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My Little Pony FiM Community [OT3] Surely You Saw This Coming

$200

Banned
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^ True origin of the Wish Dragons.

The home release of Rainbow Rocks means I can finally get around to watching it this weekend.

MLP float in Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade, though I'm not familiar with this parade, so the float will probably be bad.

And the MLP manga appears to have a weird ship.
unnamed.jpg

Tree: That's the one!
Twilight: My library!?
Tree: My, what an elegant lady. I'm the couscous tree
Library: What a great tree. I'm the library. (Note: It looks like Twilight is using her magic to project herself through the tree, to please the actual talking tree.)

EDIT:
Also, I rewatched "Three's a Crowd", "Pinkie Pride", and "Simple Ways". The first was great, other than the oddly long time it took to get to the point. After watching it again, it's clear that there's still a lot of room for them to make Discord act noticeably nicer post-"Twilight's Kingdom" while still having him be himself, since despite being "good", he really was a complete jerk in this episode. "Pinkie Pride" was great all the way through. "Simple Ways" was still just decent, especially with how it also took too long to get to the point and the climax not being as big as it needed to be. That said, it's still majorly impressive how Tabitha St. Germain was able to put two false accents on top of each other, making it clear that one is the "original" and the other is the "fake", when neither are her natural accent.
 

TransTrender

Gold Member
There are no limits to their madness
Also, MLP Haloween costumes available through Haloween stores or big box retail. Any of them fit dudes? Want to break barriers as the best pony.
 

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
Celestia and Luna Funko figures are coming next month. Hot Topic is running a special 25% off everything on their website, but it ends today. End up only being $14 each.

v0bcOFN.jpg

ma4aNel.jpg


I hope it's just the angles and they didn't mess up and make Luna taller....
 
That stinger made me very interested in what's next for EqG.

That depends. Rainbow Rocks didn't even need Twilight and after how it ended doesn't need her at all anymore. The magic's there now and with Sunset Shimmer around it doesn't need Twilight to unleash it anymore. EG Twilight will be their next plot device not only to introduce a new villain whether that's unleashing some evil or a new antagonist which should be an EG Discord but that same device to unleash a new friendship power. Sunset Shimmer will teach EG Twilight the friendship ropes to bring the whole beginning of FiM to EG. Then once the 7 of them get together then the real fun starts.

By the by, Rainbow Rocks was awesome and I was so glad that Sunset Shimmer didn't get off so easily with everybody else from the start so she could earn that ending. Good on you, girl!
 

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
That depends. Rainbow Rocks didn't even need Twilight and after how it ended doesn't need her at all anymore. The magic's there now and with Sunset Shimmer around it doesn't need Twilight to unleash it anymore. EG Twilight will be their next plot device not only to introduce a new villain whether that's unleashing some evil or a new antagonist which should be an EG Discord but that same device to unleash a new friendship power. Sunset Shimmer will teach EG Twilight the friendship ropes to bring the whole beginning of FiM to EG. Then once the 7 of them get together then the real fun starts.

By the by, Rainbow Rocks was awesome and I was so glad that Sunset Shimmer didn't get off so easily with everybody else from the start so she could earn that ending. Good on you, girl!

Maybe they'll take a note from the Reflections comic arc, and things start to break down with people hopping between universes. Sunset and the Sirens have to be returned to Equestria at the end.
 
I really don't think they'd go all Crisis on Infinite Earths with this franchise for the actual animated stuff.

In any case, didn't McCarthy specifically say that they wanted to keep Equestria Girls and the main show separate? I really doubt having plot developments that only make sense if you've watched the movie would be keeping the two separate. Considering that statement and the negative to neutral reaction to Flash Sentry's appearances in season 4 (was there anyone at all actually happy to see him, beyond schadenfreude at people getting angry?), I would guess that season 5 will have even less references to Equestria Girls than season 4.
 

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
Maybe introducing Anthroverse Twilight will let them bypass some stupid, convoluted way for Pony Twilight to get there. The "I'll make a new mirror in 5 minutes" thing from Rainbow Rocks was pretty silly.
 

Village

Member
Celestia and Luna Funko figures are coming next month. Hot Topic is running a special 25% off everything on their website, but it ends today. End up only being $14 each.

v0bcOFN.jpg

ma4aNel.jpg


I hope it's just the angles and they didn't mess up and make Luna taller....

I want the box.

It isn't an insult the figures.

For some weird reason, I just want the box.
 
Now you guys have me interested in watching Rainbow Rocks and I didn't even like Equestria Girls.

It's better, you oughta. Besides, it's a long wait for more TV ponies.

I saw a Derpy (rather "I <3 [Ditzy Doo Face]") vinyl at a local Walmart checkout along with two or three Rainbow Dashes. But no Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, etc. I have a coworker who feels Pinkie Pie is best pony, and I would've snagged that for him in a heartbeat.

EDIT: Correction: They also had a Dr. (W?)Hooves.
 

Cheerilee

Member
Also just finished watching Rainbow Rocks.

Better than EG1, most notably in songs and story. But still room for improvement, most notably in songs and story.

For the songs, I say this because the pre-release materials played up the aspect of the Mane 6's band, but I thought that the villains' band carried the show, and the Mane 6's band was underwhelming (until the end credits). So... better than EG1 (thanks to the villains), but not living up to it's full potential.

For the story,
Sunset Shimmer owned this movie, but she was crudely pushed to the side in favor of Twilight Sparkle, who was a total waste of space.

I also found myself wanting more from Sunset's dark side. Like, when Sunset ditched her leather jacket, I thought that was lame, until I observed that her shirt was sleeveless. I get it, they're setting up the henshin. She's gonna get wings. Maybe bat wings, or something otherwise cool and dark and edgy. But then henshin time comes, and... nothing. She gets the lame henshin that Rarity and the Earth Ponies get (Pegasi and Alicorns are overpowered in EG henshins). Then I realized that Sunset Shimmer probably shouldn't have had bat wings at the end of the movie, she should have had them earlier. Sunset Shimmer should have gone toe-to-toe with the Sirens much earlier in the movie, and fought dark with dark... and lost in spite of an impressive showing. By the end of the movie, she should have finished her redemption and used friendship and light to fight the Sirens. But that would probably have required this movie to be about Sunset Shimmer.

On the subject of Flash Sentry, I'm in the minority that liked that he was in EG1. Twilight was in a foreign land, and you should have a romantic fling when you're off on an adventure. I don't think it said that Twilight needs a man, or otherwise weakened Twilight to do so. Especially since she was never supposed to come back here.

When EG2 started,
they very obviously showed that Flash was still hung up on Twilight (which is fine), but then they subtly showed that Sunset has a thing for Flash, which she immediately denied. I thought this added depth and complexity and obstacles. But then they go and drop Twilight on the situation, which was the wrong move all around. Oh and, then they have brainwashed-Flash toss out a line, implying that he liked Sunset more when she was evil. WTF? Well, at least I wasn't expecting that.

And speaking of lines dropped in out of nowhere, Twilight ignores the question she herself raised in the movie, and answers the question nobody asked, when she
casually blames Sunset Shimmer for the entire mess, dropping a line as she leaves, saying that the Sirens were safely imprisoned until Sunset empowered them through her very existence. Nobody asked how the Sirens got power. I expected that they became Witches, and learned to tap into the natural powers of the world. Twilight asked how they had lived for centuries up to now. But yeah, best not to answer that question, not when you can dump blame on Sunset Shimmer for no reason.
 
It's fine to say that Brad works as a one-off romantic fling, but that isn't what he's presented as, and we have to remember that this is still a children's property. What little interaction we've seen between Brad and Twilight is sufficient for him being her one true love in most children's properties, and even properties aimed at adults; and that will be the case until they specifically show otherwise. Besides, Twilight going into her first romance knowing it will be a one-off thing seems out of character. Well, really, everything about how she interacts with Brad is out of character.
 

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
I would guess Brad was a Hasbro mandate. He didn't seem like anything but a half-assed insert in the first film, and even less in the second. Someone probably ordered there be a love interest, and Meghan didn't want to, so she just did the minimal amount she could get away with.
 
I think that's obvious to everyone. I was arguing against the idea that Brad works in the role that Cheerilee claims he had; and really, more against what I've seen a few people claim online, that Brad and Twilight's romance is fine because it clearly wasn't a "one true love" thing.
 

Cheerilee

Member
I would guess Brad was a Hasbro mandate. He didn't seem like anything but a half-assed insert in the first film, and even less in the second. Someone probably ordered there be a love interest, and Meghan didn't want to, so she just did the minimal amount she could get away with.

I think that's obvious to everyone. I was arguing against the idea that Brad works in the role that Cheerilee claims he had; and really, more against what I've seen a few people claim online, that Brad and Twilight's romance is fine because it clearly wasn't a "one true love" thing.

I know it's a minority opinion, but I thought he was fine in EG1. He was a generic trope, but tropes aren't always a bad thing, and Equestria Girls is full of bigger tropes anyways.

And he had the potential to be actually good in EG2, pining for Twilight and making himself unavailable to anyone, while Sunset discovers that she wants to make something real out of what she had and threw away.

But then EG2 threw that potential away, and doubled down on the worst side of his EG1 performance. I'm one of the few people who liked Flash in EG1, but even I can see that it was wrong to repeat the Flash/Twilight shipping, to the point where it pulled a Spiderman 3 and went back in time to make EG1 even worse. Such a bad idea, and rooted in the core problem which was that Twilight should never have been in this second movie.
 

PaulloDEC

Member
Such a bad idea, and rooted in the core problem which was that Twilight should never have been in this second movie.

I keep hearing this, but I'm not so sure. I think Twilight being there pulls double duty, firstly showing that she isn't a magic bullet that the CH world can expect to keep dragging in to solve their problems, and secondly in allowing Sunset a chance to step up and prove herself where Twilight herself failed.

I feel like framing Sunset's redemption in terms of being the hero that Twilight couldn't be worked pretty well, and it makes a sturdier launchpad for future EG content than a film that didn't address that might have.
 
It occurs to me, I'd really like to see Friendship is Dragons (Darths & Droids applied to MLP, or if you don't know what that is, MLP interpreted as a Dungeons and Dragons campaign) do some bonus strips about Equestria Girls. Namely, a scene like this:
DM: You bump into one of the students and fall to the ground.
Twilight's player: I start to get up.
DM: The student you bumped into reaches down to help you up. He is a handsome high school boy with blue hair and skin that is orangish, but looks fairly close to human.
Applejack's (or someone else's) player: Oh, like that guard earlier? A bit hamfisted, but I guess this shows that there are alternate versions of even NPCs.
Twilight's player: I guess I'll let him help me up.
DM: Roll a save.
Twilight's player: Huh? 3.
DM: Twilight has fallen in love with him.
Twilight's player: ... What.

And the story proceeds as Twilight's player desperately tries to avoid the romance that the DM has railroaded her character into.

On another note, I usually don't post fan comics, but I really want this to happen in an episode now, especially that last panel (minus the typo).
 

Cheerilee

Member
I keep hearing this, but I'm not so sure. I think Twilight being there pulls double duty, firstly showing that she isn't a magic bullet that the CH world can expect to keep dragging in to solve their problems, and secondly in allowing Sunset a chance to step up and prove herself where Twilight herself failed.

I feel like framing Sunset's redemption in terms of being the hero that Twilight couldn't be worked pretty well, and it makes a sturdier launchpad for future EG content than a film that didn't address that might have.

There was no expectation for Twilight to come running in to save the day, because the previous movie established that it was impossible for Pony-Twilight to reach Dougworld again in her lifetime (not until that rule gets thrown out the window, which shouldn't have been "immediately").

EG2 was already set up with Rainbow Dash trying (and failing) to lead an incomplete "Mane 5", and they kept that theme going through the entire movie, even after Twilight arrived. Sunset's obvious role (which wasn't realized until the very end of the movie anyways) was for her to fill in as Twilight's replacement, in her absence. There was no need for Sunset to exceed Twilight, when the apparent setup for EG3 is going to be (or probably should be) Sunset vs Dougworld-Twilight.

Twilight's main justification in EG2 is that she told Dougworld about the Sirens history. A student of Celestia (Sunset Shimmer) needed to find a magic book so that a more popular student of Celestia (Twilight Sparkle) could find a magic book to explain backstory. Why the runaround? Sunset has the exact same qualifications as Twilight (to a lesser degree, which is good, because Twilight is in danger of being overpowered), and should have been able to do the history thing. And if an Equestria-cameo was required, the book system established that Sunset can now communicate with Twilight by writing letters, and Twilight could have delivered that info to Sunset as text. There was no need for "Text = Door = OMG, I can cross universes at will now", at least, not so soon.

The real reason Twilight was in the movie was because Tara Strong/Twilight Sparkle is currently "the star" of My Little Pony, and gets top billing. "Rainbow Rocks: starring Tara Strong as Twilight Sparkle," that's what the start of the movie says. Rebecca Shoichet gets credit after the rest of the Mane 6, and Spike, who was even more useless in this movie. DJ Pon3 did more than Spike. Politically, Sunset Shimmer doesn't have the cred to headline her own movie, and Twilight has too much cred to be anything less than the star.
 
I just now had the realization about the two names.

Twilight Sparkle.
Sunset Shimmer.

Twilight &#8776; Sunset
Sparkle &#8776; Shimmer

mindblown.gif

Yeah, I'm slow, okay?
 
I just now had the realization about the two names.

Twilight Sparkle.
Sunset Shimmer.

Twilight &#8776; Sunset
Sparkle &#8776; Shimmer

mindblown.gif

Yeah, I'm slow, okay?

This is a big part of why I don't like how they handled Sunset as a dark mirror of Twilight in the first movie, in that they really don't make her a dark mirror of Twilight except in her backstory. We don't even see Sunset use her own magic outside her introduction, and we don't get a "this could have been me" moment from Twilight. You can't introduce an evil counterpart as one of Celestia's former students after having already done so, so it feels like a waste, especially with Sunset being voiced by Twilight's singing voice and the mirrored nature of her name. The dark mirror can be a really effective cliche, so I'd still like to see it on the show, but I guess they'll have to do a dragon queen who had to throw her friendships away to rule, voiced by Tara Strong using a completely different voice, who is also Spike's biological mother, or something.
 

Village

Member
This is a big part of why I don't like how they handled Sunset as a dark mirror of Twilight in the first movie, in that they really don't make her a dark mirror of Twilight except in her backstory. We don't even see Sunset use her own magic outside her introduction, and we don't get a "this could have been me" moment from Twilight. You can't introduce an evil counterpart as one of Celestia's former students after having already done so, so it feels like a waste, especially with Sunset being voiced by Twilight's singing voice and the mirrored nature of her name. The dark mirror can be a really effective cliche, so I'd still like to see it on the show, but I guess they'll have to do a dragon queen who had to throw her friendships away to rule, voiced by Tara Strong using a completely different voice, who is also Spike's biological mother, or something.

Will spike finally get respect?
 
Just finished watching the movie, but I'm just gonna say I kinda wish the entire movie was done in the style of the sketches in the credits. The may or may not still be dougworld skin colors(in the credits they were all only 2 colors) if it was, but I still liked them better.

And no, Spike will never get respect.
In the next movie he won't even be a talking dog.
 
Twilight in Rainbow Rocks is Celestia. Sunset Shimmer is Twilight.

Celestia made twilight make friends.
Celestia tried to beat a bad guy, and couldn't.
Twilight brought friends back together when they were broken up.
Twilight learned Friendship is magic, and transformed.

Twilight made Sunset Shimmer make friends.
Twilight tried to beat the bad guys, and couldn't.
Sunset Shimmer brought the band back together.
Sunset Shimmer learned the they're never going to bring her down, that they're never going break that part of her, that her friends are there to bring her around, and transformed.
 

PaulloDEC

Member
*goes to a certain topic on the Gaming side*
... Huh. A heads up, but it looks like some people may be trying to inform bronies about ethics in game journalism.

I usually wouldn't bring it up here, but it's such a weird thing to say.

Jesus christ. Why in the hell would they think that the MLP fan community would be a good place to find supporters? I know we've got our assholes like any other group, but isn't a bunch of people who like a show for girls kind of at odds with a group of people who don't like women?
 

McNum

Member
Jesus christ. Why in the hell would they think that the MLP fan community would be a good place to find supporters? I know we've got our assholes like any other group, but isn't a bunch of people who like a show for girls kind of at odds with a group of people who don't like women?
Desperation, maybe? They're running out of allies fast.

Still, fans of a show with a mainly female cast of characters, each designed implicitly to show that there are many ways to be a girl other than the standard pretty pink variant that a lot of society pushes, is probably not a good place to find hardcore misogynists. I mean, sure, there might be some bronies who agree with GamerGate, but they've most likely already joined up.
 

PaulloDEC

Member
Desperation, maybe? They're running out of allies fast.

Still, fans of a show with a mainly female cast of characters, each designed implicitly to show that there are many ways to be a girl other than the standard pretty pink variant that a lot of society pushes, is probably not a good place to find hardcore misogynists. I mean, sure, there might be some bronies who agree with GamerGate, but they've most likely already joined up.

I'd have thought that too.

I feel like the GG'rs would be the same guys going 'lol bronies are pedos'.

Well, yeah. As I said before, I'm not oblivious to the minority of genuinely bad people who still somehow like the show, but I wouldn't have said it was a demo worth mining.

On an unrelated topic, I've been running a little project over the last week or so to answer the question of whether or not (and if so, to what degree) the mix of Slice/Adventure episodes has changed in MLP over the last four years.

Google Doc HERE.

Instructions and info are on the Welcome page. Would love it if anyone interested could join in.
 
On an unrelated topic, I've been running a little project over the last week or so to answer the question of whether or not (and if so, to what degree) the mix of Slice/Adventure episodes has changed in MLP over the last four years.

Google Doc HERE.

Instructions and info are on the Welcome page. Would love it if anyone interested could join in.

I added a page. I listed nearly every episode as being at least partially slice of life.

Anyway, Baby Blues did two Halloween comics with MLP costumes. Like basically every newspaper comic about MLP, the punchline is that bronies exist.

And looking at ED... jeez, there has been a LOT of batpony art, and specifically Flutterbat art, hasn't there?
 

PaulloDEC

Member
I added a page. I listed nearly every episode as being at least partially slice of life.

Thanks for joining in Sigma, your results have been added to the Findings page. You only found about 6% difference between the highest lowest ranked season, but like all bar one person so far you still concluded that S4 has the largest percentage of Adventure content.

Interesting to see you ranking S3 higher than S1 in terms of Slice content though; I think you're the first person to do that.

And looking at ED... jeez, there has been a LOT of batpony art, and specifically Flutterbat art, hasn't there?

I guess it's an easy shot on Halloween.
 
Finally got around to watching Rainbow Rocks and... I'm sorry to say, I didn't like it that much. I mean, it wasn't bad or anything, but I also didn't think it was that much better than the first movie. Except for the climax. That was, in fact, pretty good. Probably the best climax of any "big event" story in Friendship is Magic (though admittedly, that's not saying much; that's something the show and even the comics always had trouble with), but the fact remains that I didn't care much for the rest of the movie.

The big thing I use to measure my interesting in a show or movie is whether I was motivated to start using the Internet while watching it, or if I find myself pausing it to go do something else for a bit before coming back. That almost never happens with the show itself, but it did happen with the first Equestria Girls, and it happened with this movie, outside of the climax. It isn't just that I was already aware of the plot and such, because when I rewatch episodes, I don't feel inclined to use the Internet; but then again, that may be due to the initial good feeling I have watching the episode more or less blind persisting, and my knowledge of every event in Rainbow Rocks thus indeed ruined it for me. I was also going in considering the possibility that I may like the movie so much that I'd jump onto the "looking forward to the next Equestria Girls more than season 5" train like some others have, so maybe that set expectations too high.

Unfortunately, I didn't find most of the songs to be good. I kept hearing about how awesome "Tricks Up My Sleeve" was, and I was disappointed when I heard the samples from the movie itself. Maybe the full version gives a much better impression, though. Like I expected, Team Dark had better songs than Team Hero, though I'm nowhere near as enamored with the Dazzling songs as a lot of people. I know I said I liked the climax, but right now, I don't actually remember much about the song. "Shine Like Rainbows", the credits song, is currently in my head, so I guess that's on the better end of songs, but that may just be because I just got done watching the movie as I'm writing this. And now, writing this several minutes after that last sentence, it's gone.

To elaborate further on the climax, I think I know why it works. It is essentially exactly the same as every other climax, in that the heroes have to defeat the villains without actually doing anything violent. Typically, the show tries to make this exciting with fancy effects for the mandatory energy blast, but especially after doing it so often, it doesn't help much. This time, they took a page from Sailor Moon, which has insert songs when the main villain gets defeated... well, at least Queen Beryl, I don't remember the others. Queen Beryl's defeat is no different from an MLP climax, except that it had a motivational song playing during it in the English dub that made it awesome (the original had the theme song, which IMO, didn't work as well in that moment). Singing ratcheted up the level of excitement, and they applied that principle here. Unfortunately, having the characters sing at each other seems like something they'd only be able to do once, because it will just get weird if they keep on doing it. Maybe next time the show has a climax, they can have an insert song.

I know a lot of people liked how Sunset Shimmer got a chance to shine, but actually watching the movie, it felt like this was only possible because the other characters failed to notice things and allowed Sunset to point them out. Like Sunset was the one who had to point out that Twilight could use a song to counteract the magic, while if she wasn't around and this was a normal show episode, Twilight would have just been assigned the role of figuring that out; and Twilight or one of the other Main Six would have been the one to notice that the Dazzlings were draining their negativity if this was a regular show episode. It didn't really feel like some aspect of Sunset in particular was bringing something to the group.

The premise that the heroes have to hide their magic made no sense once the Dazzlings revealed to Sunset that they knew about her actions in the first movie. If they knew about that, they must have known about the rainbow energy blast the heroes used against her. Plus, I don't know where Twilight got the idea that she needed to create a specific song to counter the Dazzlings, when she knew that any old song can trigger the magic transformations and she was going to just magic blast everyone as Plan A.

And I hated the scenes with Brad. Everyone was saying, "Oh, he's barely in the movie, the romance with Twilight gets barely any screen time," but every time Twilight was actually excited to see him and blushed at his mention made me cringe.

And concerning the art during the credits, I don't like those designs much either, sorry to say.

Sonata was pretty adorable, though, so that is something that I agree with fans of the movie about.

So yeah, when it comes time to go through the show again, I'm still going to be skipping everything related to Equestria Girls, and I'll still be telling people who are interested in getting into the show that it's fine to skip the movies.
 

$200

Banned
PonyGAF's Season 4 ratings:

Pinkie Pride: (5*4+4*2+3*0+2*0+1*0)/6 - 4.67
Castle Mane-ia: (5*4+4*1+3*1+2*0+1*0)/6 - 4.50
Rarity Takes Manehattan: (5*3+4*3+3*0+2*0+1*0)/6 - 4.50
Filli Vanilli: (5*2+4*2+3*0+2*0+1*0)/4 - 4.50
Three's A Crowd: (5*2+4*3+3*0+2*0+1*0)/5 - 4.40
Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 1: (5*3+4*3+3*1+2*0+1*0)/7 - 4.29
Power Ponies: (5*3+4*3+3*1+2*0+1*0)/7 - 4.29
Simple Ways: (5*2+4*1+3*1+2*0+1*0)/4 - 4.25
Maud Pie (5*1+4*3+3*0+2*0+1*0)/4 - 4.25 - new
Pinkie Apple Pie: (5*1+4*5+3*0+2*0+1*0)/6 - 4.17
Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 2: (5*3+4*2+3*2+2*0+1*0)/7 - 4.14
Flight to the Finish: (5*1+4*4+3*1+2*0+1*0)/6 - 4.00
It Ain't Easy Being Breezies: (5*0+4*2+3*0+2*0+1*0)/2 - 4.00
Rainbow Falls: (5*2+4*2+3*1+2*1+1*0)/6 - 3.83
Bats!: (5*0+4*1+3*4+2*0+1*0)/5 - 3.20
Daring Don't: (5*0+4*1+3*4+2*1+1*0)/6 - 3.00
Twilight Time (5*0+4*1+3*0+2*1+1*0)/2 - 3.00
Somepony to Watch Over Me (5*0+4*0+3*4+2*0+1*0)/4 - 3.00 - new

S1 and S2
S3
 
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