My Little Pony |OT| An adventure that never will end

SigmasonicX · Mar 17, 2019

Friday stream followup, we watched the following.
1. Phineas and Ferb - Flop Starz
2. Phineas and Ferb - Tree to Get Ready
3. Phineas and Ferb - Rollercoaster: the Musical
4. Haruhi - Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody
5. Haruhi - Endless Eight part 1

I chose these Phineas and Ferb episodes because they get callbacks later, but the only other person who showed up for the stream had already watched Phineas and Ferb, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . Episodes were still good.

We started Haruhi season 2. "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody" went differently than I remembered, particularly Kyon not giving his name as "John Smith" to Young Haruhi. I mentioned before that it's disappointing that Mikuru isn't presented seriously that often, since her brief serious moments in season one are interesting. I forgot that this episode confirmed that Mikuru is still super meek even outside of Haruhi's earshot.

I also mentioned before that I wasn't 100% on splitting "Endless Eight", and yeah, I feel like that was the wrong move now.

After multiple Friday streams in a row with just me and one other person, I decided it was time to change the time. The Friday stream (or weekday stream I suppose) will now be on Thursdays at 4:30 PM PT, since that time worked out when watching The Promised Neverland earlier this week.

~~~

I've made the folder with the RPs viewable to anyone with the link.
The next RP will be the last one until season 9 goes on break.
RP 310 - The Shattered Realm 9 - Into the Nostril

Trixie - Cappy

Smolder takes Trixie, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Maud to the School of Friendship Dragon Lands. They give the mysterious figure tormenting them the name Hedgehog the Shadow, AKA Hoggy. She explains the school, including that Flurry Heart is a teacher there, and they talk to an old dragon who chooses not to have a name, who provides more information about the Ur-Dragon. It has a connection to the flow of time, and its roar can split or destroy timelines.

They go to the two nostrils, minus Smolder who is a fire hazard. The right one is closed off by boulders and police tape. A big crowd is gathering in the left nostril. Maud runs a simulation of how it would turn out if Trixie tried to open a hole in the right nostril's barricade, and it doesn't turn out well for her. They go into the left one, where they find an 18 years older Angel Glimglam giving a magic performance with his two assistants. They have another magic duel, and before it can be completed, the boulders in the other nostril collapse, creating an opening. The group goes off to enter that way. The old dragon explains that to awaken the Ur-Dragon, one would have to awaken its heart.

~~~

Art dump
1.Kotobukiya Rainbow by bbtasu
2.Rainbow by meowcephei
3.Anthro Twilight in a swimsuit by sharkehchas
4.Petunia Paleo by acersiii
5.AppleDashing by LiaAqila on DeviantArt - Applejack and Rainbow

1.Don't be so cloudy by LiaAqila on DeviantArt - Filly Rainbow and Rainbow Mom (Windy Whistles)
2.Flying Colors by LiaAqila on DeviantArt - Rainbow
3.0-0 by aphphphphp on DeviantArt - Rainbow and Fluttershy
4.Let's cuddling all night by LooknamTCN on DeviantArt - Rarity X Applejack
5.doodle by LooknamTCN on DeviantArt - Rarity

1.Lyra Vector - Boots and Hand by CyanLightning on DeviantArt
2.Bon Bon Vector 02 - Hand Thingy by CyanLightning on DeviantArt
3.Sunburst recieves a special gift by Remiaro on DeviantArt - With Thorax, Starlight, and Twilight dolls
4.Fluttershy with an emo look by erinliona
5.Spitfire by php61

1.Spitfire (2) by php61
2.Pinkie by tohupo
3.Maid Applejack by flutterthrash
4.Mardi Gras Starlight by flutterthrash
5.[Collaboration] Adventurous Apple by thediscorded on DeviantArt - Apple Bloom

1.Cute Shining Armour by xbi on DeviantArt
2.Starlight Glimmer is cute by xbi on DeviantArt
3.REGNUM AETERNAM by MysteriousShine on DeviantArt - Twilight
4.Fair Lady by Rossignolet on DeviantArt - Luna
5.Remember by PavlovzDawg on DeviantArt - Autumn Blaze

Anime metal cover guy did the MLP:FiM theme

Nice remix

Surprisingly good remix

PMVs
Spike's Got No More F***s to Give - YouTube - Spike's theme song
PMV: Shut Up and Dance - YouTube - Pinkie X Twilight
Not Evil PMV - YouTube - Lego Movie 2 song with Chrysalis

Captain Fish · Mar 17, 2019

Filly Funtasia wasn't quite as much of a mess as I was expecting. It looks alright. The literal shapes of the characters are fine, the colours are sometimes poorly matched, but they animate well. The idea that they're all in a school, and all some sort of royalty (as indicated by them all having crowns/tiaras) is really weird, but I do like Coach King's headband crown. The writing was pretty rote, classic lie gets out of hand story, only one joke I thought was alright. There were a few visual gags, like them levitating a bunch of glasses of water, or Will tripping after saying how tough he is that didn't really have the snap and pacing (and probably also expression and reaction work) to play well.

I do kinda want to watch more in hopes that it gets funny bad.

SigmasonicX · Mar 18, 2019

Some good gags, but this routine is getting pretty repetitive at this point.

~~~

Sunday stream followup, we watched the following.
*.Winter's F***ed Up (Winter Wrap Up Parody) - YouTube
1. MLP:FiM - Winter Wrap Up
*.A True True Friend & Winter Wrap-Up (Ultimate Mash-Up) | MLP: FiM [HD] - YouTube
2. Tangled - Peril on the High Seas
*.Winter Wrap Up: Literal Video Version - YouTube
3. DuckTales - Whatever Happened to Della Duck?!
*.Winter Wrap Up YTPMV Collab - YouTube
4. FILLY FUNTASIA - EPISODE 1!!!
*.Winter Wrap-Up Tribute! 2011 - YouTube
5. Super Gals - episode 31
6. Super Gals - episode 32

"Winter Wrap Up" is a fun enough episode, but it's pretty repetitive and the characters feel off, particularly with Twilight's voice and attitude and Spike being really grumpy, which makes odd as a significant episode. It really just has a fun song going for it in a vacuum, but taking the fanbase into account, it produced several memes and background ponies too. I liked the episode more than I did last time I watched it.

Tangled finally returned to the stream! The episode was fun. It's a shame we aren't caught up, though, since I would have liked to have streamed "Rapunzel and the Great Tree".

The DuckTales episode was really good, outside of the moon people and the contrived reason Della wasn't found.

Then we reached the star of the stream, FILLY FUNTASIA (not actually all caps). The first episode involved Bella eating cupcakes and then lying about it with Rose, which escalates into the entire school going CODE FUCHSIA from Bella's reported monster attack. Also mixed in there are two different characters named Twilight and Princess Sparkle. Also there are some villains that try to be villainous but are solely comic relief. Fun fact, before I started FiM, I actually assumed Twilight was going to be that kind of character. Anyway, story is dumb, but some of the character designs are nice, particularly with flowers in tails, though many are pretty bad, and there's some nice BGM, even if it isn't used well. The CGI isn't bad; it actually makes me hopeful for the CG G5 movie.

We finally got back to Super Gals, and both episodes were good, the latter more so. The first introduced a new recurring location, a restaurant. The second introduced an evil megane who seems like she'll be fun.

~~~

Got a commission back, which I intend to be my last one for a while.
Twilight and Rarity looking to adopt by pastel-pony-pictures

Art dump.
1.Fluttershy by tohupo
2.Pinkie by tohupo
3.[SFM] [MLP] [DL] Metroid Zero Suit for V3 EQG by ImAFutureGuitarHero on DeviantArt - Sunset (CG)
4.【マイリトルポニー】"先生は授業中です" / Illustration by "☆Roya" [pixiv] - Twilight
5.this shit is bananas by jet-puft on DeviantArt - Fluttershy

1.Watching Drama by Dsiak on DeviantArt - Twilight GIF
2.Fluttershy by royal
3.Twilight, Fluttershy, and Applejack in yukatas by royal
4.Rainbow, Rarity, and Pinkie in yukatas by royal
5.Applejack in yukata by royal

1.Fluttershy in yukata by royal
2.Twilight in yukata by royal
3.Discord and Fluttershy by royal
4.Filly Flurry Heart by royal
5.Human Twilight by royal

1.Raripunk Rarity and Applejack by royal
2.Pony Sunset and Pony Twilight with parakeet plushie by royal
3.Mane Six by royal
4.Star Princess (auction) by Koviry on DeviantArt - Luna
5.Magical Twilight by joselyn565 on DeviantArt - Twilight with rainbow wings

1.Cloudsdale, City of Weather by CyonixCymatro on DeviantArt - Fluttershy
2.Dressed Up by CyonixCymatro on DeviantArt - Fluttershy
3.Discovery by CyonixCymatro on DeviantArt - Twilight
4.Fluttershy by CyonixCymatro on DeviantArt
5.Preening by CyonixCymatro on DeviantArt - Twilight

1.Pinkie with empty pie tins by heir-of-rick
2.[fanart] flutter study by guzzlord on DeviantArt - Fluttershy
3.Rainbow Dash [Timelapse Available!] by pixelyteSkunk on DeviantArt
4.Pi Day 2019 by Tsitra360 on DeviantArt - Pinkie and Soarin'
5.SS4 by Hierozaki on DeviantArt - Sunset

1.Rd3 by Hierozaki on DeviantArt - Rainbow
2.T45 by Hierozaki on DeviantArt - Twilight flying a ladybug kite with Pinkie and Starlight
3.Breakfast in the Castle by InuHoshi-to-DarkPen on DeviantArt - Spike, Starlight, Trixie, Grubber, Twilight, and Tempest
4.Fluttershy ragequiting a game with Anon by shoutingisfun
5.Flirtatious abyssinian and flustered diamond dog by KinGKerO on DeviantArt - Species change Rarity and Twilight

1.Capper the Draconequus by faitheverlasting on DeviantArt
2.[MLP] RACESWAP - Alicorn Autumn Blaze by MrWh0ever on DeviantArt
3.Velvet by AlexBlueBird on DeviantArt
4.Student Teacher by BigBuxArt on DeviantArt - Celestia and Baby Twilight
5.Nurse Redheart by Chimeeri on DeviantArt

1.CocoBulk by Marbola on DeviantArt - Coco Pommel X Bulk Bicep, with an OC child
2.Strong diamond by Andromedasparkz on DeviantArt - Diamond Tiara
3.Vampire Rarity by an-alpaca-named-bucket
4.Pegasus Rarityyy by WanderingPegasus on DeviantArt
5.CMC Line Up by WanderingPegasus on DeviantArt

SigmasonicX · Mar 20, 2019

I didn't post these episode synopses before, since the source wasn't confirmed and the first two episodes cover stuff we already saw in the trailer or knew about, but this third episode is brand new and no one seems to be speaking out against the site. You can progress episodes just by incrementing the number at the end.

Episode 3 is SPOILERS, but the others seem fine. Regardless, all are in spoiler tags. Only episode 3 will have the title hidden too. I'll include my thoughts in the spoiler tags.

903.

Uprooted
The Young Six respond to a magical summons from the Tree of Harmony, only to learn it has been destroyed.

Looks like the Tree is wrecked in the premiere and then that scene of Harmony Sparkle talking to the Student Six from the trailer comes from this episode. I suppose the Mane Six never did find out about her, so it makes sense they wouldn't bring up the Tree being destroyed to the Student Six yet. I hope Twilight meets Harmony Sparkle before the end.

904. Twilight's Seven (Episode 200)

Twilight and Shining Armor pit their wits against each other to settle a long-standing sibling rivalry, but they soon discover they are not the only competitors.

It looks like this might be about every sibling fighting each other. For once Rainbow gets to sleep this competition out.

905. The Point of No Return

Twilight realizes she never returned a book to the Canterlot Library and may have caused her favorite librarian to lose her job.

At first I thought this might be about Twilight's time in Canterlot as a filly, but someone suggested this could be about Moondancer, and yeah, it probably is. It'll be nice to see her again. And who knows, we might get more about Twilight's Canterlot life, which we really don't know enough about.

SigmasonicX · Mar 21, 2019

Friendship is Magic #76
Back before the time of "Keep Calm and Flutter On", it was widely accepted that Discord was pure irredeemably evil. After all, "The Return of Harmony" had that stained glass window of him holding ponies above a fire while you heard screaming. Then he was redeemed. There was a fair amount of grumbling about this mainly because of that stained glass window, even though nothing he did in the episode proper really came close to that. As it turns out, this comic fully retcons that by revealing that it was Cosmos who was going around roasting ponies over an open fire. And previous issue, we saw that Discord rewrote everyone's memories so they thought he was the one doing that. Ultimately, I'm not opposed to this, since that didn't quite fit in with Discord's character, though he was still willing to throw Tree Hugger into a different dimension. I did think Discord going out of his way to rescue the ponies that Cosmos was tormenting was a bit much, though.

The scenes of the groups in Klugetown and Griffonstone were fun, and I liked Capper's role for much of the story. I especially liked the scene where it's revealed the contest trophy is always stolen, we see Capper stole it, and Pinkie and Big Mac are fine with it.

However, I think it was a huge mistake to have all of them get captured, because it makes this issue feel pointless. In particular, all the set up of Capper's skills, only for him to be captured and turned into a kitten. That said, the fight with the princesses was fun.

Silver Quill's review points out a ladybug motif with Cosmos. Interesting. I wonder if it will lead to anything.

~~~

Since the weekday stream is on Thursday now, I decided to split up stream announcements. The Thursday stream is announced today, and the Sunday stream is announced on Saturday; this will help for episode streams a lot.

Anyway, on Thursday, we're watching the following:
1. Tiny Toons Spring Break Special
2. Haruhi - Endless Eight part 5
3. Haruhi - Endless Eight part 8

And The Promised Neverland 11 will be right before that.

The Tiny Toons special is NOT the Summer Vacation special that many are familiar with. This was produced in 1994, the same year as that Night Ghoulery special, and like that, not many even knew this existed. This was brought up to air with the Equestria Girls cruise special, but someone who was interested in this may not be here for the EQG stream. And my feeling is that we don't want two different 45 minute specials that stream.

There's a reason why we're jumping around in the Endless Eight story of Haruhi. Also, this should be fine for first time viewers, I think.

~~~

Art dump
1.Coco Pommel and Raripunk Rarity go to a mosh pit by flutterthrash
2.Quick Sketch by Miokomata on DeviantArt - Fluttershy
3.Light by Miokomata on DeviantArt - Fluttershy
4.Night Shy (collab) by Alissa1010 and Miokomata on DeviantArt - Fluttershy, the fur is interesting
5.rarijack 3 19 2019 by tohupo on DeviantArt - Rarity X Applejack

1.T46 by Hierozaki on DeviantArt - Celestia and Twilight
2.+Black roses+ by Kitten-in-the-jar on DeviantArt - Inky Rose (from "Honest Apple")
3.Twilight and a griffon OC by jumblehorse - I usually don't post art with OCs, but that's a cute Twi
4.Marble Pie by jumblehorse
5.Pony Twilight hugging Pony SciTwi by luciferamon and tingsan

1.Daisy, Lily, and Rose by luciferamon
2.MLP:YL - Not So Friendly by InuHoshi-to-DarkPen on DeviantArt - Shining Armor, Flurry Heart, and Blueblood
3.Commission172 by AiriniBlock on DeviantArt - Vinyl Scratch
4.What's next on the list? by Deraniel on DeviantArt - Twilight and Spike
5.Commission: Sword Practice by DANMAKUMAN on DeviantArt - SciTwi with sword

And decent piano medley.

Nali · Mar 21, 2019

SigmasonicX said:
Silver Quill's review points out a ladybug motif with Cosmos. Interesting. I wonder if it will lead to anything.

Be afraid, Twilight.

SigmasonicX · Mar 22, 2019

New synopsis for the season 9 premiere gives more details.

The Beginning of the End, Part I Apr. 6, 2019
When Celestia and Luna decide to retire and hand off the ruling of Equestria to Twilight and her friends, it send Twilight into a tailspin of self-doubt. The ancient villain Grogar plots to conquer all of Equestrian, but King Sombra has ideas of his own.

The Beginning of the End, Part II Apr. 6, 2019
As Twilight and the rest of the Mane six struggle to come to terms with destruction of the Tree and Elements of Harmony, King Sombra sets his sights on conquering all of Equestria.

So it looks like King Sombra is acting on his own after all.

~~~

First Thursday stream followup. We watched The Promised Neverland right before it, but that ended up causing problems for the people who had to get dinner between the two streams. It was decided that future Thursday streams will be half an hour later, at 5:00 PM PT.

In the stream proper, we watched the following.
1. Tiny Toons Spring Break Special
2. Haruhi - Endless Eight part 5
3. Haruhi - Endless Eight part 8

The Tiny Toons special turned out to be surprisingly terrible. It might just be the least enjoyable thing we've ever watched in the streams. Badly put together story, bad jokes (including wacky surface level Clinton Administration parodies), terrible songs, and tons and tons of Elmyra. This was clearly from after the point where the network executives decided that they really needed to push Elmyra--that's a real thing that happened, if you weren't aware. It resulted in the creation of a whole show called Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain, which was as bad as an idea as you'd expect. Anyway, everyone's memories of the Summer Vacation special were way better (among the people who watched it).

We got just a brief glimpse of KyoAni's greatest troll, "Endless Eight", with one of the middle episodes and the last episode (we watched the first one last week). Watching it this way, it's easier to appreciate the differences between episodes. Part 5 has a great feeling of dread, for example, and the deja vu increases as it goes on.. I was surprised to see the one other guy who was still around was interested in the other differences between parts.

~~~

Some fun random junk

This actually does look pretty nice.

Neat that they actually did use filly images for these.

My Little Lony

And a bunch of images all from the same artist, demonboy, using redesigns based on what Jenny Nicholson came up with in her The Applejack Problem video.
kinda dumb but heres my mlp headcanons! you can... - Zak/15 - Mane Six

1.i love your pony redesigns so much... would you... - Zak/15 - Sunset
2.i would love to see ur take on starlight glimmer!! - Zak/15

someone asked what my mane 6 redesigns would look... - Zak/15 - Gala dresses

1.What's the physics of pinkie's hair? - Zak/15
2.please draw more ponies your art style is heavenly - Zak/15 - Pinkie
3.what about Treehugger!! you know, fluttershys GAY... - Zak/15
4.redesign...cewestia - Zak/15 - Celestia and also Twilight (who is also Luna in this AU)

Nali · Mar 22, 2019

SigmasonicX said:
And a bunch of images all from the same artist, demonboy, using redesigns based on what Jenny Nicholson came up with in her The Applejack Problem video.

Ooh, cute. Feels like they dropped out of a shoujo manga.

Sylvee · Mar 22, 2019

SigmasonicX said:
The Tiny Toons special turned out to be surprisingly terrible. It might just be the least enjoyable thing we've ever watched in the streams. Badly put together story, bad jokes (including wacky surface level Clinton Administration parodies), terrible songs, and tons and tons of Elmyra. This was clearly from after the point where the network executives decided that they really needed to push Elmyra--that's a real thing that happened, if you weren't aware. It resulted in the creation of a whole show called Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain, which was as bad as an idea as you'd expect. Anyway, everyone's memories of the Summer Vacation special were way better (among the people who watched it).

It was sort of bizarre, we watch a ton of terrible stuff as a joke, but it was odd seeing something that was so terrible but wasn't really infamous for being bad. One of the hallmarks of Spielberg cartoons is their frequent modern references, but here it's almost Friedberg and Seltzer levels of bad. For example, near the beginning there's two animals that show up that are clearly supposed to be parodies of Bevis and Butthead but there's basically no jokes made with them, they act like the characters from the original show minus anything that made those characters interesting in the first place and then get ran over by a car. None of the other characters react to them, there's no sort of statement on their cartoon, it's literally just there to go "hey adults you recognize this don't you?" There's tons of references through the whole special (including some political ones as Sigma pointed out) and the overwhelming majority fit this description.

The story fares no better. There's two main plotlines, and it's difficult to figure out which is worse. One centers around Elmyra deciding she wants the Easter Bunny and mistakes Buster for the Easter bunny. She chases after them for most the episode, and sings one of the truly worst parody songs I've ever heard called "I'll be chasing you," a cover of The Polices' "I'll be watching you." It's hard to spotlight the most offensive part of it; Elmyra's obnoxious vocals, the terrible instrumentals, or the awful lyrics that are less creepy then the original song. The show is packed with songs, and although none quite reach the level of that one none are remotely good or really worth listening to. Elmyra's chasing after Buster leads them to Washington DC, with the justification being that they're trying to find the real Easter Bunny to have Elmyra chase after instead, but I guess the writers either totally forgot about this aspect or made it up as a justification to come up with some extremely topical and original political humor. They then go back to Florida where they slap some bunny ears on a giant whale at not Seaworld which fools Elmyra for a bit. The whole scenario is just about as unfunny and painful to watch as you could think of with the premise "obnoxious spoiled little girl with shrill voice mistakes random things for the Easter Bunny and chases them around for 15+ minutes."

Then there's the B plot that centers around Plucky, who finds an attractive female duck that he falls in love with and whose character is so deep and nuanced that the writers didn't even bother to come up with a name for her. Unfortunately one of the other kids' grandparents basically kidnap him and prevent him from being able to talk to his dream girl. And once again it's just as awful as that premise sounds.

Now given how simplistic both of those stories sound you would be forgiven to think that this is just a 22 minute or even 11 minute episode, but somehow they stretched this out to 44 minutes. Part of how they did this is by having random and completely unrelated skits/songs interrupt the special for seemingly no reason. Chief example is a song that all the other Toons that are barely featured in this episode singing about how they like boys/girls depending on their gender. When I saw the credits pop up on screen for the song I was initially in disbelief because it had absolutely nothing to do with the previous scene and thought there had to be some sort of error with the video showing it next chronologically, but as it turns out there was no error and that's how it was supposed to air. The chronological order things are aired through the special is consistently awful.

I would say that the animation was respectable for its time (although there were several instances where they were obviously just reusing the same character model multiple times to create a crowd) and some of the jokes were slightly funny. But given that every 3 seconds or so there's a joke, only a couple being funny is really bad odds. Honestly I haven't been terribly impressed with the Spielberg cartoons I've seen so far (They're mostly alright, I think that cartoons as a whole have come a long way since then) but none of them were anywhere near this dreadful.

Nali · Mar 22, 2019

Freakazoid is a precious gem of pure absurdism from start to finish. The rest of its kin can be fantastic at times, but they're a lot less steady about it.

Strider_Blaze · Mar 22, 2019

Another one of these shorts that was on the Go app.

I tell you what, that Rosette Nebula looks like she's related to Twilight lol!

SigmasonicX · Mar 22, 2019

Strider_Blaze said:
Another one of these shorts that was on the Go app.

I tell you what, that Rosette Nebula looks like she's related to Twilight lol!

Now I'm thinking of that one arc from Boruto, except with Twilight finding a picture of her father with Rosette.

Pretty straightforward short, but honestly, Timber silently helping out did more to make me appreciate his romance with SciTwi than anything else so far. (SciSet is still superior).

People were using images from this earlier as evidence that the science fair chapter book would be adapted into animation, but it looks like that won't happen after all.

June comic solicitations

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #79
Sam Maggs (w) • Toni "Pencils" Kuusisto (a & CVR A) • Sara Richard (CVR B) • Justina Babinska (1:10 RI CVR)

It's the anniversary of the founding of Ponyville-which means it's time for a celebration! With a surprise show in store for Mayor Mare, it's up to Twilight and Apple Bloom to keep the festivities a secret... but that might be hard in a town like Ponyville, where you never know who might show up!

My Little Pony: Spirit of the Forest #2 (of 3)
Ted Anderson (w) • Brenda Hickey (a & CVR A) • Tony Fleecs (CVR B) • Kate Sherron (1:10 RI CVR)

Strange things are happening in the woods around Ponyville! When ponies start seeing weird shapes, hearing unknown sounds, and losing the tools they need to work, all signs point to a mysterious monster! But it couldn't actually be the Spirit of the Forest-right?!

Wow, that's another comic drawn by Pencils. It's still crazy that a brony artist is getting this much work, especially when I understand he's still drawing his fairly lewd MLP fan comics.

As for the story, it seems like a nice cool down story after the Cosmos arc.

I'm still not sure about the story of Spirit of the Forest, but that cover is really cute, especially with that Scootaloo. Honestly, that may have just pushed me into buying these comics after all.

SigmasonicX · Mar 24, 2019

We've had our last RP for a while with RP 311 - The Shattered Realm 10 - Heart of Time. EQG and then season 9 will start next week, and I prefer not to run RPs when there's a new episode.

Traveling through the body of the Ur-Dragon, its heartbeats switch Trixie and Fluttershy into alternate timelines where they have different party members.

They fight the shadowy figure, named Ygzlyr, at the heart. He attempts to summon things to help fight, succeeding in bringing The Owl and Pink Celestia. By using the dragon's heart to coordinate with the timeline that Applejack and Maud are in, they manage to counter his ability to phase out and defeat him.

To stop the beating dragon heart, they have to spread good vibes. Trixie thanks everyone, and then the party talks to Ygzlyr. He's convinced that just because a story ends, doesn't mean it's fine for that universe to end and be scavenged for parts. He decides to make due with what he's got and turn it into its own universe, which he'll call Filly Funtasia.

With the dragon heart calmed, the party is reunited. Plus Pinkie. Applejack notices a pipe coming out of the heart and fixes it.

There's a flash of light and Trixie finds herself back in her caravan. Applejack, Fluttershy, and Maud for some reason are back at Fluttershy's cottage. Maud figures that even with some portals remaining, their job is done. Applejack refuses to get a broom from the closet.

~~~

First separate Sunday stream announcement! Because I didn't want to watch the Tangled two-parter on the same week as the EQG special or the season 9 premiere, I decided it would be better to watch all of the current episodes in a row.

1. Tangled - Curses!
2. Tangled - The Eye of Pincosta
3. Tangled - Rapunzel and the Great Tree (Two-Part)
4. Kaleido Star - 14
5. Super Gals - 33

Art dump.
1.Two Best Sisters Play - Country Ed. - Commission by LateCustomer on DeviantArt - Applejack and Apple Bloom
2.Fluttershy by abc002310 on DeviantArt
3.Cooking is fun! by Margony on DeviantArt - Pinkie
4.Elegance by Margony on DeviantArt - Rarity
5.Wings of Stardust by faitheverlasting on DeviantArt - Rarity

1.Moon Dancer by Animechristy on DeviantArt
2.Starlight and Monika (Doki Doki Literature Club) by twotothehalf
3.Starlight and a kite by sugar morning
4.Sleepy Glim by lolwise on DeviantArt - Alicorn Starlight
5.Starlight Day by KinGKerO on DeviantArt - Also Trixie plushie

1.Starlight Glimmer by MajuPaju on DeviantArt
2.Starlight portrait v2 by Zunefox on DeviantArt
3.Counselor Glimmy by LifesHarbinger on DeviantArt - Starlight
4.Just Twily by Vird-Gi on DeviantArt - Twilight
5.Bow for Coco by Vird-Gi on DeviantArt

1.Adventure Gals by TheSoleil on DeviantArt - Rainbow X Captain Celaeno
2.Oleander by melodisiaion
3.Starverse | Queen Twilight Sparkle (Headcannon) by Sh3llySh00 on DeviantArt
4.Starverse | Royal Wife Fluttershy (Headcannon) by Sh3llySh00 on DeviantArt
5.20.1 by Shu-jeantte on DeviantArt - Daybreaker

SigmasonicX · Mar 25, 2019

Today, we watched the following in the stream.
*.PMV: Tangled the Series - Wind In My Hair - YouTube
1. Tangled - Curses!
*.MLP Baby Comic Dub "Playing with Hair" - YouTube
2. Tangled - The Eye of Pincosta
*.Cut my hair | Animation MEME | MLP - YouTube
3. Tangled - Rapunzel and the Great Tree (Two-Part)
*.MLP: Friendship is Magic - 'Rarity's Biggest Fan' 💎 Official Short - YouTube
4. Kaleido Star - 14
5. Super Gals - 33

My opinions haven't really changed regarding the Tangled episodes from what I've posted in the Tangled season 2 thread. Seems like people enjoyed them well enough.

The Kaleido Star episode started what I thought was a story arc of Sora working with another troupe, but no, it's over after one episode. It was fun enough.

The Super Gals episode was half fun, half about Otohata being a bad boyfriend and Aya wanting to be with him anyway. And it looks like the next episode will be all about that, so ehhhhhhhhhh.

~~~

Some art.
1.Magic Essence by rocioam7 on DeviantArt - Luna
2.Daily sketch 11 - Fluttergoth by Viejillox64Art on DeviantArt - Fluttershy
3.Pinkie Pie by abc002310 on DeviantArt
4.Rarity by abc002310 on DeviantArt
5.Fluttershy by abc002310 on DeviantArt - So what's the verdict on heart ears?

1.SPEEDPAINT:-Your turn-: by Clefficia on DeviantArt - Twilight and Celestia
2.Rainbow in kimono by yotsushiri
3.Twi and Spike by Patty-PLMH on DeviantArt - Human Twilight and Spike
4.Kotobukiya Twilight X Rarity by メイエルフ
5.Kotobukiya Applejack X Rainbow by メイエルフ - There is also a Pinkie and Fluttershy one, but it has breast grabbing.

1.MLP Graceful by Rurihal on DeviantArt - Rarity
2.Home by iojknmiojknm on DeviantArt - Sonata, animated version is linked in description
3.Background pony blows huge gum bubble by lolledits
4.Fluttershy being held by Discord by igazella

Comic
MLP: The Twily Ponich Program by PacificGreen on DeviantArt

mlp__the_twily_ponich_program_by_pacificgreen_dd2qkba-pre.jpg

New Phantom of the Opera animatic.

SigmasonicX · Mar 28, 2019

Stream announcements, we actually have two streams during these weekdays, on both Thursday at 5 PM PT, and Friday at the old time of 9:30 PM PT, with Sylvee running the latter.

On Thursday, we'll be starting a new anime, Infinite Ryvius, which notably has a pretty significant number of MLP VAs. It's a Lord of the Flies style story, but in SPACE, and with a lot more characters. We're watching the first four episodes.

~~~

Getting ready for the season 9 OT on Friday night, and here's my character guides.

~~~

Synergy: A Hasbro Creators Showcase
This is a special showcase of IDW's woman creators with several short stories related to Transformers, Jem, GI Joe, My Little Pony, and Transformers again. The first three stories are in-universe stories, and the last two are autobiographical, and the more interesting of the lot, I feel.

Katie Cook's story is about her time with MLP G1 in the 80's, how she got started with the comic, and how her children interact with G4. It's very cute.

They aren't fans of Applejack.

SigmasonicX · Mar 29, 2019

Thread draft:
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic FINAL SEASON |OT| I used to wonder what friendship could be...

(Belle Eve 2.0 art by pastel-pony-pictures)

Season 9 will start April 6, 2019, but the Saturday before that, we get a new Equestria Girls special: Spring Breakdown, which features the Equestria Girls versions of the characters transforming into ponies for the first time.

New episodes air on Saturday at 11:30 AM ET on Discovery Family. They're usually put on iTunes the next day. Seasons 1-8 can be found on US Netflix, along with holiday special "Best Gift Ever". Netflix also has most of the Equestria Girls specials and movies, though they are oddly missing the very first movie. Equestria Girls has an ongoing series of YouTube shorts that are currently in season 2, with new episodes every Friday.

If you want to get started, then good news, we have an episode guide! Many episodes not listed as recommended are still good, and if you like how an episode sounds, feel free to watch it too. Also includes Equestria Girls. Every YouTube short, both human and pony, is linked, so you don't have to search for them.

We have a Hangouts thread for fanfic discussion and such, and we have a Discord! See the bottom of this post. We even have group watches; join the Discord or PM me for the link.

Oh, and that mare in the header? That's Belle Eve, our mascot! Well, Belle Eve 2.0, since her old look was based on the other place.

New episodes air on Saturday at 11:30 AM ET on Discovery Family. They're usually put on iTunes the next day. Seasons 1-8 can be found on US Netflix.

1-2. The Beginning of the End - April 6, 2019

 In the back-to-back season premiere episodes, titled "The Beginning of the End," Princess Celestia and Princess Luna decide to retire and hand off the ruling of Equestria to Twilight Sparkle and her friends, which sends Twilight into a tailspin of self-doubt. Meanwhile, an ancient villain bands together a legion of nefarious characters to conquer all of Equestria, challenging Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the Mane 6 to step in and save the day.

3. Uprooted - April 13, 2019

The Young Six respond to a magical summons from the Tree of Harmony, only to learn it has been destroyed.

4. Twilight's Seven - April 20, 2019 (Episode 200! if "Best Gift Ever" is counted as a numbered episode)
Twilight and Shining Armor pit their wits against each other to settle a long-standing sibling rivalry, but they soon discover they are not the only competitors.

5. The Point of No Return - April 27, 2019
Twilight realizes she never returned a book to the Canterlot Library and may have caused her favorite librarian to lose her job.

This thread is for the discussion of all things pony, including Equestria Girls, the IDW comics, and even general fan content. Fan fics are encouraged to go in our Hangouts thread, but there is no issue if you bring them up here.
* Episode titles and official synopses can be freely discussed, along with things tweeted by show crew and such.
* If an episode is released early, but legally, then discuss it behind spoiler blocks until it airs in the US.
* If an episode is leaked illegally, the contents can't be discussed here at all until it airs legally.

Hangouts thread
Season 8 OT
Show ending announcement thread
Old Community thread
Old season 7 OT

Hidden content

Credit to DrForester for the older assets, and everyone in the PonyEra Discord for feedback on the new assets

SigmasonicX · Mar 29, 2019

Finally! We got the name of the town! It's Canterlot.

Pinkie bribing that woman with SciTwi was a good gag. Otherwise, it's a pretty standard "Pinkie is annoying" story, and is alright.

Actually, wait, I was just bribed in the chat with SciTwi. It's a fantastic short, must watch.

Also, Fleur de Lis has a valley girl voice in Dougworld. Weird.

SigmasonicX · Mar 30, 2019

Going to create the season 9 thread in about an hour. I'll post my next art dump here instead of there, though, since it's going to be a big one.

EDIT: Season 9 OT

SigmasonicX · Mar 30, 2019

Stream followups. We doubled up on weekday streams this time.

On Thursday, after the finale of The Promised Neverland, we watched the first three episodes of Infinite Ryvius, stopping earlier than planned. The show is interesting enough so far, but it's took much longer to get to the core premise of the series than I figured. Even by the end of episode 3, they hadn't finished establishing everything I knew from the elevator pitch of the show. It was also hard to get a real grasp of the characters and setting, particularly that weird space ocean that the station was sinking into. I assume after this beginning segment, they'll focus more on individual characters.

On Friday, with Sylvee running the stream, we watched the following.
1. Reboot - Talent Night
2. Spongebob Squarepants - Idiot Box
3. Danny Phantom - My Brother's Keeper
4. Jimmy Neutron - Operation Rescue Jet Fusion

The Reboot episode is most famous for this ending:

But it also had this:

Featuring Trixie's voice actress.

There were some nice gags, but it still had the odd season 1 pacing.

The Spongebob episode was alright.

This is my first time ever watching Danny Phantom. It was actually more legit than I was expecting. This episode also had a villain I realized I recognized from some, uh, fan art.

The Jimmy Neutron special was pretty eh. The friends were the most annoying part; it actually got much more tolerable when they were cast aside and focus shifted to the secret agent Jet Fusion, though it still wasn't great.

~~~

Art dump
1.you need this by jeglegator on DeviantArt - EQG Rainbow X Fluttershy
2.Twilight with pigtails by colorfulcolor233 - I could have sworn I posted this and the next two, but I can't find them in this thread when searching for this artist.
3.Rainbow with pigtails by colorfulcolor233
4.Pinkie with pigtails by colorfulcolor233
5.EQG Trixie by jeglegator

1.Pi Day Pinkie by colorfulcolor233
2.Fractured Sunlight [WIP] by imDRUNKonTEA on DeviantArt - Human Sunset X Twilight
3.Lady of the sky by Orfartina on DeviantArt - Twilight
4.Ember by norithecat
5.Fluttershy by Dozybunny on DeviantArt - Human

1.Queen Chrysalis by Brietta-IG on DeviantArt
2.Apple Dubbing by uotapo on DeviantArt - Fluttershy and Applejack
3.EQG Trixie and Starlight on the phone by jeglegator
4.Cadance by jen-neigh
5.Twilight by jen-neigh

1.Apple Bloom by snow angel
2.Mom 6 by LiaAqila on DeviantArt - Mane Six mothers
3.Reverse Booping! by YinglongFujun on DeviantArt - Twilight and SciTwi
4.Pinkie Pie 3 24 2019 by tohupo on DeviantArt
5.Trixie by 77jessieponygames77 on DeviantArt

1.Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer in the beach by TheRETROart88 on DeviantArt - Pony
2.Sweater Dashie by PhoenixPeregrine on DeviantArt - Rainbow
3.Princess Twilight Sparkle [Open collab] by Varshacoro on DeviantArt
4.From the Depths of Fire by KlaraPL on DeviantArt - Discord
5.Pinkie by snow angel

1.Most Loyal Apprentice by DingoBreath on DeviantArt - Older Spike
2.Oleander 1 by dimfann and ogaraorcynder
3.Oleander 2 by dimfann and ogaraorcynder
4.Oleander 3 by dimfann and ogaraorcynder
5.A Daring Discovery by PixelKitties on DeviantArt - Daring Do past Stargate

1.Lunambula by Pony-Way on DeviantArt - Luna dressed as Somnambula
2.Fluttershy Vector 30 - Blepping by CyanLightning on DeviantArt
3.Pink Fluff by InuHoshi-to-DarkPen on DeviantArt - Pinkie and Gummy
4.Twilight by bondedbones
5.Dream Sickness by KlaraPL on DeviantArt - Luna and Dragon Twilight

1.:COMM: Sisters through the 80s by LupiArts on DeviantArt - Windy Whistles (Rainbow Mom) and Firefly
2.[Commission] Forgiveness by dSana on DeviantArt - Filly Twilight and Spike, and Twilight Velvet
3.Twaichka by Xjenn9 on DeviantArt - Twilight. Dialogue translates to, "I can't concentrate when you look at me like that," but Twilight is definitely up to no good.
4.Starlight Glimmer and Trixie in the beach by TheRETROart88 on DeviantArt
5.Rainbow riding her invisible motorcycle backwards by RysunkowaSucharia on DeviantArt

1.Summer by LiaAqila on DeviantArt - EQG Rainbow and Sunset
2.Two Sisters by Orfartina on DeviantArt - Celestia and Luna
3.Bambina by MrArdilla on DeviantArt - Fluttershy
4.Fluttershy by tohupo
5.Cosmos (the comics character) by ogaraorcynder

1.Twilight, Starlight, and Spike watching TV by dstears
2.Rainbow Dash Vector 26 - Lovely Nerd by CyanLightning on DeviantArt
3.Worship the Sun 2 (Guest Page) by vest on DeviantArt - Celestia, Twilight, and Sunset. This is a guest page for a hentai comic, but it's completely safe.
4.oof by WanderingPegasus on DeviantArt - Sunburst X Twilight
5.Chase The Sky by Fluttersheeeee on DeviantArt - Rainbow

1.Rarity by snow angel
2.Fluttershy by teeny16 on DeviantArt
3.Twilight Sparkle by teeny16 on DeviantArt
4.Twilight and Dashie by GrayPillow on DeviantArt
5.Fluttershy's checkup By Liaaqila by Rathbane on DeviantArt - EQG, and OC pony

1.Teacup Trixie (colored) by Alazak on DeviantArt
2.Luna by AliceSmitt31 on DeviantArt
3.Picnic by Deraniel on DeviantArt - Rarity and Sweetie

Vale Quattuor by Heir-of-Rick on DeviantArt - Pinkie reacting to the end of the series

Make-up hug ❤️🧡💚 - D+CON - EQG Applejack X Rainbow, with EQG Pony Twilight and EQG Pinkie

And first of the last Pinkie Pie Says Goodnights! by Silver Quill.

pinkie_pie_says_goodnight__long_distance_by_mlp_silver_quill_dd3btid-fullview.png

Nali · Mar 30, 2019

ReBoot's a great show in general, but Talent Night is an incredible episode, especially if you get all the in-jokes surrounding the censor. Megabyte just owning the finale is one of the all-time great cartoon moments.

SigmasonicX · Mar 30, 2019

Sciz said:
ReBoot's a great show in general, but Talent Night is an incredible episode, especially if you get all the in-jokes surrounding the censor. Megabyte just owning the finale is one of the all-time great cartoon moments.

Ah right, forgot to mention "BS&P" making fun of the Broadcast Standards & Practices that the creators felt were holding them back, and the "Money for Nothing" dunking (because that's all the animators were known for for a while, even though they felt their other products were better).

Sylvee · Mar 30, 2019

Before we watched Reboot, I showed the Music Video for Money For Nothing, which was animated by the same people that went on to make Reboot. It's one of the most famous music videos of all time, and is one of the big songs that people remember MTV by. The animation looks corny as hell, but it still has a bit of charm to it. And Mark Knopfler is a crazy good artist, both with the Dire Straits and solo. The intro where the guitar comes in still gives me goosebumps. And it tied into the next video as well....

The Reboot episode we watched was my favorite of that show we've watched. The episode had a reference to the creators' previous work, that being the Money For Nothing video. The characters from that video show up to a talent show and are immediately booed and made fun of. According to a video by Rebeltaxi (great cartoon channel, would highly recommend) the creators were frustrated that despite all the hard work they've done in animation all people knew them for was Money For Nothing so it was a jab at that. (Video in question: Link) Aside from that though, it was pretty fun. The guitar-off was super silly but pretty entertaining. The biggest takeaway I got is that the show itself really feels like it was made m,ore for the creators' sake rather then them trying to make something that necessarily appealed to any target audience, which is respectable in its own way. There's so many coding jokes that likely went way over the heads of almost all the kids watching as well as all their jokes about censors. They're making the cartoon they want to make, not one that'll necessarily sell well. Which is admirable in its own way.

Next up we watched Spongebob's Idiot Box. I chose it because firstly it's a super famous Spongebob episode and secondly it's co-written by famed MLP writer Merriwether Williams. Most of her run on Spongebob is from my memories as a kid pretty forgettable, but Idiot Box is definitely one of her best. Looking back now, it's got its moments but a lot of the episode is the show introducing a scenario and then it playing out in pretty much the exact way you'd expect it to. It feels like it's going through the motions, but there's some pretty fun lines here and there.

Danny Phantom might have been my favorite show when it came out and I tried to catch it when I could, but the show apparently failed the Spongebob test and it felt like it was barely on. The show is much more targeted at a YA audience rather then most of the other stuff generally on Nick, which may be why it didn't catch on. It has its jokes and fun episodes, but can get more serious and emotional when it wants. For example in the episode we watched the villains strait up tried to murder Danny's sister. And unlike most other Nick shows there's actual continuity and status quo changes, such as this episode where Danny's older sister discovers that he is half ghost.

Speaking of Danny's sister, Jazz is my favorite character when she's actually written well. And this episode might be her best showing. She works best when she's portrayed as a sort of guardian angel figure for Danny; not directly helping him in his adventures like Sam and Tucker do, but always looking out for him and helping when she can. Unfortunately later on Danny finds out that she knows and they have to explain why she doesn't just help him out so she instantly becomes an incompetent buffoon who is constantly saying incredibly terrible witty banter. I just feel like they could have come up with a much better reason as to why Jazz doesn't actively help out Danny most times other then because she's bad at it.

Before watching Jimmy Neutron, we watched the most essential Jimmy Neutron video ever:

The actual episode we watched was Operation Rescue Jet Fusion, which was an extremely on-the-nose James Bond parody. It had its moments but it was not especially good. Jimmy Neutron never really impressed me particularly even as a child. I was fine to watch it when it was on, but I I generally preferred either Spongebob or Fairly Oddparents. (As I said before, Danny Phantom was almost never on) Looking back I'm kind of surprised that it lasted as long as it did, although it being the follow-up to a theatrical movie probably helped. (For the record the show came out after the movie was a success, it wasn't like Wonder Park where the series was already greenlit before the movie even aired) The show got cancelled after 3 seasons and got a spinoff several years later focused largely on Sheen but it also had an alien that Sheen befriends who acts exactly like Carl from the original show. (So it's a spinoff specifically focusing on the two characters that Sigma hated) Probably the most memorable episodes overall were the crossover specials they did with Fairly Oddparents called Jimmy Timmy Power Hour, where the characters went into each other's worlds. One of the coolest parts about the crossovers is that you got to see Jimmy animated in Fairly Oddparents style and the opposite for Timmy and his Fairies. (Despite generally liking the look of Fairly Oddparents a lot more, Timmy actually translated a lot better then Jimmy did)

SparksterMeta0 · Mar 30, 2019

If anyone is up for suggestions on the season OT...

|OT| Friends to THE END

Hard to believe it's been 9 years.

SigmasonicX · Mar 30, 2019

SparksterMeta0 said:
If anyone is up for suggestions on the season OT...

|OT| Friends to THE END

Hard to believe it's been 9 years.

Sorry, already made it, haha.

And yeah, it's hard to believe it's been this long. I got in toward the end of season 1, with the newest episode being "Over a Barrel" and my first new episode being "A Bird in the Hoof".

SigmasonicX · Mar 31, 2019

Sunday stream announcement.
1. EQG - Spring Breakdown
2. Tangled - The Brothers Hook
3. The Simpsons - A Totally Fun Thing That Bart Will Never Do Again
4. The Simpsons - E My Sports
5. The Simpsons - Bart vs. Itchy & Scratchy

I decided to shift back to posting general fan art here instead of the season thread. So here's an art dump. Also Fluttershy rocking out by joltage.

1.[Commission] Sad Scootaloo by iojknmiojknm on DeviantArt - Human
2.Twilight Sparkle Vector 52 - Sci Twi by CyanLightning on DeviantArt
3.Comm: Fabulous by LiaAqila on DeviantArt - EQG Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow
4.EQG Kitsune Applejack by haibaratomoe
5.EQG Oni Rarity by haibaratomoe

1.Anthro Twilight and Starlight by ladychimaera
2.Rarity by tohupo
3.Pinkie, Tempest, and Spike at Donut Joe's by dstears
4.Twidash by PhoenixPeregrine on DeviantArt - Twilight X Rainbow
5.Here With You by CatScratchPaper on DeviantArt - Gallus X Silverstream

1.GIFT by Holivi on DeviantArt - Overwatch Mane Six, plus OC
2.Yona by RacoonKun on DeviantArt - Human
3.Diamond by yuyusunshine on DeviantArt - Anthro Rarity
4.Till death do us apart by Shinta-Girl on DeviantArt - Human Trixie X Starlight
5.MLP X Eeveelutions by Schokocream on DeviantArt - EQG color human Mane Six with Eeveelutions

1.Mane 7 plus Splike by AnnaKitsun3 on DeviantArt - Human and Spike the dragon. Similar to below image
2.EQG Mane 7 plus Spike by AnnaKitsun3 on DeviantArt - Human and Spike the dog.
3.Rara (Coloratura) by Darksly-z on DeviantArt
4.Flutterbat by ChaosAngelDesu on DeviantArt
5.Light Peeking Through by mirroredsea on DeviantArt - Fluttershy
6.autumnblaze by mirroredsea on DeviantArt
7.Random Twilight by Ak4neh on DeviantArt

Comic
Protect sister by LooknamTCN on DeviantArt - EQG Rarity X Applejack, with Sweetie Belle

SigmasonicX · Apr 2, 2019

Sunday stream followup. We watched the following.
*.MLP: Friendship is Magic - 'Ail-icorn' 🌡️ Official Short - YouTube
1. EQG - Spring Breakdown
*.[MLP PMV] Pony Hysteria - YouTube
2. Tangled - The Brothers Hook
*.PMV-The Equestria Girls Sing We Put the Spring in Springfield - YouTube
3. The Simpsons - A Totally Fun Thing That Bart Will Never Do Again
4. The Simpsons - E My Sports
5. The Simpsons - Bart vs. Itchy & Scratchy
*.PMV: Spring Cleaning. - YouTube

Videos were found after searching for "spring" and then "breakdown".

"Air-icorn" is still a lot of fun. Rainbow making random sound effects would have improved "Spring Breakdown".

My opinions on "Spring Breakdown" haven't changed since my post in the season 9 OT, but I was able to appreciate the jokes more.

I mentioned before I played it that the Tangled episode wasn't that great, but it went over better than I expected. Uber also pointed out the consistent theme of Rapunzel wearing one dress for continuity-significant episodes like this and one for others.

The first Simpsons episode was really good. The other two were alright; the last one is controversial for dumb reasons, but I didn't see anything offensive.

Professor Beef · Apr 2, 2019

Congrats, everypony! Y'all are our next Community Spotlight!

Fat4all · Apr 2, 2019

Professor Beef said:
Congrats, everypony! Y'all are our next Community Spotlight!

SigmasonicX · Apr 2, 2019

A bit awkwardly timed, since much of our activity has moved over to our new season 9 OT (which is the final season). Still, we'll continue to discuss group activities like streams here, and I'll post fan art not related to new episodes.

Nali · Apr 2, 2019

Beef you're supposed to tell me when these things happen

Vylash · Apr 3, 2019

jesus season 9? I'm all the way back on 5

TheWooniestWoona · Apr 3, 2019

Vylash said:
jesus season 9? I'm all the way back on 5

I think by the time it's over we'll be at something like

9 seasons
5 movies
5 double length special episodes
100+ comic issues
a crap-ton of youtube shorts
several books

and probably a ton more that I'm either forgetting or just not aware of.

It's kind of nuts how much there's been.

SigmasonicX · Apr 4, 2019

Stream announcements. For those just joining us, we have a group watch every Thursday and Sunday, the latter being the MLP focused one. Thursdays are more generalized. To join the stream, either PM me or join our Discord.

Last week, we started watching an anime called Infinite Ryvius, but one person who was interested in continuing won't be available for this next stream, so I'm going to start something I've wanted to show for a while: X-Files!
1. X-Files - 101 - Pilot
2. Haruhi - Live Alive
3. Haruhi - Someday in the Rain

If we continue X-Files, then the order (over a period of many streams) would be:
1. 101 - Pilot
2. 117- EBE - Introduces the Lone Gunmen
3. 124 - The Erlenmeyer Flask - Great season finale
4. 216 - Colony - Wanted a story with X and the black oil (before it got super convoluted) and this hits both
5. 217 - End Game - Second part (not actually a season finale)
6. 304 - Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose - First Darin Morgan episode we're watching (Humbug is a bit too gross, IMO; also skipping War of the Coprophages for that reason)
7. 320 - Jose Chung's From Outer Space - Basically the entire reason I insist on watching normal episodes first
8. 407 - Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man - Great villain backstory--90% because of the ways it makes him hilariously pathetic
9. 1003 - Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster - A 2016 episode by Darin Morgan
10. 1107 - Rm9sbG93ZXJz - I actually haven't seen this one, but it sounds wild
11. 1104 - The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat - Also by Darin Morgan, what might be my favorite episode, talking about the Mandela Effect, Trump, and the death of the truth.

So definitely not a full watch-through; the goal is enough serious episodes to really get the Darin Morgan episodes.

As for Haruhi, this would end our time with the TV anime (we watched the relevant season 2 episodes already), but I intend to show the real reason we've been watching Haruhi next week: The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya.

For the Sunday stream, I've shifted to announcing the final schedule on Saturday, but it will be something like this:
1-2. MLP - 901 - The Beginning of the End (two parts)
3. Another MLP episode
4. Tangled - 217 - Rapunzel: Day One
5. Kaleido Star - 15
6. Super GALS - 34

EDIT: Oh right, I forgot we're starting Fruits Basket this Sunday too. That's why this isn't final.

SigmasonicX · Apr 4, 2019

Thursday stream followup, we watched the following.
1. X-Files - 101 - Pilot
2. Haruhi - Live Alive
3. Haruhi - Someday in the Rain

We got a surprisingly large number of people for the first thing. Seems like they enjoyed it well enough, so I think I'll go ahead and show other X-Files episodes in the future when hole filling for the stream.

Most everyone left once Haruhi started. One person was interested in seeing some reality warping action, but he left when I mentioned these episodes didn't have any of that. The first episode seemed to be enjoyed well enough. I hadn't made the connection between Haruhi saying they needed a choreographed dance number at the end and the, well, dance, until now somehow. I played the Japanese version of "God Knows" after. The last episode, however... had minutes long sequences of Yuki just reading while there's noise from the other clubs. Even the ending scene with Kyon and Haruhi in the rain was less meaningful than I remembered. So that episode didn't go over well. Season 1 viewers probably should have taken this episode as a warning about "Endless Eight".

Anyway, the show's all in the past; next week, we plan on watching the movie, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, where shit gets real. Even people who didn't like the show like this movie.

Art dump
1.Fluttershy X Discord by colorfulcolor233
2.Human Rainbow by xieyanbbb
3.Human Fluttershy by xieyanbbb
4.Pony Fluttershy by xieyanbbb
5.Pony Rainbow and Tank by xieyanbbb

1.Pony Rarity by xieyanbbb
2.Pony Applejack by xieyanbbb
3.Human Pinkie and Rainbow by xieyanbbb
4.Autumn Blaze by xieyanbbb
5.Human Pinkie by xieyanbbb

1.Human Fluttershy 2 by xieyanbbb
2.Human Rarity by xieyanbbb
3.Human Rainbow by xieyanbbb
4.Twilight Sparkle Jedi: SPACE MARES by Sethisto on DeviantArt
5.Seapony Tempest by its-gloomy

1.:WIP: Bold by yuyusunshine on DeviantArt - Twilight
2.Kirinbus by Nemo2D on DeviantArt - Autumn Blaze as a catbus
3.Trixie Lulamoon by tyuubatu on DeviantArt - EQG
4.Thinkie Pie by moonatik - Pinkie
5.Somnambula (MLP art) by xSatanielx on DeviantArt

1.Fluttershy portrait by JedaySkayVoker on DeviantArt
2.Flutter in the Mist by YinglongFujun on DeviantArt - Fluttershy
3.Do you remember? by Deraniel on DeviantArt - Twilight and Celestia
4.Pony Sunset by php61
5.shoppin by mirroredsea on DeviantArt - Coco Pommel

1.Mane Six Cuddling by bluemeganium on DeviantArt
2.Applejack and Rainbow being dressed up by Rarity by drafthoof
3.Celestia Cake by Kaikururu on DeviantArt
4.Captain of the Guard, Friendship Castle by Tillie-TMB on DeviantArt - Tempest
5.Rara by LordValtasar on DeviantArt - Coloratura

1.MLP Autumn Blaze Plush by Little-Broy-Peep on DeviantArt
2.Fluttershy with the Japanese Reiwa characters by mirroredsea
3.R by mirroredsea on DeviantArt - Rarity with headset
4.Grima Corrupted Twilight || Speedpaint in descr! by glitteronin on DeviantArt - Fire Emblem reference
5.Cross-world cosplay by DiscordTheGE on DeviantArt - Twilight as Harley Quinn, Raven (Teen Titans) as Poison Ivy
6.Crying Human Twilight by lilfunkman

Jobdone by Kaikururu on DeviantArt - Celestia, Luna, and Twilight Tuxedo Mask meme

~~~

Haven't made a fanfic update in a while. I read the following stories.

Closing The Loop by Undome Tinwe is a short RariTwi story from this February where Rarity and Twilight travel back to the time of Princess Platinum and Clover the Clever to settle a debate about whether they were in love or not, inadvertantly starting the relationship in the first place. It's pretty cute.

Next, recommended by Royal Canterlot Library, I read an April 2013 story called Good Thing I'm So Organized by TacticalRainboom. This is one of those stories that looks at Twilight through the lense of mental/behavioral problems, which was a pretty common theme especially after season 2's "Lesson Zero". I often get rubbed the wrong way when stories make in-show events more serious than they were presented in the episode, and this unfortunately is no different; the story features Twilight breaking down because she almost hurt the real Cadance during the events of "A Canterlot Wedding". The story compromises between an easy and complex solution, by having Pinkie solve things by being random, but also have Twilight think things through. All in all, wasn't a fan. Monochromatic's stories often look at Twilight through the same lense, and I prefer how she handles it, with no easy solutions. I might have accepted the easy solution here more if Twilight's breakdown wasn't shown to be so debilitating.

Grave Implications by Aragon is a story from February of this year with an interesting premise, with Twilight reflecting on the old Canterlot tradition of buying a tombstone for your child when they turn 4, and what that means for her. Aragon mentions in a comment that this was based on his parents actually buying him a tombstone when he was 3, which he finds hilarious. Despite that, this is a more somber reflection. It does go into some wellworn territory with Twilight talking to Celestia after she becomes an alicorn, but it's still interesting.

And on the longer (much longer) end, I've been reading The Silver Standard by PatchworkPoltergeist, which started April 2015 and ended April 2018. It portrays the events of FiM from the perspective of Silver Spoon (Diamond Tiara's partner in crime), weaving in and out of canon events to give a more complex portrayl of the two. I'm only about halfway through. Here's a Discord chat I had about it.

SigmasonicX03/25/2019

Sciz I've been very slowly reading The Silver Standard and I just got through the chapter "Considering the Methods of Mobilization Within a Manehattan Shark Tank". The story was honestly rather dull for much of what I've read, but I think I see the appeal now.

Sciz03/25/2019

the old money vs new money divide and how that drives everyone's characterization is handled super well

SigmasonicX03/25/2019

Yeah, that entire sequence of Silver Spoon returning to her old school and getting mocked was rough.

Though, I am also curious how the story addresses the fact that a flashback shows Filthy Rich with then Spoiled Milk around the time Diamond would have been born, if it does.

(For those who haven't read, the early chapters established a different mother for Diamond through pictures in her house, then "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" aired, and Spoiled Rich was established as her stepmother)

Sciz03/25/2019

there's a side story prequel that addresses how the two of them met

SigmasonicX03/25/2019

Ah, OK, so it is addressed.

Sciz03/25/2019

not really relevant to the main plot, but it does flesh them out a little further

SigmasonicX03/25/2019

Back to the story so far, I do like that it managed to strike a balance between making Diamond and Silver sympathetic without making the CMC into the real villains all along.

Sciz03/25/2019

everyone's got layers

the whole thing does a masterful job of giving everyone plausible, realistic motivations and histories such that you can see exactly how they got to where they are

but also stays on tone for FiM throughout

SigmasonicX03/25/2019

Yeah, I agree.

And it's a lot more natural about incorporating show stuff than Past Sins

Sciz03/25/2019

most authors do a fairly hamfisted job of referencing official material, in my experience

the show itself leaned into callbacks more as time went on, and it's still not all that self-referential

TSS's character arcs are very carefully structured around exploiting episodes as inflection points in a way that I'd have to think long and hard to find another example of

[...]

SigmasonicX03/26/2019

Haha, didn't expect The Silver Standard to incorporate the starting song of "Pinkie Pride", where Diamond Tiara steals Silver Spoon's milkshake and then the latter takes it back.

Trigonometrize03/26/2019

referencing best episode is an advanced fanfiction technique

EDIT: Pretty interesting blog post by Aragon (I linked one of his stories above), not just for its point about talent, but also for how he views other fanfic authors.

Strider_Blaze · Apr 5, 2019

Oh when did this thread get the community spotlight?

Anyways, another EQG short up (which is another one previously released on the Discovery Family app).

Edit: And forgot about the season 9 OT, will post the short there.

Shiny Pokemon Hunter · Apr 6, 2019

Great post!, SigmasonicX

SigmasonicX · Apr 6, 2019

Silver Dragon Hunter said:
Great post!, SigmasonicX

Which one? The stream followup?

Shiny Pokemon Hunter · Apr 6, 2019

SigmasonicX said:
Which one? The stream followup?

Post #1,584

SigmasonicX · Apr 6, 2019

Silver Dragon Hunter said:
Post #1,584

Oh, thanks. I write posts like that pretty often. BTW, if you're watching the new season, I recommend you make a post in the season 9 thread.

While I'm here, the Sunday stream schedule is set.

1. MLP - 424 - Equestria Games
2-3. MLP - 901-2 - The Beginning of the End 1-2
4. Tangled - 217 - Rapunzel: Day One
5. Kaleido Star - 15
6. Fruits Basket - 1

For these new episode streams, I've decided to pair up well-received episodes with older less-well-received episodes, and vice versa. Thus, we have a Spike episode.

We're also starting the new Fruits Basket anime, a new adaptation of a classic shojo series that many in PonyEra were big fans of back in the day. It'll be the English simuldub, but there's no trailer for that.

SigmasonicX · Apr 8, 2019

Stream followup, we didn't end up watching Fruits Basket.
*.My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic SEASON 9 'It All Ends' Trailer - YouTube
1. MLP - 424 - Equestria Games
*.My Little Avengers: Endgame - YouTube
2-3. MLP - 901-2 - The Beginning of the End 1-2
*.Doctor Sombrero [MLP Animation] - YouTube (after first part)
*.The End of Equestria [MLP Motion Comic] - YouTube
4. Tangled - 217 - Rapunzel: Day One
*.My Little Pony Ending (Starring Star) (Fan-Made) - YouTube
5. Kaleido Star - 15
*.End of all Pony - YouTube

That first YouTube video was actually made back during season 3; the uploader changed the title. Still, it predicted an ending for the series where Sombra comes back... and also a blizzard that kills everyone.

As for the episodes, I maintain that "Equestria Games" isn't that bad, but I had forgotten about dumb things like Spike thinking he has psychic powers. It's interesting how this episode is the culmination of events from two seasons: they got the Crystal Empire to be the location of the Equestria Games in season 3, then season 4 covered the CMC being the flag bearers and Dash's team qualifying. Of course, because of that, people were expecting something along the lines of "Best Night Ever", with an episode focusing on the event itself instead of putting it all in the background. There's no question the episode disappointed in that regard, even watching it now. Still, the lesson at the end is very good, and I like some of the awkward humor with Spike. And it's cute seeing Mommy Twilight helping him out.

Posted about "The Beginning of the End" in the season 9 thread.

The Tangled episode was weird for, as pointed out during the stream, feeling exactly like someone's fan fiction about Rapunzel forgetting Eugene and falling in love with Cassandra. Aside from that oddity, it was pretty fun.

Then the Kaleido Star episode featured some unexpected history and romance, and a car chase and table flipping. It was fun.

People had to leave before the Fruits Basket episode started, making me consider moving the stream to an hour earlier, to 2:30 PM PT. I'm waiting for more feedback.

Some art.
1.Favorite Character, Captain Celaeno - 04/05/2019 by ZidaneMina on DeviantArt
2.Mordred Shimmer by Orin331 on DeviantArt - Sunset
3.Morning Shy by LittleHybridShila on DeviantArt - Fluttershy
4.Rarity and Sweetie Belle art (MLP) by xSatanielx on DeviantArt
5.Friendship is still Magic! by Rizzych on DeviantArt - Mane Six

1.twilight sparkle by stratodraw on DeviantArt - With a creepy expression
2.70 inch XL Lifesize Fluttershy faux fur 3D hooves by Epicrainbowcrafts on DeviantArt
3.Cadance Portrait by VanillaGhosties on DeviantArt
4.Pinkie Pie Vector 27 - Bird Costume by CyanLightning on DeviantArt - Gallus is looking good. Not sure why the title mentions Pinkie.
5.Twilight by IFMSoul on DeviantArt

1.Wing boost by Shady-Bush on DeviantArt - Vapor Trail and Sky Stinger
2.MLP:YL - Too Small by InuHoshi-to-DarkPen on DeviantArt - Older Spike and Twilight
3.Tempest by pinweena30
4.Coco Pommel 1 by luciferamon
5.Coco Pommel 2 by luciferamon
6.Coco Pommel 3 by luciferamon

1.Fluttershy and her shadow by setharu
2.FlutterShy 4 4 2019 by tohupo on DeviantArt
3.Birth of a Princess by CCKittyCreative on DeviantArt - Twilight
4.Ponydoodles request #38 by IncendiaryBoobs on DeviantArt - Big Mac X Sugar Belle
5.I HAVE NO IDEA! by Marenlicious on DeviantArt - SciTwi pony
6.Fluttershy tea party by Light262 by Light262 on DeviantArt

Spike Gets His Wings by TadpoleDude on DeviantArt

Trigonometrize · Apr 8, 2019

SigmasonicX said:
Spike Gets His Wings by TadpoleDude on DeviantArt

undefined

I thought Twilight was jealous at first, but she was just trying to prevent this mess

SigmasonicX · Apr 11, 2019

Stream announcement for Thursday. No change there, we're watching The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, the movie that even people that hate the show like. It's 3 hours long, but we'll be starting at the normal time; the stream will go on long.

Big old art dump.
1.Fluttershy X Tree Hugger by jademoona
2.Nurse Rarity and Sick Rainbow by dstears
3.CMC trying to sing babymetal by flutterthrash
4.We 3 Queens by Cabbage-Arts on DeviantArt - Alicorn Twilight, Sunset, and Starlight
5.Unicorn day by Kaikururu on DeviantArt - Trixie

1.Pear Butter (Animated) by Szafir87 on DeviantArt
2.Celestia and Good King Sombra from the comics by dolorosacake
3.Twilight and Spike flying by スカイ
4.Pinkie by setoya
5.Diamond Tiara with milkshake by setoya

1.Berry Punch drinking by setoya
2.Celestia eating pancakes by loneless-art
3.Chrysalis by loneless-art
4.Trixie with cards by loneless-art
5.Ponydoodles request #58 by IncendiaryBoobs on DeviantArt - Twilight, Pinkie, and Rarity

1.Mechaluna MK II by Overkenzie on DeviantArt
2.Rainbow dashing by Deraniel on DeviantArt
3.Somnambula by Puetsua on DeviantArt
4.Luna riding horse by darkest-lunar-flower
5.Spike dreams by Zazush--Una on DeviantArt - With Dragon Rarity

1.Starlight by tomnesss
2.Twilight by tomnesss
3.Tease-ya! by Marenlicious on DeviantArt - Smolder
4.Ponydoodles request #56 by IncendiaryBoobs on DeviantArt - Fluttershy and bee
5.G5 Bat Pony Twilight by hiccupsdoesart

1.Twilight with socks by flysouldragon
2.This Love of Ours pt.1 by TwoShoesMcGee on DeviantArt - Discord X Fluttershy
3.Flurrybug by bobthedalek on DeviantArt - Cadance, Flurry, and Twilight
4.Ponyball GN5 by bobthedalek on DeviantArt - Rainbow, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Twilight
5.Afternoon in the Clouds by Joan-Grace on DeviantArt - Celestia

1.Midnight Sparkle by ViperidaeGraphics on DeviantArt
2.Derpy Hooves DETERMINATION by ViperidaeGraphics on DeviantArt
3.Beauty by AutumnVoyage on DeviantArt - Twilight
4.The Pie Sisters by Blusagi on DeviantArt
5.Gabby by noupu

1.Gilda and Pinkie by noupu
2.Rarity by noupu
3.Pinkie hugging her tail by noupu
4.Fluttershy by noupu
5.Twilight Sparkle Vector 53 - The Worst Nightmare by CyanLightning on DeviantArt - With ladybug costume and cheese hat

1.Coco Pommel Vector 14 - Coco Drink by CyanLightning on DeviantArt
2.Head of the Class by Pony-Berserker on DeviantArt - Trixie and Starlight
3.Cutie Saturday Silverstream by Shibaroll on DeviantArt

Comics
Finding Food Comic by LytletheLemur on DeviantArt - Ocellus explaining how changelings fed, suggestive ending

And You Will Be Too by Heir-of-Rick on DeviantArt - Sad but happy Applejack and Coloratura comic

and_you_will_be_too_by_heir_of_rick_dc7f4zc-fullview.jpg

Student Six #205 by Sintakhra on DeviantArt - Gallus and Smolder

And videos.
Ponyfication of a Star vs. scene from a recent episode, "Curse of the Blood Moon". Major spoilers for that show.

That video led me to realize there was someone I hadn't even heard of pumping out pony animations, Flurry Lily. They also have a video showing off the MLP art they drew when they were in 5th/6th grade, and...

And OK remix

DragonSJG · Apr 11, 2019

Not as into MLP as I once was because I've found the fandom has a lot of right wing chuds or centrists, which has kind of ruined/soured it for me

SigmasonicX · Apr 11, 2019

ShadowSJG said:
Not as into MLP as I once was because I've found the fandom has a lot of right wing chuds or centrists, which has kind of ruined/soured it for me

You can find chuds like that stinking up every fandom nowadays, but it's true that the MLP fandom's heavily 4chan influenced origins make it especially susceptible to this. There are a few artists I've chosen to no longer post here due to them posting Nazi or Trump art. However, I've found that there's sort of a shadow fandom of actual young people and girls/women that hang out on Twitter and even still Tumblr that are much less alt-right. The YouTuber I linked above, Flurry Lily, is an example of this, with them posting short animations that appear to be influenced by the Undertale fandom. Well, I say shadow fandom, but in terms of numbers, they're probably much larger than the self-identifying bronies, and especially the alt-right bronies.

On another note, cute video

DragonSJG · Apr 11, 2019

A buddy of mine called out some brony who made blackface and so many bronies came to defend him and lied about it

SigmasonicX · Apr 11, 2019

ShadowSJG said:
A buddy of mine called out some brony who made blackface and so many bronies came to defend him and lied about it

That sucks. Thankfully, I haven't had to interact with anyone like that.

SigmasonicX · Apr 12, 2019

Stream followup, we watched The Disappearance of Haruhi. Despite being a bit less than three hours long, it manages to be interesting the whole way through... probably still could have been shorter. Don't need to show every detail of people flipping light switches and such. The climax also could have been much stronger than it was. Especially since there has been no animated followup, they could have deviated from the light novels to have a stronger confrontation between Kyon and Yuki. Also, I have to say that Kyon's English VA didn't do a great job during his panicked moments. Still, good movie.

~~~

The Enchanted Kingdom is finally out of hiatus, with two chapters, one long and one short. Here are the reviews I posted for the two.

I thought I wouldn't need the recap, but I read it anyway, and I'm glad I did. Not just for the commentary, but because it turns out I did legit forget a bunch of stuff.

Of course, getting back into the right mindset for this part of the story is a separate issue. After the long break, I was hoping for some lovey dovey stuff, and thankfully, we got a bit of it at the end. Seeing Twilight dreamwalk was pretty neat, and that trial dream was fun. Nice to see her maybe starting to take her own advice, and good to see Rarity open up to her more. And I'm sure there's nothing foreboding about Luna saying Rarity is in a similar position to where Twilight used to be, and that it doesn't tie into the flash forward segments...

~~~

It's sadder than I expected to see North Ridge depart... assuming you don't decide to make more interludes about him anyway. I'm curious if this will mark a shift in the story as a whole.

KillstealWolf · Apr 12, 2019

Gonna post my thoughts on Seasons 7 and 8 as I marathoned them both last week for the season 9 premier.

2017 was not a good year for me which is mainly why I didn't watch it when it first aired, just a rough time on a personal level. Going back and watching it was a pleasant joy, it was very easy to get right back into the pony mood, probably helped by some strong opening episodes of Season 7 like Celestia Advice, All Bottled Up, Rock Solid Friendship, Parental Glidance, A Royal Problem, Discordant Harmony and The Perfect Pear to name a few of the personal favs in the first half of the season. Even the episodes I didn't list are still fun to watch, there isn't any episode here I would think I would only ever watch once. Seeing Rainbow Dash Parents and the Apples Parents were great as well.
If there is a weak point of Season 7, I feel it's with the Implementation of the Pillars of Equestria, which appear to be the big season long arches for season 7. And with the pillars, I like all their designs, I like all of the origin stories and the different time periods inspirations they are from (Rockhoof being inspired by vikings, Sonambula being inspired by Egyptians etc.) the issues is, they don't slot into the series too well, it takes till episode 16 of the series till we get the stories about them in Campfire Tales, where we get 3 of the pillars backstories at once, we get Sonambula's origin right in the middle of a Daring Do episode which is great to listen to, but kills the pacing of the Daring Do episode in progress entirely. Only Mage Meadowbrook's origin fits cleanly into the episode it appears in.
And then come the finale where they all come in, they still take half of the 2 parter to even appear and we have Stygian to explain as well, and it's not the Pillars that solve the problem in the end, but Starlight Glimmer, mainly because of the obvious parallel between Starlight and her relation the Mane 6 and Stygian with his relation to the Pillars of Equestria. They needed more time than they got to stand out, and maybe better spreading across the season, drop Campfire Tales as an episode, put Flash Magnus in Parental Glidance, Rockhoof into Honest Apple and Mistmane into Forever Filly. It would have let the pillars work better.
Outside of the pillars though, there are strong episodes in the second half of the season, Fame and Misfortune with it's numerous meta jokes, Thorax and Ember meeting in Triple Threat, Rarity's making the Punk Look work, and Starlight and Sunburst trying to find something in common they could both do.
Season 7 was an enjoyable watch, the season wide arc is probably the messiest part of it, but going on individual episode basis there are a lot of strong ones to enjoy.

I will briefly mention the movie at this point, as I had seen the Movie when it was out in the theatres (I aren't passing on big screen MLP) I watched it a lot... like, I saw it multiples in the theatre... 4 times.
There is a bunch of celebrity casted characters in this film, which I was cautious about, that sorta sunk the Ratchet and Clank movie where the celebrity voice actors basically tanked it whilst the original cast do get any recognition at all, thankfully most of the film exclusive characters are absolute blasts to watch, The Pirates, The Hippogriffs/Seaponies, Capper, but espicially Tempest. I really enjoyed Tempest, she scratched that Disney villain itch that hadn't been scratched a long time. I also like her origins, I feel sorry for how she essentially became disabled and her friends abandoned her because of it, yet she went on to overcome her disability and become one of the strongest spellcaster in Equestria despite it, that's actually something I can't really think another film does with it's villain character.
The downside of Tempest getting a great arc is that there is no time for Storm King to get a good one, he's barely in it and despite being told as one of the strongest threats Equestria has seen, we don't really get to see his power until the end. I'll take Tempest getting more development over Storm King though, the only character I feel we really didn't need was Grubber, I get it, incompetent lackey hang around with bad guy, acts all quipy so the kids don't get too intimidated by the bad guy whilst letting the bad guy stay menacing, problem is his jokes basically all flat, and there isn't any chemistry between him or tempest either so you don't get good banter between them. Sia is Sia, she sings a good Song as Songbird Serenade and that's her role in the film.
As for the Mane 6, it's mainly about Twilight, with a bit of Pinkie and Rainbow Dash, Rarity gets a quick scene with Capper and Applejack and Fluttershy don't really get much to do at all. The Princesses also don't have much to do as well, they get an opening at the beginning, proceed to get stoned and not come back until the film ends, so the opening is weird introducing 3 characters that are essentially "Pony not appearing in this movie", they could have used this to introduce the other members of the Mane 6 to newcomers first. All in all though, whilst some of the Mane 6 could get more things to do, the banter between all 6 are great and also leads to a pretty good finale (Storm King being the only underwhelming part of it)
The roadtrip is fun and all the songs in the film are great, despite the dour situation Canterlot is thrown in, the film never delves into full grimdark like some big movie adaptations of TV shows fall into when trying to make bigger and epicer, and it's a very pretty film to watch, providing there is no CGI on the screen at all (Yeah, the CGI is abysmal)

So Season 8, the main focus of this season is the School of Friendship and the Student 6, Student 6 slot in a lot nicer than the Pillars of Equestria did, being in since episode 1 certainly helps of course, though I am surprised how quickly I came to like of them even by the end of the first 2 parter. It's great to see a range of races shown with the 6 as well, including the Hippogriffs from the movie.
Of the 6, Ocellus might be my favourite of the bunch, being a Changeling and able to transform apperance gives her a lot of great visual gags (Espicially when she does impressions of other characters) and she's a little bit of an oddball as well (Though not as much as Silverstream is), Smolder gets to bounce of Spike quite well, Yona likes to Smash and gets some great word gags in with the more basic Yak dictionaries and Gallus has a number of Hidden Depths that aren't first apparant when you meet him. Sandbar is the only one I feel is a little underdeveloped and basic so far, being a regular Earth Pony probably doesn't help but it feels like he's got the leader role, when Gallus fits the leader roll better.
The school setting itself does feel like it could have more going to it, the Mane 6 don't translate to teachers super well (Although Starlight surprsingly does), though I'm glad we haven't fallen into standard high-school tropes yet like "The Prom" and "Love Tiangles" and "School Bullies". I also like how they slid the Season 8 villain under everyones noses in the season as well as the villain trying to use Friendship itself as a Power to take over Equestria.
Other standout episodes of the season include all of Starlight episodes with visiting the parents in Sunburst, the Road Trip with Trixie and when Discord tests her head-teacher capabilties, the Student 6 focused epsiodes with The Hearth's Warming Club and their various trials in What Lies Beneath, The episode with the Kirin which have great designs, Crysalis return along with the return of discordant Mane 6 (along with a new Evil Twilight), The Washouts, The Hearts and Hooves Day episode and seeing Mt. Aris with the CMC (Even if it's not as good looking as it was in the movie).
One thing that stands out this series is how big Equestria's cast has grown. Counting the Mane 6, Starlight Glimmer, Spike, The CMC and the Student 6, that's 17 characters alone there, you also have common recurring characters like Discord, Celestia, Maud Pie, Sun Burst and Trixie to name a few, We didn't even get a Luna episode this season. Interstingly looking at my list, a lot of my favourites this series did focus on characters outside of the Mane 6.
I guess a lot of the stories with the Mane 6 have been told now, all of them have reached their goals from the beginning at this point, so seeing new characters going through their own problems provides a fun change of pace. Still, the show is called My Little Pony, and people are here for the ponies, as much as I like to see more stories with the Student 6.

It's going to be interesting to see how Season 9 balances things, as Season 9 is going to have to balance the Mane 6 taking over to become guardians of Equestria, the Student 6 graduating, Grogar's Evil League of Evil attempting to take over Equestria and probably numerous other characters coming back for one last hurrah, you even have to wrap up side characters storylines as well.
The Season 9 opener gets to a strong start and has laid the groundwork down the for the series well with all it's main goals (Although the Student 6 need their series goal but I believe their next episode is coming soon?)
It's a little sad this the last season, but then again, the show made it to 9 seasons, not many shows can boast a runtime that long, and the show never felt like it stepped into "Zombie" territory, I would still go back and watch any episode from there show, there isn't one which is I've seen it once and never want to see it again, contrast that to like, Game of Thrones for example where I will never watch Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken ever again.

And even when the series is done, there is still a bunch more side things to get into, numerous comic series, a large collection of shorts, I could even watch some of the Equestria Girls stuff, last one I watched was Rainbow Rocks, apparantly forgotten friendship is fairly good?
Oh yeah, the Christmas Special was a fun watch, nice to see most ponies get their own individual plot to do (Although Applejack joint up with Fluttershy on hers), Discord and Rainbow Dash working together was fun, Rarity arc was surprisingly charming (Though should be expected from that of Generiousity) and Spike song at the end was great to hear.
The only weird part is how little the Reindeer had to do with it, it feels like they should have a bigger role considering they are a big new race, but they are in for like 1 major scene, then briefly show up the end and that's it, buy the toys I guess? Ah well.

Final thing to say, I feel between the two, Season 8 is stronger than Season 7, mainly for getitng the season arc done better and the Student 6 working better than the Pillars did, the songs that have not left my head from the two seasons are Flawless, We're Freindship Bound and A Kirin's Tale. All the movie songs are still stuck in my head.

And for 3 hopes in the final season, I hope at some point in it we get...

- One last Nightmare Night episode, just to see the Student 6 take on Halloween and how they would react to Luna (Plus we need Tin-man Applejack)
- Some kind of episode that really changes up the artstyle entirely (Imagine Wander Over Yonder's The Cartoon, perhaps have Discord be the reason for an art shift or similar)
- Grogar's Villain League getting a group song together (You know you want to hear Crysalis, Cozy Glow and Tirek sing a song together)

SigmasonicX · Apr 12, 2019

Good write up, KillstealWolf . Kind of surprised you like season 8 more than 7, since it's mainly been the other way around in these threads.

The way the Pillars of Equestria were handled in season 7 was definitely it's weak point. However, they get a pretty great showing in the Legends of Magic 13-issue long series, which funnily started before we even knew they were coming in the show, making people wonder why the hell the comics were focusing on these OCs so much. Somnambula especially is a ton of fun in the comics, when she doesn't get to do much in the show.

Similarly, Tempest gets a good followup in the comics with a two-issue story in the main series called, appropriately, "The Return of Tempest Shadow", or "Tempest's Tale" depending on listings.

About Equestria Girls, the parts generally considered the best are Rainbow Rocks and Forgotten Friendship, yeah. Though people often find the shorts to be a preferable format for EQG in general; it makes more sense for the high school setting, and there are some great one-off songs.

An episode with an art shift in season 9 would be great. The December 2017 leaks mentioned there would be a special with a different art style, but that's likely Rainbow Roadtrip (a special we learned about through toys), which from a toy ad looks like it's using the Movie art style.

Sylvee · Apr 12, 2019

KillstealWolf said:
Thoughts on Season 7, 8, and looking forward into 9

A lot of your opinions on stuff is my thoughts as well. The general consensus from what I've read is that Season 7 is one of the stronger seasons with a lot of really strong episodes that serve as episode concepts that people have been asking for years. The big ones in that regard being Royal Problem (finally got a Royal Sisters episode) and Perfect Pear. (Finally see AJ's parents) I'm happy to see someone else that liked Triple Threat a lot as well, a lot of people hate that episode and I think that the fact that it's a Spike episode with a painful premise gives it a bad rep. It's not my favorite episode of the season (mine is a tie between Rock Solid Friendship and Secrets and Pies) but I think it's a pretty fun episode that also has crucial character development for Thorax and Ember. The arc doesn't work that well (the big issues I think are that aside from Meadowbrook all of them are introduced in mediocre to bad episodes as well as the finale being way too big and having too much going on) but other then that I think that the season has some of the show's best episodes and a lot of solid ones as well.

Season 8 for most people felt like a step down from 7 but had its moments. The students were easily the highlight of the season, and I think it's really surprising just how well-received the students ended up being. Starlight's introduction into the main cast was very controversial (and still is to some extent) so it's great to see that pretty much everyone was on board with the students. Gallus in particular took me by surprise, he had a fantastic showing in Hearth's Warming Club and remained strong through the season. Considering the other students it surprises me that Gallus got as much traction as he did. As of now he has the most pictures on Derpibooro which shows that if nothing else people still like drawing art of him. The only ones I don't care for all that much are Yona (don't like her personality/visual design) and Sandbar. (As you highlight he's by far the least developed of the students and doesn't have much of a personality)

The school itself though was obviously added in because Hasbro wanted to sell more merch and no matter how you sliced it the whole thing is trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. The show's characters were really not written with the idea that they'd eventually become teachers at a school so none of it works if you actually think about it. Both the opener and finale I think are pretty weak, the opener because it focuses way too much on exposition over actual conflict and the finale because it wastes a ton of time on the Mane 6 who don't contribute to the plot at all instead of the Students who are supposed to be the focus. And one other problem is that the overall episode selection is pretty tame. I really get the feeling that all the super interesting and highly demanded episode concepts were either done in season 7 or were saved for season 9.

The movie I think just has too many characters and it really hurts the movie because of it. Tempest is fantastic and is done well because she's given a lot of screentime to develop. The other guest characters aren't so lucky. All of the "good" characters basically show up, sing a song and complete their character arc over 10 or so minutes, and then sit around until the finale. It could have really benefited with one or maybe two of the side stories being trimmed to give that time to the other stories. The animation is great, (when there's no CGI) I love the songs, and I think the character concepts could have worked. Even with the problems it's still a fun movie and one that I think is still worth watching.

My Little Pony |OT| An adventure that never will end

Official ResetEra™ Chao Puncher

Woke up, got a money tag, swears a lot

Alt-account

Alt-account

One Winged Slayer