It Turns Out They're Windmills got three new chapters since I last checked. Very little progress in the purported main story with EQG Fluttershy, but we do get Pony Twilight doing something really stupid and everyone reacting to that. The character interactions continue to be good, and we even have Moon Dancer hang out with the Starlight Club at a bar. Once it was explained what Twilight's deal really was, I connected to it a lot.
The Enchanted Kingdom had one new chapter, and it was just a short interlude. This takes place during, let's call it the two year gap, and shows one of Rarity's dreams from then.
Like many suspected, Rarity did try to move on while Twilight sealed herself away and date other mares, which further explains why she was so awkward around Twilight. We also get a better explanation for why she had Pinkie look after the necklace, since Rarity felt she came off as vain constantly looking at it.
Writing is as good as usual, and this was a nice somber chapter.
I finally started reading Nine Days Down by JoeShogun, getting four chapters in. The first chapter didn't have the tone I expected, but it certainly did by the fourth chapter and the first real monster attack. The stuff with swear words simply not existing in Equestria is weird (though I suppose this was written before Fluttershy started dropping the 'p' word), and I didn't like Celestia not even explaining the basics to Twilight and Twilight not understanding how dangerous the place is at first, but the bits of actions were good and it's interesting so far.
It's on Netflix in some regions, but not the US. Probably holding it back until the Disney streaming service goes up. It is up for purchase on iTunes, though.
With the start of a new season, we have a new intro!
Glad they did this instead of continuing the visuals of the old one.
Beyond the Corona Walls
With the title reset, I was kind of worried there would be a tone reset too, to bring it more inline with typical Disney Princess tie-in material, but nope, they're doubling down on the adventure and I appreciate it.
The long recap at the beginning reminded me of anime a lot. I am impressed they did all that without mentioning Varian at all, though he did have some dialogue. And then my concerns about the tone change were allayed by the episode starting with a flashback to 25 Years Ago in some crazy ruined kingdom.
And all three are Rapunzel / Eugene duets too! I love that moment in the first song where they're in the mud and press their foreheads against each other.
I have to say, I'm impressed they committed to dropping so much of the supporting cast. Sure, a few of the barbarians came along, but it's just two. The royal family, the guards, the townsfolk, all gone. Before the preview articles, I was expecting only the opening two-parter to be about going outside Corona and for them to return for the rest of the season, but no, they're going all in on leaving the kingdom behind.
It may be my imagination, but I feel like they've gotten better about designing background characters this season. Or maybe it's just because a thief town allows for more interesting looks.
The fight with Adira was kind of forced, but she's a neat character. Sword that can cut indestructible stone < indestructible hair, got it. If we assume Adira is at a similar level of skill to Mulan, then we now know canonically how Mulan vs. Rapunzel would go, with Mulan winning. Also, from Tumblr, people are shipping the hell out of Adira and Cassandra.
I enjoyed the main story with the Baron and Stalyon, though Rapunzel thinking for a second Eugene would willingly leave her was odd. At least it didn't last long after the song. The Baron kind of reminds me of an SNK fighting game final boss.
Preview articles for season 2 mentioned Eugene's ex-girlfriend would appear but didn't give any details. I kind of hoped they'd follow up on that one scene where Rapunzel was fine with Eugene's past love exploits being brought up and reveal that she was also fine with interacting with his ex while Eugene's nervous about how it will work out. Alas, she's a villain. That said, Jelly Rapunzel is absolutely fantastic.
Especially with faces like this.
So what do you make of this brand new character?
I think Cobra McBloodPuncher is a pretty cool guy.
I wish I could find a GIF of Rapunzel shaking her head when Eugene tried to say he wanted the swan statues at their wedding.
Overall, liked this episode a lot, and the season looks off on a good start.
Lady Caine has a nice design, but yeah, she's a nothing character. Her evil horse was a more effective villain.
Gotta have that moment where they trade embarrassing stories about Eugene.
Couple things I forgot to mention:
* Stalyon clearly prefers the Flynn Rider name because after she marries him, she'll be Stalyan Rider.
* I like Rapunzel's new outfit. The anklet is a nice touch I didn't notice before in the previews.
Rescue from Midnight Castle is the very first MLP animation. While there isn't much to the good guys, the villains all have surprisingly metal designs, which I'd like to see more of in G5. Having redeemable villains is all nice and good, but sometimes you just want a guy in shadows with a menacing voice stroking a pulsating bag with a heartbeat who freaking blows up at the end. For that reason, I prefer G1 Tirek, even though he doesn't really do much. It was also interesting to see how much G1 stuff is carried over to G4, with Firefly being like Rainbow Dash, Twilight being able to teleport, and Applejack.
About WITCH, I decided to stop airing this until Tangled goes on hiatus so there's more room for other stuff. This second episode didn't make for a convenient stopping point, since it was just more setup, but what are you going to do?
Super Gals was a wacky episode with Ran's personality reversing, and it was pretty great, with every recurring character reacting in their own way.
Princess Tutu's episode got a lot of hype in the chat, and it seemed like a pretty typical episode, until the end when Duck decided it was a good idea to return Mytho's fear while he's still low on positive emotions. And he proceeds to freak out. Who could have seen this coming?
The Cutie Mark Crusaders notice that Diamond Tiara has been gone for a while, and after talking with Silver Spoon, ditch school to investigate her house. Filthy Rich asks them to check out a section of the mansion under construction by a crew recommended by Discord, where they discover mindbending geometry, portals to other worlds, and a pony who used to be a human named Indigo Zap of Crystal Prep Academy's Shadowbolts. They lead her back to her home, where all of her friends are sure to have missed her. Before continuing to look for Diamond Tiara, the CMC head back to update Filthy Rich, who doesn't want the police or any princesses involved out of fear they'd search the mansion and discover some illicit activities.
Times are
Sunday at 3:30 PM PT / 6:30 PM ET for the pony-based stream (more freeform when there aren't new episodes)
Friday at 9:30 PM PT / 12:30 AM ET for the "freestyle" stream
Friday's stream was largely thrown together at last minute because I couldn't decide on a main course. We ended up going with:
> Summer of 4 ft 2 (Simpsons episode)
> I am here.... Now abridged
> Johnny Boat Racing (episode of Johnny Test)
> Basically: Sweet Genius (video about the Cooking network show of the same name)
> Game Grumps Best of A Way Out
> 2 different Mega64 DBZ videos
The Simpsons episode was interesting, I think the story would have been better if had just had Bart realize that he screwed up after the first major altercation he had with Lisa rather then milking a couple jokes out of the situation with them constantly trying to get revenge on each-other. Other then that it was a pretty funny episode that had a decent core, and it was one of the few Simpsons episodes where Lisa is allowed a happy ending.
I Am Here.... Now is IMO the weakest of the Breen movies I've seen but it's definitely got some standout moments. It's a lot more watchable in its abridged form (if you thought it was bad just watch it in its entirety) just due to the fact that every scene isn't repeated at least 5 times. The one big takeaway is that Robot space Jesus Neil Breen (I seriously don't think he gave a name to any character in the entire movie, it's not just me forgetting what his character is called) is going to come back to Earth and destroy it because we're a failure as a species.
Johnny Boat Racing in a nutshell:
There's a massive story about Star_, the person that made Basically: Sweet Genius, but that's a story for another time. Long story short the other videos in his "Basically" series are all generally really good, although Sweet Genius is unquestionably his magnum opus. That being said he's moved on to be a full-time Twitch streamer and primarily plays Overwatch and now Realm Royale.
I was being distracted by other things for the last couple videos so I can't comment on them...
The Sunday Stream I watched Tangled, Rarity Takes Manehattan, and Inspiration Manifestation.
Tangled addressed the primary complaint I had in the previous episode. I thought it was weird that they dropped a lot of info about how the city used to be a lot nicer, but then ignored it for the whole plot. This episode primarily focused on that, which was much appreciated. Conceptually I really liked it but I felt like they mucked up the execution a bit. The bees recurring side gag was not very effective for me and I felt that the deputy girl's arc didn't work as well as it should have. Her turning around felt a but sudden and seeing her get super gung-ho at the end felt a bit out of place. Other then that though I liked it a lot. It was fairly funny, had strong animation, and I thought the conflict was handled well.
Rarity Takes Manehattan will still remain perhaps the peak of Tabitha's voice acting. She gives it her all in basically every scene, and the whole episode she sounds like she's having a blast. It's been said before, but Tabitha MAKES Rarity as a character, and I think there's no other episode that shows it off as well as this one.
Inspiration Manifestation is largely fun just to see Owlowiscious' reaction to everything.
Rarity Takes Manehattan will still remain perhaps the peak of Tabitha's voice acting. She gives it her all in basically every scene, and the whole episode she sounds like she's having a blast. It's been said before, but Tabitha MAKES Rarity as a character, and I think there's no other episode that shows it off as well as this one.
I feel like I went in too negative with the Simpsons episode, since I assumed Lisa episode = Lisa misery episode; I had that one article about the way later Simpsons episodes treats Lisa on my mind. But I should have known that UberTag wouldn't make the first Simpsons episode on the stream one of those. It was good.
I Am Here... Now was Neil Breen. I had already seen the Cinema Snob and probably others talk about this, so I wasn't surprised by what's in it, but it's still wacky to see.
About Johnny Test, I knew about the whipcracks going in (from the above video), but wow, there are so many other annoying sound effects. Given that it's a Dexter's Lab ripoff by way of Phineas and Ferb, I do like that they changed it so that the geniuses are sisters. There were some gags I liked: all the bridges, the general concept that everyone kept getting on the Tests' boat until it just became a party boat and they stopped caring about the race (though they didn't fully go with that last part), maybe other things I'm forgetting. But overall, I don't like the format. Given this episode appeared to be about every single recurring character coming together for a race, I couldn't help but notice that the sisters were literally the only female characters; a pretty start contrast to the other shows we regularly watch. Ashleigh Ball voices one of the sisters, which was easy enough to tell by her sort of sounding like Rainbow Dash, and people in the chat thought the other had Twilight's voice. However, she's actually played by Maryke Hendrikse, who voices Gilda and Sonata Dusk (Rainbow Rocks).
Me bringing up Phineas and Ferb reminds me, it might be nice to watch select episodes of that at some point. Particularly, a few to set up the format, then the movie and big specials.
Not too much to say about the YouTube clips. They were fun. It was nice to see the Sweet Genius be reunited with his clone son.
Sunday:
1. Tangled 202 - The Return of Quaid
2. Rarity Takes Manehattan
3. Inspiration Manifestation
4. Spice Up Your Life
5. Super Gals 14
6. Princess Tutu 7
(EQG - Best Trends Forever throughout)
Like I mentioned with the episode synopses, I'm pretty surprised they're sticking around in the town, yet also only staying for one more episode after this.
It's pretty nice that this episode addressed there would be a power vacuum without the Baron, and that Rapunzel would feel responsible for bringing the town back to its former glory. Before the synopses, I kind of assumed they'd move on and things would work out on their own.
After her showing against Adira, it's nice to see Rapunzel back at her "could probably take Mulan in a fight" power level. To be clear, this is just something I find funny, not a serious attempt to determine power levels. And I like seeing her kick butt.
I was surprised to see them develop that girl, Vex I believe. I figured she'd just be a fun one-off character.
Quaid himself was alright. His story was pretty generic, but it was nice seeing it in this setting. It was odd that he somehow didn't see through Lance's disguise.
Not much else to say other than I liked this episode, and I enjoyed seeing the gang help fix up the town.
After that was Rarity Day. First, the EQG choose your own adventure, "Best Trends Forever". Every part was fun, though the Twilight ending was the best one and the one that made the most sense. I had completely forgotten that Diamond Tiara speaks here; that would make it the first time in years.
About the episodes, you know, I keep remembering "Rarity Takes Manehattan" as being worse than it is. A few logic gaps aside, it's a great showcase of what makes Rarity Rarity.
"Inspiration Manifestation" was also more fun than I remembered, particularly due to hilarious acting for Rarity and Owlowiscious's panicked hooting.
Some people bailed for "Spice Up Your Life", but I think it's a good episode. The fact that Rarity would choose to make the Tasty Treat more generic seems out of character for her, when she's all about making what you are shine, but I don't think she ever directly went against a famous critic she was trying to impress before this point. Closest I can think of is "Green Isn't Your Color" when she applauded after Twilight forced Fluttershy to mess up. She felt that the way to get the restaurant to succeed was to get it three stars, and maybe after that they could find room to be more unique. I do like how she ended up using her clout to get people in the restaurant, though. The song is good, too.
Super Gals was an alright episode. You know, I didn't get the impression Ran was particularly famous in the first episode, so her appearing constantly in magazines and such (even if she doesn't get paid) is a bit weird.
Princess Tutu was good, with the characters reacting in interesting ways, and we're introduced to the rival character.
The CMC talk to Discord and are able to get him to help. The next day, they finish the school day and explain things to Silver Spoon, who has to run off to fight a knife and fork in a story for another time.
Returning to the mansion, Discord takes them to the portals. The smileys who worked on the construction moved the portals closer to "normal space" and one explains the intentions behind the portal locations:
1. A portal to school
2. A place to have fun
3. A place where you can learn about others
4. A place where you can be who you want to be
5. A portal to the market
6. A portal to the front door
The first led to a school in the Equestria Girls world (Crystal Prep). Discord explains that if they bring him a Diamond Tiara, he can then figure out if that's their DT, and if not, then if their DT is in that world at all.
The Crusaders go through portal 4, which leads them to a world where changelings have taken over and there is a costume party held by Queen Chrysalis where changelings perform as ponies. They learn that Diamond Tiara is being offered as a prize for a contest, so the CMC enter, getting past a guard that's sniffing for pony love. They decide to perform the CMC theme song as part of the contest, and the love spread by the music is so great that the audience transforms into "new changelings" and they create a giant alicorn that blasts Chrysalis away (like at the end of "Welcome to the Show" from Rainbow Rocks). They find out the Diamond Tiara there isn't their DT, but now the changelings live in peace with ponykind.
Although the whip is still a problem I feel like it's also symbolic of a lot of other problems the show has. Firstly that the show always feels the need to have something going on at literally every moment. And it's not just the sound design that has this problem. The show feels like it's always going at 100 mph. And secondly no one seems to really care about making (or at the very least have the resources to make) a quality show. Reusing assets such as animation and sound effects (as well as using stock effects) is pretty standard for most cartoons, but not to this degree. Part of the reason why the overuse of whips is so obnoxious is that they didn't use any other effect in its place.
Just finished reading Nine Days Down, as recommended by Sciz a while ago.
I enjoyed it a lot. Once I got into it, it was hard to stop reading. My only real complaints are that it could have been tightened up more, and there's one segment toward the end where the tension seemed to be diffused entirely, but I enjoyed the last chapters.
The story improved a lot for me once Twilight was separated from Celestia and had to face the horrors alone. She did act pretty stupid, including somehow not realizing a creature named "Bait" might be suspicious, but the monsters were inventive and everything felt in line with her character. It was nice seeing her be able to make a friend even in this harsh environment. Twilight's character arc at this point actually resembles that of the Movie a bit, with the world outside Equestria causing her to lose faith but even still being able to befriend an enemy (Tempest).
It was nice to see Celestia reunite with her and the stories behind the creatures were interesting. The romance was cute, and it didn't overwhelm the story or anything, so I didn't mind it. That chapter end with it seeming like Celestia was replaced by a Mirror Pool clone, only for it to be revealed it was a dream next chapter, felt cheap, especially since I quickly realized that that Celestia being a clone would make no sense, but I felt starting the next chapter with something else reduced the cheapness of it a bit.
While Celestia coming back reduced the tension for me, Luna killed it entirely. I would have assumed there was a big gap between chapters to justify this tone shift, but no, it seemed to release at a regular pace. I didn't like how it cut from Celestia and Twilight's group in mortal peril, to Luna merrily mowing down foes without breaking a sweat. I also wasn't a fan of adding so many characters to the group. It isn't so much that I didn't like how they were portrayed, as I didn't feel they added enough to justify including until the final chapters.
After sticking fairly close to concepts established in the show, it just felt weird to reveal all princesses basically had zanpakuto from Bleach. I did like the stuff with Twilight teaching her sword, Insight, to be more than a weapon, but that was also odd, because it was produced by her and, as they repeatedly say, is her. Why would it need to be taught to do that? I feel like the idea would have been more effective if it was a sort of living sword she found and then taught to save lives.
And then as they leave Tartarus, there's a massive battle. It was an interesting battle to read about, mind, but... why did it happen? It didn't seem to do much for Twilight's character, other than explain why Celestia's memories would be reset, it didn't affect any of the Tartarus characters that show up in the epilogue, and it seemed to come out of nowhere. It just felt like the author went, "OK, this is going on too long, so let's have this huge event to force them to rush for the gate." The Wild Hunt, on the other hand, was more significant for Twilight's ascension and Bait being lost.
I thought Twilight's new powers after ascending were interesting, with her being able to cut away at emotional bonds tying creatures down and forging new ones. It was odd that this meant she lost her connection to the Element of Magic; the author claimed this was a side effect of ascending, since gods can't use the Elements, but the story also brings in the show fact that Celestia and Luna wielded the Elements before. Twilight losing this connection didn't play a part in the story, so it could have easily been left out. Still, this was a cool idea.
One weakness of the ending segment is that Bait didn't do much. He was a central character, but once Celestia came back into the picture, and especially once Luna appeared, he just fell into the background. Then he appeared to die. Then it was revealed he survived, via letter.
Terra didn't need to be in the story, as the author himself points out. I did like her backstory in the loose ends chapter, though.
So yeah, the story was losing me for a bit after Luna appeared through the actual escape. I was entertained, but it didn't feel that connected to what happened before. However, I enjoyed the depiction of Twilight still suffering in Equestria from her time in Tartarus. It felt like a real reaction she'd have, including her worry that her friendship forging was just brainwashing, and the segment with the guards justified their introduction.
Given how much the final chapters concerned itself with Twilight's new godly status, her potential immortality, and the importance of her friendships, it was odd that we saw little of her actual friends. Yes, they had nothing to do with the rest of the story, so it would be odd to focus on them, but the author is the one that brought all this up!
I forget if the early chapters mentioned Tirek, but it is kind of strange he didn't come up later, given he's one of the few prisoners of Tartarus we know about. Or the fact that the princesses were imprisoned in Tartarus during "Twilight's Kingdom". It's probably better those didn't come up, really, since the depiction of Tartarus and the princesses in those episodes wouldn't have worked for this story. Given that, it was strange to see Starlight Glimmer and Ember's father come up in later chapters.
And lastly, it was really weird that Artifice, the pony who sent them to Tartarus in the first place, turned out to be completely unimportant.
Overall, there are parts where you can definitely tell this was written on the fly, meaning things don't link together as well as they could, but this is still a fantastic work of fanfiction. I'm almost sad we won't get a story like this in our TV-Y cartoon horse show. The closest thing to a story where Twilight has to survive and make friends in a hostile and alien environment will remain Equestria Girls.
I caught the story when it was about halfway through, and awaited every new chapter with an even mix of anticipation and dread. Super glad that it's finally managed to find a decent audience after the fact, even if it still deserves ten times as much success.
Stream announcements. Friday will feature a movie that a surprising number of stream watchers haven't seen: Your Name. Since it's a two hour movie, we'll just be watching that.
And since we're almost definitely getting a new Equestria Girls special on Friday, Sunday's stream will be:
1. Tangled - Goodbye and Goodwill
2. EQG - Rollercoaster of Friendship (one hour)
3. G1 - Escape from Catrina
4. Super Gals 15
5. Princess Tutu 8
Tangled premieres on Sunday while EQG will be on Friday, so the former gets top billing. And with one slot open, might as well continue watching G1. Escape from Catrina is less metal than the first special, but it's still surprisingly dark.
And in fic news, I read everything by No Crow, who definitely isn't Monochromatic's alt account for saucier RariTwi stories plus one story that isn't saucy at all so I don't know why it's there.
First is Coffee Shop, a short fluff piece with human Twilight and Rarity meeting up for coffee and Twilight getting frustrated she isn't taking studying for their finals seriously. It's cute, not much more to say.
Next is Lover's Bite, a one-shot in which (starts reading) alright, better not link this here. You won't see it in the author's story list without a FimFiction account either, pretty sure. The premise is that Rarity is turned into a vampire, but sucking Twilight's blood doesn't turn her into a vampire, so she stays at the castle until a cure can be found. In the meantime, Twilight finds herself giving into Rarity's seductions, unclear if it's really Rarity doing this or the vampire. While the prose is overly flowery at times, the dialogue from Mo--er, No Crow (god, I just got the pun) is still great. For example, after Rarity asks Twilight if she's enjoying it, she gives it some thought, taking into consideration the entire vampire thing.
And so, having prepared her eloquent speech, Twilight instead completely disregarded it in favor of nodding dumbly and adding an "Uhmmm…" for good measure.
Do note that as vampire erotica, there is some blood involved. Oh, and as erotica, there's sex.
Lastly from this author is an ongoing story, Crimson Lips, about an alternate universe vaguely based on Moulin Rouge where Twilight is a mage studying with Lady Celestia and Rarity is a seamstress who also works as a prostitute to make ends meet. They fall in love at some point. There are only three chapters so far, and those two haven't actually met yet, but it's already quite intriguing, with the mystery of what's going on with Celestia, and Twilight's fun encounter with Sweetie Belle. I'm also generally a big fan of MLP AU settings where they're humans that can use magic. This story is only rated T, but the author says it will straddle the line between T and M, as a warning.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders notice that Diamond Tiara has been gone for a while, and after talking with Silver Spoon, ditch school to investigate her house. Filthy Rich asks them to check out a section of the mansion under construction by a crew recommended by Discord, where they discover mindbending geometry, portals to other worlds, and a pony who used to be a human named Indigo Zap of Crystal Prep Academy's Shadowbolts. They lead her back to her home, where all of her friends are sure to have missed her. Before continuing to look for Diamond Tiara, the CMC head back to update Filthy Rich, who doesn't want the police or any princesses involved out of fear they'd search the mansion and discover some illicit activities.
Having been spared from her fate of being lost in limbo by the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Indigo Zap was spotted back in the Equestrian Girls universe for the first time in almost three years...
Having been spared from her fate of being lost in limbo by the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Indigo Zap was spotted back in the Equestrian Girls universe for the first time in almost three years...
Great work on this, Myke ! Love the way the colors come together.
Stream followup, we didn't have a stream due to IRL issues with some regulars.
Reading a bunch of Monochromatic fics I hadn't before. Or at least I don't remember reading.
First is Supernova, a short story about Rarity and Twilight breaking up. In the end, it's actually about their romantic relationship maturing. It's nice.
Oh, so Mono had a mature fic on her normal account too, which I hadn't noticed by virtue of not having a FimFiction account when I last looked. Demons and Desires is a human AU that takes place in college. Blueblood harasses Rarity at a club, so she punches him and Twilight takes her back to her apartment, where sex happens. As expected from her works, the romance is presented very sweetly, but I feel like the awkwardness between Rarity and Twilight was a bit much at times. Perhaps a flashback to their oft-mentioned studying sessions could have shown them interacting more casually, thus better demonstrating how they normally get along. This was written before Lover's Bite, and you can tell she had less experience writing sex scenes in this story. Still, it's nice.
The Seamstress and the Librarian I probably read before, but I think the later chapters are new. This is a collection of one-off RariTwi stories, the first chapter itself being a collection of 25 stories each only a few sentences in length. This includes a set of stories where Rarity and Twilight get together then break up, ending much more somberly than Supernova above. Chapter 2, Rarity's Fairytales, is great because of Sweetie Belle's reactions. Basically, tons of fluff, and I guess I did actually read all of them before. I particularly like the second "Rarity is pregnant" story, where Twilight keeps checking on her every 10 minutes until Rarity pretends to be tired, whereupon Twilight whisks her off to bed and nuzzles her belly, and Rarity decides to keep pretending for a bit longer.
Now stories I had deliberately avoided for a while. Death's Stolen Diamonds is marked as incomplete, and indeed, it's entirely setup at the point where it stops. Still, what's there is interesting, building up a setting where Celestia and Luna are gods of life and death, and Twilight and Rarity respectively shake up their worlds (it's Luna X Rarity and maybe Celestia X Twilight). We don't see too much of that, though, since, you know, incomplete. It has a one-shot sequel, In The Twilight Of Death, where Twilight talks to Rarity, but it's mainly just hinting at stuff that presumably would have happened in the original story. It's interesting, but just builds up stuff that doesn't seem like it will come.
Next are stories from Mandarina... who is also a Monochromatic alt. Not sure why this one exists.
Winter Chocolate is a fluff piece where Twilight and Rarity have only recently started going out and go on a winter date. It's cute fluff. The below quote is from Rarity hinting at their date that's coming up soon, after they run into each other at the library.
She stepped back, briefly glanced at the clock and then turned back to Twilight. "So, Twilight," she said, brushing her mane back with a hoof. "Do tell, any plans for tonight? Or are you staying home to read like the bookworm you are?"
Panic was Twilight's immediate reaction.
"What do you mean?" she asked, ears shooting up and a lump forming in her throat. "We have the… You and I are supposed to go out… That was today, wasn't it?!" Her calendar suddenly appeared in front of her, which she frantically scanned for the right date. Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh—
"Twilight."
Rarity's magic pushed the calendar back down, allowing her eyes to meet Twilight's panicked ones.
"Wh-What?" Twilight asked, fearing the absolute worst.
"You really are adorably terrible at this, aren't you, darling?" Rarity asked, her voice teasing but endearing. "Never mind. I'll make sure you get better."
The Galaxy And The Butterfly Who Loved It is a short sad story where Fluttershy is upset because she feels Twilight would never love her back. She feels inadequate compared to her intelligence, and the metaphor she uses (see the title) is pretty striking. Still, there's not much to this one. It seems like in this story, Twilight is actually with Sunset, so that's different.
Simple Gestures is the last one, and it's another RariTwi fluff piece. It's fluffy and cute, with an adorable last paragraph. But what's notable is the discussion in the comments, where one reviewer basically goes, "You can do better than these fluff pieces," and some other reviewers argue about this, resulting in much more heated discussion than I feel appropriate for a story like this. Mono pipes in to mention she was feeling unsure about posting fluff pieces on her main account precisely because she feared people would be upset she was writing them instead of updating "The Enchanted Library" or whatever. I'm unclear if the reviewer didn't know this was Mono and thus wouldn't have said that if this was uploaded among her other stories. I'm aware this is a personal hangup of Mono and she knows full well it isn't based on reason, but hiding away her fluff stories on alt accounts doesn't help anyone. If people get upset about fluff stories, especially when the author does also publish more "serious" fare, then forget them.
I've just browsed a certain artist's DA page, and now I see the post above... I must say I am kind of fascinated by the dedication some people have to their ships.
EDIT: Just to be clear, I'm not referring to you, Sigma.
About Death's Stolen Diamonds, Mono actually just made a blog post that she's canceling it because she decided to write it as original fiction instead. So that's that. Also, she moved Crimson Lips to her main account.
Stream followup
*. EQG - A Case for the Bass
1. Tangled - Goodbye and Goodwill
*. EQG - A Perfect Day for Fun
2. EQG - Rollercoaster of Friendship (one hour)
3. G1 - Escape from Catrina
4. Super Gals 15
5. Princess Tutu 8
Goodbye and Goodwill
This was a pretty fun episode. Upset Rapunzel remains fantastic. Compared to a certain recent-ish episode of a show that involves small horses, this handled a rivalry in a much more entertaining and reasonable way.
Rapunzel tried so hard to be edgy, but in the end, she should have just drawn an OC version of herself with black and red hair with the powers of the blooddrop flower.
Hadn't noticed until I saw the GIF, but Rapunzel is back to her season one dress. I guess since they were staying in town, it would make sense to actually change clothes.
The sneeze weasel stopping to sneeze instead of swiping at people reminds me a lot of how Phineas and Ferb early on wanted an episode with wrestling, but Disney thought that would be too violent, so they instead went with extreme thumb wrestling. Instead of finding a real way to avoid the potential violence, they draw attention to the avoided violence through the absurdity of the alternative.
Similar to the previous Goodwill Festival episode, it ends with Rapunzel still being disliked by the person/people she was trying to impress. I wasn't a fan of how that was handled in the first one, since Monty is supposed to be a nice man but his reason for disliking Rapunzel and his treatment of her just didn't make much sense. This time, I'm pretty alright with it, and Rapunzel seems more or less fine with it by the end.
I keep saying this, but the format they chose of the gang choosing to stay in a town to help fix it up but also moving on quickly is pretty unexpected and welcoming.
I don't think I need to talk about Rollercoaster of Friendship again, other than to say it was a fun group watch. It was because of this and the Tangled episode that I added this emote to the stream.
The second G1 special, "Escape from Catrina", definitely wasn't as metal as the first, but it seemed like people enjoyed it still. I think I'll go ahead and air episodes of the show proper at some point.
Super Gals was fun, and people seem excited about the next episode.
Princess Tutu featured further story developments. Even so, I admit the format is getting a bit repetitive for me, but we're approaching the point where things should change up, it seems.
This Friday's stream schedule:
1. Reboot episode 9 - Wizards, Warriors and a Word from Our Sponsor
2. Reboot: The Guardian Code episode 9 - Datastorm
3. Princess Tutu 9-10
Doubling up on Princess Tutu because Chained seemed interested in watching the next Super Gals but probably won't be around for the Friday stream.
Look at that nerd
1. Tangled episode 204 - Forest of No Return
2. May the Best Pet Win
3. Read it and Weep
4. 28 Pranks Later
5. Super Gals 16
6. Princess Tutu 11?
Say fony , since the next MLP:FiM episode is airing next Friday (as part of a weird promotion), there was interest in showing it on the Friday stream instead of the Sunday stream. I remembered you tend to watch new episode streams and you can't make the Friday one, so I wanted to know if you were alright with that.
Friday stream followup,
1. Reboot episode 9 - Wizards, Warriors and a Word from Our Sponsor
2. Reboot: The Guardian Code episode 9 - Datastorm
3. Princess Tutu 9-11
Chained ended up attending the whole stream after all.
Watching the two Reboot episodes one after another shows that even if the latter maybe (maybe) has better CGI, the old Reboot has way more ambition. This episode had tons of DnD style monsters and wacky visuals, while the The Guardian Code episode supposedly had a different cyberspace setting, but it looked the same as episodes 1 and 2 to me, and it was just boring. In the real life segments, we made fun of the storyline with that one guy's mom dating a guy who's obviously connected to the villain. Speaking of the villain,
A thing that happened that episode (and the reason why I chose to air it). To be fair, he actually hacks a military weather satellite... that can control the weather somehow.
After Reboot, we actually ended up watching three episodes of "Princess Tutu" instead of two. Show's good, there's a lot of drama.
~~~
We had another RP. Episode releases are going to be weird coming up, so I think I'll continue the RP until episodes air every week.
Portals so far:
1. A portal to school - Equestria Girls world (Diamond Quest 1)
2. A place to have fun
3. A place where you can learn about others
4. A place where you can be who you want to be - Changeling world (Diamond Quest 2)
5. A portal to the market
6. A portal to the front door
The Crusaders choose to visit (6), and it turns out to be a world where everyone is different ages. They transform into older versions of themselves and end up outside that world's Diamond Tiara's mansion. They run into Silver Spoon (older), who is bringing a cart from the mansion for Diamond Tiara. She explains that she, Diamond Tiara, and the CMC work together to save Equestria, and Princess Flurry Heart asked them to stop a rock volcano (that shoots out rocks). This world's CMC are the Canterlot Movie Club and are currently in Canterlot, but Silver Spoon assumes they just came back early.
Now that she's older, Apple Bloom is stronger and Sweetie Belle is better at magic. Scootaloo still can't fly, but she can jump good.
On the way to Diamond Tiara's location, they run into Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash, who are all fillies. Applejack has no cutie mark and Rainbow Dash idolizes Scootaloo. They're the Cutie Mark Darlings (to Applejack's protest), and they're out to help Applejack get her cutie mark. They want to come on the adventure, and Rarity sobs until they let them.
On the way, they encounter monsters and boulders falling from the rock volcano. Rainbow Dash rushes ahead to the summit, where she encounters a rock giant guarding the gem that's causing all this. They use a magical trashcan to seal the gem, and that destroys the giant and the volcano.
Diamond Tiara returns home, and they take this opportunity to have Discord check her. She isn't their Diamond Tiara, and Discord even discovers that the Diamond Tiara from the changeling world is wandering around the age change world. They decide to just put a sign out to deposit any lost Diamond Tiaras there and hope it works itself out.
~~~
And today's stream followup.
1. Tangled episode 204 - Forest of No Return
*. EQG - Guitar Centered
2. May the Best Pet Win
3. Read it and Weep
*. EQG - Leaping Off the Page
4. 28 Pranks Later
5. Super Gals 16
6. Princess Tutu 12
7. Princess Tutu 13
Forest of No Return
I was glad to see Eugene act to competent at the start, but I should have known that would lead to the rest of the episode involving him screwing things up. All that just made it frustrating to me. Plus, going over the steam vent place totally should have counted as going through it, Forest! That part seemed too arbitrary for it to be the breaking point.
Visually, this episode was quite nice, and the dangers of the Forest were neat. Sorry to bring up MLP and fanfics, but the setting reminded me of the MLP fanfic "Nine Days Down", which involves the semi-intelligent setting of Tartarus shifting itself around to best torment those trapped inside.
Rapunzel and Eugene's interactions remained sweet, so that was nice.
Overall, I found the story of the episode frustrating, making this the weakest of the season for me.
Both Equestria Girls shorts were just alright, but I preferred the latter, though it repeated jokes from "Read it and Weep".
"May the Best Pet Win" had a really fun and cute song, of course. Some people noted that the voices sounded pretty different back here, particularly Applejack's. I always thought of that as a season one thing, so I was surprised by that reaction to a season two episode. I had forgotten a lot of the particulars of this episode, including the repetition of the competition and how roughed up the pets got. No wonder people were upset about how Rainbow acted this episode.
"Read It and Weep" is still a lot of fun. It's interesting that they bothered to get a unique voice actor for Daring, which would imply they were already considering the possibility of bringing her back.
"28 Pranks Later" is also a lot of fun. If this was a season two story, I think it would have been much better received than it was.
Super Gals 16 was a flashback to Miyu's reformation and it featured Ran with a different hairstyle. It was nice.
We ended up watching more Princess Tutu this time too, since 12 ended right before a big battle. With episode 13, the first half ended with a dance off between birds to demonstrate their love for a guy who lost much of his heart and most of his brain. It was good.
I included a lot of jank this time around. The Rainbow Dash Becomes An Alicorn video got the best reactions, because it feels like Rainbow herself edited Twilight's ascension.
Mostly through sheer luck brought on by jet lag messing with my sleep schedule. I dunno if I'll make it to next week's stream.
"May the Best Pet Win" had a really fun and cute song, of course. Some people noted that the voices sounded pretty different back here, particularly Applejack's. I always thought of that as a season one thing, so I was surprised by that reaction to a season two episode. I had forgotten a lot of the particulars of this episode, including the repetition of the competition and how roughed up the pets got. No wonder people were upset about how Rainbow acted this episode.
Yeah, I was really surprised myself. I knew AJ sounded different in Season 1, but I thought for sure her voice had deepened to the tone we recognize today by the time Season 2 came around.
I will say, it's fun revisiting this episode after Tanks For the Memories has been around for a few years too. Goes to show just how much Dash changes on Tank from the course of S2 to S5.
"28 Pranks Later" is also a lot of fun. If this was a season two story, I think it would have been much better received than it was.
No lie, "28 Pranks Later" is legitimately one of the best episode titles ever done on the show. Between the title nod and the whole second half of the episode being a great parody of horror movies, I have a special fondness for this particular episode.
We ended up watching more Princess Tutu this time too, since 12 ended right before a big battle. With episode 13, the first half ended with a dance off between birds to demonstrate their love for a guy who lost much of his heart and most of his brain. It was good.
Ooh, those are nice. Kind of funny that Twilight is Pony Twi's human form but with glasses. Also odd that Fluttershy has her current design, when Twilight and Pinkie are going for their first movie look.
BTW, I prefer to have news in the season 8 OT and just use this thread for community stuff, but it's fine; I'll just quote this in my next season 8 OT post.
Ooh, those are nice. Kind of funny that Twilight is Pony Twi's human form but with glasses. Also odd that Fluttershy has her current design, when Twilight and Pinkie are going for their first movie look.
BTW, I prefer to have news in the season 8 OT and just use this thread for community stuff, but it's fine; I'll just quote this in my next season 8 OT post.
Stream announcements! We'll be watching the new episode on Friday after all.
1. MLP - Yakity-Sax
2. Reboot - High Code
3. Super Gals 17
4. Super Gals 18
Since Chained wants to be there for the next Princess Tutu, we're saving that for Sunday, which is Pinkie Pie Day 2!
1. Tangled - Freebird
2. A Friend in Deed
3. Pinkie Pride
4. Party Pooped
5. Princess Tutu 14
6. Princess Tutu 15
Did less fic-reading today than I would have liked.
I caught up on It Turns Out They're Windmills, which had two chapters since I last checked. Conversations continue to be interesting, but tempers are flaring among the characters, leading to bad feelings all around. I liked all that, but I'm less OK with what appears to be Dougworld Fluttershy's boyfriend apparently becoming an actual thread.
Crimson Lips also updated with two chapters, both short, but the last one has the moment where Rarity and Twilight meet!
I love how Rarity's narration obfuscates what actually happened. Then you read the author's note and realize Rarity was staring at a cute girl and panicked when she looked back.
I wonder where the story is going with Celestia. My mind went to the stuff for children being for Luna, but that was Twilight's first thought, so it can't be her, then. Then I thought Sunset, but that doesn't match the initials.
And then I read A Suit With Sincerity by Oroboro. It's part of his series where he ships Sunset with every other Humane Seven member, this time with Rarity. It's a pretty typical story: Rarity has Sunset pretend to be her boyfriend (dressing up as such) for a wedding, and then Rarity finds herself attracted to her. It's pretty cute, and makes good use of Sunset's old bullying and lying to play the boyfriend part.
It was fun watching High Code again. I rewatched Wizards Warriors and a Word from our Sponsor way more recently, but this held up from the last viewing I did pretty well. Got a friendship lesson in the end too, so it fits the themes!
Gals was good as usual as well. Mami really can't catch a break though when it comes to Ran comparisons though. Rough times. They're friends now though, right?
UberTag-Last Friday at 2:12 PM
By process of elimination, Saturday, September 1st - Labor Day Weekend - Fan Expo Canada Weekend is... GLIMGLAM & TRIXIE FESTIVAL OF CELEBRATION DAY! SigmasonicX-Last Friday at 2:14 PM
Yes, it's episode 19 UberTag-Last Friday at 2:14 PM https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2017/..._floppy+ears_gif_gif+for+breezies_happy_h.gif Sylvee-Last Friday at 2:14 PM
What if the episode ends up sucking? SigmasonicX-Last Friday at 2:14 PM
Maybe Labor Day hints toward something about the story... UberTag-Last Friday at 2:15 PM
It won't. I forbid it! SigmasonicX-Last Friday at 2:15 PM
It airs on Labor Day... because Trixie is in labor with Starlight's child
UberTag-Last Friday at 2:17 PM
(Ocellus has an overactive imagination.) SigmasonicX-Last Friday at 2:19 PM
Ocellus, dear, that makes no sense. I wouldn't cast that spell on Trixie before marriage! Sylvee-Last Friday at 2:20 PM
Wait, do Changeling sexes even exist? SigmasonicX-Last Friday at 2:21 PM
They definitely have genders, but who knows how procreation works.
To clarify, I'm saying we don't know how sexes would work UberTag-Last Friday at 2:22 PM
Has a fanfiction author tackled this controversial subject? SigmasonicX-Last Friday at 2:22 PM
I assume Thorax lays the eggs now
There were definitely a few before season 6
Not sure how much that gets explored now Sylvee-Last Friday at 2:27 PM
When two changelings love eachother very much, they have an egg
Given that they grow off love now that isn't even that far-fetched of an idea SigmasonicX-Last Friday at 2:31 PM
: (
)
Ocellus, no! You are far too young for that! UberTag-Last Friday at 2:59 PM
It's okay, Ocellus. Rarity won't tell me about secret hair, either.
It's all a big conspiracy! SigmasonicX-Last Friday at 3:02 PM
Rarity? Explain yourself.
Fluttershy, I'll tell you when you're older. Cappy-Last Friday at 3:03 PM
I really can't discern her mane!
Kakyoin Ocellus, did you lay this egg?
Wow! Maybe you can tell me how to take care of my egg.
Eh, I just left mine on the road. Cappy-Last Friday at 3:18 PM
Irresponsible!
UberTag-Last Friday at 3:19 PM
I know! I should have really brought it to Sugarcube Corner. Could have used it to make a tasty cake! SigmasonicX-Last Friday at 3:21 PM
Good news, Ocellus! I just talked to Thorax, and it's normal for you to lay unfertilized eggs like that! Since there's nothing in it, you can do whatever you want with it!
Oh, that's good--
(shakes)
(hatches)
Cappy-Last Friday at 3:22 PM
Run for your lives! SigmasonicX-Last Friday at 3:23 PM
Who?
Oh wow, Ocellus! We're more alike than I thought!
I don't know how to take care of an owl!
Don't worry, any second now...
(goes back in time)
There, the problem took care of itself! Cappy-Last Friday at 3:25 PM
They grow up and leave the nest so fast... SigmasonicX-Last Friday at 3:26 PM
Never even named him...
Who!
Cappy-Last Friday at 3:27 PM
I warned you! SigmasonicX-Last Friday at 3:27 PM
Look! Owlowiscious brought your baby! Now it's all grown up!
Yay, I didn't have to raise him.
We thought the egg came from Maud, but it actually came from books!
(decides to wait for the Daring Do movies from now on)
[The End]
Twilight is referring to a previous chat story where she laid an egg and gave birth to Owlowiscious, who proceeded to go back in time.
Stream followups.
We watched the new MLP episode (see the season 8 thread) and then the Reboot episode "High Code". I could have sworn season 2 greatly improved the animation from season 1, but it was still really wonky looking, especially with all the close ups. Still, the episode was good story-wise, with Bob deciding to sacrifice himself to stop the Codemaster and then giving up the plan to save Enzo. It's odd that even when the story becomes bigger, the codemasters don't come up again.
We watched two Super Gals episodes after that, and it coincidentally was a two-parter, with Aya trying to confess her love to Otohata but he's a douche. There's a personality test at the start where Ran is a condor and Aya is a mole, and for some reason the test completely shits on moles and declares them worse than garbage. I made a lot of jokes about this in the chat. The episodes were fun.
~~~
Today's stream was Pinkie Pie Day 2, and I ended up rearranging the schedule a lot.
*. EQG - Pinkie on the One
1. A Friend in Deed
*. EQG - Pinkie Spy
2. Pinkie Pride
*. EQG - The Art of Friendship
3. Party Pooped
*. EQG - Coinky-Dink World
4. Secrets and Pies
*. EQG - Pinkie Sitting
*. EQG - Too Hot to Handle
*. EQG - Pinkie Pie: Snack Psychic
5. Princess Tutu 14
6. Princess Tutu 15
7. Tangled - Freebird
Chained was coming late, so I moved Tangled to the end; no one had watched the new episode before the stream this time. And I added another MLP episode, "Secrets and Pies", because we were joined by ahoyhoy partway through "Pinkie Pride". He joined the stream because he was interested in watching Pinkie episodes, so it didn't feel right to me that there would just be one more Pinkie episode after that.
Ahoyhoy hadn't seen any episodes in four years, so "Party Pooped" and "Secrets and Pies" were new to him. It was interesting watching these episodes with someone who hadn't seen them, along with the Equestria Girls shorts. He also joined us for the first Princess Tutu episode, and his reactions were fun.
Princess Tutu started a new arc, which shook things up, and it was pretty good.
Freebird
Well, we didn't get a mating dance, but we did get a song!
It's pretty good, though it kind of feels like Mandy's holding back during the first minute. It becoming a duet is great.
The bird designs were good, other than a huge misstep: they really should have given them feathers that resemble their hair, instead of straight up hair. I figured the only way birds thematically made sense would be if it tied into Rapunzel fearing her destiny with the black rocks, and that's what they went with. I would have liked a bit more of that, but it was still good.
Over in the PonyEra stream, we watched this episode after a few Princess Tutu episodes, and it was funny to see bird transformations and a fairy tale theme carry over. It was even quite similar to episode 2 of that show. Of course, the idea they're going for is probably Alice in Wonderland.
The villains are neat. Them keeping the transformed birds around is going for fairy tales, of course, but I was reminded of the D'Arbys from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. The woman transforming into a bird that doesn't appear to be a hawk like Cassandra claimed seemed ill-advised.
Cassandra's owl should have tried to eat her. Wasted opportunity.
I liked the sequence of Rapunzel curing Cassandra and then being left a bird. Of course she'd be fixed too, but Shorty happening to lay more cure eggs was really contrived. Maybe if the evil guy said they needed an egg-laying bird.
Portals so far:
1. A portal to school - Equestria Girls world (Diamond Quest 1)
2. A place to have fun
3. A place where you can learn about others
4. A place where you can be who you want to be - Changeling world (Diamond Quest 2)
5. A portal to the market
6. A portal to the front door - Age change world (Diamond Quest 3)
The Crusaders are back at the portals, but Discord has Guy's Night and ditches them. The Crusaders enter portal number 2, a place to have fun, and find themselves right in the middle of Spike's Ogres & Oubliettes game. With the Crusaders entering, Spike finds himself changing his planned game to accommodate them. Discord realizes what's going on, but he cares too much about the integrity of the game to do anything about it.
Spike introduces the story of Garbunkle, Sir McBiggun, and Captain Wuzz coming across Apple Berry the farmer, Sunny Belle the monk, and Scootaroo the thief. They are on a journey to save Diamond Bracelet, going through the Swamp of Nothingness, to the Altar of Despair.
They encounter the guardian of the Swamp of Nothingness, who summons beasts of nothing to fight them. The Crusaders take charge, fulfilling their request to be made of something by giving them apples. They still want to fight after this, but they are easy foes now that they have bodies. Discord and Big Mac are angry that Spike handled all this through "NPCs".
As it turns out, the guardian is Apple Berry's big sister, Appleyak, who destroyed her village. They enter the swamp, and despite Spike's promises of great enemy encounters, the dice rolls prevent them from actually running into any danger until they reach the Altar of Despair. They find Diamond Bracelet, who indeed is just Diamond Tiara, on the altar, but she's protected by a hex that can only be removed by defeating Appleyak.
At this point, Apple Bloom realizes she has some influence on the story, and thus fills in the backstory so Appleyak is just being controlled by her hat and her village is actually fine. They encounter Appleyak, and easily defeat her by taking her hat. The hat turns out to be alive, but Discord gets annoyed and has Captain Wuzz actually do something by destroying it. Sir McBiggun tries to do something by rescuing Diamond Bracelet, but he fails.
In the end, Big Mac and Discord are really annoyed at Spike for this game where NPCs did everything. After they leave and he thinks he's all alone, Spike brings in Princess Shmarity, and the Crusaders nope out of there.
They find Discord back in the lobby. Diamond Bracelet isn't who they're looking for. There's only one portal left; Discord warns that door 5 is too weird for them to go into.
Mainframe didn't have a significant gap in their production schedule until the break between seasons 2 and 3, so that's where the first meaningful bump in visual fidelity happens.
Whoops, I forgot to post stream information yesterday.
Today, Sylvee will take over to possibly play Fargo.
On Sunday (GIF later)
1. Tangled - Vigor the Visionary
2. MLP G1 - The End of Flutter Valley parts 1-5
3. Super Gals 19
4. Princess Tutu 16 (+ more?)
People seemed interested in watching more G1, so let's start the series proper. I'm skipping the original movie since there really isn't much worth watching other than the Smooze song, which I'll play. The series premiere is actually ten(!) parts, which is a lot even when they're 10 minutes each, so we'll save the second half for when "Yakity-Sax" airs again.
The lineup is pretty light, so I expect we'll end up watching more Princess Tutu.
There were a few fun chat stories recently, which hopefully I can remember to post when I get home.
In fanfic news, after much cajoling, I read all of the works of RadiantBeam, except for the incomplete Dazzlings story that hasn't been updated in years.
I've come around on the idea of Sunset X PonyTwi, with their "long distance relationship" providing fun story opportunities, such as Sunset showing Twilight things in the human world. Their relationship is also more natural, I guess, than Sunset X SciTwi. I'm having trouble going into detail about that.
On the other hand, I wasn't a big fan of the Sunset X Rarity stories. The first one, with Rarity hitting on Sunset three times before she gets it, was cute, but I didn't really feel there was a hook to their relationship in the other stories.
On the other hand, that one Rarity X SciTwi story shows RariTwi transcends Twis.
Writing-wise, as a side effect of reading all of these one after another, I don't want to see "the redhead", "the purple girl", "cyan eyes", "the tan girl" (Sunset), "the former unicorn", or "the pale girl" (Rarity) again.
I've come around on the idea of Sunset X PonyTwi, with their "long distance relationship" providing fun story opportunities, such as Sunset showing Twilight things in the human world. Their relationship is also more natural, I guess, than Sunset X SciTwi. I'm having trouble going into detail about that.
They've got a shared background that makes it easy for them to relate to each other, between their homeland and species and their more specific history as Celestia's students. Princess Twilight is also the only character in Sunset's orbit—around her age—who's had enough life experience that Sunset can look to her for leadership and guidance instead of it being the other way around. So there's a couple unique dynamics there that make for a more firmly grounded and balanced relationship.
Writing-wise, as a side effect of reading all of these one after another, I don't want to see "the redhead", "the purple girl", "cyan eyes", "the tan girl" (Sunset), "the former unicorn", or "the pale girl" (Rarity) again.
Say fony , since the next MLP:FiM episode is airing next Friday (as part of a weird promotion), there was interest in showing it on the Friday stream instead of the Sunday stream. I remembered you tend to watch new episode streams and you can't make the Friday one, so I wanted to know if you were alright with that.
Whoops. Missed that ping. Actually, I don't really know where to look at to see what threads I'm mentioned in. I missed the beginning of the Sunday stream that followed and just assumed Yakity-Sax was earlier in the list.
In general, feel free to put episodes whereever since I might not be able to make it all the time anyways.
Playing to type here, but here's another story for my formal recommendations pile that just updated after a lengthy hiatus. Go read it and then tell the author he's damn good to help him get over this crisis of self-confidence he's having.
Sundowner by King of Beggars
[Adventure/Mystery/Romance, 123,669 words, incomplete]
Sunset Shimmer has always been a hot-headed, impetuous girl. She's always been prone to making snap decisions, and later finding herself regretting them. It was exactly this temperament that had brought her to the human world, penniless and alone. When the opportunity to get back on her feet presented itself in the form of a stranger's outstretched hand, she leaped at the chance.
This is the story of a woman who has made many bad choices, and the life those choices have made for her.
Sunset Shimmer by way of John Constantine. Very definitely not the upbeat, family friendly EG you already know for a variety of reasons as a result of that and some other choices that render the setting decidedly AU, but the result is dripping with dark intrigue that I can't get enough of.
Friday's stream involved watching Fargo, which was new for two of the three viewers. There wasn't much to comment on, but it was nice to watch. After that, we watched most of this video showing a play session of Shadow the Hedgehog, my suggestion. It wasn't that great a group watch, but it's what came to mind.
On Sunday's stream, we watched the following.
1. Tangled - Vigor the Visionary
2. MLP G1 - The End of Flutter Valley parts 1-5
3. Super Gals 19
4. Princess Tutu 16
5. Princess Tutu 17
Ah, neat. Wouldn't have guessed that. I can see why they removed that scene from the movie; it's incredibly blatant foreshadowing.
Vigor the Visionary
This was an alright episode. It was nice for Rapunzel and Eugene to get some alone-ish time, and for Red and Angry to return, and they had fun interactions.
The flashback to the young thieves at the fortune teller was an odd use of stylized camera use. It was neat, but I don't get why.
I was glad they committed to Vigor just having vague predictions that you could read either way as being accurate instead of having a last prediction that's relevant to the overall story.
Alright, how did they survive that fall? They could have used Rapunzel's hairball spell, but they didn't. And then they pretend Eugene is in danger when he falls later. That was really weird.
The story was interesting enough overall, but I didn't feel it was that remarkable.
That fall really did result in a lot of confusion.
The MLP G1 episodes were a harder watch than the specials, with the incredibly annoying witches, the dumb ponies, and the creepy supposedly friendly creatures. This continued the theme of people (and ponies) surprising big falls. Each of the five parts had a song, and none of them were good. I thought the bee people were kind of interesting, but they're really stretching this story out. Hard to believe there are another five parts. I'm still interested in watching other G1 stories, but I'll leave this story off here, with the flutter ponies about to burn to death.
Super Gals was a fun beach story, and it even involved the first time Ran and Mami team up for something that isn't serious.
Both Princess Tutu episodes were fun. The former introduced a strange girl made from Adel's body, whose name I had forgotten. She was a bit annoying, but she wasn't too bad. The second episode introduced a new prince character who's pretty funny, with him even being able to confuse Kraehe.
Portals so far:
1. A portal to school - Equestria Girls world (Diamond Quest 1)
2. A place to have fun - Spike's mind / Ogres & Oubliettes world (Diamond Quest 4)
3. A place where you can learn about others
4. A place where you can be who you want to be - Changeling world (Diamond Quest 2)
5. A portal to the market
6. A portal to the front door - Age change world (Diamond Quest 3)
With one last door (that Discord recommends checking), the Crusaders find themselves in a dream world and even spot Diamond Tiara very quickly. She runs away and the Crusaders chase after her into Rarity's dream. They're in a noir setting where Rarity is interrogating a pigeon, but it proves volatile and switches to a pirate setting until they calm her down. They follow a dotted line to Diamond Tiara, finding her at a period party. Thanks to Rarity's narration, a mobster named Flame-Eyed Fishsleeper appears to try and catch Diamond Tiara and she runs away as the mobster attacks the Crusaders. They're suddenly at a pier and send Fishsleeper sleeping with the fishes. Rarity suddenly remembers she hasn't done her homework and wakes up, forcing the Crusaders to evacuate the dream.
Back in the dream world, they can't figure out where to find Diamond Tiara, so they call for Luna's help. She appears as a baby. The Crusaders realize they're in the dream world of world 6, where the ages are different. Still, Baby Luna is able to lead them to the next dream world, Rainbow Dash's. There, everyone is awesome and thus is able to fly. They find Diamond Tiara among Rainbow's elite flying team, but in the real world, Rainbow's parents start cheering on her sleeping skills, causing the dream to collapse.
Baby Luna leads them to the last dream, this time coming with them. They enter the dreams of that world's older Diamond Tiara, and Baby Luna seals the exits so their filly Diamond Tiara can't leave. She explains that she thought it would be interesting to see how she was in this world, but she lost faith in herself after seeing how much better this world's Diamond Tiara was. The Crusaders are able to convince her to come back with them.
Diamond Tiara reunites with her family and Silver Spoon, and the Crusaders go home.
About the last world, the plan was to cover it at a later time, but I decided not to, since it was tough figuring out how to do it, and to do it without placing too much focus on NPC dialogue. The Crusaders would find themselves in a market full of real people, in a barbarian swords & sorcery setting. An evil knight attacks the market, in search of the magical diamond tiara. A boy is chosen by a wizard named Archimedes, who tells him of three companions who will come to his aide, and the Crusaders hijack this part away from his actual companions. They go on generic adventures to defeat the villain, but there's an added layer. You see, this is actually a movie being watched by the crew of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and they'd chime in with commentary, including confusion at the sudden cartoon ponies.
And some other chat stories.
Adawg-Last Wednesday at 7:46 PM
Perfect used of that meme.
SigmasonicX-Last Wednesday at 10:01 PM
As for today's comic, it ended a two-parter where Tempest reunited with one of her friends from her song flashback.
The comic also has some good old TIMELINE CONFUSION https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W7Mhcl9O...fUoLG38VTOjsv8gCEwYBhgL/s320/sunset_cameo.png
So Sunset is the same age as Tempest and her old friends
Whatever that means
[...]
Village-Last Wednesday at 10:11 PM
tiny sunset
[...]
UberTag-Last Wednesday at 10:14 PM
Yeah, I was tiny once. SigmasonicX-Last Wednesday at 10:15 PM
(strokes mane) UberTag-Last Wednesday at 10:15 PM
Ummm... <ahem> SigmasonicX-Last Wednesday at 10:16 PM
(strokes both manes) Cappy-Last Wednesday at 10:17 PM
UberTag-Last Wednesday at 10:18 PM
Trigonometrize-Last Wednesday at 10:21 PM
all of us were stardust at one point SigmasonicX-Last Wednesday at 10:24 PM
(strokes Twilight's mane at the same time as the others) Village-Last Wednesday at 10:26 PM
calls the police Cappy-Last Wednesday at 10:27 PM
Wonder Bolt patrol officer Dash reporting, what seems to be the problem? SigmasonicX-Last Wednesday at 10:28 PM
(nods toward mane stroking) Cappy-Last Wednesday at 10:28 PM
OMG!
You're all going to jail. SigmasonicX-Last Wednesday at 10:29 PM
(approaches making a stroking motion) Village-Last Wednesday at 10:29 PM
Stop or i'll shoot SigmasonicX-Last Wednesday at 10:29 PM
(reaches toward mane to stroke) Village-Last Wednesday at 10:30 PM
fires warning shot Next time I wont miss. Cappy-Last Wednesday at 10:31 PM
This is so tense, I can't watch!
(continues watching) Village-Last Wednesday at 10:31 PM bullet richoettes out of a window, and some how ends up flying trough rarity's window and going through a new dress
SigmasonicX-Last Wednesday at 10:32 PM
(cocks gun) Village-Last Wednesday at 10:33 PM
Now are you all gonna come quietly or rarity breaks though the door with a shotgun
Now one of you be a dear and tell me who ruined my dress with a bullet or i'll end all of your miserable lives Cappy-Last Wednesday at 10:34 PM
Y'know I don't have a mane or a gun, I think I'll just excuse myself. SigmasonicX-Last Wednesday at 10:35 PM
Hmm, do I care more about being shot, or about stroking manes? Village-Last Wednesday at 10:35 PM
points the gun at spike you are apart of this now spikey, now sit your purple behind on the ground untill we figure this out Cappy-Last Wednesday at 10:36 PM
sits Dear Celestia, ponies need to be disarmed. Village-Last Wednesday at 10:37 PM
Hey ya'll I ran over as soon as I could , I heard some commotion and... what in tarnation?
Why are there guns about, how are you even holding them we don't even have thumbs, further more why are you pointing them at our friends.
How about we just put the guns down, and try to talk out whatever is ailing us Cappy-Last Wednesday at 10:38 PM
Finally, a voice of reason. Village-Last Wednesday at 10:39 PM
Would you like me to stroke your mane, seeing as you are going to be replaced in next generation
pulls out a rifle Welp, now you all gotta go SigmasonicX-Last Wednesday at 10:39 PM
(uses magic to turn horn into gun) UberTag-Last Wednesday at 10:39 PM
Applejack is sensitive about ponies stroking her mane. It's secretly why she wears a hat all the time.
Oops. Village-Last Wednesday at 10:40 PM
I just also want to be invovled SigmasonicX-Last Wednesday at 10:41 PM
(forces the guns to go off so something can happen) UberTag-Last Wednesday at 10:41 PM
(What a troll!) Village-Last Wednesday at 10:42 PM The guns go off and there is a bunch of dust, luckily no one was shot SigmasonicX-Last Wednesday at 10:42 PM
Someone died of a heart attack Village-Last Wednesday at 10:43 PM
Maybe they will learn not to threaten each other with guns , right luna? SigmasonicX-Last Wednesday at 10:43 PM
Poor Pinkie Pie. She wasn't even involved in all this. Village-Last Wednesday at 10:44 PM
Huh, oh? Sorry getting ready for new comic SigmasonicX-Last Wednesday at 10:44 PM
(
) Yeah, that's what I get for eating healthy for once. Village-Last Wednesday at 10:45 PM
puts soul back in pinkies body You can never leave the torment of the mortal plane whilst i'm around SigmasonicX-Last Wednesday at 10:46 PM
Eh, sure, I was going to come back on my own anyway.
[Epilogue] Village-Last Wednesday at 10:47 PM
Dear princess celestia, today I learned that these ponies are crazy and i'm getting out of here SigmasonicX-Last Wednesday at 10:48 PM
(in prison, hooves sealed to prevent mane stroking)
The camera zooms in
Starlight has a lock of mane in her hooves that she's stroking
Blimey! I'm missing some stars!
[The End]
And my dumb idea.
SigmasonicX-Last Thursday at 4:50 PM
Random thought, I wonder if there's a fanfic where the EQG girls hack into a military base and fire a missile through the portal to help defeat a villain in Ponyland. Sylvee-Last Thursday at 4:51 PM
I wonder if there's a fanfic where the Ponies go to the real world to save One Direction from The Purge
Relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74KAGEe-IdU YouTube Jenny Nicholson One Direction during The Purge UberTag-Last Thursday at 5:00 PM
SigmasonicX-Last Thursday at 5:02 PM
Imagine a comic called "Shadow Play, alternate ending", where we see Human Applejack and Rarity fighting off American soldiers at a base while SciTwi hacks into the computers with Sunset looking over her shoulder. She hacks into the missile system. Cut the to a generic US president, who looks as his picture of Sonic and Shadow as he hears this news. He says, "Is this what you wanted?" The missile launches, and Sunset writes in her journal that they're good to go. In Ponyland, Twilight yells to get ready. Using a joystick, Human Rainbow Dash directs the missile into the statue at Canterlot High. Starswirl lifts the portal in front of the Pony of Shadows, and there's a close up panel of the end of the missile smashing into his teeth and breaking his face. Then it explodes. UberTag-Last Thursday at 5:02 PM
SigmasonicX-Last Thursday at 5:03 PM
Oh right, and Starlight gives the closing monologue.
About the meaning of war. Cappy-Last Thursday at 5:05 PM
give pinkie the joystick and i'm onboard SigmasonicX-Last Thursday at 5:07 PM
Alright. Rainbow can be the one talking to the president, trying to convince him this is right, before he looks at the Sonic and Shadow picture.
We can include Fluttershy fighting the US soldiers too Cappy-Last Thursday at 5:11 PM
can we work GUN in somehow
Xzeon-Last Thursday at 5:29 PM
Justice for Maria SigmasonicX-Last Thursday at 5:50 PM
I feel like having that picture be the only tie to Sonic is what makes it work. Cappy-Last Thursday at 5:53 PM
fair enough SigmasonicX-Last Thursday at 5:54 PM
There's a part where the soldiers throw tear gas at the girls, but then it shows Fluttershy with her eyes closed. She opens them suddenly and does a palm thrust that creates a shockwave blowing back all the gas. Cappy-Last Thursday at 6:17 PM https://media.giphy.com/media/3ohs7TQYVbkGc4CCOY/giphy.gif SigmasonicX-Last Thursday at 6:21 PM
Yes, exactly Cappy-Last Thursday at 6:24 PM
Shy palm technique!
SigmasonicX-Last Thursday at 6:35 PM
Owoo! K-kono chikara! Cappy-Last Thursday at 6:43 PM
It's too high for the Scroller to even measure! Xzeon-Last Thursday at 7:29 PM
Reminder that its official sonic canon that shadow tried to murder the leader of their country UberTag-Last Thursday at 7:49 PM directs Shadow the Hedgehog towards the White House Trigonometrize-Last Thursday at 10:18 PM
45 is the secret boss of Shadow the Hedgehog
But you have to find all the pee pee tapes scattered throughout the world to unlock him SigmasonicX-Last Thursday at 10:21 PM
"Where's that... DAMN fourth pee pee tape?"(edited) Sciz-Last Thursday at 10:22 PM
in the computer room, with Eggman's 30,000 emails
and, well, the invading alien force led by a guy named Black Doom just writes itself
For Friday's stream, let's try this again:
1. Your Name
And for Sunday's stream, usually I'd have three MLP episodes total, but two are premieres, and it didn't seem right to have a random third old episode, so we'll just go for a second Princess Tutu episode like before.
1. Tangled - Keeper of the Spire
2. MLP - A Matter of Principals
3. MLP - The Hearth's Warming Club
4. Super Gals 20
5. Princess Tutu 18
6. Princess Tutu 19
Some chats stories. Note that the icons are HUGE right now. I'll fix them tomorrow. (EDIT: Fixed)
Chained Prometheus-Last Monday at 4:07 PM
Agreed
Actually it'd be neat if the series finale brought it all back home for a finale kinda like S1 SigmasonicX-Last Monday at 4:10 PM
Fluttershy and Discord's wedding, at the same time as Starlight and Trixie's. Chained Prometheus-Last Monday at 4:10 PM
...
Shit, now I'm going to be heartbroken when this doesn't happen
;___; SigmasonicX-Last Monday at 4:11 PM
And they get a visit from the power couple
X
Chained Prometheus-Last Monday at 4:11 PM
Lyra and Bonbon
AKA Equestria's Most Blatant Power Couple
I'm just going to ignore it until it goes away, Sigma lol SigmasonicX-Last Monday at 4:12 PM
Lyra and Bon Bon already married in episode 200 Chained Prometheus-Last Monday at 4:12 PM
Actually, will we make it to Episode 200 in S9? SigmasonicX-Last Monday at 4:12 PM
Yes(edited) Chained Prometheus-Last Monday at 4:12 PM
Cause if so, that'd be an awesome celebration Cappy-Last Monday at 4:13 PM
is human twilight bypassing the pulping, printing and binding process and going straight to dating trees SigmasonicX-Last Monday at 4:13 PM
Might as well be Chained Prometheus-Last Monday at 4:13 PM
Sigma was referring to... someone else
Sciz-Last Monday at 4:16 PM
there was that one short about the greenhouse coming to life
something else bloomed also SigmasonicX-Last Monday at 4:16 PM
Chained Prometheus-Last Monday at 4:17 PM Scizlewd
SigmasonicX-Last Monday at 4:18 PM
Chained Prometheus-Last Monday at 4:19 PM
SigmasonicX-Last Monday at 4:19 PM
Xzeon-Last Monday at 4:21 PM
Looks like a power rangers villian SigmasonicX-Last Monday at 4:22 PM
(takes tree into tent) Cappy-Last Monday at 4:29 PM
This seems more like pollenation than blooming
I'm a busy bee! SigmasonicX-Last Monday at 4:30 PM
(sprouts
) Cappy-Last Monday at 4:31 PM
SigmasonicX-Last Monday at 4:34 PM
Circle of life, I guess
[The End] Cappy-Last Monday at 4:34 PM
Xzeon-Last Monday at 4:36 PM
Is
Is this canon SigmasonicX-Last Monday at 4:37 PM
I will make it canon Cappy-Last Monday at 4:38 PM
I'll help Xzeon-Last Monday at 4:38 PM
Sunbutt has become too powerful Cappy-Last Monday at 4:38 PM
I'll always support love between trees and non-trees Chained Prometheus-Last Monday at 4:39 PM
But what about apples, AJ?
Xzeon-Last Monday at 4:40 PM
Aj hides apples where she hides that rope Cappy-Last Monday at 4:40 PM
I could eat an apple for hours Xzeon-Last Monday at 4:40 PM
Chained Prometheus-Last Monday at 4:41 PM
Xzeon-Last Monday at 4:44 PM
SigmasonicX-Last Tuesday at 8:04 AM https://www.equestriadaily.com/2018/07/new-pinkie-pie-mlp-baking-book-set-to.html New Pinkie Pie MLP Baking Book Set to Release Next Year
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic News, Brony and bronies, my little pony merchandise, pony art, pony music, pony media
Amazed it took this long https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-odJUuPHw...RENIB5y--1GQqX04aJu3ACLcBGAs/s1600/Baking.jpg Cappy-Last Tuesday at 8:04 AM
NOT FINAL UberTag-Last Tuesday at 8:15 AM
I can see why Dash agreed to appear on the cover. Pinkie baked a cake for it - and one in Dash's colors no less - instead of one of her hateful pies. Cappy-Last Tuesday at 8:16 AM
i think the pies are full of love
it's dash who is full of hate for them hey its that hoy-Last Tuesday at 8:27 AM
Forced feeding fetish doesn't have to be about love Cappy-Last Tuesday at 9:04 AM
I wonder if they use Force Feedbag technology for that SigmasonicX-Last Tuesday at 9:07 AM
Of course! If I put it in a bag around Rainbow's mouth, she'd have no choice but to eat my pie! Cappy-Last Tuesday at 9:07 AM
SigmasonicX-Last Tuesday at 9:08 AM
That's banned by the Poneva Conventions.
Eh, I guess it's fine. Rainbow already defloured me. Cappy-Last Tuesday at 9:10 AM
SigmasonicX-Last Tuesday at 9:10 AM
From all the cake she's eating! You know what I mean?
Stick to your diet, sister. Cappy-Last Tuesday at 9:15 AM
But it's haaaaaaaard! SigmasonicX-Last Tuesday at 9:17 AM
Cappy-Last Tuesday at 9:20 AM
Don't worry, sister, I will vanquish this threat to your royal constitution!
*om*
*om*
*om*
(edited)
There, that should be sufficient.
{
}O o .
SigmasonicX-Last Tuesday at 9:32 AM
I can see that dream, sister.
(chomp)
(goes into food coma) Cappy-Last Tuesday at 9:39 AM
SigmasonicX-Last Tuesday at 10:03 AM
(slurp)
[The End] Cappy-Last Tuesday at 10:51 AM
speaking of cakes
i need to relink this
for this:
At words poetic, I'm so pathetic that I always have found it best,
Instead of getting 'em off my chest, to let 'em rest unexpressed. (
Aww.)
I hate parading my serenading as I'll probably miss a bar, (
Don't worry we'll help!)
But if this ditty is not so pretty
at least it'll tell you how great you are!
You're the top!
You're the Cloudeseum!
You're the top!
You're an uh,
museum! (
Right!)
You're a melody from a mix by Vinyl Scratch!
You're a Belgian waffle!
A Yearling novel,
A fresh cider batch!
You're the Sun!
You're the voice of reason! (
Ehh...)
You're the fun
of a buckball season!
I'm a mistimed loop, a clumsy swoop, a flop
But if, AJ, I'm the bottom you're the top! SigmasonicX-Last Tuesday at 11:00 AM
I don't know what song this is, but
Friday was Your Name, this time going as planned. Movie was still great, and we got good reactions from the people who hadn't seen it before.
On Sunday, we watched the following:
1. Tangled - Keeper of the Spire
*. EQG - School of Rock
2. MLP - A Matter of Principals
*. EQG - Last Day of School
3. MLP - The Hearth's Warming Club
4. Super Gals 20
5. Princess Tutu 18
6. Princess Tutu 19
Keeper of the Spire
This episode was a lot of fun, mainly thanks to Rapunzel definitely not getting annoyed. The woman did a great job being hilariously annoying.
With the hooded man appearing on the scroll, clearly this is going to tie into Kingdom Hearts.
The Spire at the end has cameos from a bunch of Disney objects. I remember Sleeping Beauty's spinning wheel and the Black Cauldron.
Hmm, not much else to say really. If I had time, I'd find more images.
Played Spike's Day Off, the new game from the creator of Day Dreaming Derpy. Like the other Spike-centered games, it's pretty short, but it's more complicated than the previous Spike ones and takes some cues from DDD by getting emotionally heavy at the end. The spritework continues to be great, and I continue to be less enthused by the profile images. There are a lot of good scenes with Ember and even Flurry Heart, and an odd bit of shipping with Daring Do that I found weird. I recommend checking it out.
Pictures I took for the chat.
I read a couple of fanfics.
RariTwi Extravaganza by RariTwi Squad is a bunch of short fics by various artists. They say there will be a new set every week, but these stories are from the end of June / start of July and there aren't any more, so (shrug). Anyway, the stories are well written enough, but the prompt of the first (and only) set of stories is making Rarity and Twilight mortal enemies, which didn't appeal to me at all. Oddly, three of the four feature Twilight being the unambiguously evil one, and the remaining one is too low stakes for that. I checked out the other works by these writers, leading to me glancing at Parma Quentaron Sintë Undómëo by Undome Tinwe, which is an anthology mostly taken up by RariTwi. I only looked at some shorter stories, but I didn't find them that appealing. About one of the writers, Cynewulf, it's weird, I feel like I keep thinking I've heard about this guy, but then I check his stories and don't recognize any of them. Anyway, I marked some of his RariTwi stories as "read later", so maybe I will remember something about him later.
~~~
Stream announcements!
Friday is some YouTube clips of live concerts.
On Sunday, the new episode pairs up Rarity and Twilight, so clearly it's time to look back on the episodes pairing th--... oh wait.
Alright, so maybe Starswirl instead... though most of those would be better suited for a Twilight Day and I don't think this is the right place for a two-parter rewatch.
So instead have two episodes that vaguely tie into the episode thematically.
1. Tangled - King Pascal
2. Friendship University
3. MMMystery on the Friendship Express
4. What About Discord?
5. Super Gals 21
6. Princess Tutu 20
Sunday was a pretty packed house, with everyone but Sylvee there. We watched:
1. Tangled - King Pascal
2. Friendship University
3. MMMystery on the Friendship Express
4. What About Discord?
5. Super Gals 21
6. Princess Tutu 20
7. Princess Tutu 21
With the Equestria Girls Choose Your Own Adventure stories "Text Support" and "Rarity Investigates: The Case of the Bedazzled Boot" throughout.
King Pascal
I wasn't really looking forward to this episode, and indeed I thought the stuff with the pygmies was kind of weak, but it was still a fun and enjoyable episode. The parts with the human characters were pretty good, and there were some fantastic visuals in this episode.
The firefly reminded me of the bees from Donkey Kong Country. Clearly once it turned blue, they should have thrown a barrel at it.
I was pretty surprised to see they hadn't gotten off the island by the end.
9. There's Something About Hook Foot - August 19, 2018
Hook Foot becomes in love with a mermaid who has some ulterior motives.
Evil mermaid incoming.
Still nothing for episode 10, "Happiness is..."
The title and the next bit of information makes we think this will be the episode where shit goes down.
I still enjoyed "Friendship University", and it got a pretty decent response.
Going from that episode to "MMMystery on the Friendship Express" was a bit jarring, due to the beginning of that episode having a lot of unusual angles, which exacerbated the difference in how the show looked then. I had forgotten a lot of small bits from the episode, including the mares hanging off of Pony Joe in Pinkie's story. I don't think the show has gone for different styles in the same way as Pinkie's stories again. One thing I still love is how they handle the clue of Rarity's fake eyelash, with it being clearly visible on the painting the entire time it should be, and Rarity fabulously covering her eye with her hair. The other clues aren't handled quite as well, regrettably. Episode is still a lot of fun.
One thing I mentioned that a lot of people didn't seem to know is this, mentioned on the episode's Wikia page:
On Twitter, the episode's writer Amy Keating Rogers revealed that she wrote a scene in which Twilight commends Applejack for her self-control, and Applejack confesses to taking a bite while Pinkie was asleep and leaving no clues. However, it was cut for time.
"What About Discord?" is definitely slow at points, but it has some scenes I really like, with Twilight's incredible geekiness at the start and her increasing not!jealousy, culminating in her breakdown at the end. This was also a good example of Discord teaching a "lesson" but really just being a jerk, and "A Matter of Principals" really needed a scene of him getting the tables turned on him like here.
Super Gals 21 was alright, with some fun moments of Ran just doing what she wants. Aya really just needs to move on.
We ended up watching two Princess Tutu episodes, and now the next episode is 22 for both this and Super Gals. This introduced Fakir's ability to make what he writes come true, and given how it looks like this will be a major focus of the last episodes, it felt odd for it to be introduced so late in the show. Still, it's an interesting direction to take the character.
For YouTube videos, I had planned a bunch of RariTwi videos, but... there really aren't that many. When searching, I found this:
The Enchanted video makes it about going to the Equestria Girls world, which works perfectly, but this also means making Flash Sentry the love interest for Twilight (and Pinkie his daughter) which is ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Overall, a pretty good stream.
==
I read The Dark Art of the Dress by MagnetBolt and I liked it a lot. It's a comedy where, during a bit of midnight inspiration, Rarity creates the perfect dress and becomes an alicorn. However, the dress is too perfect and must be sealed away. The writing is a bit odd, in that it's mostly pretty subdued but then occasionally has moments like the narration commenting on Spike not doing much, which felt pretty out of place. Besides that, it actually is a pretty interesting look at what would happen if Rarity became a princess for making really good dresses, with her dresses no longer living up to her standards and having to rediscover why she likes making them. Plus the explanation for why the perfect dress is so terrible is pretty good.
From the same author, I read Three Dates and a Prune, because RariTwi. Word of warning, though the fic is only rated T and thus appears without needing an account, there is a sex scene. No body parts are described, but it does get figurative, hence me not linking it. The premise is that Twilight is sure the solution to Equestria's diplomatic spat with Saddle Arabia is for her to marry their Prince Ali and she gets advice on winning his heart from Rarity. Rarity drops some not so subtle hints that she's interested in Twilight as she tries to help. So far so good, but then we get to the part where they practice dancing, they fall on each other, Rarity kisses her, then Twilight leaves awkwardly. Except wait, in between those last two moments, things escalate fast and the aforementioned sex scene happens. Considering things progress exactly as though they just kissed, this was definitely a huge case of self-indulgence on the part of the author. After that is the final chapter, which resolves things way too quickly. Well, I say resolves, but they don't really resolve the entire dispute with Saddle Arabia. Overall, there's some nice dialogue between Twilight and Rarity, and the premise has potential, but this story doesn't live up to it.
Last is A Requiem For Lost Libraries by Mitch H, which takes a sort of mythical route with the roots of the Library still carrying what could be called its ghost, which embeds itself in the magic of the Castle and does some things. It's a pretty interesting story, and I would love for the show to play up the idea of the Castle constantly shifting, though I felt it overplayed how cold and lifeless the Castle of Friendship is and the bit at the end describing Twilight's actions in the far future didn't quite feel in character for her.
Friday, we'll be watching Kubo and the Two Strings, but that's only an hour and 40 minutes, so we'll also watch an episode of The Simpsons.
1. The Simpsons - Itchy and Scratchy Land
2. Kubo and the Two Strings
With a video of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" somewhere in there.
And on Sunday, it's, why not, Rainbow Dash Day 3!
1. Tangled - There's Something About Hook Foot
2. The End in Friend
3. Tanks for the Memories
4. Wonderbolts Academy The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone
5. Super Gals 22
6. Princess Tutu 22
Next week has the "proper" airing of "Yakity-Sax", so we don't have to watch that again. We could probably finish Princess Tutu that week instead.
~~~
A new chapter of The Enchanted Kingdom by Monochromatic is out! Ironically, she hadn't been publishing new chapters of Crimson Lips, the story she was working on because she lost her enthusiasm about The Enchanted Kingdom, because she was excitedly working on new Enchanted Kingdom chapters.
Luna training Twilight to protect dreams is an interesting direction I didn't expect. It's a shame Luna is only doing this because she doesn't expect to be released.
Twilight really could have worded her question about whether Luna was imprisoning herself better. I'd say she should explain why she (Twilight) was imprisoned, but did no one explain that part to Luna yet?
Nice horse snuggling at the end. But still with a hint of conflict, as Rarity isn't ready to fully open up to Twilight yet. The next chapter will be heavy on the shipping, so that should be nice to check out next week.
I thought Human Fluttershy getting so upset, to the point of denting her car with a punch, was a bit extreme, but it made more sense after she talked to Pony Fluttershy and revealed she found all of her friends attractive and worried them knowing that would make them no longer trust her.
I really liked the moments of the two Fluttershys talking, including when both of them started freaking out about the possibility of thinking they're attracted to one girl but really being attracted to another, and Human Moon Dancer assumed they were twins.
The dialogue and side conversations are still good, particularly with Rainbow suggesting the two Fluttershys are going off to make out, and Sunset insisting she has this all figured out and and they're the two least likely to do this. Pinkie is the most likely.
I really, really don't buy Weeping Willow as a villain. The author shouldn't have made him so pathetic. Both of the Equestrian magic devices he had access to were pretty contrived: one solely to intercept magically transmitted messages and edit them, and one to manipulate emotions for non-ponies on a large scale.
~~~
And dumb chat based on an image. Will edit the size of the emotes later. (EDIT: Done)
Yes, we don't use paper money solely because of Pinkie.
(off to dinner) CappyToday at 7:33 PM
stop that. Chained PrometheusToday at 7:33 PM
We have the same problem over in the 2 legged world. Pinkie eats money in every dimension. XzeonToday at 7:33 PM
im on bitcoin. Y'all scrubs CappyToday at 7:33 PM
(later sigma!) UberTagToday at 7:33 PM
That wasn't money. That was dollar lettuce. Chained PrometheusToday at 7:33 PM
(gonna take a shower) XzeonToday at 7:33 PM
Sigma eat extra cake for me
No everyone leave me
[A different conversation later]
SigmasonicXToday at 9:13 PM
That emote story didn't have a proper ending!(edited)
︵ ┻━┻(edited)
(table flipping spills all the remaining money into
's mouth)
(hatches)
I'll take that!
Ooh, all the $1 bills have been exchanged for $100 bills!
Wait, how much is that in bits?
... Chained PrometheusToday at 9:16 PM
I need to have a chat with Princess Celestia, it seems... SigmasonicXToday at 9:17 PM
One hundred dollars is worth one bit. Exchange rate set.
(estate becomes worthless)
CappyToday at 9:18 PM
I wonder how Principal Celestia will feel about that...(edited)
TRADE WAR! SigmasonicXToday at 9:19 PM
(human) : Yes, clearly I have political power, so have at you, me!
(conquers Dougworld)
(riding human)
Well this got out of hand.
(gets bored, unconquers Dougworld)
The legacy of this time remains, children, in how we still use coin change.
(human) : That doesn't make sense!(edited)
[The End] Chained PrometheusToday at 9:24 PM
All because Sunset wanted to toss some $$$ at Twilight lmao
Friday, we watched both Kubo and the Two Strings, and the Simpsons episode "Itchy and Scratchy Land". The latter was pretty good, with a lot of great gags. There was more focus on the road trip than I expected.
The former was received well. Here's what we said about it in the chat. The first part was said during the movie, hence the warning.
SylveeLast Friday at 10:22 PM
Spoilers for Kubo: I feel like the Monkey and Beetle being his parents kind of undermines a lot of the stuff they were setting up earlier on, and how Hanzo is described and how the Beetle acts don't match up at all
I would have much rather that the monkey was an entirely new character rather then just being the reincarnation of his mom SigmasonicXLast Friday at 10:24 PM
I felt his companions being his parents and him not even realizing until it was too late brought a lot of tragedy to them dying for real SylveeLast Friday at 10:29 PM
But he already had accepted that they were dead it just feels kinda cheap to bring them back again. It could have been just as tragic if they were two new characters that he had grown extremely close to because they effectively became his parents. I thought it was clever that the monkey acted like his mom, but was really disappointed that she turned out to literally be his mom. I would have preferred if that was just subtext Chained PrometheusLast Friday at 11:46 PM
I'm kinda with SigmasonicX on this.
And tbh I never even considered the idea that they weren't his parents. It was way too obvious that was where the story was going UberTagLast Friday at 11:47 PM
Yeah, they made that quite clear when they were arguing after the sword retrieval. SigmasonicXLast Friday at 11:47 PM
Also rewatching, I had forgotten about the aspect of the mother not realizing
And the shared realization when the aunt explained it to them Chained PrometheusLast Friday at 11:48 PM UberTag I mean I knew Monkey was the Mom right away and when Beetle was introduced, I figured he was the Dad. Especially with the memory loss. UberTagLast Friday at 11:49 PM
Thing is... even though it was easy to connect the dots as a viewer, I still empathized deeply with the characters and felt the impact that said realization had on them. Chained PrometheusLast Friday at 11:49 PM
Oh same. Not arguing on that.
It didn't land quite as strongly for me
But I think it was mostly done well
The one thing that legit surprised me was how the story with the Grandfather was resolved.
Did NOT expect him to be turned mortal with amnesia UberTagLast Friday at 11:51 PM
That seems to be a point of contention for a lot of people. They feel like he got off easy. But I look at it as a way for Kubo to have some semblance of a family and to reverse the damage that his grandfather caused as a god by shaping a new story for him. Chained PrometheusLast Friday at 11:51 PM
Yeah, if anything I SylveeLast Friday at 11:52 PM
I thought it was pretty bad that they redeemed him, especially since they don't bring up his daughters who died because they followed his orders. Either redeem all of them or none of them Chained PrometheusLast Friday at 11:52 PM
*I'd sooner say the issue is that the sisters didn't have any real sort of resolution aside from being killed off UberTagLast Friday at 11:52 PM
Yeah, they were pretty much fodder. Chained PrometheusLast Friday at 11:52 PM
Yeah, I'd agree there. SigmasonicXLast Friday at 11:53 PM
It's sort of like Radditz, with no one acknowledging them after they die Chained PrometheusLast Friday at 11:53 PM
Pretty much SylveeLast Friday at 11:53 PM
To be clear I think the movie has a LOT going for it, primarily the art, the setting and lore, I think that it does a fairly good job at having a more mature tone while not being too intense for kids, and a lot of the dialogue is VERY well written, but once the story gets past the first act I feel like it takes a pretty big nose dive in quality and I have so many issues with the story that it's hard for me to really like the film, and I really do want to like it. Also I felt like a lot of the humor was extremely forced at points Chained PrometheusLast Friday at 11:54 PM
Yeah, I kinda agree with you on that Sylvee.
I enjoyed the film a lot. But aside from that insanely awesome opening act, I don't love it.
There's a TON of potential there though.
Like I said, still probably an 8.5 for me though
Because it does get a LOT right
Sunday was Rainbow Dash Day 3, or RariDash Day.
1. Tangled - There's Something About Hook Foot
2. The End in Friend
3. Tanks for the Memories
4. The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone
* G3 - Rainbow Dash's Party
5. Super Gals 22
6. Princess Tutu 22
*. EQG - Opening Night throughout
There's Something About Hook Foot
This episode went in some unexpected directions. First of all, besides the mermaid, we have fishmen too! And from the synopsis, I was expecting a more comical story where the mermaid turns out to be over the top evil, but no, we got a sweet love story.
Rapunzel and Eugene coming into conflict about how love works was fun, though I was disappointed to see Raps upset about his previous love life now; I thought that part in "The Return of Strongbow" where she was perfectly fine with him having slept with some warlord's twin daughters was a nice moment. Though I suppose she was really just holding onto that until she could use it here.
I was disappointed that Raps and Eugene's angry song didn't go on for longer, but then Hook Foot turned out to be a surprisingly good singer.
The fishmen's coral bomb was neat. It was kind of odd that the heroes were so eager to fight the fishmen after learning they were acting on behalf of an undersea kingdom, but I guess it isn't recognized as a sovereign nation by anyone on land.
I hadn't seen either other MLP episode for a while, and I had forgotten a lot about each, including Fluttershy making Rainbow cry at the end of "Tanks for the Memories" and Pinkie's weird King Grover fixation in "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone". Both were good. I'm sure I could say more about both if I had the time.
The G3 special was very necessary. This one is from after Rainbow changed voice actors, so no "darling"; her catchphrase is, "That's just dashing!" now. To make up for this, I included a montage of Rainbow darlings from YouTube, of course. The BGM was from the G3 song "The Colors of the Rainbow", so as requested, we listened to that later.
We watched the EQG special "Opening Night" throughout even though it wasn't particularly centered on Rarity or Rainbow, because I couldn't just not play Disco Rarity.
Super Gals 22 was a lot of fun, with Ran rampaging through a school festival and everyone else happening to show up. Highlights were her punching out everyone in the haunted house and the endless para para dance contest. Oh, and I guess there was some romance with Aya and Otohata.
Princess Tutu 22 made things seem like they're going into the endgame, with a bunch of interesting revelations. Looking forward to finishing it this Friday.
After showing the PMV based on The Greatest Showman, I just had to show the original song due to its fantastic choreography.
~~~
In fanfic news, Monochromatic updated both of her ongoing stories!
With Crimson Lips, I actually did write a review on FimFiction, so I'll post that here.
Oh nice, both this and TEK updated at the same time!
So Rarity works for Luna? Interesting.
I'm curious about how Celestia's good intentions will inevitably end up interfering in Twilight and Rarity's relationship.
Twilight completely missing potential magic lessons by not taking to people is a neat variation of her being tasked to make some friends. Plus, in general, I love this sort of magic setting.
The descriptions in this chapter were wonderful, really setting up the atmosphere of the mansion, and Celestia's mystery.
I was hoping for a date chapter at some point, and I got it! It was very cute seeing them mess with people using their mind meld, and generally for them to just have fun together. It's nice to see that they're respectful of each others' privacy like this. Good chapter.
There's another new Crimson Lips chapter!
Here's the review I left.
Glad to see Twilight and Rarity properly meet, and it's quite enthralling. I was expecting something a bit more antagonistic between them, with Rarity not trusting Twilight for being Celestia's student while she teaches Sweetie, but it seems like Rarity will be willing to look past that next time they talk. It's nice to see Pinkie here. While I wonder what the others are like here, you don't have to feel obligated to include all the Mane Six.
I'm curious to see how things progress toward the flash forward parts.
~~~
Stream announcements!
On Friday, we'll be finishing off Princess Tutu, with episodes 23-26.
MLP is airing "Yakity-Sax" in its proper place, so no point in watching it again so soon. Tangled is going on a break after this episode, so I'm swapping in Big Hero 6 the Series. Compared to Tangled, it's actually way easier to skip episodes; you don't even have to watch the pilot! I mean, unless you really need more expansion on Baymax coming back and then the heroes continuing to fight crime than what the end of the movie provided. I'm not interested in showing many episodes, so we should be all done by the time Tangled returns.
For the G1 story, I wanted something that was just half an hour. Between this and the evil flower story with Peter Cullen playing a crab, I thought this penguin story would be a bit more fun as a group watch.
XzeonToday at 2:39 PM
I legit think if fox news said chopping off ur dick with a spoon would help trump they would do it
Only the dick god can save trump! We must harvest all the peni!
"Yeah I believe that"
UberTagToday at 2:41 PM
RIP Trouser Snake
What's a trouser snake?
They're snakes that like to live in trousers. I take care of some. SigmasonicXToday at 2:42 PM
RhomegaToday at 2:42 PM
I'll tell you when you're older...(edited) UberTagToday at 2:44 PM
You should see Discord's trouser snake. It's HUGE. Can barely fit it in my... cottage.
(He adopted one of my trouser snakes because it was taking up too much space. The other animals were getting squeezed out of their living space.) SigmasonicXToday at 2:45 PM
Wait, is this a euphemism, or...
I'll tell you when you're older. UberTagToday at 2:45 PM
Aren't we the same age? SigmasonicXToday at 2:46 PM
Well I have some theories about that
Rarity is WAAAAAAAAAAAAY older. UberTagToday at 2:47 PM
Well, there was that one time I reversed my age to relive my childhood as a filly and didn't reverse it back. Man, was THAT ever confusing for my Dad. SigmasonicXToday at 2:49 PM
But then I got a bunch of new "chipmunk cheeks" style nicknames. FranlingToday at 2:49 PM
SigmasonicXToday at 2:51 PM
I admit, I'm even older than that.
Sweetie Belle is actually my great grand daughter. UberTagToday at 2:52 PM
Am I still your sister too? Because that would be REALLY weird. SigmasonicXToday at 2:53 PM
... Yes. Your father was adopted, so it's okay.
I was actually Rarity's babysitter when she was young.(edited)
And I'm Scootaloo's daughter.
Fluttershy, baby! I brought your lunch!
Moooooom, you're making me look uncool!
I have baby carrots!
SigmasonicXToday at 3:00 PM
(pets
)
Someday you'll get on my level. RhomegaToday at 3:01 PM
This is all your fault, isn't it Starlight? SigmasonicXToday at 3:01 PM
(moves the universe around her as she stays still, thus appearing to fly)
I blame the dragon.
Hey, I'm not doing anything!
This is simply the true state of the world.
There is no God. There is no Devil. There is only me.
(pets
and gives her baby carrots) XzeonToday at 3:07 PM
this is the best chapter of my fan fiction yet! SigmasonicXToday at 3:07 PM
(eats
) UberTagToday at 3:08 PM
All I know is I want in on some of this baby carrot action. SigmasonicXToday at 3:08 PM
(gives baby carrots that conveniently look like popcorn)(edited) UberTagToday at 3:09 PM
SigmasonicXToday at 3:10 PM
I still don't get the trouser snakes.
When you're older!
[The End] XzeonToday at 3:12 PM
Great job everyone UberTagToday at 3:14 PM whips out his trouser snake https://i.imgur.com/OPzgE4z.jpg SigmasonicXToday at 3:14 PM
Stream followup
On Friday's stream, we finished Princess Tutu, and I liked the ending. Fakir finding birds sexy was a running joke in the chat, but we learned that all the main characters learned to appreciate birds. About the series overall, I enjoyed the comedic moments and the arc finales, but I felt like it was spinning its wheels plotwise a lot. I was pretty glad Duck got to do the final dance in her true form, instead of using HONOR or whatever to transform into Princess Tutu. Tutu was a creation of Drosselmeyer, after all. Looking at the manga, from the user reviews, it seems pretty jank. It was released between seasons 1 and 2, so it has its own ending for one thing. Art looks bad too.
Also, Princess Tutu comic idea.
Panel 1: Establishing shot of Fakir and duck Duck at the lake in the ending.
2: Duck is waiting in a pile of clothes with a happy look.
3: We see Fakir is writing a story called "The Duck Who Suddenly Became a Girl"
4: Fakir has a sudden realization and blushes as he thinks of Raven Mytho.
5: He scribbles something down.
6: Duck is now an Anthro Duck (fully dressed), with a
expression
7: Fakir happily dances with Anthro Duck, while Duck has a forced smile and a sweat drop.
I was planning on holding an RP on Saturday, but things didn't work out.
On Sunday, we watched the following:
1. Tangled - Happiness Is...
2. Big Hero 6 episode 2 - Issue 88
3. G1 - Baby It's Cold Outside (half hour total)
4. Super Gals episode 23
5. Revolutionary Girl Utena episodes 1-2
Tangled shorts throughout
I'll just post the Tangled shorts below where I usually post YouTube videos, since those were the only YouTube videos we watched.
Happiness Is...
This was a great episode. I love how much they're willing to push Rapunzel into, well, non-princessy territory, with that moment where she cackles about having tricked everyone. The episode wasn't quite as emotionally hard hitting as I was hoping, but the stuff with the lanterns was still good.
I was surprised to see the pygmies so heavily involved in this story, since they weren't in the previous episode.
Rapunzel's vision of her parents was sweet, and it was pretty funny when other people started coming into her hallucination. I was surprised they didn't have her start seeing Eugene and the others when she tricked them. I was a bit disappointed they went really surface level with Eugene and Lance's hallucinations, but Cassandra and Hook Foot's were nice. For some reason, I just loved Rapunzel's plain expression while everyone else was playing with the totem. When the totem went red, we got VARIAN out of nowhere. It didn't mean much, but at least his fans are happy. The totem itself was very One Ring like, of course, including it making itself hard for someone to willingly destroy it. The sequence were it was destroyed was pretty neat.
I liked the fact that Rapunzel felt just as homesick after all this, but she would have to get over this on her own. Her sending the lantern back home was sweet. Though seriously, when she gets back, she needs to have a word with everyone about littering.
Big Hero 6 isn't a hard concept to get, so I felt comfortable skipping the pilot episode. We did have someone who hadn't seen the movie, but he seemed to follow everything. Response to this episode was more positive than I expected, so I suppose I'll lean toward skipping fewer episodes.
The G1 story "Baby, It's Cold Outside" also got a pretty positive reception, especially during the part where King Charlatan casually freezes his son's duck friend and then goes back to using his machine. It was actually surprisingly close to a FiM two parter, complete with the smart unicorn (Galaxy) solving most of the problems herself. You know, I'm kind of surprised that FiM hasn't done the "villain hurts a person close to them, and that guilts them into being good" story yet. The action scenes actually feel like they'd be beyond what FiM would allow too, with the yeti throwing sharp icicles at the ponies and Meghan with the clear intent of impaling them, and getting pretty close.
Super Gals episode 23 involved an abusive teacher, who actually went as far as to hit Ran, so that was pretty intense. Thankfully, good wins in the end.
After that, we started Utena, and it occurs to me I neglected to post the famous opening.
I knew this was an influential anime, but it really struck me just how much Kill La Kill was paying homage to this. Other things that surprised me were that Utena was a bit goofier of a character than I expected, since I recall hearing complaints that she was bland; and the gay aspect seemed almost incidental, with none of the characters appearing to show any real interest in the same gender at this point. That does change later, I'm assured. I had assumed before watching that Utena was fighting for Anthy because they were childhood friends and had fallen in love, but while Utena does have something similar going on, it was a guy who she met as a child (Anthy's brother I assume). I also didn't expect for there to be an overt secret organization doing things. With a name like End of the World, I have to assume they're doing moral and upright things. Anyway, I enjoyed the two episodes we watched, even if it continued the theme of girls being hit.
After that, we started Utena, and it occurs to me I neglected to post the famous opening.
I knew this was an influential anime, but it really struck me just how much Kill La Kill was paying homage to this. Other things that surprised me were that Utena was a bit goofier of a character than I expected, since I recall hearing complaints that she was bland; and the gay aspect seemed almost incidental, with none of the characters appearing to show any real interest in the same gender at this point. That does change later, I'm assured. I had assumed before watching that Utena was fighting for Anthy because they were childhood friends and had fallen in love, but while Utena does have something similar going on, it was a guy who she met as a child (Anthy's brother I assume). I also didn't expect for there to be an overt secret organization doing things. With a name like End of the World, I have to assume they're doing moral and upright things. Anyway, I enjoyed the two episodes we watched, even if it continued the theme of girls being hit.
In all seriousness, I'm glad Utena seems to be getting a warm reception from the stream so far. It's my all-time favorite anime series, so I'm excited to be watching it all over again with you guys.
Utena is probably the anime that had the most influence on Steven Universe. There are a LOT of direct references, from a pearl Swordfight that uses angles right from the show, to Ruby and Sapphire's designs.
You're in for a very wild ride with Utena if you're only a few episodes in. It remains one of my top 3 anime.
Utena is probably the anime that had the most influence on Steven Universe. There are a LOT of direct references, from a pearl Swordfight that uses angles right from the show, to Ruby and Sapphire's designs.
You're in for a very wild ride with Utena if you're only a few episodes in. It remains one of my top 3 anime.
You're always welcome to pop into the weekly stream and join us. Utena's likely to remain a fixture in the Sunday afternoon/evening lineup for the remainder of the year.
Would be fun chatting you up on Utena again, too. I mean, it's only been what... 15+ years since we did that last. Man, where does the time go? ^^;
In all seriousness, I'm glad Utena seems to be getting a warm reception from the stream so far. It's my all-time favorite anime series, so I'm excited to be watching it all over again with you guys.
You're always welcome to pop into the weekly stream and join us. Utena's likely to remain a fixture in the Sunday afternoon/evening lineup for the remainder of the year.
Would be fun chatting you up on Utena again, too. I mean, it's only been what... 15+ years since we did that last. Man, where does the time go? ^^;
Utena is probably the anime that had the most influence on Steven Universe. There are a LOT of direct references, from a pearl Swordfight that uses angles right from the show, to Ruby and Sapphire's designs.
You're in for a very wild ride with Utena if you're only a few episodes in. It remains one of my top 3 anime.
You're always welcome to pop into the weekly stream and join us. Utena's likely to remain a fixture in the Sunday afternoon/evening lineup for the remainder of the year.
Would be fun chatting you up on Utena again, too. I mean, it's only been what... 15+ years since we did that last. Man, where does the time go? ^^;
For those just coming into the thread because they got an alert, that's because I did another look back at the old MLP Community threads and I @'d everyone whose post I comment on and made it to Era.
~~~
Stream announcements!
Sylvee is handling this Friday's stream again, and he'll be showing the Neil Breen movie Fateful Findings, and then a video by Jenny Nicholson, who does quirky reviews and notably was the voice of Twilight in Friendship is Witchcraft and Kimi Sparkle.
And on Sunday, MLP is back, so we'll be having StarTrix day!
1. No Second Prances
2. All Bottled Up
3. To Change a Changeling
4. On the Road to Friendship
5. The Simpsons season 28 episode 6 - There Will Be Buds
6. Super Gals episode 24
7. Revolutionary Girl Utena episode 3
Putting the premiere at the end of the pony episodes because I feel like it's better to demonstrate the progression in their "friendship". Plus I didn't want to end on "To Change a Changeling".
UberTag wanted to show an example of a later Simpsons episode that was actually good, and would tie into "On the Road to Friendship".
EDIT: On request, removing "To Change a Changeling".
~~~
On a whim, I decided to read the classic MLP fanfic Past Sins. For those unfamiliar, this is a story written during season 1 where Nightmare Moon's essence is reincarnated as a filly named Nyx, and Twilight and Luna and the others have to figure out what to make of this. Also there's an evil cult I guess. Similar to Fallout Equestria, this fic got a lot of fan art (despite Nyx having a pretty weak design) and even some spinoffs from other writers. The version on FimFiction is a revision that uses the season 2 version of Luna and from what I understand generally makes the story more readable. However, what I wanted to read was the version that captured hearts and minds, and thankfully, the original is still available as a Google Doc.
Incidentally, I'm surprised to see that the author, Pen Stroke, (1) remains decently active and even has a story coming out soon according to his blog posts, (2) isn't just doing Past Sins sequels, though there are plenty of those, and (3) has been keeping his stories up to date with the show, instead of staying in a season 2 time period. His latest Past Sins sequel even involves Starlight.
Here's the chat leading up to my whim, which includes a discussion of Sunset and a different fanfic.
SigmasonicXLast Monday at 9:04 PM
(looks at ED story updates post) https://www.fimfiction.net/story/397027/ranger Fimfiction Wanderer D Ranger
Sunset Shimmer escapes Equestria... with unforeseen consequences.
163 chapters?!
And incomplete?!
And it started this year?! SylveeLast Monday at 9:12 PM
Clearly he's just posting text-based retelling of his Xcom games
[...]
ScizLast Monday at 10:23 PM
Wanderer D isn't the only guy doing substantial daily updates by any means, but it's still crazy
I'm a sucker for XCOM crossovers and I still bailed on that after a couple months SigmasonicXLast Monday at 11:12 PM
Was it any good as far as you read? SylveeLast Monday at 11:19 PM
IDK I decided to look at the latest chapter and it was Chrysalis and Luna being concerned that Sunset was using Blood Magic
So it sounds kinda bad CappyLast Monday at 11:31 PM
Not b-blood magic! She should be going MEC. OrcastarLast Monday at 11:37 PM
B-blood magic is trash, o-blood magic is where it's at. CappyLast Monday at 11:39 PM
O really? OrcastarLast Monday at 11:47 PM
O positive.
[...]
ScizLast Tuesday at 11:13 AM
Chrysalis and Luna being concerned about Sunset using blood magic was also where it was when I checked out about a hundred chapters ago
so I'm guessing plot progression has been sluggish SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 11:17 AM
One chapter per turn
Anyway, sounds like one of those stories where Sunset is totally awesome and the strongest ever, and everyone else is harrumphing and saying "Most unorthodox" ScizLast Tuesday at 11:20 AM
that is correct yes SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 11:20 AM
You know, it somehow didn't occur to me until now that Sunset is the perfect character for "canon sue" stories like that. CappyLast Tuesday at 11:22 AM
bakana ScizLast Tuesday at 11:22 AM
that's more or less what Rainbow Rocks was CappyLast Tuesday at 11:22 AM
she's not particularly good at anything though SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 11:24 AM
I suppose that's true, Sciz. I've complained before that she is given roles other characters normally would have handled, like getting everyone to stop fighting before the climax.
In Rainbow Rocks
Sunset still hasn't really developed a niche on the team, so she largely just does "thing needed to progress the story"
Basically the sole purpose of her mind reading CappyLast Tuesday at 11:26 AM
which she uses very poorly
HEY YOU'RE THE VILLAIN SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 11:27 AM
But when she does, it progresses the plot
Come to think of it, she plays a similar role to season 1 Luna as a good self insert character.(edited)
Actually that reminds me, I'm kind of interested in reading Past Sins at some point just as a look at fandom history. ScizLast Tuesday at 11:32 AM
it's... decent
that's about all I can remember of it to say
goes off the rails a bit near the end SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 11:33 AM
I remember when all that Nyx fan art was coming out and I was like, "... This design is the blandest thing ever." ScizLast Tuesday at 11:34 AM
I have no earthly idea why it became the massive thing that it was SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 11:34 AM
People were really desperate for Luna
And my impression is that Nyx was a woobie sue, which can be really effective if it's your first time seeing one. The term refers to fan fic characters designed just to make you feel bad for them, for those unfamiliar.
Oh right, the version of Past Sins online now is a revised version. Is the original still up?
Actually, if we're talking about it, I might as well take a look and--DAMN this is long CappyLast Tuesday at 11:40 AM
i remember that in art all the pictures of luna doing every characters favourite thing and getting along with all of them SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 11:58 AM
Yeah, she didn't have a personality yet, so people just had her do whatever the other characters were doing
... Like Sunset, actually. SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 12:00 PM
Anyway, I'm way more interested in reading the version of Past Sins people were obsessed over in 2011 than the late 2012 revision on FimFiction(edited) ScizLast Tuesday at 12:02 PM https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jTrcxbye9NPKHn9Iqp0AVHwdb9a11WVpxuudQZKMqkk/edit
Google Docs Past Sins Master Post
Past Sins Master Post Latest Revision (Compatible with Season 2 Canon) Fimfiction Link Google Doc Chapters || Prologue || --Chapters -- || 1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9 || 10 || 11 || 12 || 13 || 14 || 15 || 16 || 17 || 18 || 19 || 20 || 21 || Sidestories ||...
looks like it's still around, surprisingly SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 12:09 PM
Thanks
Major revisions like updating Luna to be like her season 2 version and replacing the original version rub me the wrong way. Though I suppose that's hypocritical, since I did the same thing with the opening chapters of Captain N 2006 SylveeLast Tuesday at 12:58 PM
Sigma not maintaining the integrity of his original characters SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 1:00 PM
The original version of Level 2 has Alucard!
He didn't do anything because I hadn't played any Castlevania games with him
Which leads directly into the following chat story
CappyLast Tuesday at 1:01 PM
sounds like a fun chance to have a cosmic mane transformation sequence SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 1:01 PM
You mean in Past Sins? The revision made it so the entire story takes place after Luna Eclipsed
That reminds me, the Nightmare Rarity arc in the official comics showed Luna transforming from her season 1 to her season 2 design. Which confused the hell out of people because dialogue indicated the story took place during season 3. SylveeLast Tuesday at 1:07 PM
The comics aren't canon anyway SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 1:08 PM
u rnt canon CappyLast Tuesday at 1:08 PM
SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 1:09 PM
At last, you have witnessed my transformation into my season 2 design!
Oh wow! CappyLast Tuesday at 1:15 PM
Time to go to the thousandth Summer Sun Celebration SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 1:18 PM
I'd love to go with you!
Sorry, I don't like friends. CappyLast Tuesday at 1:19 PM
Trust me, Twilight, Ocellus has been my friend for years. SylveeLast Tuesday at 1:20 PM
I don't believe you CappyLast Tuesday at 1:20 PM
Sweetie Belle is really sad about not having her cutie mark. SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 1:20 PM
I can help with that CappyLast Tuesday at 1:20 PM
have you guys met Gilda I forget
what year this is
I love you, Tank. SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 1:22 PM
I met Gilda, but I'm not sure about the others.
Gilda? You mean Gabby? CappyLast Tuesday at 1:23 PM
Who are all these ponies!? And where's Tempest? SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 1:23 PM
Finally this design is relevant again!
CappyLast Tuesday at 1:23 PM
SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 1:24 PM
You're pretty cute, wanna go out?
Oh, sure CappyLast Tuesday at 1:24 PM
Spike, avert your eyes!
SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 1:25 PM
(sits on egg)
(cracks)
Oh come on!
Hello there! I'm evil again! CappyLast Tuesday at 1:26 PM
Oh no! SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 1:26 PM
(does nothing)
Little Mac, anything seem strange?
Ee-nope CappyLast Tuesday at 1:29 PM
Mini-Twilight, change the time back to normal, please.(edited)
Or I'll use this Alicorn Amulet to do big evils! SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 1:30 PM
(punches
)
The time! Of course!
There, everything should be normal now that I set the clock.
Yay CappyLast Tuesday at 1:32 PM
My years of friendship with Ocellus... gone...
I went to her wedding!
It's fading away
Apples! SigmasonicXLast Tuesday at 1:33 PM
It's alright, we can forge new memories! Isn't that right, honey?
Meowth, that's right!
[The End] CappyLast Tuesday at 1:36 PM
UberTagLast Tuesday at 1:52 PM
That was highly amusing. CappyLast Tuesday at 2:00 PM
Time confusion is fun
... I haven't actually gotten around to reading it. I've been busier than I expected >_>
But I did go back to see how people reacted to the story back on GAF.
* Post - August 18, 2011 - The first time Past Sins seems to come up is when it's well in progress or perhaps ended. OMG Aero mentions the author states Twilight doesn't get hanged despite the cover image in a comment, which implies this is before it actually ended. The Google doc doesn't have dates, so I'm not sure where Past Sins was on this date. Anyway, Past Sins is recommended despite Calpain wanting a shorter story, and Aero states the story gets addictive after chapter 10. I suppose I'll see.
* The post includes a link to this seapony Belle Eve art.
* Next post, DeadPhoenix mentions they're on chapter 9 and it isn't as good as Fallout: Equestria, but still pretty good.
* Captain Fish states he really likes a comic posted above, so I went up the page for that.
* Post - This comic, posted by Orcastar , is about Rainbow Dash becoming a Wonderbolt and then cutting to her when she's old. Now that Rainbow is a Wonderbolt, it's interesting looking back on comics like this. Since it's just the way things are now, it's a bit difficult to find this emotional again.
* Post - On the subject of the comic, someone brings up that it's strange that Spitfire is depicted as looking the same when Dash was young, and Owlowiscious brings up Lauren Faust saying that the ponies grow to look like the Mane Six just two or three years after birth. I don't remember ever hearing this. Not putting you on the spot to remember this seven years later or anything.
* After that post, Calpain mentions he thought Past Sins was decent but it didn't hook him.
* Post - Myke talks about their group watch of the G1 pilot, Rescue at Midnight Castle. I vaguely recall people in the chat mentioning that they used to have group watches, but this is my first time seeing them come up in my thread re-reads. Myke's also way older than I thought, which I already brought up in the chat. He goes over his history with G1, which is pretty neat to see.
* The post after, Quinnjaminn also talks about Past Sins, saying the first few chapters didn't hook him. He instead recommends Fallout Equestria, and also Simply Rarity (the thread uses a Google Docs link) and Progress (the thread uses a Fanfiction.net link). I suppose I'll check out those two stories later (I still have no intention of reading Fallout Equestria). Jeez, Progress is a lot longer than I expected; I only knew about the abacus stuff.
And that's the only time Past Sins comes up in the first Community thread. I did also search for Nyx, though.
* Post - September 28, 2011 - Pandaman posts this comic by shaloneSK showing Pinkie and Discord getting together and having a child. It's funny to think of how Pinkie X Discord was the dominant Discord ship besides with Celestia and it basically died once "Keep Calm and Flutter On" came around. We still see plenty of DiscoLestia, though. About the artist, she did an MLP art commission as recently as last year. She mainly focuses on general furry art, it seems, and was pretty active until a drop in activity this year.
* Post - That was all setting up for this post. Thnikkama says, "Panda, no" and Pandaman responds that at least it isn't Nyx, with the post below agreeing. So despite the neutral to positive responses Past Sins has in August, it seems like the thread has largely gotten tired of Nyx herself by this point.
* Post - More art of Pinkie and Discord's son from the comic, Distort Sphere, posted by Slamtastic .
* The post after that leads to Pandaman joking they'll keep an eye out for Nyx X Distort art, and the posts immediately following continue this apparent distaste of Nyx.
The next time Past Sins comes up is in the second Community thread.
* Post - April 30, 2012 - Slamtastic posts a fake description of a Smurfs style MLP movie that will come out in 15 years, which also mentions bronies will like it anyway and declare it the greatest events since Past Sins became show canon. It's kind of funny that the actual Movie, which no matter how you look at it, is better than a Smurfs style movie, ended up being much more divisive.
15 years from now there is a MLP FiM movie in the style of The Smurfs/Alvin and the Chipmunks that features a Brony as the male human lead.
Brought to you by Dreamworks Studios and Twentieth Century Fox
This Summer, get ready, because this movie will make you A little hoarse!
CGI Applejack yells Yeehaw! and shitty licensed pop rock music starts playing
Various scenes of the ponies messing up human stuff and the chubby male lead looking exasperated while toilet paper flies across his face or something
Dash makes a terrible pun
Music stops
She looks straight at the camera for 2 seconds and then says What? Its 20% cooler! While making the dreamworks face
But can these ponies Help their friend find true love?
Cue generic blonde actress as female love interest, way out of male leads league
Trailer ends with ponies running through new york or whatever big city the movie is set in
bronies go nuts and claim it as the greatest event since Past Sins got adapted into show canon
* Post - October 27, 2014 - Not actually a Past Sins mention, but Lupin asks why people dislike Equestria Girls. I respond, and while I try to say I'm alright with the movies, I (SigmasonicX ) come off as really harsh. Just want to apologize for that.
And the last actual mention of Past Sins!
* Post - March 20, 2017 - Bricks (DemWalls then) is discussing with me the popularity of The Enchanted Library. I acquiesce that it's at least decently popular, but it isn't Fallout Equestria level at all. He explains that's on a different level of popularity than he meant, but then says he met fans that didn't even know what Past Sins is, so nothing can be taken for granted.
So there you have it, all mentions of Past Sins, which I dredged up for no reason in particular. Thank you for your time. Now to actually read the story at some point.
Alright, so EtcetEra Hangouts is being removed, and instead there will be an Entertainment board, with Hangouts threads being split up between EtcetEra and Entertainment. This means that both this thread and the community thread will be on the same board, which is a bit awkward. For now, the best route is probably to continue to split discussion as is. That is to say, the community thread will include discussion of community events like streams and RPs along with fanfic discussion, and the season 8 OT will discuss the episodes, comics, and non-fanfic fan content. When season 9 comes around, we'll try a combined thread that covers all topics, assuming this board change lasts.
I'd like some feedback about that, actually. Would you guys be upset about fanfic discussion and episode discussion in the same thread? What about discussion of things we stream, which include a lot of non-Pony stuff?
While I'm here, I'll cover Friday's stream. We watched the Neil Breen movie Fateful Findings and a video from Jenny Nicholson, embedded in the below quote, where I give my thoughts on the latter.
Before I watch the new(ish) episode, I wanted to comment on this video by Jenny Nicholson that we watched on the stream last night. She's the voice of Twilight in Friendship is Witchcraft and the voice of Kimi Sparkle, who has since achieved modest success as a vlogger, for those unfamiliar.
In the video, she goes over the Star Wars: Forces of Destiny doll line and how it fails in comparison to the Monster High doll line. I always knew that Equestria Girls was meant to compete against Monster High, and I was familiar with some facts about the dolls from egophiliac's old reviews of them, but I hadn't realized just how much Equestria Girls was stealing from Monster High. Monster High has short two-minute web episodes that focus on the characters and depict them interacting with each other, with the intention of making girls go, "My favorite character is best friends with this character, so I have to get that doll too!" What especially struck me was the fact that Monster High included a bully character among its initial set, so there would be a character to create conflict in doll play. That's why Sunset Shimmer was presented as a stock bully character despite her backstory!
One other thing I noticed were that Jenny mentioned that you could tell the Monster High character archetypes from the way they dressed (in contrast from the Forces of Destiny dolls exposing how Star Wars leading ladies often look alike). From the image she put up, at least, none of us in the stream could see that. I imagine it's clearer in the concept art on boxes; the Equestria Girls dolls aren't great about showing archetypes in the dolls themselves either. Given the fact that the EQG characters do look pretty similar, a lot of their personality only comes from their expressions and posing, which is better handled by the Equestria Girls Minis toys than the main dolls.
As for Fateful Findings, I will admit it's more watchable than the other Breen movies showcased, due to the lack of repeated footage and the fact that stuff happens, even if I'm not sure how significant a lot of it is. It was pretty fantastic that even though nothing about the initial premise was implying it, Breen still has a room full of several laptops that he uses to hack into everything and expose all the secrets, which results in corrupt business owners and government officials committing suicide in different ways. There's also a lot of slamming papers, books, and laptops on desks or onto the ground. Also, Breen butt, which we didn't need to see. Still, I found myself pretty sleepy during the movie.
~~~
Well this is interesting. MrNumbers is converting The Mare Who Once Lived on the Moon into original fiction, and in the process, changed the genders of some characters. He talks about that in the link. I was unconvinced about the changes going in, but once he describes them, they do make sense. I am curious about how he'll handle the things that weren't explored much because they relied on familiarity with the show. I particularly wonder how he'll handle the Elements of Harmony in this version.
