The Movie Trailer has been confirmed to be released along with Despicable Me 3. That movie is coming out June 29th, so the trailer should be released some time before then. The trailer is over 2 minutes long, so I guess that's a bit on the longer side.

For trailer expectations and hopes I think the biggest thing that they need to do is show to a general audience that it's a movie that everyone can enjoy. There's a lot of things that pop into people's heads when they hear "My Little Pony" but "fun adventure film that I can take my son to" is probably not one of them. I think the designs they came up with the new characters sell it fairly well so I'm sure we're going to see quite a bit of them. Also there's probably going to be tons of Rainbow and Pinkie in the promotional material since they're the most popular characters and I think they're an easier sell to general audiences.

Nice, that probably means a trailer this week. Over two minutes isn't unusual for a final trailer. As for what's in the trailer, I expect it will follow the typical formula, like... wait, actually, I have an idea. Trailer bingo cards! Using the same format as the season bingo cards, let's make some for the trailer, with spaces like "Record scratch when Pinkie makes a joke" and "Celestia is defeated by the Storm King". EDIT 2: Started working on the movie trailer bingo, but then lost interest, so never mind on that.

On that subject, I've made a decision regarding movie topics. Close to the movie's release, or whenever detailed story information starts leaking, we'll create a spoiler thread for the movie. The main reason is because we know season 7 is probably still airing after the movie comes out, and it will be awkward to have movie discussion interrupted by episode discussion. Someone not watching the new season shouldn't have to search for posts about the movie.

EDIT: Thread subtitle should be "Real start of the Hasbro Cinematic Universe".

SigmasonicX said:

IDW comic sales for March show all three MLP releases in IDW's top 10, all close to 10,000 copies (physical). Granted, all are past the 200th best selling comic that month, but it is what it is.

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It's really disappointing that comics sell so few numbers. 10k copies is nothing, but it's not like 100k for THE BEST OF THAT WEEK is any better. Comics are a really small industry that basically relies on fans and word of mouth.

It's maybe a conversation for a different thread, but it bums me out when I see the sales of stuff I like.

Anyhow, I reviewed the newest MLP issue. http://wethenerdy.com/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-55-review/ I enjoyed it for the most part. I don't think the review is very spoiler heavy, but if you're really keen on going in blind, the score's a 7/10.

Conkersbadfurday said:

It's really disappointing that comics sell so few numbers. 10k copies is nothing, but it's not like 100k for THE BEST OF THAT WEEK is any better. Comics are a really small industry that basically relies on fans and word of mouth.

It's maybe a conversation for a different thread, but it bums me out when I see the sales of stuff I like.

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The physical distribution model is indeed messed up, as shown by these two topics, but IDW at least seems to be well aware that it isn't the end all be all. My understanding is that MLP actually does really well at School Book Fairs, and I'm sure digital sales are good. With Marvel and DC, I believe digital sales still aren't as good as physical sales, but I imagine it's different with this.

Speaking of comics, September comic solicitations. This time around, I feel it makes a bit more sense to list Legends of Magic before the main series.

My Little Pony: Legends of Magic #6

Jeremy Whitley (w) • Brenda Hickey (a & mc) • Heather Breckel (c) • Zachery Sterling (sc) • Abigail "LeekFish" Starling (ric)
The famous healer Mage Meadowbrook comes to an abandoned village. A search for the town's residents will reveal a terrible affliction that may be incurable unless Mage can think quick!
* The last of the legendary ponies is revealed... but what comes next?!
* Variant cover by Abigail Starling!

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #58

Thom Zahler (w) • Agnes Garbowska (a & mc) • Sara Richard (sc) • Thom Zahler (ric)
Following the notes of Mage Meadowbrook, Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle search for an elusive flower that could possibly cure any ailment! But as the search turns into an obsession, Twilight risks losing the flower forever!
* New characters and new adventures!

My Little Pony: The Movie Prequel #4

Ted Anderson (w) • Andy Price (a & mc) • Heather Breckel (c) • Tony Fleecs (sc) • Kaori Matsuo (ric)
The final Prequel issue hits featuring the most mysterious new enemy the Ponies have faced yet! The exciting caper that leads to the upcoming movie comes to a surprising conclusion!
* If you're a MLP fan, you can't miss the upcoming movie and you can't miss this Prequel!
* Don't get left behind when My Little Pony: The Movie comes to theaters this October! Get a head start by reading the prequel comic that leads directly into the movie!

First of all, I guess Mage Meadowlark's first name is Mage. But if that's more than just a name, then incoming earth pony magic! I like her design, especially with that mask. Her hair makes me think there might be a connection with Tree Hugger, but probably not. The note about this being the last of the legendary ponies makes me wonder what's next for the series.

It looks like they're really doubling down on Mage, because she plays a role in the FiM issue too. The issue seems like it ties into "A Health of Information", the episode where Zecora falls sick and Fluttershy helps her; perhaps Twilight actually plays a large role in that episode too. The episode timing seems to work out too, if "Discordant Harmony" airs in early August. I expect this comic actually takes place after the episode, since if Fluttershy and Twilight went on a long journey in the middle of it, you'd think the episode would actually show that. The synopsis makes Moby Dick come to mind, but the healing plant is also a reference to The Epic of Gilgamesh, which like the comic has a futile journey to retrieve it.

The movie prequel comic looks like it will focus on Tempest. Not much else to say.

That third FiM cover makes me think, Twilight's castle interior actually does work better with more whites and yellows. Actually, you know, I don't complement the covers enough. The normal FiM cover is a bit basic, but Sara Richard's cover (the second one) looks fantastic! I also like the general design pattern the Legends of Magic main covers have been following. The second Legends of Magic cover is cute, going with the common fan trope of Fluttershy as Alice. The third is alright; not sure why it warranted a special artist call-out in the synopsis.

Oh, but there's one more thing, the comic adaptation of the movie. This is actually an advanced October solicitation, so no spoilers there, plus it's actually a screencap comic. As in, it uses still images from the movie. But what I find really interesting is the list of writers: Lauren Faust, Rita Hsiao, Megan McCarthy, Michael Vogel. It's likely that Lauren Faust is just listed because of a foreword she wrote, or some dialogue is lifted from the first episode in the introduction, or she's being listed for the same reason she still appears in the opening credits, but wouldn't it be something if she actually contributed to the movie?

Episode description coming in a bit.

EDIT: Pinkie Pie Says Goodnight: Summer Solstice

Today's episode is:
In Australia
13. The Perfect Pear (No US airdate yet)
The Apple Siblings learn about their parent's love story and find out that they're half Pear.

Episodes that can be discussed freely
1. Celestial Advice - Twilight Sparkle agonizes over Starlight Glimmer's future and receives some much-needed advice from her very own mentor – Princess Celestia.
2. All Bottled Up - While the Mane 6 are on a friendship retreat, Starlight Glimmer loses Twilight Sparkle's friendship map. Afraid her anger might get out of control, Starlight Glimmer casts a calming spell while the ponies search for the lost map.
3. A Flurry of Emotions - After planning a jam-packed day, Twilight Sparkle also agrees to babysit her niece, Flurry Heart. But with Flurry Heart along for the ride, Twilight Sparkle struggles to maintain her title as 'The Best Aunt Ever' while keeping Flurry Heart out of trouble!
4. Rock Solid Friendship - When Pinkie Pie learns that Maud might move to Ponyville, she does everything she can to make sure her sister sees that it has more to offer than just rocks.
5. Fluttershy Leans In - Fluttershy is determined to make her career dreams come true with the help of some very special ponies. But when her true vision is not being executed properly, she must find a way to stand up and fight for her ideas.
6. Forever Filly - When Rarity surprises Sweetie Belle with a special day together filled with all of her favorite activities, she quickly learns that her little sister is no longer the little foal she used to be.
7. Parental Glideance - When Rainbow Dash's parents discover she's a Wonderbolt, they show up at every event to cheer her on. However, their unabashed enthusiasm proves to be rather embarrassing and pushes Rainbow Dash to the brink.
8. Hard to Say Anything - When the Cutie Mark Crusaders discover that Big Mac has his first crush, they vow to help him win Sugar Belle's heart before Feather Bangs does it first.
9. Honest Apple - When Rarity asks Applejack to be a judge in a fashion show, Applejack learns that an opinion, however honest, can still be hurtful.
10. A Royal Problem - Starlight Glimmer is sent to solve a friendship problem between Princess Celestia and Princess Luna; when it's clear that the problem is that the royal sisters don't appreciate one another, Starlight impulsively switches their cutie marks!
11. Not Asking for Trouble - Pinkie Pie visits Prince Rutherford and the Yaks. While there an avalanche falls on the entire rustic village of Yakyakistan. Pinkie Pie suggests that she go to get the other ponies to help but the proud Prince and Yaks refuse.

Remember that song details should go under spoiler tags too.

EDIT: And seriously, HOW ARE PEOPLE SEEING DRFORESTER'S IMAGE IN THE ROUND STABLE THREAD?! I don't get it!

EDIT: Oh, silly me. My Disconnect plug-in blocks Twitter images, and I never whitelisted Round Stable. I looked through the page info before to get the image URL, saw an empty Imgur image, and assumed that was what DrForester posted, so I never even thought that he might have posted a Twitter image. Glad I figured that out, I was close to signing up on Round Stable just to ask the above.

The Perfect Pear

SigmasonicX said:

Nice, that probably means a trailer this week. Over two minutes isn't unusual for a final trailer. As for what's in the trailer, I expect it will follow the typical formula, like... wait, actually, I have an idea. Trailer bingo cards! Using the same format as the season bingo cards, let's make some for the trailer, with spaces like "Record scratch when Pinkie makes a joke" and "Celestia is defeated by the Storm King". EDIT 2: Started working on the movie trailer bingo, but then lost interest, so never mind on that.

On that subject, I've made a decision regarding movie topics. Close to the movie's release, or whenever detailed story information starts leaking, we'll create a spoiler thread for the movie. The main reason is because we know season 7 is probably still airing after the movie comes out, and it will be awkward to have movie discussion interrupted by episode discussion. Someone not watching the new season shouldn't have to search for posts about the movie.

EDIT: Thread subtitle should be "Real start of the Hasbro Cinematic Universe".

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God damn I can't handle all these edits Sigma

Also a MLP MTG crossover would be cool as hell, and I think it could actually work well.

I'm going to be changing my avatar to Rarity when the trailer drops. Gotta be repping the best pony when it happens.


I was under the impression that Meadowbrook was a unicorn. The one time she was referenced in the show to my knowledge was in The Cutie Map where Starlight claimed that the Staff of Sameness was one of Mage Meadowbrook's 9 enchanted objects. Twilight later says "I haven't studied Eastern Unicorns as much as I should have, but I'm pretty sure Meadowbrook only had 8 magical items, not 9." That sorta implies that she's a unicorn if you would learn about her by studying Unicorn history. I don't really care if they retcon her as an Earth Pony, I just thought it was worth pointing out.

SigmasonicX said:

EDIT: Oh, silly me. My Disconnect plug-in blocks Twitter images, and I never whitelisted Round Stable. I looked through the page info before to get the image URL, saw an empty Imgur image, and assumed that was what DrForester posted, so I never even thought that he might have posted a Twitter image. Glad I figured that out, I was close to signing up on Round Stable just to ask the above.

Click to expand...

I feel like this is fitting



And then there's the episode. I think I'll end up doing a post over the weekend or something on it. There's a lot of things in it that are definitely worth talking about it and I'm not sure how I completely feel about the episode. In many ways it feels like Crusaders of the Lost Mark which was an episode that everyone freaked out over when it first came out due to what was in it but now that the "OMG the Crusaders got their marks" factor has worn off it's still great but not quite as impressive. I think for most people the good in this episode is going to massively overshadow all the minor problems that it has. Overall I just don't think I can make a good post on it right now as all of it will just be me saying "This happened and it made me feel this way" which is surface level stuff that I try to avoid doing without trying to explain why. Definitely a lot to talk about it and I don't think I can do the episode justice right now.


As for my initial thoughts, I agree with Forester in that For what it's worth this is another Lewis and Songco episode although it is decisively sparse on laughs which is unusual for their stories. There's some things it definitely could have done better but it's a really strong and at times emotional entry in the series and I predict it will likely end up 3rd for me in the episodes we've seen so far behind Rock Solid Friendship and Royal Problem.

Discordant Harmony


The Perfect Pear

UberTag said:

The Perfect Pear

Spoiler

Now THIS is the change of pace I was hoping for. Lewis and Songco deliver another gem. Bright Mac and Buttercup (aka Pear Butter) were adorable together. Having the Apple siblings retrace their parents' love story was a lore building episode that's been long overdue. William Shatner delivered one hell of a cameo performance. I also got a kick out of Vanhoover being the latest city name pun seeing how much of Friendship is Magic's production is based out of Vancouver.

This episode also introduced the concept of pony "identity changing" seeing how both AJ's mother and Mrs. Cake went by different names at one point. Seems like something that may come into play down the line with somepony else we know.

As for the "dodging the question" issue, I'm not sure it's one that needs to be answered, IMO. Do we really need to hear that they're dead and how it happened? I think this episode spelled that out quite clearly without having to delve into any of that tragic business.

On the episode framing issue, I can buy that AJ and Big Mac didn't know their mother was a Pear if it was something that was specifically kept from them. Given that her father moved away and she was effectively estranged from the family, I can understand why Buttercup never brought it up.

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Yup, agreed on all accounts. Quite honestly, I think The Perfect Pear might be my new favorite episode from the show. For whatever reason, watching it keeps getting me crying. lmao They knocked it out of the ballpark for me.


So yeah, amazing episode.

Great episode and all, but

Trigonometrize. said:

Great episode and all, but

Spoiler

THE BABIES WERE TALKING AND IT ACTUALLY SENT A CHILL UP MY SPINE

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UberTag said:

Spoiler

It wasn't so much that they were talking so much as that Bright Mac's voice was way too deep for that scene. They should have brought in a kid to voice him there... and seeing how this studio has been conscious about having kids voice Pipsqueak and the Season 1 CMCs, this felt like a misstep.

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Ironically enough, they can pretty much at this point have the CMC actresses voice adult characters if they needed them to. I was thinking about how the mane 4 voice incidental characters all the time, so it's about time Michelle, Claire, and Madeleine pulled some of that weight.

Trigonometrize. said:

Ironically enough, they can pretty much at this point have the CMC actresses voice adult characters if they needed them to. I was thinking about how the mane 4 voice incidental characters all the time, so it's about time Michelle, Claire, and Madeleine pulled some of that weight.

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I suppose the question is whether or not they have the range to pull off the vocal acrobatics of their senior contemporaries. Michelle and Claire had brief cameo stints voicing different Wonderbolts in last season's Newbie Dash. Madeleine is the elder statesman of the trio but I actually think she has the least range of the three (outside of Scootaloo's fangirl shrieking).

By the way there was a callback in the episode that I haven't seen pointed out yet but I think it's pretty cool.

Post responses (including Conkers' comic review) coming later. EDIT: And there they are.

Friendship is Magic #55
I took a brief look at the preview pages before to confirm that it hinted at / referenced events from "Not Asking For Trouble", but I didn't look close enough to notice that Dash's parents were in this.


Considering Ember is on the cover, having her only appear on the very last page is... odd. This story is a big example of mismatched expectations from the cover and the synopsis. It seemed like the story would involve the yaks and dragons coming into conflict, with the focus on their disagreement, but in fact, the yaks were presented as innocent victims (for this issue at least) while we just had nameless dragons attacking until the end.

That said, what we did get was fairly interesting. Dash being shy when she was young is a well-worn fan trope, but it isn't any less adorable here. I did like them acknowledging that Dash was being insubordinate by barking out orders when Spitfire was right there, but I did feel like Spitfire was presented as uncharacteristically cowardly. True, in the end, the enemies were too much to fight off and they did have to retreat, but she could have at least tried to help until the yaks got to shelter. Plus, she claims the Wonderbolts aren't warriors, which breaks continuity. When the Wonderbolts and then the other Main Six (+ Starlight and Spike) joined in on the fight, it was pretty fun. I especially liked the detail of Rarity tying bows around the eyes of dragons.


There's some massive time compression with Twilight and the others arriving so quickly, even with Fleetfoot pulling the balloon. Rutherford and the other yaks were also unusually calm about the dragons attacking, but this goes a long way in making him seem more like an actual leader. I suppose Twilight was there so she and Spike could talk to Ember in the next issue, but I think it would have been more interesting if Pinkie and the Wonderbolts had to deal with it alone, as implied by the covers.

The art was good, with Cheerleader Pinkie and Dash's flashback being especially adorable. However, I did notice a typo ("canon" instead of "cannon"), and the word bubble layout was confusing at parts.

Silver Quill's review points out a coloring change in Agnes Garbowska's artwork, shifting away from her typical watercolors to a starker tone that makes for better action. Though I haven't checked, I'm pretty sure Pinkie's cheerleader outfit is based on Cheerilee's from "The Cart Before the Ponies" (the bow is a dead giveaway), so it isn't comic original like he claims. He points out that the reason why Ember doesn't show up until the end is that both issues in this comic are attempting to be more independent and resolve distinct stories while still being linked, which makes sense.

EDIT:

Conkersbadfurday said:

Anyhow, I reviewed the newest MLP issue. http://wethenerdy.com/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-55-review/ I enjoyed it for the most part. I don't think the review is very spoiler heavy, but if you're really keen on going in blind, the score's a 7/10.

Click to expand...

Besides the season 7 complaints that I mostly don't agree with, I largely have the same thoughts. While the Dash flashback was cute, it was pretty out of place. It's a bit odd to complain about the nonviolent action scenes, since we still have fire breathing dragons, unicorns shooting laser beams, and yaks launching rocks from catapults. Yes, no one gets seriously hurt, but they're clearly fighting seriously (beside Pinkie). It's not like they're still throwing apple pies at each other.

ShinySylvee said:

God damn I can't handle all these edits Sigma

Also a MLP MTG crossover would be cool as hell, and I think it could actually work well.

Click to expand...

Well too bad, here's another big edit!

I've said before that I'd really like an IDW comic special that involves the Main Six playing a game of Magic the Gathering in the Commander format. That format is all about self expression with the legendary creature you choose and the deck you build around it, so this would be a great way to demonstrate their characters and color alignments both through their decks and their play styles. Dash would go full aggro and thus get taken out first, Rarity would play up the social aspect to manipulate her way toward winning, Twilight would go crazy trying to analyze the best way to win without getting on anyone's bad side, Applejack would build up resources and get frustrated when people keep taking out her stuff when she hasn't attacked anyone yet, Pinkie will upset everyone with random red enchantments and sorceries (the ones with tons of text), and Fluttershy will low key come out as the winner because everyone ignores what she's doing.

By the way, for those unfamiliar, the Hasbro Cinematic Universe is a real thing they're planning that will focus on G.I. Joe, Micronauts, Visionairies, M.A.S.K., and ROM. Seriously. Note that Transformers and Magic aren't included, because they're being done by other studios.

I was under the impression that Meadowbrook was a unicorn. The one time she was referenced in the show to my knowledge was in The Cutie Map where Starlight claimed that the Staff of Sameness was one of Mage Meadowbrook's 9 enchanted objects. Twilight later says "I haven't studied Eastern Unicorns as much as I should have, but I'm pretty sure Meadowbrook only had 8 magical items, not 9." That sorta implies that she's a unicorn if you would learn about her by studying Unicorn history. I don't really care if they retcon her as an Earth Pony, I just thought it was worth pointing out.

Click to expand...

Oh neat, I didn't realize she was already mentioned on the show. As for the retcon, it's possible that people generally don't know that Meadowbrook was an earth pony, due to all of her magic research.

I feel like this is fitting

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I suppose I deserve that. It's useful for getting unknown pages to load more quickly, but it doesn't show you where it blocked a Twitter image, so it can be rough if you forget about it.

Trigonometrize. said:

Ironically enough, they can pretty much at this point have the CMC actresses voice adult characters if they needed them to. I was thinking about how the mane 4 voice incidental characters all the time, so it's about time Michelle, Claire, and Madeleine pulled some of that weight.

Click to expand...

UberTag said:

I suppose the question is whether or not they have the range to pull off the vocal acrobatics of their senior contemporaries. Michelle and Claire had brief cameo stints voicing different Wonderbolts in last season's Newbie Dash. Madeleine is the elder statesman of the trio but I actually think she has the least range of the three (outside of Scootaloo's fangirl shrieking).

Click to expand...

Not entirely sure what could have prompted this discussion (but seriously, don't tell me), but it is weird to think of how the CMC VAs started as child actors and are now almost adults. It would be interesting to see how they handle other roles. I know Apple Bloom's VA was recording YouTube songs for a while alongside brony musicians, which I hear were good (haven't watched any of them, since I still find it kind of weird), but have the other two done anything else performance-wise? As for their relative acting skills, I haven't paid much attention, but I suppose Scootaloo's acting is probably the weakest and Sweetie Belle's is the strongest.

==

And in the news,

Confirmation that the MLP movie trailer will be in front of Despicable Me 3!

And to celebrate Celestia Day (Summer Solstice), here's movie Celestia!


There's also a Cadance vector at the link, but we've seen it before.

SigmasonicX said:

Well too bad, here's another big edit!

I've said before that I'd really like an IDW comic special that involves the Main Six playing a game of Magic the Gathering in the Commander format. That format is all about self expression with the legendary creature you choose and the deck you build around it, so this would be a great way to demonstrate their characters and color alignments both through their decks and their play styles. Dash would go full aggro and thus get taken out first, Rarity would play up the social aspect to manipulate her way toward winning, Twilight would go crazy trying to analyze the best way to win without getting on anyone's bad side, Applejack would build up resources and get frustrated when people keep taking out her stuff when she hasn't attacked anyone yet, Pinkie will upset everyone with random red enchantments and sorceries (the ones with tons of text), and Fluttershy will low key come out as the winner because everyone ignores what she's doing.

By the way, for those unfamiliar, the Hasbro Cinematic Universe is a real thing they're planning that will focus on G.I. Joe, Micronauts, Visionairies, M.A.S.K., and ROM. Seriously. Note that Transformers and Magic aren't included, because they're being done by other studios.


Oh neat, I didn't realize she was already mentioned on the show. As for the retcon, it's possible that people generally don't know that Meadowbrook was an earth pony, due to all of her magic research.

Click to expand...

Lol my biggest problem with your edits is when you say something and then edit in something later that completely changes what you were saying, like the bingo one. Also there was one post where you went from Edit 2 to Edit 4 and never had a 3. You had like 7 edits total in that post too. It's getting out of hand man.




(But seriously it's kind of weird because I'll read what you write at work and start thinking of what to respond with, then you make like 5 edits later and I have to rethink it. It's not a big deal but it gets silly at times)

It sounds like a fun idea, but realistically I feel like that sort of story could easily be achieved with any sort of multiplayer game. Having a crossover that requires being invested in both properties kinda limits their audience as well. I was hoping for a crossover where characters from both franchises met and interacted with each other. Both MTG and MLP have different dimensions/planes of existence so at least from an MLP perspective the idea of there being a bunch of other worlds out there wouldn't be that much weirder then Dougworld existing. And I'm not super well-versed on the MTG lore as of late but at least from what I remember something like Equestria existing as one of the planes wouldn't seem THAT far-fetched. It's mainly just wishful thinking. I doubt that it will end up happening as although it might convince a couple MTG players to check out the show I doubt that it will get a lot of MLP viewers to check out the card game.



Unrelated but am I the only person that's been massively disappointed by Silver Quill's video output as of late? The last episode review he did was back in October and that video was a cluster because he had like 5 other reviewers on and he didn't really contribute too much to the discussion. I never have been a fan of his crossover stuff because frankly most of the other MLP analysts either don't really come up with quality observations and mainly just talk about surface-level stuff that most people will pick up on their first time watching, or their mic/voice quality is horrible. With a small handful of exceptions I feel like most of his videos with guest reviewers would be better if it was just him solo. And he doesn't do episode reviews at all anymore. Even his series he created so he could get reviews out in a timely manner is horrifically behind, and this is after starting to condense and review a bunch of episodes at the same time.

All he does now is character videos tying into EQD's character days that they do, and since they have more then one a month on average it basically takes up all of his time. Even those I feel have gone to shit because he tries to force character archetypes in literally all of his videos now. I don't care for them in general but the worst part is that a lot of them are only like 50% right and he just states attributes that belong to that archetype even when they obviously don't apply to the character at hand and doesn't provide any decent evidence to support them. In his latest video when he started talking about how Chrysalis was a shadow of Celestia's archetype I rolled my eyes. Chrysalis is never presented as being a foil of Celestia so trying to talk about how her character plays off of Celestia's archetype is just reaching. And the characteristics he describes don't really fit Chrysalis either. When did Chrysalis ever blame her failings on her subordinates? She was punishing Thorax in To Where and Back Again because he was a traitor, not because he was responsible for her plan failing. And he says that Chrysalis might have not stopped Cadence and Shining Armor in Canterlot Wedding because she was trying to push the blame of failure onto someone else. What? I think it's pretty clear that she didn't stop them because she was arrogant and didn't think they could do anything.

I dunno it's just annoying because he was my favorite reviewer and all of his content he's been making for over the past half year has been uninteresting to me. The big problem is that there's no one to really replace him that I know of. I find KP fun at times but that's mainly for entertainment value. Honestly DWK has been probably the best analyst as of late and all he does is joke videos where he spends over half the time talking about how he's a loser and that he's sexually attracted to the characters.

ShinySylvee said:

Lol my biggest problem with your edits is when you say something and then edit in something later that completely changes what you were saying, like the bingo one. Also there was one post where you went from Edit 2 to Edit 4 and never had a 3. You had like 7 edits total in that post too. It's getting out of hand man.

(But seriously it's kind of weird because I'll read what you write at work and start thinking of what to respond with, then you make like 5 edits later and I have to rethink it. It's not a big deal but it gets silly at times)

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If you're talking about this post, then Edit 3 is at the top. But, point taken. Actually, what were you going to say about the bingo cards, anyway?

It sounds like a fun idea, but realistically I feel like that sort of story could easily be achieved with any sort of multiplayer game. Having a crossover that requires being invested in both properties kinda limits their audience as well. I was hoping for a crossover where characters from both franchises met and interacted with each other.

Click to expand...

The problems with an MTG character crossover are: (1) they're still in the process of establishing their core characters, and while I'm alright with the Gatewatch, they're definitely not at the level where interactions with the Main Six could be interesting; and (2) there are too many interesting worlds to just choose one to cover. I think a game based crossover would work better because it would be a good way to get MLP fans interested in MTG, by showing how a fun multiplayer game could go with the Main Six. Plus, it can show the actual cards and show everyone's emotional connections to them. Over in the Friendship is Dragons web comic, a guest comic arc involved them playing Mafia, and many comments expressed interest in playing that game as a result; plus, the main comic has gotten some people interested in DnD.

Unrelated but am I the only person that's been massively disappointed by Silver Quill's video output as of late? [...]

I dunno it's just annoying because he was my favorite reviewer and all of his content he's been making for over the past half year has been uninteresting to me.

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I hadn't paid enough attention to his videos to realize he stopped his episode reviews, but I do recall liking the ones I watched, so that is a shame. At least we know he's still active in the fandom and writes articles every once in a while, though. As for an alternative, though I haven't watched his episode reviews, I have liked DrWolf's therapy videos with the characters, and he appears to have done episode reviews of all the season 7 episodes (besides the newest two).

Also, more for myself than anything, link to my previous draft of the movie trailer thread.

So apparently there's a new IOS game coming out that might have spoiled the finale for season 7. Take it with a massive grain of salt but the screenshots from the game look like they're ripped directly from the show. Linking the reddit thread I got it from since I'm on my phone on break but I'll update this later when I get home.

https://www.reddit.com/r/mylittlepony/comments/6ix25l/spoilers_new_mlp_ios_game_reveals_s7_finale/.compact

ShinySylvee said:

So apparently there's a new IOS game coming out that might have spoiled the finale for season 7. Take it with a massive grain of salt but the screenshots from the game look like they're ripped directly from the show. Linking the reddit thread I got it from since I'm on my phone on break but I'll update this later when I get home.

https://www.reddit.com/r/mylittlepony/comments/6ix25l/spoilers_new_mlp_ios_game_reveals_s7_finale/.compact

Click to expand...

Thankfully, it doesn't seem like it's too bad. The story isn't any more detailed than a website flash game would be (like that Guardians of Harmony tie in game), and I highly doubt the gameplay implementation actually ties into how everything is resolved in the show. Still, we do get what appears to be the impetus of the story. Finale spoilers:
On the subject of spoilers, today's Drawfriend was titled "GIANT Drawfriend" and somehow, I legitimately thought this was unusual and wondered why so much art came in. I seriously forgot that "The Perfect Pear" aired. Since I brought it up, here it is, with "The Perfect Pear" art at the bottom. They hype up the fact that brony artists that haven't drawn show art in years have popped up again, but I guess I won't know what they're talking about for another two months.

Those reddit comments... yeah, I remember when a finale about some ho-dunk princess wedding sounded like the show was finally jumping the shark. I stopped assuming stuff off of very basic premises long ago.

ShinySylvee said:

So apparently there's a new IOS game coming out that might have spoiled the finale for season 7. Take it with a massive grain of salt but the screenshots from the game look like they're ripped directly from the show. Linking the reddit thread I got it from since I'm on my phone on break but I'll update this later when I get home.

https://www.reddit.com/r/mylittlepony/comments/6ix25l/spoilers_new_mlp_ios_game_reveals_s7_finale/.compact

Click to expand...

Certainly possible, but I'm not convinced yet. The only shot that looks bespoke to me is the closeup of ; the first few are weirdly framed for show shots, and the latter few look like mostly game artwork.

Happy to wait and see on this one.

SigmasonicX said:

Actually, what were you going to say about the bingo cards, anyway?

I hadn't paid enough attention to his videos to realize he stopped his episode reviews, but I do recall liking the ones I watched, so that is a shame. At least we know he's still active in the fandom and writes articles every once in a while, though. As for an alternative, though I haven't watched his episode reviews, I have liked DrWolf's therapy videos with the characters, and he appears to have done episode reviews of all the season 7 episodes (besides the newest two).
[/URL].

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I was going to make my own card. I still might if I get around to it.


Yeah Silver is still active (which I guess given this fandom isn't always a guarantee. A lot of people end up moving on) but I don't really care for his comic reviews since I don't care much for the comics themselves and his new videos just don't interest me. A lot of the characters he's already done videos on so most of the new ones are videos on characters he's already covered before. And I guess he took some college course on character archetypes because he brings them up in literally every one of his videos now even when they don't make much sense.

Wolf is alright but his delivery is really dry and it can be a bit boring to watch his videos at times. Also all of his reviews are done often the same day he watched it and feel more like first impressions with them generally just going through the plot of the episode and talking about how it made him feel. I like his overall positivity as a lot of "analysts" think that saying things are bad makes you smart or is automatically funny. (Ok I'm mainly just talking about Bronies React here. Most analysts I don't care for due to different reasons) I do like Wolf quite a bit but his episode reviews are a bit basic for me at times.



Followup on the potential spoilers: At the moment I'm leaning on them being an affirmation of the finale's plot right now but of course it could just be an entirely unrelated story. Reasons for why I think it's related:

> Art looks like it was taken from an episode (Don't quite know what you were talking about it not looking right Paullo. Aside from the castle screenshot all of them look like something from the show to me. The picture of
> It's a unique story that is certainly nothing like any of the big two-part stories they've done so far.

Reasons why it isn't legit/is an unrelated story:

> I was under the impression that animation is one of the last things that is done in production (Right before adding in BGM) so them having artwork for it when the finale is 4 months out seems a bit odd

>
> EQD still hasn't posted this yet which might mean that there's something that they know that would debunk it but wasn't posted in the reddit thread. This is unlikely to me because it took EQD almost a week to post the reddit AMA that the movie writer did so the precedent is set that they can take a while to eventually get around to posting stuff.

Overall I think it's more likely then not that this will end up being the plot, although as Sigma said I doubt it's going to play out exactly as how it does in the game. My main reason for thinking it's legit is because of the screenshots and that I doubt they would create new artwork like that just for some dingy mobile game. Again though there's always the possibility it's not legit so at this point it's an interesting thought but nothing I'm going to put a shitload of stock into.

Trigonometrize. said:

Those reddit comments... yeah, I remember when a finale about some ho-dunk princess wedding sounded like the show was finally jumping the shark. I stopped assuming stuff off of very basic premises long ago.

Click to expand...

To be fair one of the most upvoted comments is saying the same kinda thing you're saying and it's in response to someone else and is pretty decently far down the page where it's unusual to get that many upvotes. I think it's more that the people that didn't like the premise felt more compelled to post then the ones that thought it was fine despite I think the latter category outnumbering the former. From my experience the posters on Reddit are a lot better then the ones on EQD, although that's hardly an accomplishment as EQD's posters aren't very good. And yeah I'm not super thrilled at the concept but I'm going to wait until the episode airs to decide whether it was a good idea or not. So far the show's writers have been making sure the best writers are writing the most important episodes this season so I have faith that regardless of the concept it will end up being good.


Lastly there's a preview up for Legends of Magic 4 up on EQD. It seems fun so far but I feel like the writer is taking a couple liberties with the characters as although she is certainly fun that doesn't really feel like an accurate portrayal of Starlight. She's a lot less needy then that and if Sunburst was blowing her off she would probably take it personally and worry about whether or not he likes her anymore, not use it as an invitation to be nosy and forceful. That feels like something Trixie would do. Either way you can find it here



EDIT: So I went ahead and checked out the game. The opening cutscene is fully animated and looks exactly like the show. Apparently the company who made this had a previous game that revealed that the changelings were involved in the season finale for season 6, so at this point I think it is extremely likely that the cutscene is from the show.

Woah, DrForester, you might want to take a look at the assets you provided in the OP.

Completely forgot to link this before. Hasbro CEO on the future of the company. Most of it is hyping up the absurd Transformers Cinematic Universe, but he does mention MLP, interestingly saying the following:

We look at our brands more inclusively than ever. In fact, we eliminated the old delineation of gender. And if you think about a brand, be it My Little Pony, where 30 percent of our global TV audience is boys, or Star Wars, where we are launching [all-female animated series] Forces of Destiny with Lucas and Disney, you're seeing people who want to be engaged in these stories. And we don't care who they are. We just care that they love that brand.

Click to expand...

My Little Pony got a skit on Jimmy Kimmel during June 21's monologue, about the above quote, where he presents a joke MLP commercial aimed at boys. It's weird how we've cycled back to none of these late show comedians knowing bronies are a thing. Plus, it misidentifies Cadance as Twilight, which is just terrible.

And speaking of news I hadn't found the right time to post, Button Mash is officially named Button Mash, according to the Gameloft mobile game.

Trigonometrize. said:

Those reddit comments... yeah, I remember when a finale about some ho-dunk princess wedding sounded like the show was finally jumping the shark. I stopped assuming stuff off of very basic premises long ago.

Click to expand...

It's a very small comment thread, so it's literally just a few guys complaining. That said, as presented, the finale sounds weak, but then again, it's obvious that the game is leaving out a ton of information.

ShinySylvee said:

I was going to make my own card. I still might if I get around to it.

Click to expand...

What happened is that I started listing out my spaces, went, "Pinkie makes a joke, record scratch", "Celestia is defeated", "Sia song", and then started actually having to think about what else to include, whereupon I lost interest.

Yeah Silver is still active (which I guess given this fandom isn't always a guarantee.

Click to expand...

Indeed, I was thinking of Digibro (aka Digibrony), who abandoned MLP discussion to go full anime; and CR from Channel Awesome, who rather suddenly turned into a fan hater.

Wolf is alright but his delivery is really dry and it can be a bit boring to watch his videos at times. Also all of his reviews are done often the same day he watched it and feel more like first impressions with them generally just going through the plot of the episode and talking about how it made him feel. I like his overall positivity as a lot of "analysts" think that saying things are bad makes you smart or is automatically funny. (Ok I'm mainly just talking about Bronies React here. Most analysts I don't care for due to different reasons) I do like Wolf quite a bit but his episode reviews are a bit basic for me at times.

Click to expand...

Yeah, in DrWolf's therapy videos, most of the entertainment value comes from the guest voices and art, not his actual delivery, which is pretty dry. Past that, his character analysis is spot on; right after "Rock Solid Friendship", he released a Maud therapy video that more or less fully predicted Maud's plight in that episode.

The reason why I don't watch many brony reviews or reactions is precisely because they get so negative, in order to actually have something to say a lot of the time. It is a shame if Silver Quill was the only one providing quality analysis of episodes and not just hot takes, but perhaps he'll have time to make this videos when the break truly starts in the US (provided more episodes don't air in that time).

To be fair one of the most upvoted comments is saying the same kinda thing you're saying and it's in response to someone else and is pretty decently far down the page where it's unusual to get that many upvotes. I think it's more that the people that didn't like the premise felt more compelled to post then the ones that thought it was fine despite I think the latter category outnumbering the former. From my experience the posters on Reddit are a lot better then the ones on EQD, although that's hardly an accomplishment as EQD's posters aren't very good.

Click to expand...

While I can appreciate what Reddit does in theory, I'm not a fan of the actual result, which is why I prefer to avoid the place. Splitting conversations allows for in-depth discussion of particular aspects of a topic, but most of the time it results in a lot of repetition and chronological confusion. I really don't understand how it became the place for AMAs. I far prefer the typical forum set up we have here, though I suppose it isn't much better on other boards when bad and very frequent posters that bury interesting posts.

Lastly there's a preview up for Legends of Magic 4 up on EQD. It seems fun so far but I feel like the writer is taking a couple liberties with the characters as although she is certainly fun that doesn't really feel like an accurate portrayal of Starlight. She's a lot less needy then that and if Sunburst was blowing her off she would probably take it personally and worry about whether or not he likes her anymore, not use it as an invitation to be nosy and forceful. That feels like something Trixie would do. Either way you can find it here

Click to expand...

I typically don't read the comic previews, but if you insist~

Starlight is indeed rather out of character, but her plopping on the bed and telling Sunburst to read to her is adorable. Besides, it's just a framing device. On the subject, I would really like for Trixie and Sunburst to meet and have a teasing relationship, like in one of the images I have down below.

The story is following the same set up as Rockhoof and Mistmane with everyone recognizing Flash Magnum, and this actually being a follow up tale. This makes me think we'll see Flash Magnum as Rainbow Dash's story in "Campfire Tales", and that makes me hope we'll see something like the following exchange.

Rainbow Dash: Now let me tell you the story of Flash Magnum!
Applejack: Come to think of it, don't we know somepony named Flash?
Rarity: You're thinking of Flash Sentry, darling, that royal guard that had a crush on a certain Miss Sparkle.
Rainbow Dash: Until she completely friend-zoned him! You should have seen his face!
Rarity: I prefer not to use the term "friend-zone", but... yes, that is more or less what happened to him.
Applejack: So I don't usually care about this sort of thing, but... did she just not realize he had a crush or something?
Rarity: No, she definitely knew, and I think she even liked him back for a bit, but over time, she just lost interest.
Scootaloo: Ugh, enough with the gossip!

EDIT: So I went ahead and checked out the game. The opening cutscene is fully animated and looks exactly like the show. Apparently the company who made this had a previous game that revealed that the changelings were involved in the season finale for season 6, so at this point I think it is extremely likely that the cutscene is from the show.

Click to expand...

I was going to respond to your earlier points, but yeah, it being fully animated is pretty damning evidence.

ED did post about the game eventually, but they said nothing about the possible season 7 finale spoilers. Here's the trailer, which shows none of the spoilers.

And as traditional, dumping the stuff I have saved before "Dance Magic" airs tomorrow.

A Royal Problem
Daybreaker by tyuubatu
Sunrise


Sunny Nightmare
Who is the best pony?


Not Asking for Trouble and others
Snow Yak Pinkie Pie
Inky Rose by grim
Windy by hiccupsdoesart


With text heavy art, I'll try making the embeds a bit bigger.
Glimmerina


Comics
Pinkie Pie Says Goodnight: Triple Trouble - Featuring Dougworld Pinkie.
Kill Belle - A sequel to this classic season 5 comic.
Ask the Solar Destroyer (WARNING) - As mentioned in the Community thread, JohnJoseco has started a new ask blog about Daybreaker (making for two Daybreaker blogs I know of). As far as content goes, I don't think it will go full Molestia, but the header image is a close up of her butt and as of posting, the most recent update involves her licking the horns of other unicorns, so yeah, expect a lot of that. I would have preferred that his grand return to regular art updates didn't go so close to what burned him in the first place, but *shrug*.

Video
Not Asking for Trouble CENSORED - This episode is surprisingly good at providing (CENSORED) moments.

SigmasonicX said:

What happened is that I started listing out my spaces, went, "Pinkie makes a joke, record scratch", "Celestia is defeated", "Sia song", and then started actually having to think about what else to include, whereupon I lost interest.

The reason why I don't watch many brony reviews or reactions is precisely because they get so negative, in order to actually have something to say a lot of the time. It is a shame if Silver Quill was the only one providing quality analysis of episodes and not just hot takes, but perhaps he'll have time to make this videos when the break truly starts in the US (provided more episodes don't air in that time).


While I can appreciate what Reddit does in theory, I'm not a fan of the actual result, which is why I prefer to avoid the place. Splitting conversations allows for in-depth discussion of particular aspects of a topic, but most of the time it results in a lot of repetition and chronological confusion. I really don't understand how it became the place for AMAs. I far prefer the typical forum set up we have here, though I suppose it isn't much better on other boards when bad and very frequent posters that bury interesting posts.


Starlight is indeed rather out of character, but her plopping on the bed and telling Sunburst to read to her is adorable. Besides, it's just a framing device. On the subject, I would really like for Trixie and Sunburst to meet and have a teasing relationship, like in one of the images I have down below.

Click to expand...

I can think of a lot of stuff for a bingo card but the aliens in Xcom aren't going to kill themselves... I'll probably not get around to it.



For analysts I think one of the bigger problems with some of them is that they are clearly losing interest in the show but still feel compelled to keep making reviews because it's what most people come to see from them. Digi and another guy called Tommy Oliver had that problem and a couple of others have had similar issues. (Funnily enough I have seen some backlash towards Digi as of late in the Anime analysis community for not being very good) I think pointing out flaws is a necessity for any critique but the way that they're presented is extremely important. Often I feel that analysts usually present their opinions in a very matter-of-fact way leaves little room for disagreements. A youtuber called Hbomberguy is one of my favorite channels, and his "I'm right and people that disagree with me are wrong" attitude works very well when he's making fun of anti-feminists and the alt-right as they pretty much are all entirely wrong and the whole point of those videos is to laugh at how wrong these people are while learning a bit about politics or feminism. But his In Defense of Dark Souls 2 video is nigh-unwatchable for me because he puts down a lot of the other games in the series and generally says that people that don't feel the way he does are either wrong or aren't playing the game properly. (This is a massive over-exaggeration but the subtext is there) This kind of attitude is unfortunately EXTREMELY common among the mlp analyst community and is something I really try to avoid doing in the stuff that I do. Pointing out a couple grievances in an otherwise positive opinion piece is what I like to see. Spending the whole time bitching about every minor detail that went wrong in an episode while listing nothing positive and then going on a massive diatribe about how the show's gone downhill and should be canned already is not. And to be fair I do think I overstate negative opinions in my stuff and it's something I'm intending to work on. I remember a piece I did a while back on Rarity Takes Manehattan and you were surprised at the end that I actually really liked the episode.


And since we're talking about Analysts I recently stumbled upon a fairly well-known anime analyst called Super Eyepatch Wolf. If you've checked out that kind of stuff recently you probably have heard of him (His video on Berserk 2017 was on the front page here for quite a while recently) but if you haven't I would highly recommend checking him out. He typically talks about Shonen anime and even though I've literally never watched a shonen anime before I still find his videos fascinating to watch because he's such a damn good reviewer.




Reddit is kind of a weird place when you first start checking it out. One thing I will say pretty definitively is that Reddit is not the best place when it comes to discussion. It's constantly cycling threads mean that discussion on a topic can't really go on for more then a day to a couple of hours depending on the sub before the post gets buried. Additionally although its upvote system generally does a good job at filtering out bad posts, it can also encourage hive mind behavior. If you aren't particularly knowledgeable about a topic you are likely going to believe a post with more upvotes over one that has less. And when over the course of several threads one particular stance on an issue routinely gets more upvotes then the opposite stance most people are just going to believe the one with more upvotes to be true, which can be very dangerous.

It seems pretty strait-forward but Reddit's tagline sums up its best function very well: It's a great place to keep up to date on a wide variety of topics and see what is generally the most interesting stuff on a given topic. And frankly Reddit is so massive that often times the main subreddit for a particular western game is by far the largest community that game has. For a ton of western devs Reddit is a gateway to the community of their game at large and so many post there to give info on upcoming stuff for their games or explain things. For a lot of topics, especially video games, that topic's main subreddit is essentially the Equestria Daily of that topic. It is the best place to get info on that subject on the internet by a substantial margin. For the most part I use Reddit as a news source so I can keep up to date on the various stuff I'm interested in.

The thing you also have to understand though is that subs vary wildly in quality and function. The MLP sub mostly posts fan art but has its share of discussion and fanon theories, as well as cross-posting a lot of the major news from EQD. Some subs focus more on pictures and videos. Some focus more on memes and shitposting. And some focus more on genuine discussion. Generally speaking though as a rule of thumb: The larger a subreddit is, the more awful it is. Reddit is a good tool for me but it's something I use in combination with other stuff rather then as my sole source of info and discussion.

Also Reddit seems like the perfect place for AMAs. The way comments are set up it allows people to easily respond to the subject and discuss their individual response without getting in the way of other responses that the subject did. Many AMA threads open up earlier then the actual AMA starts so people can upvote others questions so the subject responds to the most popular questions that people want answered rather then just some random ones. It's the best place for non-gaming AMA stuff IMO because there just aren't many high profile forums for non-gaming interests on the internet, and social media sites don't have a good format to support an AMA.

.

I would love to see something like that between Trixie and Sunburst. More generally I'd like if Trixie and Sunburst talked to anyone other then Starlight in general. If there's one major complaint with the season so far is that they've largely been isolating the Mane 6 from the secondary characters that they have been pushing and making more important in the show, as well as keeping the secondary characters isolated from each other with the exception of Starlight. Overall I would like to see how all of the characters play off each other but so far they've been keeping them isolated which is unfortunate. Looking over the upcoming episodes assuming they don't throw any curveballs we're going to get a Zecora appearance or two, another Starlight+Trixie episode, (Love the pair but that makes the second one this season) and an episode with Spike, Ember, and Thorax. Plus whatever the finale ends up actually being. (Again think that it probably isn't going to play out remotely like how it does in the game aside from the beginning) Not exactly what I was hoping for.

Also yeah I did find Starlight fun in the preview but not really in-character. I don't care that much though because I don't really put much stock in the comics being potentially canon anyway. They're sort of just well-produced and professional fanfiction to me. The books on the other hand are written by an actual show writer so I consider them canon but never going to be referenced by the show. I just wish they'd do an episode version of Starlight Glimmer and the Secret Suite. It was a fantastic story and one that I think would work extremely well as an episode for the show. Plus I'd love to see how the magical vortex ends up looking like. I doubt it will ever happen but a man can dream.


EDIT AGAIN: The animations from the game intro look a bit off. It feels like everything is sped up and the framing on some of the stuff just feels off. On one hand it looks too shit to be a final version from something from the actual show. On the other hand the game cuts so many corners and has such low production values that I doubt that they would make a specific animation sequence just for the game. (There's no voices for the characters, not even reused ones from the show) My new guess is that it's probably some early animation footage DHX created for the episode that they'll clean up later and gave it to the game company for use on their game. I didn't notice its poor quality on my phone initially. You can find an upload of the intro here. I can't believe that they would create some original animation sequence for the game that tells a story entirely unrelated to the actual show and also not spend the resources to get a narrator that doesn't sound horrid. (Like seriously she's so fucking awful and she's the only voice you hear in the game) The setup makes sense but again I guess at this point it's best just to wait for actual info on it.

ShinySylvee said:

> Game discussion:

Spoiler

Them reusing the rainbow forms feels unusual since they've only been used once after their introduction. (Bonus points if you remember the episode) I was under the impression that the writers had just started avoided using them because they were a bad idea like what ended up happening to all of the other major story elements that were introduced in season 4. (Rip Castle of the Two Sisters) The rainbow forms were both extremely unpopular due to their aesthetics and problematic from a storytelling perspective (they were powerful enough to one-shot the strongest bad guy they've ever faced and likely ever will face and don't have a limiter like having to have the Elements of Harmony on them to use them.) so I thought the writers were just going to pretend that they didn't exist.

Click to expand...

About the Rainbow Power forms being used as a power up in the game and their use in the show, from an aesthetic standpoint, I actually do like Twilight's design, but everyone else really is too visually loud. When season 4 was airing, the entire point of removing the Elements of Harmony appeared to be to remove instant-win friendship blasts from the equation entirely, so Rainbow Power appearing as a permanent power up was definitely a strange decision. It's clear that they decided they didn't want two-parters to be resolved by Main Six friendship blasts anymore, and while the season 5 and 6 finales have perhaps had more threatening villains than Tirek, they are weaker on a DBZ power level scale. They are indeed unlikely to actually use it in the show again, and there's a zero percent chance it will be in the movie. And the one episode after "Twilight's Kingdom" to use Rainbow Power is "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?" from season 5.

Interestingly, even in Equestria Girls, they followed the pattern of using Rainbow Power but then not actually using it to defeat another villain. They've still found a new way to do a friendship blast every time, though.

ShinySylvee said:

For analysts I think one of the bigger problems with some of them is that they are clearly losing interest in the show but still feel compelled to keep making reviews because it's what most people come to see from them. [...] A youtuber called Hbomberguy is one of my favorite channels, and his "I'm right and people that disagree with me are wrong" attitude works very well when he's making fun of anti-feminists and the alt-right as they pretty much are all entirely wrong and the whole point of those videos is to laugh at how wrong these people are while learning a bit about politics or feminism. But his In Defense of Dark Souls 2 video is nigh-unwatchable for me because he puts down a lot of the other games in the series and generally says that people that don't feel the way he does are either wrong or aren't playing the game properly. [...]

And since we're talking about Analysts I recently stumbled upon a fairly well-known anime analyst called Super Eyepatch Wolf. If you've checked out that kind of stuff recently you probably have heard of him (His video on Berserk 2017 was on the front page here for quite a while recently) but if you haven't I would highly recommend checking him out. He typically talks about Shonen anime and even though I've literally never watched a shonen anime before I still find his videos fascinating to watch because he's such a damn good reviewer.

Click to expand...

I generally just check out Hbomberguy videos if they're recommended here, and I'm subscribed to Super Eyepatch Wolf, which demonstrates how I rank the two.

Reddit is kind of a weird place when you first start checking it out. One thing I will say pretty definitively is that Reddit is not the best place when it comes to discussion. [...]

It seems pretty strait-forward but Reddit's tagline sums up its best function very well: It's a great place to keep up to date on a wide variety of topics and see what is generally the most interesting stuff on a given topic. And frankly Reddit is so massive that often times the main subreddit for a particular western game is by far the largest community that game has. For a ton of western devs Reddit is a gateway to the community of their game at large and so many post there to give info on upcoming stuff for their games or explain things. For a lot of topics, especially video games, that topic's main subreddit is essentially the Equestria Daily of that topic. It is the best place to get info on that subject on the internet by a substantial margin. For the most part I use Reddit as a news source so I can keep up to date on the various stuff I'm interested in. [...]

Also Reddit seems like the perfect place for AMAs. The way comments are set up it allows people to easily respond to the subject and discuss their individual response without getting in the way of other responses that the subject did. Many AMA threads open up earlier then the actual AMA starts so people can upvote others questions so the subject responds to the most popular questions that people want answered rather then just some random ones. It's the best place for non-gaming AMA stuff IMO because there just aren't many high profile forums for non-gaming interests on the internet, and social media sites don't have a good format to support an AMA. [...]

Click to expand...

When I look at it like that, I suppose Reddit is a good place for just skimming the headlines. As for AMAs, I say that because for the ones I have checked out, a lot of the subject's responses were buried down toward the bottom or inside subthreads, such that it was far more convenient to just search for all of that poster's recent posts than to look at the actual AMA.

EDIT AGAIN: The animations from the game intro look a bit off. It feels like everything is sped up and the framing on some of the stuff just feels off. On one hand it looks too shit to be a final version from something from the actual show. On the other hand the game cuts so many corners and has such low production values that I doubt that they would make a specific animation sequence just for the game. (There's no voices for the characters, not even reused ones from the show) My new guess is that it's probably some early animation footage DHX created for the episode that they'll clean up later and gave it to the game company for use on their game. I didn't notice its poor quality on my phone initially. You can find an upload of the intro here. I can't believe that they would create some original animation sequence for the game that tells a story entirely unrelated to the actual show and also not spend the resources to get a narrator that doesn't sound horrid. (Like seriously she's so fucking awful and she's the only voice you hear in the game) The setup makes sense but again I guess at this point it's best just to wait for actual info on it.

Click to expand...

Now that I look at it, I feel like it makes far more sense that the game makers made this themselves.
EDIT: Oh, and concerning comics vs. books, I still haven't gotten around to reading any of the books other than The Journal of the Two Sisters and The Art of Equestria. The comics are just so much more convenient for me to get, and are quicker reads. While the comics are definitely on a tier below the show in terms of fan acknowledgment, it seems like the chapter books are on a level even below that.

Today's episode (airing now) is:
In the US
Equestria Girls special - Dance Magic (aired in Poland on May 14)
When Rarity finds out about a music video competition, she's eager to convince her friends at Canterlot High to enter the contest. The girls soon learn that Crystal Prep Academy are also interested in participating in the contest. The students at CPA have many more resources and are better dancers! Will they be able to pull together and make a winning music video?

Episodes that can be discussed freely
1. Celestial Advice - Twilight Sparkle agonizes over Starlight Glimmer's future and receives some much-needed advice from her very own mentor – Princess Celestia.
2. All Bottled Up - While the Mane 6 are on a friendship retreat, Starlight Glimmer loses Twilight Sparkle's friendship map. Afraid her anger might get out of control, Starlight Glimmer casts a calming spell while the ponies search for the lost map.
3. A Flurry of Emotions - After planning a jam-packed day, Twilight Sparkle also agrees to babysit her niece, Flurry Heart. But with Flurry Heart along for the ride, Twilight Sparkle struggles to maintain her title as 'The Best Aunt Ever' while keeping Flurry Heart out of trouble!
4. Rock Solid Friendship - When Pinkie Pie learns that Maud might move to Ponyville, she does everything she can to make sure her sister sees that it has more to offer than just rocks.
5. Fluttershy Leans In - Fluttershy is determined to make her career dreams come true with the help of some very special ponies. But when her true vision is not being executed properly, she must find a way to stand up and fight for her ideas.
6. Forever Filly - When Rarity surprises Sweetie Belle with a special day together filled with all of her favorite activities, she quickly learns that her little sister is no longer the little foal she used to be.
7. Parental Glideance - When Rainbow Dash's parents discover she's a Wonderbolt, they show up at every event to cheer her on. However, their unabashed enthusiasm proves to be rather embarrassing and pushes Rainbow Dash to the brink.
8. Hard to Say Anything - When the Cutie Mark Crusaders discover that Big Mac has his first crush, they vow to help him win Sugar Belle's heart before Feather Bangs does it first.
9. Honest Apple - When Rarity asks Applejack to be a judge in a fashion show, Applejack learns that an opinion, however honest, can still be hurtful.
10. A Royal Problem - Starlight Glimmer is sent to solve a friendship problem between Princess Celestia and Princess Luna; when it's clear that the problem is that the royal sisters don't appreciate one another, Starlight impulsively switches their cutie marks!
11. Not Asking for Trouble - Pinkie Pie visits Prince Rutherford and the Yaks. While there an avalanche falls on the entire rustic village of Yakyakistan. Pinkie Pie suggests that she go to get the other ponies to help but the proud Prince and Yaks refuse.

And "Dance Magic" in a bit.

Watch this space for a link to a Community discussion topic in a bit. EDIT: And here is is! How old are the ponies?

PaulloDEC said:

That'd be this:

Very disappointing to hear. Some people really don't deserve the contact with creators that the internet affords them.

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The fact that this kind of toxicity comes from the My Little Pony fandom of all things is the greatest shame. Like these people don't even watch the show.

My Reaction to The Perfect Pear

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Just watched "Discordant Harmony." For once I have no complaints. Cute episode.

Dance Magic reminds me of just how toothless Equestria Girls feels compared to Friendship is Magic. It's not actively bad, but it's the sort of bland sugaryness that people prejudice the series with, but actually true in this case.

Though nobody seeming to mind that Spike can talk is hilarious.

Going into this episode, I would like to talk about how I view the Equestria Girls version of Rarity. Well first, Rarity in general. She was always in the precarious position of being close to a cliche character that people love to hate: the fashion obsessed popular girl. As I've mentioned before, while I considered her fine for what she was for much of season 1, it wasn't until later episodes showed there was more to her that I started liking her.

Of all the EQG equivalents, Rarity has probably had the biggest drop from simply being placed in high school. She's no longer the independent businessmare we know, but rather someone who presumably still lives with her parents, doesn't have her own clothing line, and apparently even works in the clothing section of a department store, though I forget if that was shown in EQG itself or if it's outside information. The constant focus on huge threats also hasn't been kind to her. Thus far, she's just been an OK example of a fashion obsessed popular girl, which is fine, but that's not Rarity.

However, there is one area that EQG could explore that FiM is unable to largely because of early decisions: other people being better than the main characters at their chosen fields. Episodes like "Sonic Rainboom" closed the door on Rainbow encountering someone faster than her, and "Suited for Success" closed the door on Rarity not being good enough for the fashion world. Here, Rarity is restricted on resources and prestige, so she can actually struggle to attain her goals. From the sounds of things, including the synopsis, this story will touch on that.

You know, I always find myself procrastinating when it comes to starting something Equestria Girls. Anyway,

Dance Magic
Well damn, so Twilight did switch to that outfit shown in that European comic after all. She should have just stuck to her Crystal Prep uniform.

Oh right, I heard there was an intro to these specials. Pretty basic, but I assume whenever they make a show, it will have a better one. I forgot that the online shorts had title cards, meaning these probably would too. Though I have to say, having it be a close up of legs and feet is kind of weird.

Friendship Games was only a few months ago. Well that clears things up: time is definitely desynced between dimensions!

It didn't occur to me until this special another benefit that EQG has in its stories that FiM doesn't: they can have stories where someone like Rarity can impact the welfare of the entire group! It wouldn't make much sense for FiM to have a story where everyone has to lend Rarity money and the pressure is on her to do something good with it, both because Rarity is well off enough that she'd just use her own money, and because a project like that would be too high stakes to make a fun episode out of without making Rarity irresponsible with money. Here's, it's just fundraiser money to help a camp.

The stuff with Crystal Prep stealing Rarity's idea doesn't work as well as Suri doing the same in "Rarity Takes Manehattan", since here, it's just a base concept that both parties fleshed out completely independently.

The parts with everyone coming up with video concepts was fun, particularly Pinkie's.

I suppose Rarity deciding to team up with the Crystal Prep students helps distinguish the story from "Rarity Takes Manehattan", but it was a bit too convenient that they didn't actually have an original song idea, and it didn't seem like Rarity had to do anything but let the solution fall into her lap. Perhaps it would have been better if Rarity pointed out that with the prize money, both teams could get what they want, and convinced them to help that way.

"Dance Magic" the song and dance is alright. By the way, for those who didn't know, this song is actually from the Friendship Games soundtrack. Presumably, it was in the movie as either a closing number celebrating the new friendship between schools, or as a credit song, but it was cut out.

Overall, the episode was OK. I didn't find the Crystal Prep students that interesting. It was nice to see Rarity in a situation she wouldn't find herself in as a pony, but the resolution was too convenient. The other Humane Seven were just sort of there, besides some visual gags from Pinkie.

Aaaand... yup, can't remember how the song "Dance Magic" goes. And instead of the David Bowie song, I keep thinking of "Stop Calling" for some reason.

DrForester, to address the missing images issue in the OP, I went through your Photobucket account. First of all, legit shook that your last name apparently is actually Forester. This Pony GIF is interesting; I didn't realize NeoGAF used to straight up close OT during E3. Anyway, looking through your album to reach the images instead of a direct link didn't help to avoid the "3rd Party Hosting has been temporarily disabled" error image, but downloading the images worked. I reuploaded them onto my Imgur account. Only "Rules" and "Links" broke, but I also swapped out "Episode Guide" because it's apparently a ticking time bomb.

Anyway, responses to old posts. Considering I already responded to several things brought up back then, I'll try not to respond to those parts again. Since I'm responding to positive impressions, my comments will make it seem like I like the episode less than I do.

SigmasonicX said:

No US air date has been revealed yet, but the DVD release date is August 8th, so it's certainly coming out before then.

However, there's a song in the episode, and it's one that was already on the Friendship Games soundtrack, so someone just synched the English version over it, and it fits (EDIT: SONG SPOILS THE END OF THE SPECIAL). From what I hear, since I haven't actually watched it yet >_>.

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Wait, the DVD with the EQG specials is coming out on August 8? That's when "Mirror Magic" airs on Discovery Family! Jeez, even without the Polish airing, that episode would have been leaked by broken street dates. EDIT: Whoops, forgot that July isn't August.

Also, the song upload was taken down.

UberTag said:

Dance Magic

This was a lot of fun... and while it boasted a single core premise and dilemma, it brought with it nuance and logical progression to reach the resolution of both schools collaborating to work together. It was a refreshing change of pace from many of this season's Friendship is Magic episodes which have hung their hat on a single character acting dense until the inevitable outcome where they realize they're in the wrong. I especially enjoyed the wardrobe changes as Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie suggested their alternate outlandish music video concepts.

Sugarcoat - just like in the Friendship Games movie - was a standout. I appreciate her bluntness. It's a tropey character no doubt but one that doesn't really exist in Friendship is Magic outside of when Applejack is being a pill as she was in Honest Apple - and AJ almost always comes off insufferable when she does this. Whereas Sugarcoat's bluntness comes off as endearing. Plus, I love the irony of a character named Sugarcoat who does the polar opposite of sugarcoating the truth. We need a non-Dougverse equivalent for her.

I have to wonder if the simultaneous focus on both the movie and the Equestria Girls shorts is the predominant reason why we've seen so little music in Season 7 thus far. It's been rather sparse outside of the montage number in All Bottled Up.

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I don't know, the conflict was caused by Rarity telling the Crystal Prep students her idea for no reason. Out of universe it didn't sound detailed, but it counted as detailed in universe. I suppose other than that, there weren't any characters acting particularly dense, but I feel like the way the main characters acted didn't particularly influence how the plot developed anyway. A ton of things worked out thanks to coincidences.

I wasn't too keen on Sugarcoat. I mean, I'm fine with her, but it seems like the dialogue had to distort around her so she could get a quip in.

ShinySylvee said:

Gillian M. Berrow (Writer of many of the MLP novels, The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows, and Fluttershy Leans In) was the writer of this episode. Before Season 7 I hyped her hardcore as being a terrific writer and was legitimately excited to see what she would come up with in Season 7, which put me in an awkward position as she then proceeded to write what I consider to be the least interesting episode of the season so far. I will say that I feel totally vindicated now as this episode really allows her to play to her strengths as a writer in a scenario where the audience can actually get invested in the conflict. Berrow might just be the best writer when it comes to characterization that the show has ever had. All too often in episodes that feature the full mane 6 (or 7 in this case) you see the characters boiled down to their basic traits: Rarity likes fashion, Rainbow says "awesome" a lot, Pinkie is random. In this episode everyone still feels like themselves but for the most part they have a lot more depth then just those surface-level traits. Rainbow is shown frequently here to be a bit more reckless and confident in the group's abilities. SciTwi often offers a more logical perspective on things but still is fairly unsure of herself. With the slight exception of Fluttershy (Expected since she's usually a fairly passive character) and Sunset I feel like all of the main cast had a couple of good interactions.

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Uh, I guess? I don't recall any notable interactions besides the imagination scenes (which despite their quality, felt a lot like padding) and Twilight's line about knowing where the library is. I wasn't a fan of Applejack in this episode, since she seemed to be speaking more slowly than usual and generally seemed not to be paying much attention. To be blunt, she seemed high, especially in her baking imagination scene. Everyone else was just kind of there.

This is where I'll start talking about actual specifics of the episode, so I'll go ahead and spoiler it since I imagine most of you haven't seen it.

However the character that definitely comes off the best is Rarity, who pretty much solo carries the whole episode. It's a full-on Rarity episode, and dare I say might be my favorite one ever. She shows off all of her personality quirks in this episode. She's obsessed with fashion, she has a dedicated vision and strives to achieve it, she's melodramatic, but most of all she's extremely passionate and creative. One emotion that we don't often see from her is anger, and it's used to great effect here. It's established that a lot is riding on her being able to put together a music video that wins their competition, and when things start not going well she gets upset, but not in a self-destructive way. She tries to reassure the group that they can figure out the dance moves even though none are making any real progress, she calls out the Shadowbolts for stealing their dance routine, and she gets frustrated when the group's brainstorming session for a new video idea ends up with nothing usable. She might occasionally need some consoling but she never backs down from a challenge and it's this tenacious attitude towards achieving her goals that makes me love her as a character so much.

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In theory, I like how Rarity was presented in this episode, but ultimately the fact that Rarity doesn't have to do much to solve her problem still puts this below the similar "Rarity Takes Manehattan" for me.

However she's not the only person that I enjoyed greatly in this episode. Berrow has succeeded in making me very invested in several characters that I previously had little interest in before. Most surprisingly is the Shadowbolts, sans Indigo Zap who I can only assume has been written out of the show since she is not mentioned once despite being voiced by Kelly Sheridan who normally voices Starlight Glimmer who is appearing in the 3rd EQG episode so it's clearly not a "we couldn't get the VA" deal. I actually support the decision as I felt like there were too many of them anyway and they were too transparently "bad foils of the mane 6" and I think that allowing them to exist as their own thing will only be beneficial. And Indigo Zap I feel was too similar to Rainbow to the point where I feel like it would have been a struggle to differentiate the two. Sunny Flare (The one that I think was supposed to be the Rarity parallel) still has almost no personality but the other 3 were vastly improved for me. Lemon Zest (The one with the headphones) didn't have too many lines but she at least seems a bit more innocent then the rest of them and just seems to be looking to have a good time. Sour Sweet (The insincere one) was presented as the leader and seeing her going from pretending to like talking to Rarity to legitimately talking to her as a friend by the end was a nice development. And Sugarcoat (The blunt one) definitely came off the best. All of her lines were very funny. If they do end up following through and making EQG a full show then I hope to see more from these characters as I think the ground work is set for them to be pretty enjoyable and I think having episodes that take place at Crystal Prep could be interesting.

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While it is good they stopped even pretending there was something to the rivalry gimmick from Friendship Games, I still wasn't particularly impressed by the Shadowbolts (also, I forgot until now they were supposed to be the Shadowbolts).

The last big character that I was sold in in this episode was SciTwi. In this show she isn't juggling being the leader of the group and one of the rulers of the world and so she's free to be the adorkable geek that we love 100% of the time. I loved this dialogue she had with Rarity when they went to Crystal Prep to yell at the Shadowbolts for stealing their idea:

Rarity: "Okay, where's the Ballroom?"
Twilight: "They have a Ballroom?"
Rarity: "You were in that school!"
Twilight: "I can show you a Library..."

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SciTwi was good in comparison to how she was in Friendship Games and Legend of Everfree, but she still isn't at PonyTwi level. That scene you mentioned was the only one where she felt particularly notable. An episode where Twilight is just there to be an adorkable geek that comes to mind is "Hurricane Fluttershy", and I found her more memorable there. Thinking about it, a big part of it is that PonyTwi allows herself to get excited, while SciTwi still takes a very passive tone.

Characters aside the progression through the plot was great. Everyone's motivations were believable, no one is acting stupid to progress the plot forward, and the resolution made logical sense and didn't feel contrived at all. The payoff of the music video at the end was awesome too. And can I just say how beautiful this episode was? All the costumes that the different characters wore looked great. (I especially loved the Daring Do ones that they wore) Rarity's room looked amazing. And Twilight fluffing up her wings when she says "DJ give me more" is the most adorable thing ever. I didn't think it was possible but DHX and Top Draw have once again completely outdone themselves in terms of visuals. I can't wait to see what the movie ends up looking like.

All in all 10/10 Rarity is best human.

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I don't remember much about the art design other than the imagination scenes and the dancing. I wasn't impressed by the dance scene, since it's pretty similar to the "Friendship Through the Ages" music video, which I recall being more visually interesting. I don't remember that part with Twilight, I'll have to look again.

EDIT: This part? I remember my reaction now: I was thinking, "Huh, they brought out their pony forms for this? I guess it does allow for cheap costuming." It didn't really stick out to me otherwise. Honestly, looking at it now, I find it more weird than cute.

ShinySylvee said:

As for Dance Magic I think there's two things that are causing that divide between this board's (And I think it's mainly been me being so vocally positive of the episode, I only remember a couple others commenting on it although they were praising it as well) opinion and others: First is that everyone else has terrible taste. (Kappa) And second is something that I kinda don't want to go in super deep due to potential spoilers but I will say that it features something that I (And a lot of other people on this board) REALLY like, and it's something that others might not care as much for.

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I'm curious what this is.

Ogodei said:

Dance Magic reminds me of just how toothless Equestria Girls feels compared to Friendship is Magic. It's not actively bad, but it's the sort of bland sugaryness that people prejudice the series with, but actually true in this case.

Though nobody seeming to mind that Spike can talk is hilarious.

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I actually am falling more toward this side. The main thing to appreciate from "Dance Magic" is how it handles the characters better than Equestria Girls previously has, but if you aren't looking at that, there really isn't much to the episode. And indeed, this episode probably wouldn't do anything to convince someone that there's anything to Equestria Girls who isn't already a fan of FiM, not that every story has to be able to do that.

I don't think Spike talked to anyone who didn't already know he could talk. Speaking of which, Spike getting his neck scratched by Fluttershy was kind of creepy with the noises he was making.

==

I would once again like to say that I liked the episode just fine, but I'm leaning toward it just being OK.

Once again, ED proves to be the one thorn in my side regarding reaching the US airing of an episode unspoiled, as one of their posts has what I assume is Applejack's mother right in the header image. Feel free to tell me if that isn't her. Well, have some song remixes from "The Perfect Pear", I suppose. EDIT: The link is the one that uses a pony that might be Applejack's mother.

SigmasonicX said:

Once again, ED proves to be the one thorn in my side regarding reaching the US airing of an episode unspoiled, as one of their posts has what I assume is Applejack's mother right in the header image. Feel free to tell me if that isn't her. Well, have some song remixes from "The Perfect Pear", I suppose. EDIT: The link is the one that uses a pony that might be Applejack's mother.

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Not her, you're safe.

SigmasonicX said:

When I look at it like that, I suppose Reddit is a good place for just skimming the headlines. As for AMAs, I say that because for the ones I have checked out, a lot of the subject's responses were buried down toward the bottom or inside subthreads, such that it was far more convenient to just search for all of that poster's recent posts than to look at the actual AMA.


EDIT: Oh, and concerning comics vs. books, I still haven't gotten around to reading any of the books other than The Journal of the Two Sisters and The Art of Equestria. The comics are just so much more convenient for me to get, and are quicker reads. While the comics are definitely on a tier below the show in terms of fan acknowledgment, it seems like the chapter books are on a level even below that.
[/URL]

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Yeah the main draw of Reddit is being able to just browse all the big headlines on a topic for the day and then checking out the ones that sound interesting to you. And it's nice having all of the big news on all the subjects you're interested in on one website so you can just find it all by visiting different subreddits instead of having to go to a bunch of different fansites for each one. After all you could shop at 5 or 6 stores, or just one. (Don't ask why I linked that)


I haven't read as many as I should have (including the ones you've read) but the books I've read feel like an episode from the show in book form, which depending on what you're looking for is a good or bad thing.

Conkersbadfurday said:

Just watched "Discordant Harmony." For once I have no complaints. Cute episode.

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Glad you liked it, although I can certainly find a couple complaints lol. I still thought it was really good once the ball started rolling though.

SigmasonicX said:

All of the Dance Magic stuffs

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Honestly I don't think it really matters whether or not Rarity is a small business owner in the EQGverse in terms of her character being interesting. In terms of her character mechanically I feel like her job was a framing device to show how dedicated and hard-working Rarity was. What endeared people to her was that she was passionate and dedicated to her craft and made a career out of it and pursued it as hard as she could, and that thing that she cared about happened to be fashion. Realistically I think they can still show how passionate she is in an endearing way without her owning her own store. (And I think that they did an amazing job in that regard in this very episode) Maybe she could run for school president or something. I think that could actually be a really cool storyline for her and since Scitwi isn't really a leader in this show and Sunset probably wouldn't care too much about something like that since she's not too interested in status anymore I think it would make sense for Rarity to step up to the plate.

For the episode I didn't have any of the issues with the resolution you apparently had. The assertion that she should have brought up that they could split the money to convince them to work together is bizarre to me because given how the episode ended up playing out that's exactly what she did. It was established early on that the prize money was double what the Mane 7 needed and at the end the Shadowbolts got their money for their yacht trip so yeah... And I doubt the Shadowbolts would have agreed to split the money unless they were fairly sure they wouldn't win without the Mane 7's help. I dunno not sure I fully understand what you were saying my interpretation of it doesn't make much sense. And I didn't feel like the resolution was any more contrived then most of the resolutions in the show so *shrug*


Also I suppose another way I differ from you is that I felt the partnership with the Shadowbolts was something that Rarity earned rather then something that just fell into her lap. Pixar's saying about characters sort of rings true for me here: I admire Rarity for her dedication in trying to solve the problem more then her actually succeeding. We see Rarity going through all of her struggles in trying to avoid disappointing her friends after they put a lot of faith in her and her tenacity in trying to figure out a solution endears me enough to the story that I'm willing to overlook that it was pretty convenient that the group of people that could save her project happened to be listing their issues in the same room as where she was so she could overhear it. (And I think it's totally reasonable that the Shadowbolts didn't have an original song for the video. Given that they're already masters of dance and a shitload of other stuff if Friendship Games is anything to go by I think it's fair that a group of 4 of them don't know how to compose songs)


To try to explain my admiration of Berrow's character writing it's a lot of really small stuff that I liked. When Rarity initially introduces her scheme to get money to save Camp Everfree all of the characters are initially unsure of whether or not it's a good idea, before Rainbow steps in and says something along the lines of "don't worry we got this." And I think it's an example of using the right character to progress the plot forward. Obviously they're going to say yes, but Rainbow being the first one that is cool with it makes sense because she's the type of person that I imagine would be more willing to take risks due to her confidence in herself. A lot of other writers I feel would have given that line to pony Twilight or Sunset due to them being the leader of the group. And sure that's an extremely minor detail to be gushing about but there's quite a few of them in the episode that I think round out the characters personalities more and show them off very well. Like I said before in my review, all too often in episodes where these characters play a supporting role the just end up boiling down to their core gimmick but I felt Berrow did a good job at keeping them with a bit more depth despite not getting a ton of attention. But I dunno maybe I'm just making mountains out of molehills.


For visuals I already kinda said most of them but I liked Rarity's room, Rainbow and Pinkie's imagination scenes, and the music video itself. Overall there was a lot of unique assets created for the episode and although the moving animations were choppy at times (It's flash animation, this much is pretty much a given) I felt like the animation did a great job at conveying Rarity's various expressions through the episode. And I liked all of the various costume designs that were in the episode as well. It wasn't quite as good as some of the stuff in Legend of Everfree (My personal faves from that on were Midnight In Me and the climax where SciTwi is fighting off Midnight Sparkle with the help of her friends) but it's a noticeable cut above the show's usual quality.


There might be more I wanted to say but I'm tired so I'm calling it here. Hopefully this post is at least semi-coherent


Also the thumbnail for the EQD post you were talking about is NOT AJ's mom. It's some OC from the looks of it.

Also the big reason why I felt I liked the episode more then most is because I generally like a Rarity episodes way more then most people do. I didn't mention that because I didn't know if the episode being a Rarity episode was spoilers or not.

Ogodei said:

Dance Magic reminds me of just how toothless Equestria Girls feels compared to Friendship is Magic. It's not actively bad, but it's the sort of bland sugaryness that people prejudice the series with, but actually true in this case.

Though nobody seeming to mind that Spike can talk is hilarious.

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That's kind of what I enjoyed about this episode oddly enough. It was light, fluffy and disposable with characters we know and enjoy.
It's still miles away from something like Azumanga Daioh in this respect... but it's a direction I'd like to see Equestria Girls trend towards.
Because when they instead choose to lean on serious weighty storylines or anything involving magic or romance, it just comes off as... really bad.

ShinySylvee said:

Also the big reason why I felt I liked the episode more then most is because I generally like a Rarity episodes way more then most people do. I didn't mention that because I didn't know if the episode being a Rarity episode was spoilers or not.

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Liking Rarity episodes or Rarity in general is never something you should feel you have to apologize for.

I don't see EQG as toothless.

I mean, what's the big difference between Dance Magic and an episode like Suited for Success?

I think the franchise does best when it's a slice of life story.

DemWalls said:

Not her, you're safe.

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In truth, me seeing the character designs wouldn't be a big deal anyway, and I only brought it up because I had managed to go days without seeing them. Seeing Daybreaker was only significant because of what she implied about the story (which I misinterpreted anyway), and I assume there aren't any character designs in "The Perfect Pear" that are shocking in the same way. Well, actually, Apple Mom being a unicorn like the OC in my link would have been a shock.

In any case, since my last post, YouTube recommendations have shown me what they look like, so forget it <_<

ShinySylvee said:

I haven't read as many as I should have (including the ones you've read) but the books I've read feel like an episode from the show in book form, which depending on what you're looking for is a good or bad thing.

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Early on, the comics were interesting for addressing big events that seemed more appropriate for the show, making it seem like they would be more significant to show canon than they actually turned out. Chrysalis has returned! Nightmare Moon has taken over Rarity! How Shining Armor and Cadance fell in love! Exploring dimensional travel and Celestia's past with an evil alternate universe! Since then, it feels like they've reigned themselves in a lot, and we now know the show won't actually reference the comics in a significant way. Still, the fact that two and often three issues came out each month meant that even if the material was less interesting, there was still a fair amount you could read.

In contrast, the novels often feel unambitious, instead just being additional slice of life stories despite the lower release rate. The exception is the first, Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell, which explained Cadance's origin. The second one about Pinkie was also significant for showing her family in the present before the show did, but nothing about the ones immediately following makes me want to read them. Chapter book list, for reference. The Lyra and Bon Bon one is interesting in concept, but I was satisfied just reading the summary posted in these threads after it came out. The only ones I'm particularly interested in reading are the Starlight one you mentioned before, and the Celestia story that actually resembles one that DrForester would have liked in the show.

Honestly I don't think it really matters whether or not Rarity is a small business owner in the EQGverse in terms of her character being interesting. In terms of her character mechanically I feel like her job was a framing device to show how dedicated and hard-working Rarity was. What endeared people to her was that she was passionate and dedicated to her craft and made a career out of it and pursued it as hard as she could, and that thing that she cared about happened to be fashion. Realistically I think they can still show how passionate she is in an endearing way without her owning her own store.

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A big reason why I started to like Rarity in season 1 was because of how she had to deal with actual "adult" problems, with bad customers and a failed fashion show that could have ruined her career. They've since used that as the basis for a lot of her episodes, such that it's hard to untangle her character from that aspect.

I agree that she doesn't need to be a business owner to be interesting, but as you yourself point out, an EQG series would have to create new reasons to add stakes to her stories. Placing her in high school removes the crutch of her career potentially being impacted.

For the episode I didn't have any of the issues with the resolution you apparently had. The assertion that she should have brought up that they could split the money to convince them to work together is bizarre to me because given how the episode ended up playing out that's exactly what she did. It was established early on that the prize money was double what the Mane 7 needed and at the end the Shadowbolts got their money for their yacht trip so yeah... And I doubt the Shadowbolts would have agreed to split the money unless they were fairly sure they wouldn't win without the Mane 7's help. I dunno not sure I fully understand what you were saying my interpretation of it doesn't make much sense. And I didn't feel like the resolution was any more contrived then most of the resolutions in the show so *shrug*


Also I suppose another way I differ from you is that I felt the partnership with the Shadowbolts was something that Rarity earned rather then something that just fell into her lap. Pixar's saying about characters sort of rings true for me here: I admire Rarity for her dedication in trying to solve the problem more then her actually succeeding. We see Rarity going through all of her struggles in trying to avoid disappointing her friends after they put a lot of faith in her and her tenacity in trying to figure out a solution endears me enough to the story that I'm willing to overlook that it was pretty convenient that the group of people that could save her project happened to be listing their issues in the same room as where she was so she could overhear it. (And I think it's totally reasonable that the Shadowbolts didn't have an original song for the video. Given that they're already masters of dance and a shitload of other stuff if Friendship Games is anything to go by I think it's fair that a group of 4 of them don't know how to compose songs)

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While it's true they did split the money in the end, that wasn't brought up while Rarity was trying to convince the Shadowbolts. Thinking about it, my issue with the resolution is more that Rarity should have had to give something up, or think she was giving something up. Perhaps the prize money shouldn't have been enough for both of them, and Rarity offers to split the money to favor the Shadowbolts, with Rarity saying that they'd still have more than they started out with and they'd figure out some way to make up the difference. After the music video wins, the Shadowbolts, impressed by Rarity's generosity and having enjoyed working with them, help them with a fundraiser to get the remaining money

To try to explain my admiration of Berrow's character writing it's a lot of really small stuff that I liked. When Rarity initially introduces her scheme to get money to save Camp Everfree all of the characters are initially unsure of whether or not it's a good idea, before Rainbow steps in and says something along the lines of "don't worry we got this." And I think it's an example of using the right character to progress the plot forward. Obviously they're going to say yes, but Rainbow being the first one that is cool with it makes sense because she's the type of person that I imagine would be more willing to take risks due to her confidence in herself. A lot of other writers I feel would have given that line to pony Twilight or Sunset due to them being the leader of the group. And sure that's an extremely minor detail to be gushing about but there's quite a few of them in the episode that I think round out the characters personalities more and show them off very well. Like I said before in my review, all too often in episodes where these characters play a supporting role the just end up boiling down to their core gimmick but I felt Berrow did a good job at keeping them with a bit more depth despite not getting a ton of attention. But I dunno maybe I'm just making mountains out of molehills.

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Dash taking the lead didn't stick out to me, since the movies from Rainbow Rocks on have presented her as the de facto leader. And I hate to say it... but I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill. But hey, overanalysizing random aspects of the show is what we're here for! See my big post in the Community thread analyzing how Equestria Girls ages don't match pony ages.

For visuals I already kinda said most of them but I liked Rarity's room, Rainbow and Pinkie's imagination scenes, and the music video itself. Overall there was a lot of unique assets created for the episode and although the moving animations were choppy at times (It's flash animation, this much is pretty much a given) I felt like the animation did a great job at conveying Rarity's various expressions through the episode. And I liked all of the various costume designs that were in the episode as well. It wasn't quite as good as some of the stuff in Legend of Everfree (My personal faves from that on were Midnight In Me and the climax where SciTwi is fighting off Midnight Sparkle with the help of her friends) but it's a noticeable cut above the show's usual quality.

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Yeah, I suppose I undersold the clear work that went into this special yesterday. It's just my personal distaste for the EQG aesthetics that prevents me from appreciating it much.

Also the big reason why I felt I liked the episode more then most is because I generally like a Rarity episodes way more then most people do. I didn't mention that because I didn't know if the episode being a Rarity episode was spoilers or not.

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Considering the synopsis says it's about Rarity, and everyone here was openly talking about how good Rarity was in the episode, I really don't think anyone would have thought it being a Rarity episode was a spoiler ^_^;

UberTag said:

That's kind of what I enjoyed about this episode oddly enough. It was light, fluffy and disposable with characters we know and enjoy.
It's still miles away from something like Azumanga Daioh in this respect... but it's a direction I'd like to see Equestria Girls trend towards.
Because when they instead choose to lean on serious weighty storylines or anything involving magic or romance, it just comes off as... really bad.

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Yeah, even if I just found this episode OK, this is definitely the direction I would prefer an Equestria Girls series to go in. It really is remarkable how the EQG movies are so much more nonsensical about magic than the series about magical ponies.

DrForester said:

I don't see EQG as toothless.

I mean, what's the big difference between Dance Magic and an episode like Suited for Success?

I think the franchise does best when it's a slice of life story.

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While I agree with the idea that EQG is better off with slice of life, I think there is a difference in the "teeth" of this special and "Suited for Success". First of all, it's harder to connect with "high school problems" once you're past that age, and it's hard to feel like there's any real danger to Camp Everfree when the previous movie already ended with them raising money to save it; was this money just to fix that one dock they broke in the post-credits scene? While the latter started off light, the stuff with unsatisfied customers stuck out to audience members with experience having to deal with that, and the story escalated to a real threat to Rarity's career.

In the end, it probably is mainly the high school part that makes people think EQG has less teeth, though.

==

Some really interesting info about "Dance Magic" revealed in tweets. (Image)


Ishi Rudell&#8207; @ishiH3Art
Fun fact #EquestriaGirls #MLP the #DanceMagic script was written before #LegendofEverfree we had a last minute change in delivery order!

K. (Lunchie) Hadley&#8207; @isitlunchyet_t 18h18 hours ago
Replying to @ishiH3Art
Sort of, they were originally trying to fundraise to attend camp everfree. So was an easy tweak to change it to them raising money to fix it

This actually does explain a lot! Including why "Dance Magic" the song was on the Friendship Games soundtrack and, according to the Twitter thread, why Celestia talked about them successfully raising money to go to Camp Everfree at the start of Legend of Everfree.

This also raises questions about what they were planning. Was this meant to be a one-off special that leads into Legend of Everfree? Why the delay?

Also,

do male fans still call themselves bronies? or have they evolved past that?

Sunster said:

do male fans still call themselves bronies? or have they evolved past that?

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The term is definitely still used, but I there isn't anywhere near as big a push to use it and take pride in it anymore. I don't consider myself to be a brony, but then again, I fill this thread with walls of text and just yesterday wrote a big post examining how the ages depicted in Equestria Girls don't match the pony ages in the main show, so it's all a matter of perspective.

I think there's also the issue that when people think of bronies they think of the dark and unsavory parts of the fandom (the alt-right/gamer gate types) or maybe the more socially awkward people. TBH, there are many people on this very forum who hold these views.

I don't call myself a brony in the same way I don't call myself a gamer. It all seems unnecessary, especially with whatever stigmas might be attached with the particular person I'm talking to. I'm a walker because I like to take walks. Wtf?

Trigonometrize. said:

I don't call myself a brony in the same way I don't call myself a gamer. It all seems unnecessary, especially with whatever stigmas might be attached with the particular person I'm talking to. I'm a walker because I like to take walks. Wtf?

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Yeah. I'm a fan of the show, but I don't really feel the need to call myself a brony either.

Sunster said:

do male fans still call themselves bronies? or have they evolved past that?

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Honestly, I think we just might've just made ourselves sick of it. Like, that word was used so heavily within the fandom for so long that I kinda can't stand the sight of it anymore.

I have no issue with fandom labels like that generally, but I wouldn't use this one unprovoked anymore.

Trigonometrize. said:

I don't call myself a brony in the same way I don't call myself a gamer. It all seems unnecessary, especially with whatever stigmas might be attached with the particular person I'm talking to. I'm a walker because I like to take walks. Wtf?

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Hmm, kind of a suspicious denial.


"Dance Magic" follow up. Like I said before, my biases mean this is pretty small.

NOTES
You know, I should give special credit to Pinkie's imagination scene. We've seen alternate art style scenes before, especially from Pinkie, but this is the first I recall with so much focus and so many different emotional reactions from the characters. Not only did they have to settle on this art style, but also figure out how to clearly depict emotions in it.

On the subject of Shiny's points on how "Fluttershy Leans In" fell below what he expected from G.M. Berrow, my previous link to the list of chapter books reminded me that the episode actually is pretty normal for her. In particular, look at Fluttershy and the Fine Furry Friends Fair, which was apparently even directly referenced in "Fluttershy Leans In".

SCREENSHOTS
It looks like the Round Stable poster that posts screenshots won't do so for this.

Pinkie's imagination group shot (embedded)
It looks like they still eat hay fries and oat burgers in Dougworld - Are we sure they're supposed to be humans?
This background human bothers me for some reason


GIFS
Random RariShy
Entering Applejack's imagination, Rarity shocked by her outfit
Pinkie imagination Spike eating cheese
Pinkie imagination Rarity getting angry
Sunset doing weird things with her arms
Twilight fluffing her wings during the dance

FAN WORKS
You know, surprisingly, there is no Rarity art other than group shots.

Sunset Shimmer
Dance Magic by buryooooo - Made a month ago.
Sunset pony ver by buryooooo - Made a month ago.
Dance Magic Sunset by webcakeva - Made a month ago.


It's the Final Sundown - Made two weeks ago.
Dance Shimmer


Other dresses
Rainbow Dash and Lemon Zest Dance Magic - Made a month ago.
DANCE MAGIC Genderswapped version - Made a month ago.


Fluttershy in her dance outfit - Made two weeks ago.
Dance Magic Pinkie Pie by wolfchen999 - Made two weeks ago.


Previous episodes
There is actually a ton of new "Parental Glideance" art, but they all use Apple Parents, so I won't post them now.

Friendship Ambassador
Daybreaker by alumx
Rainbow and Windy


Owww... Really sorry...
Photo Finish by raikoh


Comics
Dance Magic - Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 5 reference - Explains what happened to Indigo Zap.
A Royal Problem - Let Her Eat Cake

==

New Golden Book announced: Seaponies Make a Splash - Once again, the art is pretty good. I like how the fin wings fade away toward the edges.


Given that the movie trailer hasn't been released yet, it will very likely come early this week.

Not sure how comfortable I am plugging my MLP reviews on consideration, but this week's comic is kind of important being a tie in to the upcoming movie.

http://wethenerdy.com/my-little-pony-the-movie-prequel-1-review/

TL/DR is it's solid with some questionable writing decisions. I do hope the Storm King makes for a good villain in the movie.

Conkersbadfurday said:

Not sure how comfortable I am plugging my MLP reviews on consideration, but this week's comic is kind of important being a tie in to the upcoming movie.

http://wethenerdy.com/my-little-pony-the-movie-prequel-1-review/

TL/DR is it's solid with some questionable writing decisions. I do hope the Storm King makes for a good villain in the movie.

Spoiler

I also hope he isn't reformed by the end credits.

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Glad to hear it's decent. On that note, I encountered this review from Bleeding Cool (which I totally didn't find by doing a Google News search for "my little pony" throughout the day <_<) and while there isn't any particularly interesting insight from this non-brony source, what I find most interesting is actually the opening paragraph.

On October 6th, My Little Pony: The Movie will hit theaters. This is the third time the Friendship is Magic crew is going to be on the big screen, but I'm not sure if this will tie into the other two films. The mane five are on a quest to save their home of Equestria, and IDW is filling fans in with this week's release of the My Little Pony: The Movie Prequel comic.

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"Mane five" aside, the reference to two other films with the FiM crew is clearly about Equestria Girls and Rainbow Rocks. Anecdotally, I've seen several people online be first exposed to FiM through Equestria Girls. While I expect most viewers and reviewers will just take on face value that this is the first theatrical movie since the 80's, I wonder how many will also be confused about where the first two Equestria Girls films fit in.

In other news,

Interview with Mike Vogel and Nicole Dubuc about the upcoming Ponyville Mysteries book series.
EDIT: One notable bit of info: Nicole Dubuc is a writer for season 8. She used to write for Transformers Prime and Transformers Rescue Bots.

Some theater group is doing a brony themed play. Doesn't sound good.

The Antelope Party
by Eric John Meyer, directed by Jeremy Wechsler
World premiere!
It's sometime in the 2010s. The Rust Belt Ponies Meet Up Group for Adult Fans of My Little Pony has gathered in Ben's Philadelphia apartment, but two of their company have not yet arrived. A new recruit seems unusually shy and curiously paranoid about a local neighborhood watch group. What happened to their Pegasister, Maggie? Why is Brony Doug so paranoid? What does it all have to do with the 9/11 Truthers and an emerging group of "concerned citizens?"
And that's just the first ten minutes.
Eric Meyer's amazing and timely new comedy explores the rise of a new social order and how the currents of history, normalization and fear can sweep up even the most Generous ponies of Celestia?!?
In the midst of increasing violence and authoritarianism, how can our heroes see the Magic in Everypony? And, even worse, what if they do?

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EDIT: Well, the director and writer actually did show up in the ED comments to answer questions, so that's good at least.

But in lighter news, Amazon's Pride Parade float was (Princess) Rainbow Dash themed.

Conkersbadfurday said:

TL/DR is it's solid with some questionable writing decisions. I do hope the Storm King makes for a good villain in the movie.

Spoiler

I also hope he isn't reformed by the end credits.

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Also one thing that I think might be a problem after the movie comes out is that since all of the main characters from the movie are going to be voiced by all these big name actors, it's going to be a lot harder to have those characters show up later in the show. Especially since the show recently has taken an interest in giving more prominent roles to fan-favorite characters (Like Trixie and Maud) it will suck if some character from the movie ends up being loved but won't ever make another appearance since DHX can't pay for the voice actor to show up in the show.



I'm super excited for the CMC books that are dropping soon. I'm a massive fan of Vogel's work so far (Excluding Spice Up Your Life) and so I'm really looking forward to seeing more from him.

Also changing my Avatar in preparation for the trailer coming out soon.

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A bit too shiny, I say. Besides, it kinda reminded me of this, and that's not a good thing.

DemWalls said:

A bit too shiny, I say. Besides, it kinda reminded me of this, and that's not a good thing.

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Just a moment ago I was refreshing my Google News search and got excited for a bit when I saw the headline "Discover a different breed of hero in the exclusive My Little Pony ..." but it was just that poster.

I agree, they have been going way overboard with the US posters. If they just toned down the colors and shading, I'd actually like it. You can barely look at anyone without hurting your eyes! That Chinese poster is still the best by simply not doing that.

About movie characters in the show, I expect anyone who turns good will remain in cat country to help fix things up there, which will be an easy way to explain their absence and lack of mentions.

And I think the mystery books look good too. I read Encyclopedia Brown growing up (because Nancy Drew was too girly) and while they were pretty dumb in retrospect, they were fun.

ShinySylvee said:

Spoiler

From what I've read his lackey Shadow Tempest is pretty much guaranteed to be reformed. What that means for him we'll have to wait and see.

Also one thing that I think might be a problem after the movie comes out is that since all of the main characters from the movie are going to be voiced by all these big name actors, it's going to be a lot harder to have those characters show up later in the show. Especially since the show recently has taken an interest in giving more prominent roles to fan-favorite characters (Like Trixie and Maud) it will suck if some character from the movie ends up being loved but won't ever make another appearance since DHX can't pay for the voice actor to show up in the show.



I'm super excited for the CMC books that are dropping soon. I'm a massive fan of Vogel's work so far (Excluding Spice Up Your Life) and so I'm really looking forward to seeing more from him.

Also changing my Avatar in preparation for the trailer coming out soon.

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Considering the premise of the movie seems to be exploring outside the borders of Equestria and the show has always been inside, it came off to me like the characters of the movie were always intended to be a one-and-done thing since there's a concrete reason why it'd be difficult to reintegrate them.

Woot woot Rarity avatars. We need more.

I'm floored. The posts here are longer than posts in the Twin Peaks thread. There's a whole world out there I never knew existed.

Waylon Drums said:

I'm floored. The posts here are longer than posts in the Twin Peaks thread. There's a whole world out there I never knew existed.

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I try and keep mine brief if only so it doesn't take an hour to load every page.

When the movie comes out, however.... essays will be written.