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[DrForester]

*glances at above conversation*

Parental Glideance
I knew that Scootaloo played a major role in this episode, but I didn't expect her to be the instigator of Rainbow Parents learning about Dash being in the Wonderbolts. Her deciding to use a slingshot to get to Cloudsdale was a wonderful moment of cartoon logic, but I did think her immediately running into Rainbow Parents was too convenient. I liked seeing both obsess over Rainbow Dash and how intentionally creepy they were being. It was odd seeing another gag with awestruck music turning out to come from an in-universe source.

Though they still haven't outright said it, I guess there's really no going around it. Scootaloo is an orphan. I liked her simply not understanding why Dash wouldn't like her parents suffocating her so much, because she never experienced that. Even though it was probably due to some weird internal issue with not allowing orphans to be mentioned, I did like that no one said, "Oh right, you're an orphan!" or anything. It felt more natural that way.

If the episode was just about Rainbow Parents obsessing over Dash and her getting embarrassed, it probably wouldn't have been that great, but getting Scootaloo's perspective was definitely the right move.

It looks like Spitfire and Rainbow Dash are closer in age than many generally assumed, though Dash specifically said she was entering those competitions at a younger age than usual. It's a bit odd that Spitfire never acknowledged that she knew Dash as a kid, but not too odd, I suppose. They didn't start talking until after "Sonic Rainboom", which would have stuck out in her memory more, and they probably didn't interact outside of the races themselves.

I liked the gag that Scootaloo didn't actually do well on her report because it was mostly pictures and a moldy sandwich.

Overall, this was a pretty enjoyable episode. And I suppose I should check off "emotional episode" on my bingo card.

This episode was top tier Pony.

 

[Trigonometrize.]

It looks like Spitfire and Rainbow Dash are closer in age than many generally assumed, though Dash specifically said she was entering those competitions at a younger age than usual. It's a bit odd that Spitfire never acknowledged that she knew Dash as a kid, but not too odd, I suppose. They didn't start talking until after "Sonic Rainboom", which would have stuck out in her memory more, and they probably didn't interact outside of the races themselves.

That moment felt a bit careless to me, even with the "Dash was one of the junior fliers and the rest were senior" stipulation (that felt more relevant to the skill gap anyway). They look exactly the same size. How much older could she possibly be? Fluttershy looks a bit different than RD in the flashbacks, the implication being it's because she's a bit older. So what, Fluttershy is older than Spitfire? Spitfire's been captain since season 1, meaning she became captain at an incredibly young age? If she is really young, why wouldn't that have ever been brought up? Or is Rainbow Dash not actually that young to be a Wonderbolt?

Here's an idea. Why include any of the Wonderbolts in that scene at all? Pretty careless and it makes me unreasonably upset.

 

[ShinySylvee]

Spoiler

Wanting the two to be portrayed as competent once in a while does not mean I want them to be portrayed as perfect.

Wanting them to be shown as actually learning something from their previous problems is not wanting them to be flawless.

Wanting them to show some fucking sense now and then is not wanting them to be flawless.

Millennia old beings shouldn't need the overpowered writer's pet to tell them there's a problem.


Show has done a brilliant job of showing them to not be perfect. The problem is they've gone so far over the edge that now they're portrayed as incompetent. Take the end of this episode. Celestia, the pony that protected the country for a thousand years, can't do a fucking thing without a pep-talk

Spoiler

I would personally argue that by showing the sisters struggle with what all the things that the other deals with every day showcases how strong they actually are. Celestia has to be emotionally composed through an entire day of doing things that might not be particularly interesting but are necessary for the world to function without having any time to herself. Given the stuff she works with slipping up even once could have strong negative consequences, as indicated by Luna causing a field trip to not be funded. Luna has to help people confront their deepest and darkest fears while getting no emotional support from others. And screwing things up could cause severe emotional damage to the person she's trying to help. The dream that Celestia confronts is substantially worse then that though as the fear that she's helping Starlight confront is likely one that she has as well. I imagine it would be extremely emotionally unsettling to see that someone's greatest fear is that you are going to go crazy and try to take over the world, especially considering that Starlight's fears aren't particularly far-fetched.

For the most part I found that their struggles with the other's job was completely understandable and at no point did I ever think that they were incompetent. Celestia is used to less personal issues and always having other people to talk to. Luna is used to a substantially slower pace in her day where she can have some alone time to process things and relax. Their struggles with the other's day-to-day life comes off as being believable to me. And Celestia not understanding how to solve problems in the dream world makes sense given that she has absolutely no experience with it. As I said before Celestia is used to having others for emotional support and is directly confronting what is likely her biggest fear as well so I think it's totally normal that she would need support from Luna to tackle it.

Judging by most other people's reactions I've seen to this episode most people weren't bothered at all with how Celestia and Luna were portrayed in this episode. I felt like their conflict was believable and most of the learning that is done in the episode they do themselves rather then having Starlight explain it to them. (After the spell is cast Starlight really doesn't do much in the episode besides freak out about possibly screwing everything up) Again I feel like you had unreasonable expectations of what to expect from them going in because I felt like the episode did a pretty admirable job at making them NOT look like incompetent idiots and most of the stuff that they had issues with made perfect sense to me.

*glances at above conversation*

In totally unrelated news I don't know if I can cross "People get super mad at something trivial"off on my bingo card. In all honesty I think there'll be something worse later so I'll save it for then. And for a more serious question I don't know if I can cross off

Spoiler

"Celestia does something useful" here, because there is a lot of implied usefulness watching Luna go through her day which would indicate that Celestia does a lot of things that help people out.

EDIT:

That moment felt a bit careless to me, even with the "Dash was one of the junior fliers and the rest were senior" stipulation (that felt more relevant to the skill gap anyway). They look exactly the same size. How much older could she possibly be? Fluttershy looks a bit different than RD in the flashbacks, the implication being it's because she's a bit older. So what, Fluttershy is older than Spitfire? Spitfire's been captain since season 1, meaning she became captain at an incredibly young age? If she is really young, why wouldn't that have ever been brought up? Or is Rainbow Dash not actually that young to be a Wonderbolt?

Here's an idea. Why include any of the Wonderbolts in that scene at all? Pretty careless and it makes me unreasonably upset.

Fuck man I'm getting too many options for that bingo square today.

Serious response: I understand that it doesn't make sense in terms of continuity I'm guessing it was just supposed to be a neat easter egg (like Derpy being the best flyer until her eyes get more derped) rather then something that you're meant to take literally. It's a show written by a bunch of writers that all have their own headcanons. According to M.A.Larson lifting some woodland critters up and moving them around is a herculean feat of magic and finishing a spell that already had the hard part done is worthy of being a princess.

 

[Trigonometrize.]

Fuck man I'm getting too many options for that bingo square today.

Serious response: I understand that it doesn't make sense in terms of continuity I'm guessing it was just supposed to be a neat easter egg (like Derpy being the best flyer until her eyes get more derped) rather then something that you're meant to take literally. It's a show written by a bunch of writers that all have their own headcanons. According to M.A.Larson lifting some woodland critters up and moving them around is a herculean feat of magic and finishing a spell that already had the hard part done is worthy of being a princess.

Larson is the god king so if he comes out and makes a statement that this is consistent with his own, I might be able to finally get some sleep.

 

[PaulloDEC]

I've gotta side with... well, most of PonyGAF on this one; "A Royal Problem" was fantastic.

Spoiler

Most critically, my two biggest concerns (that Celestia and Luna would be character-assassinated and that Starlight would seem psychotic for switching their marks) were neatly sidestepped and addressed in satisfying ways.

It was also an incredibly funny story. I usually really enjoy Lewis and Songco's writing, but if I hadn't known better I might've attributed this one to someone like Nick Confalone; it had a lot of witty, cheeky humour in there.

Spoiler

I would personally argue that by showing the sisters struggle with what all the things that the other deals with every day showcases how strong they actually are. Celestia has to be emotionally composed through an entire day of doing things that might not be particularly interesting but are necessary for the world to function without having any time to herself. Given the stuff she works with slipping up even once could have strong negative consequences, as indicated by Luna causing a field trip to not be funded. Luna has to help people confront their deepest and darkest fears while getting no emotional support from others. And screwing things up could cause severe emotional damage to the person she's trying to help. The dream that Celestia confronts is substantially worse then that though as the fear that she's helping Starlight confront is likely one that she has as well. I imagine it would be extremely emotionally unsettling to see that someone's greatest fear is that you are going to go crazy and try to take over the world, especially considering that Starlight's fears aren't particularly far-fetched.

*Snipped*

Agree with all of this (and you always write such in-depth posts Sylvee!)

Spoiler

I don't think either Celestia or Luna looked incompetent, even for a moment. Being thrown into the deep end of an unfamiliar pool isn't something that any number of years on the planet can protect you from, and seeing Celestia and Luna struggle to handle unfamiliar tasks made them feel more human to me, not less capable.

These two characters lead very busy, very separate (as this episode goes to great lengths to demonstrate) lives. When exactly do Luna and Celestia get to just hang out and talk anyway?

 

[Ogodei]

I remember back when the canon was that most unicorns could only do one type of magic and that Twilight was special merely for having more than one trick.

 

[SparksterMeta0]

Royal Problem Spoilers

Spoiler

I have to admit, Daybreaker is a cool what-if Evil Celestia name and design.

Spoiler

Interesting take on the Freaky Friday trope switch cutie marks and duties instead of bodies, though it happened before in Magical Mystery Cure.

 

[DrForester]

That moment felt a bit careless to me, even with the "Dash was one of the junior fliers and the rest were senior" stipulation (that felt more relevant to the skill gap anyway). They look exactly the same size. How much older could she possibly be? Fluttershy looks a bit different than RD in the flashbacks, the implication being it's because she's a bit older. So what, Fluttershy is older than Spitfire? Spitfire's been captain since season 1, meaning she became captain at an incredibly young age? If she is really young, why wouldn't that have ever been brought up? Or is Rainbow Dash not actually that young to be a Wonderbolt?

Here's an idea. Why include any of the Wonderbolts in that scene at all? Pretty careless and it makes me unreasonably upset.

This was the only flaw of the episode for me. Just too convenient to have them all there. I imagine it was easier for the animators to use younger versions of characters they were already dealing with. In the end though, it was a minor thing.

 

[Rhomega Beta]

Royal Problem

Spoiler

I really liked this episode. It reminds me of that Luna micro comic where she takes over Celestia's duties for a day. I do feel the "scowling" photo is unfair to her, and the photographer should have done a second one. Seems like someone has an anti-Luna agenda. But I'm looking too much into that. Then we got into the second half, where we finally get a solar version of Nightmare Moon that has been speculated since the show began, and we get a good fight scene and psychological taunting. Nice use of dream magic in dragging Luna from her nightmare into Starlight's.

One thing that bothers me: Celestia's day is filled to the brim with duties to the point of exhaustion. How does Celestia find the time to cook? Leaders get personal chefs for a reason. Also, she could have given those pancakes to someone else.

Also nitpicking: according to Twilight's Kingdom, Luna's cutie mark doesn't include the black splotch, here it does.

 

[ShinySylvee]

I've gotta side with... well, most of PonyGAF on this one; "A Royal Problem" was fantastic.

Spoiler

It was also an incredibly funny story. I usually really enjoy Lewis and Songco's writing, but if I hadn't known better I might've attributed this one to someone like Nick Confalone; it had a lot of witty, cheeky humour in there.

Agree with all of this (and you always write such in-depth posts Sylvee!)

To your first thing, I didn't spend enough time in the analysis I was typing while you posted this so I will just say now that I like Lewis and Songco's style and I think they adapted it fairly well here. I didn't focus much on comedy for my analysis I posted but I agree with you that it definitely had its moments too. For what it's worth I think Nick might have handled the climax of the episode a bit better but since this is already an extremely massive post I'll just leave it at that. (Although I do at some point want to talk about that) When I'm doing these kinds of posts I usually write them bit by bit over a couple hours while doing other things. So often I end up leaving out major stuff that I wanted to talk about because I end up forgetting about it. If you ever read a point I make and feel that I don't do a good job at fleshing it out feel free to ask me for my reasoning on it as often the problem is that I wrote my statement and then got sidetracked and forgot to provide the evidence to back it up. (And I'm sure a lot of you are bewildered by me thinking that I'm not detailed enough in my posts)

Also this is going to sound a bit self-indulgent but I really greatly appreciate comments like that Paullo. I put a lot of effort into most of the multi-paragraph analysis posts I make here and sometimes it can be a bit disheartening when they often get no responses. I'm not saying that I need to be constantly showered in praise for every post I make here but at times it can be difficult to tell if my posts are generating no response because people don't feel like they have anything to add to it or because people don't find it interesting. Additionally I am considering at some point creating some actual analysis content in the form of youtube videos (both for pony stuff and other things) and so I really like feedback on the type of stuff I write. I am interested in what type of stuff people find interesting to talk about so feedback in that regard is super nice as well. Going forward I'll try to be more supportive of posts that other people make too because I think it's only fair that I do that as well after asking for this. Now without further ado here's what I ended up with for this episode:




Alright so got some time to digest the episode and there's definitely a lot of that to be done with this episode. It's very dense in terms of things that happen in it. To be honest I feel like this could have easily been a two-parter if the writers were so inclined as there was definitely a lot that was done here that could have benefited a bit from more time. That's not to say that the episode feels rushed or incomplete though. As I had theorized the episode was written by lead writers Lewis and Songco and for the most part they handle a fairly ambitious and highly anticipated episode admirably. Although I think there are a couple minor issues that the episode has I feel like for most people those are going to be fairly easy to overook and the rest of the episode is has a lot of cool stuff in it. Strong characterization in general helps a lot and the story is told very intelligently as well. Although some characters can be a bit off-putting at times I understand where all of them are coming from and this episode definitely delivers a lot of stuff that will make most hardcore fans VERY happy. All in all I would definitely put this as the second best episode of season 7 right now. (behind Rock Solid Friendship)

Spoiler

I'll address the major problem that I think most people will have with the episode, that being Twilight's portrayal. On one hand Twilight spends pretty much the entire episode saying the exact wrong thing. Starlight has really massive confidence issues largely due to having a tendency to act rashly and make bad situations even worse, so Twilight actively discouraging her and playing into her fears can be hard to take. On the other hand I understand why Twilight is acting the way she does and in a way indicates why Starlight was the perfect person to be chosen for the job. Twilight is too personally enamored by the princesses (Celestia especially) and thinks that they are beyond reproach. When Starlight suggests that they directly confront the princesses about their misgivings with each other Twilight instantly shoots it down. Twilight (and I think a lot of people in general) would've believed that they were too far beneath the princesses to judge them and wouldn't have tried directly talking to them about their problems.

Starlight on the other hand respects the princesses greatly (and I'm including Twilight here) but at the same time is willing to stand her ground and flat out disagree with them if she thinks they're wrong. She recognizes that there is a serious issue and that inaction is not an option. Furthermore her nightmare later does a fairly good job at foreshadowing to the audience the consequences of if this issue wasn't dealt with, as well as being a strong reminder that the princesses have always had issues with each other and that this isn't anything new. And when she tries to talk things out and finds out that isn't going to work she realizes that she needs to try something more direct to get them to understand the other. And this marks a pretty major change in Starlight's portrayal in the show. Up until this episode Starlight's tendency of making major moves without fully understanding the consequences of her actions (creating a cult that removes people's cutie marks, getting revenge on someone paramount to the survival of the world by making them never meet their friends that helped them save it, mind controlling her friends to solve a problem that she largely created herself) have universally been shown as being negative. But here she seems to understand the situation better and knows the the potential consequences will be if she doesn't intervene. She knows that the major issue is that the princesses don't understand what the other is going through and believe that their struggles are being exaggerated so she comes up with a solution that directly addresses that. Although she doesn't fully have the confidence in what she did, her spell was actually fairly well calculated compared to her previous moves that panned out poorly and in the episode is shown to be exactly the solution that was needed, and moreover was one that due to her willingness to do seemingly insane things to achieve her goals was one only she could come up with. The one major issue with what she did is that she didn't really explain to Celestia and Luna what she was doing but the episode itself shows that she realizes this so even in this situation Starlight is still learning things and given how packed the episode was I don't think that it needed more time addressing it. One thing that I think is worth mentioning is that the climax of the episode puts Starlight's own personal issues at roughly equal importance to Celestia and Luna's. As I said before Starlight has enough self-esteem issues as it is and failure on this mission only she was sent on would be extremely damaging to that. She spends most of the episode's climax emotionally traumatized by her nightmare lamenting that trying to tackle the issue was a mistake and that she should never trust her gut again.

What's really a testament to how well this episode was written though is that all of that was happening and Starlight wasn't even the main character in the episode. In terms of the main plot Starlight's spell is largely just a plot device to cause the mark-swapping shenanigans to ensue. But even though her personal character arc isn't the main point of the episode it still stands on its own as its own separate thing that worked well. One thing I will say is that I wish that the episode featured Spike tagging along so he could function as a supportive strait-man to everything going on instead of having Starlight talking to the Twilight figurine. I've had issues with this a couple times before but Twilight really comes off as a horrible teacher here as she is being extremely unsupportive of Starlight through the whole episode and is actively making the situation worse and giving her bad advice.

On to the meat and potatoes of the episode, the Princesses themselves. I've already typed a shitload of them in my replies to Forester so I'm kinda burnt at this point but to summarize what I thought: I felt like they were shown fairly well. Their grievances with each other is believable especially considering what happened 1000 years ago. What's worth considering is that we are seeing them at their worst given that the map thought that intervention was necessary and that their animosity had likely been building up for several years. At times Celestia comes off as extremely dickish to Luna but I can sort of justify that by believing that her behavior is likely due to Luna being unappreciative of everything Celestia does for her over a very long period of time rather then something that just started happening. Their dynamics about how they specifically struggled with the other's job (especially pertaining to how they usually dealt with issues in their normal job) did a lot to help flesh them out even more and as a whole I feel like the whole situation is handled admirably. I liked the development that Luna just had to live with screwing up the kids' field trip and not having the time to go back and fix it, as it showed that Luna was both actively trying to make amends for her mistakes and also shows how hard Celestia has it.

In some ways this episode reminded me of Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep in that it was an episode concept that people were really clamoring for and had a lot of fan stuff that people really liked. I feel like it was done better here although there's still a couple issues. Daybreaker's design is pretty cool although I liked Nightmare Moon's a bit better. (That's not saying much because Nightmare Moon might be my favorite character design on the entire show. Talking strictly visuals as I feel like Nightmare Moon is one of the weaker villains the show's had) The massively missed potential here is that I just didn't feel a connection between Daybreaker and Celestia besides visuals. At no point did I really feel like Daybreaker was something that Celestia was on the verge of becoming and the major issue in terms of the plot seemed to be based on Starlight's damaged psyche rather then "Oh shit Celestia and Luna might go crazy" due to the fight taking place in a dream and neither one of the two really giving off any indication that they were on the verge of transforming. It doesn't damage the episode significantly but I do feel like it was some missed potential as the moment of Celestia destroying Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon wasn't as emotionally charged as it could have been.

Lastly since I talked about them in Dance Magic and I think they're worth mentioning here the visuals were definitely a cut above the normal stuff on the show here (The fact that Celestia and Luna get so much screen time essentially mandates this due to how difficult their hair probably is to animate) although they weren't quite at the level I was hoping for. I was really hoping that they would go full-on Twilight vs Tirek levels of choreography for the fight between Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker but the actual effects that they used seemed fairly tame and visually unimpressive. That scene definitely could have really used some more love in the visual department as I think it could have looked incredible. Also since this is probably the most range that they have shown so far for their respective characters it's worth mentioning Tabitha's and Nicole Oliver's performance in this episode. At times Luna sounded like Rarity but an octave lower, and there were some more spotty parts with Nicole's performances as Celestia, although I chalk a lot of that up to having to come up with how the character sounds with emotions that she has never really had before. Often I find Fluttershy sounding weak when she's forced to show anger so it's not just Nicole here, I think it's probably a challenging thing to do trying to portray a character that usually has a small handful of emotions (in Celestia's case being regal or slightly silly) with ones you've never done before.And Tara Strong did a great job with Twilight in this episode as well. She sold the lines extremely well and was fun to listen to, even though I didn't always like what she had to say.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Alright, time to go through comments, including from two weeks ago.

Also since no one is saying it, Today's episode Parental Glideance was really good. Josh Hamilton (Previously best known for working on Avatar: The Last Airbender, Legend of Korra, and the new Thundercats show) had a very impressive first showing and I look forward to seeing his work in the future. Finding new talent to replace the old writers that leave the show is essential to insuring the show's quality going forward and it definitely looks like Hamilton has potential to be one of the better ones they've had.

I forgot about this comment. Now I'm trying to think back to anything particularly Avatar-like about the episode and... I got nothing. Actually, I suppose the humor is kind of similar, but it isn't far off from MLP's usual humor, so it wasn't obvious.

I'm beginning to notice a trend here: family-focused episodes are pretty consistently the best in the series. Whether it be the Apple family going on a roadtrip, a holiday spent at the Pie rock farm, Fluttershy trying to right her brother's life, or Sweetie Belle and Rarity getting closer at the Sister Hooves Social, there's something really great with how the writers tackle family.

That leads me to Parental Glideance, which was one of my favorites in the show ever. Tons of laughs, Rainbow Dash's house was awesome, pretty interesting dynamic between an accomplished child and overzealous parents, and Scootaloo x RD bonding always welcome.

But what the fuck Cheerilee, too many pictures? A 'B'? Go away.

Kind of surprised to see "Flutter Brutter" in that list, since I remembered the thread being overall meh on it. As for Cheerilee, I expect the lower grade was mainly because of the moldy sandwich.

Alright, time for my complete thoughts on the episode:

As I said before, this is the first episode written by newcomer Josh Hamilton, and it was a very impressive first showing for him. There's a couple minor and debatably major issues I had with the episode but a lot of them are ones you can likely infer by just reading the episode blurb promoting it. Reading through everyone's thoughts when it was revealed you can see that most people didn't have high hopes for this one because the premise just sounds like it could be miserable. But it is managed fairly well and has both humorous and heartwarming moments that generally are a hallmark of a good episode of MLP. Overall this is definitely the best Dash episode of the past couple seasons and you could argue further then that. Josh has made a strong first impression and I hope that he can maintain this level of quality in his future episodes.

Yeah, I wasn't expecting much from this episode, so I was surprised to hear all this praise two weeks ago. Due to all the mentions of Scootaloo outside of spoiler bars, it was pretty easy to put two and two together, so I knew what to expect going in.

On to the black bars:
There's two major issues I had with the episode: First that some of the jokes felt a bit to "immature" to me. The opening scene with the CMC as well as Scootaloo's nonstop screeching when she first meets Rainbow's parents are two pretty big examples of this but they weren't alone and quite a few of the jokes fell flat for me. None of them were particularly major and for most people it likely won't be a problem but it was a bit distracting at times for me. Secondly and pretty much the major one you saw coming from the episode description is that Rainbow's parents are a bit much at times. I've never been a fan of cringe comedy so those parts were awkward for me but fortunately that is mediated by it not being a massive part of the episode and that for the most part the people observing it for the most part don't react too negatively to it, with the obvious exception being Rainbow.

One thing that I will say that was handled fantastically in this episode was the Wonderbolts themselves. All too often they are either portrayed as being ineffectual or outright jerks so Rainbow can end up looking better. Here they're relatively understanding of Rainbow's situation and several times make accommodations for it, including creating and performing a special routine to help Rainbow make things up to her parents. Their cooperation with the situation and not vilifying Rainbow's parents for clearly going overboard in their cheering makes it a lot more tolerable when it happens. And although her outburst was definitely on the extreme side it is totally understandable why Rainbow is so frustrated. I did criticize the episode earlier for its jokes but several of them did hit too. The hit percentage might not be as high as other greater episodes but there's enough comedy here to keep you entertained through the awkward or exposition-heavy parts of the story. Also the voice actors for Rainbow's parents (Sarah Edmondson as Windy Whistles and Jason Deline as Bow Hothoof) did an amazing job voicing them as well.

Overall as I said before it fills the show's bread-and-butter quite well, and although I might not be as crazy about this episode as others it is still a very strong showing and has me interested to see the future episodes from newcomer Josh Hamilton.

You share a lot of the same opinions as me, particularly with the humor. I didn't find the parent scenes cringe-worthy, and that's likely exactly for the reasons you mentioned: the Wonderbolts were completely understanding and didn't mock Rainbow at all. And though I liked the episode just fine, yeah, I'm not as amazed by the episode as some others appear to be.

I was thinking for part of Parental Glideance that the parents were actually just super fans that were delusional and/or lying to get close to Rainbow Dash. I think it was a pretty solid theory for a while.

I suppose Scootaloo did just assume they were her parents because of Bow's mane color. I have no idea what moral could come out of that besides stranger danger.

I can't see "Scootaloo has shitty parents" being something the writers would call into existence, so the orphan theory remains not only the strongest one, but really all but confirmed at this point.

Yeah, even with Diamond Tiara, it's clear that Filthy Rich loves her a lot, and it's only Spoiled Rich that's a bad parent.

As for the whole Scootaloo element of Parental Glideance, I'd love to see her be officially adopted by RD's family somewhere down the line, though I dunno if we'll ever see that. Either way, it was great to see how quickly RD's parents bonded with Scootaloo and took a liking to her beyond just their mutual adoration towards RD.

Rainbow Dash adopting Scootaloo as a sister was a pretty common theme in older MLP fan content (largely in response to Scootabuse). Anyway, outside of a few instances like this episode, Scootaloo seems pretty comfortable with her situation, and she must have guardians of some kind, so I'm not sure she's actually looking for that right now. Plus, I think Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash have a more interesting relationship when they aren't actually family. It could be an interesting thing to explore in an episode, though.

Props if they would've changed Sweetie Bell and the other CMC to look somewhat bigger at the end of the episode, like the audience had been stuck seeing them the same way too, but that would've been a lot of work, introduced some issues, and most importantly impacted toy sales.

I don't think toys a big factor in this, since they only really needed to make a small adjustment. Like in my last roundup post, the comparison pictures had some scenes where Sweetie Belle had a slightly longer neck and was a bit scaled up. The issue with doing that consistently is that it wouldn't be worth changing every image resource they have, and with such little differences between the old and new designs, it would be easier for animators to get them mixed up. It's still the case that they forget to put cutie marks on the CMC at times.

I wonder, if the show transitions out of using Flash to instead use ToonBoom Harmony like the movie, would it be easier to make subtle character design changes over time?

Parental Glideance (watched early because i actually have to do stuff today)

Brilliant. Good laughs and feels throughout, the show continues to be subtle about the hardships Scootaloo has had to overcome, similar to the subtle nods to Applejack's parents being dead. Great return to form after Forever Filly.

While it's clear their subtlety is due to not wanting dead ponies mentioned, it is nice that they haven't made a big deal out of it.

Fun detail from Parental Glideance that's easy to miss on initial viewing... the evolution of Derpy.

I didn't notice that Lightning Dust was there too. As for Derpy, while it's clearly just a gag, it also has some sad implications.

I remember back when the canon was that most unicorns could only do one type of magic and that Twilight was special merely for having more than one trick.

The only unicorns shown doing anything outside levitation and such are still the ones with magic-related talents. Back in season 1, Rarity also did a lot of spells outside of her talent, including illusion spells in "Suited For Success" and the tree to statue spell from "Look Before You Sleep", but they've cut back on that a lot.

And ShinySylvee, I appreciate your long posts. It would be interesting to see videos from you, though I worry it will be lost in all the other analysis videos. Not quoting due to the spoilers.

By the way, a bunch of art for "Parental Glideance" was released today (though I suspect they were made earlier) and shown in ED's Drawfriend, so I'll go ahead and post them now.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
BFE (Best Family Ever)
With parents
Rainbow Dash's Family

That last one is from JohnJoseco, apparently his first directly show-related pony art since Gabby last year. For a while it felt like there was much less art being made for the show than in the early years, and it wasn't as of high quality as it used to be, but directly comparing JJ's art to the others here is a clear demonstration of how good current pony fanart is. He used to be the best around, but he honestly feels rather middling now.

 

[Trigonometrize.]

Royal Problems

Spoiler

That episode was probably the best of the season so far.

The problems: Starlight got overshadowed a bit, but only because the other characters were so good. I forgot she was even a part of the episode once it got to the dream sequence. Also, Celestia was pretty out of character, and it was even showing through with Nicole's voice acting. But....

...as for the positives, it was all worth it for Daybreaker. She needs to happen in the real world, even if it was done to great effect in the dream one. She's just awesome. When she came on I was waiting for a boner-killing dumb name, but they hit you with DAYBREAKER. Yes.

Twilight was also great. Her music box entrance is clever and she had some subtly funny lines, namely the part where she exclaimed "You switched their cutie marks!" at the start of a scene, but it's later implied she found this out a while ago and is still coming to terms with it. Clever.

The stars though were clearly Celestia and Luna. I was a bit worried at first when it was hopping back and forth between Starlight's interactions with them and Twilight concern trolling, but by the end in the dream and they're making up together, it really picked up and coalesced into a satisfying conclusion I loved it.

If this were season 1 we'd from now on get hit with meme after meme of Luna being obsessed with fruit/is a fruit/something related to fruit.

Kind of surprised to see "Flutter Brutter" in that list, since I remembered the thread being overall meh on it. As for Cheerilee, I expect the lower grade was mainly because of the moldy sandwich.

Nah man, Flutter Brutter's great. It was the Fluttershy's nice characterization from Fluttershy Leans In that everyone seems to love applied to an actually adequately paced story with an interesting conflict.

But maybe I just find it funny seeing RD get hit on.

 

[Infinite Justice]

I didn't notice that Lightning Dust was there too. As for Derpy, while it's clearly just a gag, it also has some sad implications.

Yea its kinda fucked up in a way :/

 

[PaulloDEC]

Also this is going to sound a bit self-indulgent but I really greatly appreciate comments like that Paullo. I put a lot of effort into most of the multi-paragraph analysis posts I make here and sometimes it can be a bit disheartening when they often get no responses. I'm not saying that I need to be constantly showered in praise for every post I make here but at times it can be difficult to tell if my posts are generating no response because people don't feel like they have anything to add to it or because people don't find it interesting. Additionally I am considering at some point creating some actual analysis content in the form of youtube videos (both for pony stuff and other things) and so I really like feedback on the type of stuff I write. I am interested in what type of stuff people find interesting to talk about so feedback in that regard is super nice as well. Going forward I'll try to be more supportive of posts that other people make too because I think it's only fair that I do that as well after asking for this.

I think it can be difficult to pull out specific parts to discuss from very in-depth posts like yours, which is probably largely why you don't get too many replies. You always have interesting and insightful things to say though, so if you ever moved into video I'd gladly take a look.

Spoiler

I'll address the major problem that I think most people will have with the episode, that being Twilight's portrayal. On one hand Twilight spends pretty much the entire episode saying the exact wrong thing. Starlight has really massive confidence issues largely due to having a tendency to act rashly and make bad situations even worse, so Twilight actively discouraging her and playing into her fears can be hard to take. On the other hand I understand why Twilight is acting the way she does and in a way indicates why Starlight was the perfect person to be chosen for the job. Twilight is too personally enamored by the princesses (Celestia especially) and thinks that they are beyond reproach. When Starlight suggests that they directly confront the princesses about their misgivings with each other Twilight instantly shoots it down. Twilight (and I think a lot of people in general) would've believed that they were too far beneath the princesses to judge them and wouldn't have tried directly talking to them about their problems.

Spoiler

I absolutely loved Twilight in this episode. Starlight made some risky moves, and we all know that Twi can't see straight where Celestia is concerned. She may not have acted smartly, but she felt entirely in-character to me.

Nah man, Flutter Brutter's great. It was the Fluttershy's nice characterization from Fluttershy Leans In that everyone seems to love applied to an actually adequately paced story with an interesting conflict.

But maybe I just find it funny seeing RD get hit on.

Wait, are there people who don't like Flutter Brutter? It's easily one of the best episodes of Season 6 for me, and it might even be in my overall top 10.

And yes, Dash getting hit on by Zephyr is one of the funniest things the show has ever done.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Nah man, Flutter Brutter's great. It was the Fluttershy's nice characterization from Fluttershy Leans In that everyone seems to love applied to an actually adequately paced story with an interesting conflict.

But maybe I just find it funny seeing RD get hit on.

I was surprised because I didn't recall anyone liking it enough to rank it among the best of the series. And during the season 6 episode guide voting, out of the four people who bothered to vote, only one recommended it. While I liked the episode well enough, I mainly just recall "I Can Do It On My Own" being a weak song, and of course Assertiveshy. But I haven't gotten around to rewatching it, so maybe my impression of it will improve after that.

Actually, checking the thread reactions now (starting here; I put these links in the OP for a reason!), you specifically say you weren't following along with the season as it aired, so that explains things.

And yeah, Assertive Fluttershy was great in that episode. It's pretty amazing that they've actually been consistent about that, after the jokes about Fluttershy learning the same thing over and over. In actuality, for the most part, they had been good about carrying over her developments from one focus episode to the next. And at the same time, it doesn't feel like the core of her character has changed. Rainbow reacting to getting hit on was great too.

Yea its kinda fucked up in a way :/

Well, another way to interpret it is that everyone else is just getting better while Derpy plateaus, and that isn't as bad. This comic, Too Good Memory, also has a plausible out for fans.

Pinkie Pie Says Goodnight: Sweet Dreams - Includes a message for all those fan content creators working hard to keep up with the two episode a week pace.
Parental Glideance CENSORED - This is the worst one so far, but I've been linking all the other ones.

By the way, looking at the fan art for this episode, I'll definitely have to revise my theory about the lack of fan art. It's not that there is overall less art, it's that if one episode in a weekend gets more fan attention than the other, the less significant episode gets much less art than it probably would have if it aired by itself. That's how "Forever Filly" has less art than it probably would if it aired by itself, while "Parental Glideance has a shitton. And that also accounts for "Fluttershy Leans In", because it aired the same weekend as "Rock Solid Friendship".

 

[DemWalls]

So, A Royal Problem was a good episode. Maybe even great, but I'll have to watch it again to make up my mind. Given certain posts, I almost doubted it.

Royal Problems

Spoiler

Also, Celestia was pretty out of character, and it was even showing through with Nicole's voice acting. But....

Why do you think that? I think she was fine.

Spoiler

Besides, I also think that it's not really possible to objectively assert that Celestia is "out of character" in anything, simply because until now she's barely had a character at all. This episode and Celestial Advice are basically the writers' first efforts at building a stronger characterisation.

EDIT: Just wanted to tell Shiny that I also read and appreciate his posts, I just don't participate much in the discussion.

 

[Chained Prometheus]

So, A Royal Problem was a good episode. Maybe even great, but I'll have to watch it again to make up my mind. Given certain posts, I almost doubted it.

Yeah, the more times I watch A Royal Problem, the more I'm digging it. Right there with Parental Glideance as my two favorites of the season so far, with Rock Solid Friendship in a solid third place.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Today's episodes are:

In Canada
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.

In Poland
Equestria Girls special 2 - Movie Magic
The Equestria Girls have been specially invited by A.K. Yearling to go on the set of the upcoming Daring Do movie and they are overjoyed. For super-fan Rainbow Dash, watching behind the scenes as her favorite heroine comes to life is a dream come true. But when a rare and important prop from the set goes missing, putting the movie on hold, Rainbow Dash's dream becomes a nightmare.

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.

By the way, Polish commercial for "Movie Magic".

 

[Chained Prometheus]

Not Asking For Trouble was okay-ish, I think? Definitely a noticeable step down from A Royal Problem though. Gonna need to watch it another time or two to really get a fix on my thoughts as a whole, but first impressions are pretty 'meh.'

 

[UberTag]

Not Asking For Trouble

Remember what I said last week about a lot of episodes from this season?

Spoiler

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.

Yeah, this was another one of those episodes.

Spoiler

And I'm not sure Pinkie Pie - who frankly struggles in leading roles that don't feature Weird Al - is enough to carry an episode. Especially when they're insistent on not establishing characterizations for anyone in Yakyakistan outside of Prince Rutherford. Gummy was practically this episode's co-star... and his gimmick is to stare aimlessly at nothing.

Hopefully today's Equestria Girls installment is translated in short order as I have little doubt it'll wind up as the superior effort.

 

[DrForester]

That was pretty much the most "meh" episode ever. Wasn't bad. Wasn't great, just kind of existed...

Spoiler

I did like Pinkie in it though. She wasn't as annoying as she sometimes gets in her focus episodes. She was still silly, but also was able to work things out.

 

[Chained Prometheus]

Not Asking For Trouble

Remember what I said last week about a lot of episodes from this season?


Yeah, this was another one of those episodes.

Spoiler

And I'm not sure Pinkie Pie - who frankly struggles in leading roles that don't feature Weird Al - is enough to carry an episode. Especially when they're insistent on not establishing characterizations for anyone in Yakyakistan outside of Prince Rutherford. Gummy was practically this episode's co-star... and his gimmick is to stare aimlessly at nothing.

Yeah, I have to agree.

Spoiler

Speaking of, it's high time we get another episode with Cheese Sandwhich. Supposedly Weird Al is totally cool with coming back to the show, so it's probably one of those things where it's really up to Hasbro and co. to decide that.

Hopefully today's Equestria Girls installment is translated in short order as I have little doubt it'll wind up as the superior effort.

Agreed. I'm looking forward to it, though admittedly it's next week's EQG short that I'm really pumped about seeing.

 

[Trigonometrize.]

Why do you think that? I think she was fine.

Spoiler

Besides, I also think that it's not really possible to objectively assert that Celestia is "out of character" in anything, simply because until now she's barely had a character at all. This episode and Celestial Advice are basically the writers' first efforts at building a stronger characterisation.

Spoiler

Well, first off, I disagree with the fact that Celestia hasn't had any character at all. Sure, she's not been subject to much inter-personal conflict, but we still know her as the level-headed mom that is really good at keeping a balance between having a little fun with ponies, letting her students figure things out for themselves, and giving them a solid talking-to.

I wasn't trying to "objectively assert" anything. The reason she felt off to me in this episode was how quickly it descended into a petty squabble. In private, it might've worked, but I cannot believe that in front of Starlight, one of her subjects and pseudo-students, it could've revealed itself as quickly as it did. It would've been a bit more interesting if Celestia tried to keep with her princess-like demeanor until something Luna did made her snap.

 

[DemWalls]

Spoiler

Well, first off, I disagree with the fact that Celestia hasn't had any character at all. Sure, she's not been subject to much inter-personal conflict, but we still know her as the level-headed mom that is really good at keeping a balance between having a little fun with ponies, letting her students figure things out for themselves, and giving them a solid talking-to.

I wasn't trying to "objectively assert" anything. The reason she felt off to me in this episode was how quickly it descended into a petty squabble. In private, it might've worked, but I cannot believe that in front of Starlight, one of her subjects and pseudo-students, it could've revealed itself as quickly as it did. It would've been a bit more interesting if Celestia tried to keep with her princess-like demeanor until something Luna did made her snap.

I appreciate the response.

And, just to be clear, I wasn't referring to you specifically when talking about objectivity, just speaking generally. When discussing, well, almost anything about Celestia, there definitely is a strong aspect of subjectivity, given how little she's been defined beyond a rather unoriginal archetype.

Spoiler

In other words: headcanon.

 

[Chained Prometheus]

So the subbed version of the second EQG shorts, Movie Magic, is online now. Gonna need to watch it a few more times to get a solid feel on my thoughts towards the short, but it definitely solidifies my suspicions that Hasbro are testing ground for an EQG spinoff show.

Spoiler

What fascinates me is that the events of Legend of Everfree seem to be acting as a central crux for the EQG cast moving forward. Not only are the HuMane 7's magic abilities they got from the Everfree crystals in LoE present and play a role, but their actions in the previous film to help raise money to save the camp acts as the "why" and "how the girls all get invited to see the Behind-the-Scenes process of the new Daring Do movie (the director of the film went to Everfree when he was young and is rewarding the girls for saving the camp).

Between these elements of the Movie Magic short and the other references to Camp Everfree in Dance Magic (namely that the girls were continuing to try and raise even more money to help fund the camp), I think it's clear that Camp Everfree is going to be important to the series moving forward. Moreover, seeing as how we know Juniper Montage will be the antagonist of the next short, I think it's a safe bet that she'll be an important character in the franchise moving forward.

Tragically, I think this and that leaked music video also means that Timber Spruce's relationship with SciTwi is probably going to continue being a thing if a series does come to pass.

 

[Ogodei]

I was surprised because I didn't recall anyone liking it enough to rank it among the best of the series. And during the season 6 episode guide voting, out of the four people who bothered to vote, only one recommended it. While I liked the episode well enough, I mainly just recall "I Can Do It On My Own" being a weak song, and of course Assertiveshy. But I haven't gotten around to rewatching it, so maybe my impression of it will improve after that.

Actually, checking the thread reactions now (starting here; I put these links in the OP for a reason!), you specifically say you weren't following along with the season as it aired, so that explains things.

And yeah, Assertive Fluttershy was great in that episode. It's pretty amazing that they've actually been consistent about that, after the jokes about Fluttershy learning the same thing over and over. In actuality, for the most part, they had been good about carrying over her developments from one focus episode to the next. And at the same time, it doesn't feel like the core of her character has changed. Rainbow reacting to getting hit on was great too.

Well, another way to interpret it is that everyone else is just getting better while Derpy plateaus, and that isn't as bad. This comic, Too Good Memory, also has a plausible out for fans.

Pinkie Pie Says Goodnight: Sweet Dreams - Includes a message for all those fan content creators working hard to keep up with the two episode a week pace.
Parental Glideance CENSORED - This is the worst one so far, but I've been linking all the other ones.

By the way, looking at the fan art for this episode, I'll definitely have to revise my theory about the lack of fan art. It's not that there is overall less art, it's that if one episode in a weekend gets more fan attention than the other, the less significant episode gets much less art than it probably would have if it aired by itself. That's how "Forever Filly" has less art than it probably would if it aired by itself, while "Parental Glideance has a shitton. And that also accounts for "Fluttershy Leans In", because it aired the same weekend as "Rock Solid Friendship".

Re: Guide Voting, i used to watch a lot of reruns of this back when i lived with my parents and they had Discovery Family, now neither of those is the case (moved out, obvs, but they got a lower-tier satellite package and don't get the channel anymore even when i visit), so i don't really feel qualified to vote on all the episodes based off of a first impression instead of seeing them all two or more times to get a sense of what works.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Re: Guide Voting, i used to watch a lot of reruns of this back when i lived with my parents and they had Discovery Family, now neither of those is the case (moved out, obvs, but they got a lower-tier satellite package and don't get the channel anymore even when i visit), so i don't really feel qualified to vote on all the episodes based off of a first impression instead of seeing them all two or more times to get a sense of what works.

You are certainly more than qualified for voting! First impressions are just fine to use as a basis for it; when I first held voting, I doubt anyone had actually rewatched the episodes. I mean, I still haven't rewatched season 6.

Though I am still a bit annoyed that we never got around to making the season 6 episode guide, I understand that not enough people were caught up with the series by that point, and DrForester just doesn't like the idea of the guide. It would be a shame if others didn't vote because they didn't feel they were qualified enough.

Maybe we can try the season 6 guide again when Canada runs out of episodes and most of the thread is left waiting ~2 months for the final episodes to air. I also need to get around to adding Starlight to the character guide.

 

[Rhomega Beta]

Parental Glidance: Wow, an episode that talks about the negative consequences of participation trophies from the child's perspective. But then how did she become so cocky in the first place? I'm glad this isn't just an Amazingly Embarrassing Parents episode.

 

[UberTag]

Movie Magic

Spoiler

I wasn't especially thrilled by this EQG short. Came off as a poor man's Scooby Doo ripoff and boasted some pacing issues to go along with it as the plot moved forward at a breakneck pace without allowing for much of anything to breathe or settle. I did appreciate the added fanservice of seeing the girls don the Power Ponies garb from Season 4.

Seeing how she's the core antagonist for the big Shimmer-Glimmer duo episode, Juniper Montage sure didn't make much in the way of a lasting impression.

This was a pretty big step down from last week.

 

[Chained Prometheus]

Movie Magic

Spoiler

I wasn't especially thrilled by this EQG short. Came off as a poor man's Scooby Doo ripoff and boasted some pacing issues to go along with it as the plot moved forward at a breakneck pace without allowing for much of anything to breathe or settle. I did appreciate the added fanservice of seeing the girls don the Power Ponies garb from Season 4.

Seeing how she's the core antagonist for the big Shimmer-Glimmer duo episode, Juniper Montage sure didn't make much in the way of a lasting impression.

This was a pretty big step down from last week.

Spoiler

I definitely agree about this being a notable step down from Dance Magic and it feeling like a "Poor Man's Scooby Doo" episode.

Honestly, I think it says a lot that the biggest take away I got from the short was how it handles the pre-existing canon of the franchise and seems to give a hint of where things might go as a potential spinoff show, rather than there being much of anything memorable about the episode itself.

 

[ShinySylvee]

You share a lot of the same opinions as me, particularly with the humor. I didn't find the parent scenes cringe-worthy, and that's likely exactly for the reasons you mentioned: the Wonderbolts were completely understanding and didn't mock Rainbow at all. And though I liked the episode just fine, yeah, I'm not as amazed by the episode as some others appear to be.


I wonder, if the show transitions out of using Flash to instead use ToonBoom Harmony like the movie, would it be easier to make subtle character design changes over time?


And ShinySylvee, I appreciate your long posts. It would be interesting to see videos from you, though I worry it will be lost in all the other analysis videos. Not quoting due to the spoilers.

Honestly although the cringe was handled fairly well I feel like it still made me feel uneasy through most the episode which I think prevented me from really getting into it.

I doubt they would change tools for the show this far into things. If Dance Magic was any indication they're still totally capable of making things look incredible in flash, and flash was a conscious decision over Toon Boom to begin with. Also I'm not SUPER familiar with the inner workings of both tools but I do know that Flash is generally a lot faster when it comes to being able to make presentable looking things. (At the expense of a couple things. The biggest observable one is how the characters move. Just look at any EQG run cycle and you'll see what I mean) I could be wrong in how this stuff works but my limited understanding of the programs would make me feel like Flash would be easier to make slight model changes to compared to Toon Boom.


If I do end up doing videos it won't be traditional episode review fare. For example one of the earliest ideas I had was discussing Suicide Squad and focusing on some of the major issues I felt it had (largely due to the characters just not being interesting and why I felt that was) and comparing it to the MLP two-parter To Where and Back Again as a good example of the concept of a ragtag group of unlikely heroes being forced to work together to achieve something. I definitely know that the current MLP analyst community is massively overcrowded right now (just look at any of EQD's "a bunch of people in the fandom review" posts) so if I do end up doing anything, it's not going to be the same kind of content that you can get from 20 other people. It wouldn't just be video versions of the episode posts I do here, and those wouldn't be ending either.

Spoiler

I absolutely loved Twilight in this episode. Starlight made some risky moves, and we all know that Twi can't see straight where Celestia is concerned. She may not have acted smartly, but she felt entirely in-character to me.

Spoiler

Yeah I definitely understand both sides here. As someone that's rooting for Twilight and hoping that she can play a more active and useful role in Starlight's teaching it's hard to see her being shown like how she was in this episode. Starlight wasn't even worried about the mission before Twilight started freaking her out and by the climax she's freaking out saying that she shouldn't trust her gut again. In character or not that doesn't really sit right with me, although I can understand why some people wouldn't care that much about it or even notice that.

Spoiler

Tragically, I think this and that leaked music video also means that Timber Spruce's relationship with SciTwi is probably going to continue being a thing if a series does come to pass.

Spoiler

Am I the only person on the planet that actually liked Timber? I thought he was pretty good but everywhere I read people act like he's worse then the Bradinator.

You are certainly more than qualified for voting! First impressions are just fine to use as a basis for it; when I first held voting, I doubt anyone had actually rewatched the episodes. I mean, I still haven't rewatched season 6.

Haha, yep. No one rewatches episodes that soon. DEFINITELY not me, that's for sure. (Totally not nervously laughing)

Movie Magic

Spoiler

I wasn't especially thrilled by this EQG short. Came off as a poor man's Scooby Doo ripoff and boasted some pacing issues to go along with it as the plot moved forward at a breakneck pace without allowing for much of anything to breathe or settle. I did appreciate the added fanservice of seeing the girls don the Power Ponies garb from Season 4.

Seeing how she's the core antagonist for the big Shimmer-Glimmer duo episode, Juniper Montage sure didn't make much in the way of a lasting impression.

This was a pretty big step down from last week.

Could probably just copy paste this as my analysis for this episode as it features most of the major things I have with the episode. I'll go into more detail in my post for the episode later but for now I'll just say that this is pretty much right on the money for me.


And thanks for the support everyone. Probably not going to do an in-depth post on Not Asking For Trouble today since I didn't find it super interesting (and I actually haven't finished watching it at this point) but I should be starting on Movie Magic soon so it'll be finished some time this year. And there has been a TON of fan art for Royal Problems already made. Here's one of my favorites so far (Spoilers obviously so I'll just do a link since I don't know how to spoiler pictures):

link

 

[Chained Prometheus]

Spoiler

Am I the only person on the planet that actually liked Timber? I thought he was pretty good but everywhere I read people act like he's worse then the Bradinator.

Ehhhh, I don't necessarily hate Timber himself. I think a bit more effort was put into creating his character than there had been for Flash in the first EQG film. The problem is that both are guys that are so blatantly created for the sole purpose of being there as Twilight's love interest- be it Princess Twilight or SciTwi.

No matter how much Legend of Everfree tried to give some sort of semblance of chemistry between him and SciTwi, I just found it offputting because it was obvious his primary role was to be there as her love interest, even if the film tries to do some distracting via the plot segment of him trying to cover up for Gloriosa's inability to control the magic she was exposed to. Not to mention, a lot of people have figured there's a notable age gap between him and Twilight, seeing as how she's a high school student and he's old enough to be in charge of a camp with his sister. Might not be a huge gap, but it just feels like the wrong route and place to go with at this point in time for Twilight.

Granted, I fully recognize that I have my own biases too: I just flatout think no matter how many times Hasbro tries to come up with the "Perfect Dream Guy" for Twilight, they're never gonna come up with a better love interest for her than Sunset Shimmer.

Which is probably because Sunset wasn't created from the start to only ever be Twilight's love interest and instead is a character who has developed as her own person over the course of the series while also getting to know both Princess Twilight and SciTwi overtime.

Just my thoughts on the matter, obviously your mileage may vary!! ^_^

 

[SigmasonicX]

All this spoiler block only quoting is getting confusing with both "A Royal Problem" and "Movie Magic" discussion going on, since I'm looking at comments for the latter and not the former. Remember to label what you're talking about.

EDIT: Now that that's been cleared up, I think you're safe talking about Timber Spruce and Twilight's love interests outside spoiler blocks. I'll agree that while Timber is better than Brad, it's true that Sunset still has better romantic chemistry with SciTwi despite that probably not being the intention. Not as keen on Sunset and normal Twi though.

And there has been a TON of fan art for Royal Problems already made. Here's one of my favorites so far (Spoilers obviously so I'll just do a link since I don't know how to spoiler pictures):

Just as well, since you can't actually hide pictures behind spoilers on mobile.
Also, as a future heads up, if you guys include links to fan art, I'll probably include them in follow ups anyway.

 

[ShinySylvee]

Ehhhh, I don't necessarily hate Timber himself. I think a bit more effort was put into creating his character than there had been for Flash in the first EQG film. The problem is that both are guys that are so blatantly created for the sole purpose of being there as Twilight's love interest- be it Princess Twilight or SciTwi.

No matter how much Legend of Everfree tried to give some sort of semblance of chemistry between him and SciTwi, I just found it offputting because it was obvious his primary role was to be there as her love interest, even if the film tries to do some distracting via the plot segment of him trying to cover up for Gloriosa's inability to control the magic she was exposed to. Not to mention, a lot of people have figured there's a notable age gap between him and Twilight, seeing as how she's a high school student and he's old enough to be in charge of a camp with his sister. Might not be a huge gap, but it just feels like the wrong route and place to go with at this point in time for Twilight.

Granted, I fully recognize that I have my own biases too: I just flatout think no matter how many times Hasbro tries to come up with the "Perfect Dream Guy" for Twilight, they're never gonna come up with a better love interest for her than Sunset Shimmer.

Which is probably because Sunset wasn't created from the start to only ever be Twilight's love interest and instead is a character who has developed over the course of the series while also getting to know both Princess Twilight and SciTwi overtime.

Just my thoughts on the matter, obviously your mileage may vary!! ^_^

I can see that, I guess I just find it easier for me to look past transparent attempts to crowbar in love interests and looked at him more as an actual character. I felt like he was pretty interesting and I actually felt that him and SciTwi had pretty good chemistry. I understand his whole point of existing but I guess it didn't bother me as much as it does some people.

 

[Chained Prometheus]

Now that that's been cleared up, I think you're safe talking about Timber Spruce and Twilight's love interests outside spoiler blocks. I'll agree that while Timber is better than Brad, it's true that Sunset still has better romantic chemistry with SciTwi despite that probably not being the intention. Not as keen on Sunset and normal Twi though.

Yeah, it's kinda crazy just how much romantic chemistry Sunset and SciTwi share with one another. And tbh, I'm still not sure if that's unintentional or not. Like, as far as I can remember, the sort of expressions and animations that we see between SciTwi and Timber (i.e. blushing, flirty looks) are also present between her and Sunset.

At this point, I'm going to wager we'll still hear about Timber from time-to-time in the franchise and I'm skeptical that the series will ever fully commit to the idea of SciTwi and Sunset hooking up, but I could see Twilight possibly breaking up with Timber somewhere down the line if EQG does become a show for the long term and Hasbro ultimately leaving things up for fans' interpretation as to what happens in her love life post-show.

Hell, tbh, I do think SciTwi and Timber breaking up would be a good way to develop Timber as his own person (not to mention develop SciTwi herself a bit). Having Flash undergo the whole arc of "coming to terms that SciTwi isn't the Twilight he had a crush on and that he needs to let that crush go and move on" was a pretty decent call for his character. It doesn't do too much for him, since we still barely know him all that well, but it at least makes him sympathetic and show signs of some form of emotional maturation.

I can see that, I guess I just find it easier for me to look past transparent attempts to crowbar in love interests and looked at him more as an actual character. I felt like he was pretty interesting and I actually felt that him and SciTwi had pretty good chemistry. I understand his whole point of existing but I guess it didn't bother me as much as it does some people.

Fair enough!

 

[ShinySylvee]

As I said before, I'm not going to be doing this kind of post for Not Asking for Trouble. Given how much I wrote yesterday I kinda wanted to take things slightly slower today so I'm only going to be doing a post for one episode, and I think anyone that has seen Not Asking for Trouble can understand why I'm not picking it. Without further ado:

So this episode was written by Noelle Benvenuti, who has previously written Maud Pie and Made and Manehattan, as well as co-directing the first Equestria Girls movie. Frankly there's not a whole lot of history with her at all, as she's only done one episode for the handful of other shows she's written for. It's worth mentioning that if they do choose to create a full spin-off for EQG they are going to need to look for new writers so they can still have enough people to do the mainline series as well. Her efforts here are honestly pretty forgettable. Unfortunately this episode has the unfortunate case of being the red-headed stepchild of the 3 EQG specials as it's nowhere near as excellent as Dance Magic and doesn't have anywhere near as interesting of a premise as Mirror Magic. Frankly I think a lot of people have already moved on from this episode in preparation for the episode that's dropping next week as it's not super interesting in general and at times feels like it's just setting the table for the next episode.

One thing that I will say is that this episode once again looks damn good. All of the movie sets are entirely new assets and there are a lot of scenes that look great. Once again they really stepped up their game for the episode and it looks fantastic, even if some of the other stuff might be fairly mundane.

Spoiler

The big thing in this episode is establishing the villain for the next episode, Juniper Montage. And to be frank I can't help but feel like she's going to end up being Starlight lite. Her basic character arc is setting up to be the exact same: She's introduced in an episode where she is already in the process of doing something bad so the main characters intervene. She gets mad at them for stopping their ploy and vows revenge. Then presumably she is given the power to fully enact her revenge only to realize that her scheme is a lot more damaging then she first thought and steps down and accepts the good guys friendship. This is even further hinted at by the fact that Starlight herself is going to be part of her reformation. And unfortunately she's just not as interesting a character as Starlight so the comparisons are extremely unflattering. As the bad guy here she comes off as extremely unimpressive as she's forced to stay in the shadows the whole time and once she actually comes out she somehow has an even pettier reason for justifying what she had done then Starlight. She was mad because the actress playing Daring Do ate candy bars that she liked and because she thought that she should have played Daring Do? This revelation that she thought she should have been Daring Do just seems utterly insane. She just thinks that she should get the lead role for this massive blockbuster movie because she's the niece of the director, likes Daring Do, and asked a bunch of times?

I think I'll indulge in some fantasy booking here to try and see if I could come up with something better. Juniper Montage (in addition to being an assistant for the director and still the same age) should have been a budding actress that could have actually done the role and was hoping that the lead in the Daring Do movie could jump-start her career (especially because she loves Daring Do so much) and was hoping that her relationship and closeness with her Uncle could land her the role. The actress that they picked for the movie was largely picked because she's a famous A-list actress and actively caused problems with the movie production due to being difficult to work with or being not skilled enough. From Juniper's perspective she would have been a vastly superior alternative to the actress they got and so she decides to frame the lead actress for trying to sabotage the production of the event, which would make sense because it was a little-known secret that she hated the role. In that scenario, Juniper could have been able to show off her acting skills to give another dimension to her character and would have at least had a motive that felt remotely within the realm of the sensible.

Back to what actually happened, it definitely felt like a Scooby-Doo deal to me. Complete with the silly chase scenes and the dramatic reveal where the brainy character recounts the events in the episode explaining the villain's moves step-by-step. Unfortunately, even if you didn't know that Juniper is appearing the next episode as the big bad villain and that she's almost certainly the bad guy in this one too it's still extremely obvious as to who the real culprit is. The usage of powers in this episode just feels weird. Despite Rainbow being able to run at extreme speeds she can't catch up to a person running normally. And for some reason Rainbow and Twilight have their necklaces but no one else does? I can understand Rainbow but why is Twilight now the person that's so eager to have the magical powers stuff compared to everyone else? She was previously freaking out about them and now she's the one that likes them the most with Rainbow? They felt like plot devices and weren't integrated into the plot remotely well.

Also it's nice to see the power ponies stuff too (spike in the Humdrum outfit was adorable) but holy shit that was a contrived way of introducing them. They serve no function to the plot and could easily have been written out. I'm not saying that they shouldn't have existed but at least make the reasoning remotely believable.

As for the characters all of them are pretty forgettable. I feel like SciTwi was probably the best given that she was largely the one leading the investigation and had the big reveal of who did it but other then that there wasn't too many stand-out lines and for the most part everything was just par for the course for how you expect the characters to act. There's some good lines here and there but nothing exceptional. One thing that I will say is that I'm skeptical as to whether or not Sunset can remain an interesting character when she's not the center of attention like she was in the movies. So far in the two episodes her whole character has extended to being the responsible one one and hasn't really had anything interesting to do since she doesn't have any interests or distinguishing characteristics to make her stand out. I've always had this feeling that Sunset's appeal largely came from her competence and her redemption arc and it's yet to be seen as to whether or not she can still be a strong character even when being relegated to a supporting role.

Overall it's not the worst thing but I'm struggling to remember a lot of stuff that happened in it even though I've watched it twice. Overall it's not the best effort and I think it's a lot of missed potential. Even then I still had some fun with it and I feel the episode is totally worth watching from visuals alone. Here's to hoping that Mirror Magic can help make Juniper an interesting character.

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

Maybe I'm just not allowed to like things anymore. I found Parental Glideance really, really obnoxious. The best parts were Scootaloo, but the focus was never really on her. She instigated cringe and now I just kind of blame her for all of this.

RBDs parents fucking sucked, and nothing of value was learned.

 

[DrForester]

Maybe I'm just not allowed to like things anymore. I found Parental Glideance really, really obnoxious. The best parts were Scootaloo, but the focus was never really on her. She instigated cringe and now I just kind of blame her for all of this.

RBDs parents fucking sucked, and nothing of value was learned.

I can't possibly imagine what having an unpopular opinion is like...

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

I can't possibly imagine what having an unpopular opinion is like...

I just doubledown on thinking how right I am and sleep easy.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Big post on "Movie Magic"

I'll address one point you made, regarding your skepticism about Sunset remaining an interesting character when the focus isn't on her. I mention in my reviews of the movies that it's hard to pin down Sunset's character outside of her hardships, and it seemed like they were flailing in odd directions at times. The shorts leading into Friendship Games gave Sunset mad scientist characteristics that came out of nowhere and didn't seem fitting (other than the fact that Twilight also acts like that at times), and Legend of Everfree having her react with a martial arts pose when she's startled awake are instances that come to mind. Even in fan content, I don't feel like much has been settled about her personality other than being in love with one or more Twilights, though I admit I haven't exactly sought out Sunset fanworks. It was up to these specials to show what Sunset actually looks like as a supporting character, and it sounds like they didn't actually do much with her.

Anyway, "Parental Glideance" follow up post.

More "Forever Filly" art has certainly come out, including from the artists I mentioned were missing last time, but I maintain that it feels like there's less than there usually would be. And like I mentioned, there's a ton of "Parental Glideance" art.

From the comments above, I expect that there's going to be a ton of "A Royal Problem" art, and basically nothing for "Not Asking For Trouble", haha.

LAST EPISODE
Look Forward Not Back
Rarity and little sister
Little knight

Ice Cream Sisters
Lamby Lambs - Sweetie is talking with Dipper from Gravity Falls, who had to wear an embarrassing lamb costume at one point.
Zippoorwhill
Who's a Good Boy

Sassy's Morning Sunshine Tulip Frock
Sweet Filly Times
Best Sisters

Comics
Photoshoot - A much lighter ending than usual for these DoubleWBrothers comics.
After the Episode 3 - As in the third in this comic series. It ties into "Forever Filly".
Turning Point - I found this one really funny. In fact, I think I'll break my convention and embed it.

NOTES
I completely forgot to bring this up during my episode review. Did anyone else think it was odd how they spent so much time recapping Lightning Dust and Wind Rider? I expected them to play some kind of role in the story, but then nothing. It was a fun scene, though.

It's interesting that Windy Whistles collects Celestia merchandise. Actually, kind of surprised we haven't seen more ponies do that kind of thing. Also, Bow Hothoof's shirt is actually Dougworld Rainbow Dash's shirt. It's incredible the amount of detail they put into the house, given that it very likely won't appear again anytime soon and wasn't in the episode for all that long.

I wonder if Fluttershy and Rainbow's parents know each other. Rainbow seems to like the Shys, and I wonder if that's because they actually do act a lot like her own parents, with the major exception of not being smothering.

SCREENSHOTS
You know what, there's a ton to look at in this episode, and someone already made a post with screenshots on another board, so because *effort*, go here instead. Notable things are:
* Lots of finger feathers.
* Nice kitchen.
* Cloud ceilings.
* Baby pictures show Rainbow being held down by a harness and Windy Whistles getting tangled up in her leash. Also, Windy used to have longer hair.
* Rainbow Dash's room has a Rainbow Dash rug, figurines, and more.
* Vapor Trail and Sky Stinger cameo.

In addition,
Like mother like daughter (embedded)
Edited wing middle finger

GIFS
Scootaloo soaring through the air
Head in the clouds
Scootaloo excited at meeting Rainbow Dad
Spinning Scootaloo
Scootaloo making a cloud angel
Tail wagging (embedded)
Scootaloo trotting in place
Edit: Scootaloo goes to Second Banana Heaven
Super excited Scootaloo (embedded)
Parents reacting to Wonderbolts news
Rainbow escaping a hug
Wing waving
Getting popcorn
Rainbow Parents hooting
Rainbow Parents scaring the crowd
Facewing
Smirking Fleetfoot
Yelling Rainbow
Rainbow wing fingers
Crying parents
Crying Scootaloo
Family hug

FAN CONTENT
Equestria Daily always missed good fan art in their Drawfriends, which is why I started looking on Derpibooru for these in the first place. With all these episodes, ED is clearly getting even worse about this, and Derpibooru doesn't have the fine sizing controls their images have, so don't expect too many images of the same height.

An unexpected observation is that a large amount of this art was made a week ago. Not two weeks ago, a week. Was there a lack of interest in the previous week's Canadian episodes that could have led to people making art for this episode instead? I note when each piece of art was made; ones with no note were released recently.

Supportive Family
Fly Baby Fly (Last Exit to Cloudsdale)
The Scoota Fam Photo
Angry Fillies

Scootalove Double Team - Made a week ago.
Happy Mother's Day - Made a week ago. Not to be confused with the below.
ScootaDash sticker 5 - Made a week ago.
Family Photo - Made a week ago.

Windy Swim - made a week ago. A reference to Windy talking about her swimming goggles.
Rainbow Dash's Mom - Made a week ago.
Rainbow Dash's Mom, Windy Whistles - Made two weeks ago.
GO RAINBOW! - Made two weeks ago.

First 1st Place - Made a week ago.
Rainbow Family - Made two weeks ago.
You are the best, honey! - Made two weeks ago.
Daapi - Made two weeks ago

Supporting Family - Made two weeks ago.
She was going to be somepony - Made two weeks ago.
TFW Scootaloo's the best - Made two weeks ago.
The best idea Scootaloo ever had - Breaking pattern, this is new.

Flight Camp Buddies - This is Windy and Mrs. Shy, since I didn't recognize the latter.
Best Chicken Ever
Rainbow Spotlighting
Windy Whistles - Text says "You know, genetically, I'm 80% Rainbow Dash... <3", which doesn't make sense even as a reference to "20% Cooler".
Uninvited Guests - Note Shining Armor in the background.

Comics
Seriously, Stop That
Fangirl

And lastly, there's a GIF I've been waffling on how to handle. On one hand, it's well animated and funny. On the other hand, it's suggestive, because of course that's what all that effort would go into, so I wasn't sure if I should even link it. The GIF involves Rainbow thrusting out her ass, which creates a "dat ass" shockwave that blows away her parents, leaving Scootaloo with hearts in her eyes. Ultimately, it's below the level of that Sym-Bionic Titan dance gif that people embed all the time, but I'll just link the Derpibooru page.

 

[PaulloDEC]

Seems like we're getting something movie related tomorrow:

Might be a clip or a trailer, or alternately maybe just a poster or some artwork.

 

[DemWalls]

Seems like we're getting something movie related tomorrow:

Might be a clip or a trailer, or alternately maybe just a poster or some artwork.

That tomorrow is actually today

We'll see. It's about time they begin showing more.

 

[PaulloDEC]

That tomorrow is actually today

We'll see. It's about time they begin showing more.

Unless it happens in the next four and a bit hours it'll still be my tomorrow

EQD are reporting that the folks who know when movie trailers are coming out haven't heard anything, so something smaller might be more likely this time. It definitely seems like late enough in the game for the marketing to start ramping up though.

 

[UberTag]

Everything about this is hysterical. From Chip's makeover of Boulder to Maud's comeback threat delivered in her trademark deadpan style to the facial reactions of both Starlight and Chip.
This artist ought to send their resume in to IDW Publishing. They've clearly got the chops to do this professionally.

 

[SigmasonicX]

The official website for the movie is up, and there's nothing we haven't seen yet. Perhaps that's it.

But if a trailer does come out, then anyone who's available can go ahead and make a thread, perhaps using the OP of this thread and this post from the previous OT as a basis.

Everything about this is hysterical. From Chip's makeover of Boulder to Maud's comeback threat delivered in her trademark deadpan style to the facial reactions of both Starlight and Chip.
This artist ought to send their resume in to IDW Publishing. They've clearly got the chops to do this professionally.

That artist makes some funny comics, but I really don't think he has the skills to be a pro yet, especially for a long form comic.

 

[Rhomega Beta]

Hard To Say Anything:

Spoiler

It's nice to see Big Mac get some character development and see his life go somewhere. Also more talking is nice too. At this point, I'd like to see a "love competition" story where the girl picks the hero by default because the antagonist is too over the top.

Honest Apple:

Spoiler

You know, if you're going to get someone has a fashion judge, maybe you should show them some prior work and have them judge that. We Could Have Avoided All This.

Not Asking For Trouble

Spoiler

I like this idea for Pinkie: a pony who loves to party gets to be an ambassador and participate in a local holiday. I know yaks are stubborn and all, but I was expecting more of an uprising by the other yaks upset by their condition.

 

[ShinySylvee]

There was some more shown off for the movie besides the official website today. They made this cool 360 picture thing that you can make work with stereoscopic 3D. I have no idea how to link the embeded video that shows it off, so I'll link a page instead that has the video on it: (Has sound/music)

For those that just want a clean picture, here's a full version:

source

Probably the closest we've gotten to actually seeing the art style for the movie. I really like it, basically looks like the show but with more detail which is all I was really hoping for. I love all the small details of what each of the characters are doing too, with Rainbow racing the dolphin and rarity relaxing like she's at a spa.

EDIT: they just showed off a bunch of official vectors for the show. I don't have time to resize and link them individually as I need to head off to work now but you can find them all here. It looks like the shading is definitely something that they are really focusing on in the movie, and I don't think it looks amazing in these still shots especially since the models in the show don't have shading at all. I'll wait until I can see full videos of the models in motion before deciding whether I like the shading or not.

 

[SigmasonicX]

I'll take a look at the links later, but that picture is nice. I especially like Fluttershy with those fish. Is Applejack trying to round up baby seaponies? Merchandise for the movie typically has paired up Princess Skystar and Twilight, but perhaps she actually connects more with Pinkie in the movie proper like in that picture.

Promotion has focused mainly on the seaponies, despite the fact that we know there's a hippogriff toy. I wonder if the hippogriffs won't actually appear in the movie, and this decision was made late enough for toys to still be made.

EDIT: OK, looked at the Entertainment Weekly page, and the 360 image is interesting. The music could be a small segment from the movie, but I suspect that it's not.

One bit buried in the article is this quote about Skystar:
”I'm so happy I got to create a new character," Chenoweth tells PEOPLE. ”Let's just say she's been locked up for a while and is longing for friends. Princess Skystar has beautiful hair, so I made sure my hair was on point for every recording session!"

So Skystar is the locked up princess sort.

 

[ShinySylvee]

So I'm a bit confused. Is the thread being made for the trailer going to just be for trailer discussion or will it be the main thread for any discussion of the movie? The thread title here indicates that it will be for movie discussion as well but given that the movie might attract interest in more then just people that watch the show I feel like it might make more sense (provided there's enough people to support it) for the trailer thread to just be the main thread for news and discussion of the movie as it comes closer to it coming out since I feel like people that are interested in the movie but don't follow the show wouldn't want to have to sift through all of the show-related posts to find the stuff they care about. If we do go that way would posting about the movie in this thread be off-limits? I don't have too many stakes in this but I do think that getting things ironed out now would be beneficial for everyone. (And if they already have been ironed out then this paragraph is awkward but in that case I'd like to see the guidelines instead)

Also a lot of people are expecting the trailer to be released alongside the theatrical release of Cars 3 since it's the next big animated movie to be released and these sort of trailers usually are put out to coincide with big movies that they are going to be used for promotion in the previews. Cars 3 comes out June 16th so expect a trailer to be dropping sometime around then unless something unexpected happens.

I'll address one point you made, regarding your skepticism about Sunset remaining an interesting character when the focus isn't on her. I mention in my reviews of the movies that it's hard to pin down Sunset's character outside of her hardships, and it seemed like they were flailing in odd directions at times. The shorts leading into Friendship Games gave Sunset mad scientist characteristics that came out of nowhere and didn't seem fitting (other than the fact that Twilight also acts like that at times), and Legend of Everfree having her react with a martial arts pose when she's startled awake are instances that come to mind. Even in fan content, I don't feel like much has been settled about her personality other than being in love with one or more Twilights, though I admit I haven't exactly sought out Sunset fanworks. It was up to these specials to show what Sunset actually looks like as a supporting character, and it sounds like they didn't actually do much with her.


An unexpected observation is that a large amount of this art was made a week ago. Not two weeks ago, a week. Was there a lack of interest in the previous week's Canadian episodes that could have led to people making art for this episode instead? I note when each piece of art was made; ones with no note were released recently.

Like I said before no one looked good in Movie Magic (besides arguably SciTwi) but in Dance Magic I felt like most the other characters at least had some memorable moments and Sunset didn't really have much going for her. Her biggest trait in both episodes was that she was the responsible one but that single trait isn't going to be enough to make her interesting. The weird part is that I feel like she has a lot of unique things about her (what with being from Equestria and all the stuff related to her previous life) but EQG so far seems to be doing its best to completely avoid mentioning those things, as well as her history as a villain besides the fact that it happened. I get that part of Sunset's problem is that her reign as a villain was extremely awful as she was pretty irredeemably horrible as a person to the point where hero Sunset is almost an entirely different character but given that they're starting from scratch it would help if they gave her more of a personality. They have an opportunity in Mirror Magic as it will be almost entirely focused on her and Starlight. Hopefully they can add another dimension to her character there.

Also Episodes 8 and 9 especially were fairly unremarkable. There's a couple fun things in 8 but 9 is definitely going to be hard to find good stuff for it. On the bright side you definitely won't have any issues with episode 10.

Lastly here's those vectors I was talking about (The versions I'm linking are a bit on the large side since I'm lazy and don't want to resize all of them when they're just a little bit too big. If it's a serious issue I'll edit them all):

You can find higher rez versions for Fluttershy AJ Pinkie Rainbow Twilight and Rarity

 

[SigmasonicX]

So I'm a bit confused. Is the thread being made for the trailer going to just be for trailer discussion or will it be the main thread for any discussion of the movie? The thread title here indicates that it will be for movie discussion as well but given that the movie might attract interest in more then just people that watch the show I feel like it might make more sense (provided there's enough people to support it) for the trailer thread to just be the main thread for news and discussion of the movie as it comes closer to it coming out since I feel like people that are interested in the movie but don't follow the show wouldn't want to have to sift through all of the show-related posts to find the stuff they care about. If we do go that way would posting about the movie in this thread be off-limits? I don't have too many stakes in this but I do think that getting things ironed out now would be beneficial for everyone. (And if they already have been ironed out then this paragraph is awkward but in that case I'd like to see the guidelines instead)

My assumption is that regular GAFers won't post in an actual OT for the movie, but they will pay some attention to a trailer thread, including people who used to watch the show but lost track of it. This is based on how more people seem to show up to talk in "regular" threads about the show that pop up sometimes instead of OTs. After initial trailer reactions, movie info should continue to be discussed in this thread, especially if the trailer thread doesn't stir up much interest.

I made this both the season 7 and Movie OT based on the fact that the movie likely isn't coming out until after season 7 finishes, but there is also comic and season 8 preview discussion that's likely to continue in the season 7 OT, so it didn't feel right to have two MLP OTs ongoing. Writing it out now, this decision is clearly based on the assumption that the rest of GAF wouldn't like that, which probably isn't the best way to go about this. So perhaps if the trailer thread does get a lot of activity, that can turn into a movie discussion thread later.

EDIT: HasCon tickets are up, and here's an interesting thing that comes with the VIP tickets:
Three MAGIC: THE GATHERING cards made especially for HASCON featuring a mashup of MAGIC: THE GATHERING and three awesome HASBRO brands!

Looking forward to my book horse card.
EDIT:

Assuming they are going to be semi-reasonable with the cards, despite being silver-bordered.

Princess Twilight Sparkle - 2URW
Legendary Creature - Pegasus Unicorn
Flying
When Princess Twilight Sparkle enters the battlefield, you may discard any number of cards. If you do, draw that many cards.
Whenever you draw one or more cards, Twilight deals that much damage to up to one target creature.
URW: Exile Twilight, then return it to the battlefield under its owner's control.
2/2

Optimus Prime, Autobot Leader - 3WWW
Legendary Artifact Creature - Construct
First strike, prowess, vigilance
Other Constructs you control get +1/+1 and indestructible.
R: Transform Optimus Prime, Autobot Leader.
6/6
==
Optimus Prime, Super Truck
Legendary Artifact Creature - Vehicle Construct
Haste, first strike
Other Vehicles you control get +1/+1 and indestructible.
W: Transform Optimus Prime, Super Truck
8/4

Rich Uncle Moneybags - XBB
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor
When Rich Uncle Moneybags enters the battlefield, create X colorless artifact tokens named Gold. It has "Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool."
Whenever you sacrifice a Gold token, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. Then, if you don't control any Gold tokens, return Moneybags to your hand.
1/1

EDIT: Lauren Faust working on an upcoming DC Super Hero Girls TV series! Glad to see she finally got to work on something that got past preproduction.