since alligators regrow lost teeth that means Gummy is either a mutant or Pinkie Pie is constantly pulling out all his teeth
55. FOREVER!!!!!
56. Cows are intelligent creatures that are none-the-less exploited for their milk
57. Rarity's fashion logo is actually pretty creepy
58. Fluttershy is a year older than Pinkie Pie
59. Fluttershy is off limits to pranks
60. And then I said "Oatmeal? Are you crazy?"
61. Though Fluttershy's stare can put even horrible monsters in their place the animals at the Grand Galloping Gala still run away from her
62. Either Granny Pie taught Pinkie to laugh at scary things after the sonic rainboom incident or she's very different from other members of her family
63. Canterlot has a back entrance (the front is a sheer cliff)
64. Prince Blueblood is said to be Princess Celestia's nephew, so he is either Princess Luna's son or Celestia has other siblings that were never introduced
65. If he is Luna's son that means he's over 1000 years old or was born sometime while she was trapped inside the moon and he was let out for some reason, and that ponies can have children of different species, somehow
66. Neither Celestia or Luna aged at all in the past 1000 years, yet Luna is noticably younger, meaning she must be younger by several tens of thousands or even millions of years
67. Assuming Celestia and Luna created Equestria together (since they "created harmony" together with their sun and moon raising), Celestia had to wait a long time before doing anything (according to # 66)
68. Since both sisters are different ages they couldn't have existed forever, so something or somepony must have brought them into existence
69. Celestia needs the Elements of Harmony to defeat her sister, so even though she's older she's the weaker of the two
70. It needs to be about 20% cooler
71. Twilight Sparkle never gets a turn
72. Pillow fights are fun!
73. FOREVER!!!!!
74. Spike is right handed
75. Pony language is written and read left to right and includes such symbols (letters?) as a horseshoe, star, unicorn head, clockwise spiral, and lightning bolt
76. Ponyville uses both the imperial and metric systems
77. Twilight Sparkle's balloon in the opening song appears nowhere else
78. All the ponies in this town are crazy!
79. Short tails are in this season
80. It was under "E"
81. Newborn dragons suck their tails even though the sucking reflex is a mammalian trait
82. Hot sauce bottles are poorly labeled
83. Many of the tools in Equestria are clearly designed for use by humanoid hands despite none of the inhabitants possessing such features
84. The Ponyville library, where Twilight Sparkle lives, surprisingly has few books yet all the furnishings one would find in a home; also, no one is ever seen going there to use the library as a library, only to visit Twilight
85. Pony names often match their personality/talent/cutie mark, meaning ponies are either named presciently or naming a pony has a deterministic effect on their future development (this brings up interesting consequences with such ponies as Granny Smith, who would be called "granny" even as a little filly!)
86. It wasn't nearly that cold at the top of the mountain after all
87. Equestria is sometimes a country
88. The Apple family either has a high percentage of twins or someone got lazy when drawing the crowd scene (the blue ponies with the yellow manes are triplets, two are wearing the same green scarf, and at least two other ponies have the exact same cutie mark!)
89. The Great and Powerful Trixie is a tragic pony who is homeless and had to live in a cart that she had to drag around herself, which is now destroyed, and even though she was just hiding behind a jerkass facade because she's sad and alone no one in Ponyville cut her any slack, except Twilight Sparkle, when she did nothing worse than Rainbow Dash (who has her friends to reign her in, Trixie has no one), and certainly nowhere near as bad as Gilda, yet Gilda got a Pinkie Pie party whereas Trixie only got derision and the obsequious fawning of mindless sycophants who got her into serious trouble through no fault of her own
90. Haters gonna hate
91. Pinkie Pie eats like a black hole
92. Princess Celestia may have created Equestria, but she doesn't know what parasprites are
93. The introduction of horses was actually the single greatest benefit to the lives of the Plains Indians
94. Fluttershy is literally afraid of her own shadow
95. Good Lord, Fluttershy repeats
96. If Rainbow Dash were a human she would be willing to do some freaky things
97. Pinkie Pie sometimes doesn't understand what she is doing or why she is doing it
98. It's a bad idea to encourage Sweetie Belle to sing, especially at bed time
99. Whatever you do, DO NOT FEED THE PARASPRITES!
100. Since there is no official Trixie figure I will have to carve, sand, paint, and sand again Twilight Sparkle to look like Trixie
Pinkie Pie inspired the most things on this list, 19, and Twilight Sparkle inspired the second most, 12.
The Return of Harmony Part 2 (of 3)
Another repost. I want to collect all the old stuff here first so it's not scattered on two different sites.
Not really, but it should have been. As a five part series finale this could have been the most awesome thing ever, but as a two part season premier, not so much. One hour of material was crammed into 22 minutes of show and with predictable results. The most powerful villain in the world was defeated in a deus ex machina way and turned back into stone as if that were the default setting of the Elements of Harmony.
Luna didn't appear (although Derpy was in the crowd at Canterlot). She was banished for 1000 years, but that wasn't punishment enough, so she was banished for the rest of Season One and the start of Season Two - the most siginficant event in the history of Equestria. Some ponies can't catch a break. She and Celestia just sat by and did nothing while Discord was on the loose? They could have at least helped (in a way other than returning Twi's letters).
If Twi could use her magic to undo Discord's negative effects on her friends why didn't she do so in the beginning? It would have been better if they had to overcome their changes with at least some struggle, if not two additional episodes worth. Part one seemed to be building up for something that never happened.
Now that the Mane 6 defeated Discord who would ever oppose them? They've only saved the very fabric of reality, they should be heaped with praise, their every whim delivered. You want everything for free for the rest of your life? No problem, you only saved reality. How could they possibly get repaid? I'm actually disappointed by this turn of events. Where do you possibly go from here?
The whole Cutie Mark Crusaders subplot was never resolved. It was just dropped like one of Discord's many non sequiturs. Were they there to demonstrait something? Were they there to serve as foreshadowing? Did their petty arguing actually free Discord? The world may never know.
This episode tried to be the greatest thing ever but was left wanting.
That's not to say this episode was bad, merely rushed. I would have to give this episode a comparatively low rating of 9.0 (out of 10.0). Not bad, like Over a Barrel, but not fantastic like Suited for Success or The Cutie Mark Chronicles.
Some very good parts of this episode include:
*Derpy was there, although she wasn't derping
*EVERYTHING about Discord
*Mean Fluttershy standing up to mean Pinkie Pie (at least somepony did it)
*Twi's balloon is back!
*When Discord fills the glass with chocolate milk he fills it from the top down, then drinks the glass and throws the glass-shaped milk away! And it blows up!
*The way Discord sits on his throne (see top picture)
*Twi handing out all the EoH necklaces and when she comes to her own she calls it a "big crown thing"
*Spike is the new Rainbow Dash
*Applejack eating apple cores and they get more complete with every bite
*When the Mane 6 originally attacked Discord with the EoH he puts a bullseye on his chest
*When they attack Discord the second time he says "friend me"
*Discord saying to Twi "Maybe the magic of friendship can help you."
Not really, but it should have been. As a five part series finale this could have been the most awesome thing ever, but as a two part season premier, not so much. One hour of material was crammed into 22 minutes of show and with predictable results. The most powerful villain in the world was defeated in a deus ex machina way and turned back into stone as if that were the default setting of the Elements of Harmony.
Luna didn't appear (although Derpy was in the crowd at Canterlot). She was banished for 1000 years, but that wasn't punishment enough, so she was banished for the rest of Season One and the start of Season Two - the most siginficant event in the history of Equestria. Some ponies can't catch a break. She and Celestia just sat by and did nothing while Discord was on the loose? They could have at least helped (in a way other than returning Twi's letters).
If Twi could use her magic to undo Discord's negative effects on her friends why didn't she do so in the beginning? It would have been better if they had to overcome their changes with at least some struggle, if not two additional episodes worth. Part one seemed to be building up for something that never happened.
Now that the Mane 6 defeated Discord who would ever oppose them? They've only saved the very fabric of reality, they should be heaped with praise, their every whim delivered. You want everything for free for the rest of your life? No problem, you only saved reality. How could they possibly get repaid? I'm actually disappointed by this turn of events. Where do you possibly go from here?
The whole Cutie Mark Crusaders subplot was never resolved. It was just dropped like one of Discord's many non sequiturs. Were they there to demonstrait something? Were they there to serve as foreshadowing? Did their petty arguing actually free Discord? The world may never know.
This episode tried to be the greatest thing ever but was left wanting.
That's not to say this episode was bad, merely rushed. I would have to give this episode a comparatively low rating of 9.0 (out of 10.0). Not bad, like Over a Barrel, but not fantastic like Suited for Success or The Cutie Mark Chronicles.
Some very good parts of this episode include:
*Derpy was there, although she wasn't derping
*EVERYTHING about Discord
*Mean Fluttershy standing up to mean Pinkie Pie (at least somepony did it)
*Twi's balloon is back!
*When Discord fills the glass with chocolate milk he fills it from the top down, then drinks the glass and throws the glass-shaped milk away! And it blows up!
*The way Discord sits on his throne (see top picture)
*Twi handing out all the EoH necklaces and when she comes to her own she calls it a "big crown thing"
*Spike is the new Rainbow Dash
*Applejack eating apple cores and they get more complete with every bite
*When the Mane 6 originally attacked Discord with the EoH he puts a bullseye on his chest
*When they attack Discord the second time he says "friend me"
*Discord saying to Twi "Maybe the magic of friendship can help you."
The Return of Harmony
Yay! Another repost from The Urban Mystic. I'll write something better on The Return of Harmony later.
Today was the long awaited premier of season two of FiM, and we got to meet the awesome villain Discord and learn that Equestria follows the same basic rules as most creation myths.
If we recall #69 on the list: Celestia needs the Elements of Harmony to defeat her sister, so even though she's older she's the weaker of the two.
From this we can know the following: (101.) Since both Celestia and Luna together needed the Elements of Harmony to defeat Discord, that makes Discord the de facto most powerful being ever introduced on the show. Not only did he precede the sisters as ruler of the world, he also held that position since deep antiquity and is possibly the oldest being yet introduced.
Next is the issue of the Elements of Harmony themselves. Who or what created them, or have they always existed?
The story presented in today's episode is one with a great deal of staying power. The world exists from an infinite past in chaos; out of the chaos are born the gods, the gods do battle with a great dragon, slay it, and then build the world from its remains. A lot of ancient myths follow this pattern with only slight variation (the Babylonian story of creation with Marduk fighting Tiamat follows it directly; the Greek Theogony details how the gods came from the premordial chaos: Kronos defeated his father Uranus, bringing about a golden age like when Celestia and Luna ruled together, then he overstepped his bounds and Zeus defeated him, like when Luna became Nightmare Moon and had to be defeated by her sister). This chaoskampf (conflict with chaos) appears throughout a very large number of the world's creation stories (including the Bible where, in Job, God tells Job how he fought Behemoth and Leviathan at the time of creation, trapped them, and how they will be destroyed in the eschaton, like how Discord was fought and trapped in stone, though we don't know if there was ever the intent on destroying him at the end of time), and plays out rather nicely in The Return of Harmony.
My only problem with this episode is that it is only a two-parter. I could stand to watch a separate episode dealing with how Discord affects each of the mane six. He is insanely powerful and insanely cool and I don't think two episodes do him much justice.
Today was the long awaited premier of season two of FiM, and we got to meet the awesome villain Discord and learn that Equestria follows the same basic rules as most creation myths.
If we recall #69 on the list: Celestia needs the Elements of Harmony to defeat her sister, so even though she's older she's the weaker of the two.
From this we can know the following: (101.) Since both Celestia and Luna together needed the Elements of Harmony to defeat Discord, that makes Discord the de facto most powerful being ever introduced on the show. Not only did he precede the sisters as ruler of the world, he also held that position since deep antiquity and is possibly the oldest being yet introduced.
Next is the issue of the Elements of Harmony themselves. Who or what created them, or have they always existed?
The story presented in today's episode is one with a great deal of staying power. The world exists from an infinite past in chaos; out of the chaos are born the gods, the gods do battle with a great dragon, slay it, and then build the world from its remains. A lot of ancient myths follow this pattern with only slight variation (the Babylonian story of creation with Marduk fighting Tiamat follows it directly; the Greek Theogony details how the gods came from the premordial chaos: Kronos defeated his father Uranus, bringing about a golden age like when Celestia and Luna ruled together, then he overstepped his bounds and Zeus defeated him, like when Luna became Nightmare Moon and had to be defeated by her sister). This chaoskampf (conflict with chaos) appears throughout a very large number of the world's creation stories (including the Bible where, in Job, God tells Job how he fought Behemoth and Leviathan at the time of creation, trapped them, and how they will be destroyed in the eschaton, like how Discord was fought and trapped in stone, though we don't know if there was ever the intent on destroying him at the end of time), and plays out rather nicely in The Return of Harmony.
My only problem with this episode is that it is only a two-parter. I could stand to watch a separate episode dealing with how Discord affects each of the mane six. He is insanely powerful and insanely cool and I don't think two episodes do him much justice.
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