My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ Equestria Girls: Forgotten Friendship

Tags

A Friendship to Remember, Applejack, Equestria Girls, Fluttershy, Forgotten Friendship, Most Likely to Be Forgotten, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, opinion, Pinkie Pie, Princess Celestia, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, review, Sci-Twi, Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, Wallflower Blush, youtube

Synopsis:

At Canterlot High School, Sunset Shimmer, who has retained position of President of the Yearbook Committee and Editor-in-Chief since her days when she was still a bully, is finishing up getting the results for the “superlatives” for this year’s edition. She’s pleased to learn that she and the rest of the Humane Seven have been named “Best Friends”, but Trixie is outraged that she was not voted “Greatest and Most Powerful-est” (in spite of the fact that was never a category) and vows revenge. The girls decide to take their group photo using Twilight Sparkle’s new drone camera tomorrow at a beach outing for the yearbook, and that night Sunset writes to the Equestrian Twilight Sparkle thanking her for giving her the second chance that turned her into who she is today. The next day, however, when Sunset arrives at the beach, the rest of her friends act cold, afraid, and hostile to her. On touching them, she realizes the girls have had their memories of her erased.

On further learning the only memories any of the girls have of her is of her being cruel, mean, and deceptive, Sunset writes to the Equestrian Twilight and is relieved to discover she still remembers her “being nice”. Sunset returns to Equestria to try and find out how the Humane Six lost their memories and, unable to help her alone, Twilight takes her to Princess Celestia; leading the two to finally reconcile. Celestia and Luna, in turn, take the two to the forbidden section of the Canterlot Library, where they find a record from Clover the Clever in the pre-Equestria era of an old pony sorceress who used a magical item called the Memory Stone to erase memories and fragments of memories from her victims. The records show Clover was able to thwart her attempts to erase his own memory by keeping records of everything she erased, and eventually chased her through a portal before the record abruptly ends; indicating Clover hid the rest to keep anyone from finding the stone. Sunset believes the stone was hidden in the human world and a human has uncovered it and used it against her.

Sunset returns to the human world while Equestrian Twilight continues her research, attempting to convince the girls through photographs that her claims of their friendship are real, but not only are the photos dismissed as forgeries but she is falsely accused of intentionally breaking Human Twilight’s drone camera when she accidentally steps on it. When Sunset sees Trixie is still trying to get into the yearbook, she suspects her of having the stone and using it as revenge for not including her superlative and confronts her in the school hallway. Trixie ends up being clueless about the entire matter, but on overhearing Sunset talk about how she knows she’s one type of way yet everyone in school sees her differently, she sympathizes with her considering her own attempts to constantly be “great and powerful” and believes her story. She agrees to help Sunset find the true culprit in exchange for getting put in the yearbook. Meanwhile, Equestrian Twilight finds Clover’s missing record showing the stone was buried in a circle of three rocks, but also discovers that erased memories are gone permanently if they stay removed for three days.

Sunset and Trixie go about the school but are unable to find anyone who looks like a potential suspect. Finally, they are down to only one student left to investigate: Wallflower Blush, a quiet, introverted member of Sunset’s own yearbook committee and the sole member of the Gardening Club, who is so unremarkable that she constantly goes unnoticed and forgotten by everyone (including Sunset and Trixie). At that point, Twilight writes back to Sunset with the news of the rock formation and the warning that the stone has to be destroyed by sunset that day. On seeing that Wallflower’s desktop background is of the rock formation, she touches Wallflower and discovers she accidentally discovered the Memory Stone and used it to remove everyone’s positive memories of Sunset. She angrily confronts her and demands to know what she did to her to cause her to do this to her, to which Wallflower angrily responds that, to her, Sunset never changed at all: she ignored her completely as a bully and she continued to ignore her completely as everyone’s “best friend”, and that she erased everyone’s memories so that everyone would see her the same way she does–as”the biggest meanie”. Before Sunset and Trixie can stop her, she uses the stone to erase their memory of the entire encounter and leaves them locked in the editing room.

Sunset, however, took a cue from Clover the Clever and left herself a note to check Twilight’s broken drone’s camera, which she set to record the moment before she confronted Wallflower. After watching the footage, Trixie gets Sunset to realize Wallflower had a point, and Sunset mentions that even when everyone hates her permanently tomorrow she’ll still have one friend in her. This, however, emboldens Trixie enough to try out one of her “escape artist tricks”, which manages to get Sunset free. She runs out to confront Wallflower again, but this time does so in front of the rest of the Humane Seven and, in the ensuing confrontation, Wallflower accidentally blurts out that she did indeed erase their memories of Sunset. Infuriated that her plan to get back at Sunset has been exposed and determined to make her suffer, Wallflower moves to erase the Humane Six’s memories of high school all together. Realizing that will destroy their friendships with each other, Sunset jumps into the path of the attack rather than let herself be the cause of breaking up their friendship a second time. Sunset’s own memories of high school (and, ergo, the entire human world and living as a human) are erased, but on seeing her sacrifice for them the rest of the girls finally believe that she’s really their friend and are still able to unite with her to “pony up” and destroy the Memory Stone before sunset. Everyone’s memories are restored and Wallflower, after seeing firsthand what her desire for revenge did to Sunset, repents of her own behavior. As it turns out, however, Sunset apologizes to her for never being a good friend. As Sunset writes to Equestrian Twilight about the stone’s destruction, she reveals she made amends by including Wallflower on a page in the yearbook for the Gardening Club, as well as gave Trixie her full page superlative for “Greatest and Most Powerful-est”.

Review:

The “Equestria Girls” franchise, by most estimates, was undergoing a degeneration until this special. No one really liked the original, but “Rainbow Rocks” blew everyone away with one of the show’s greatest ensemble darkhorses: Sunset Shimmer elevated from generic villain to deuteragonist. “Friendship Games” was considered by most fans to be lesser by comparison, and “Legend of Everfree” paled compared to that. The three 22 minute specials were rather unremarkable as well, especially among those who disliked Starlight Glimmer as “Mirror Magic” made it look as if she was going to shanghai the EG universe just as she was accused of doing the same to the main series. Even ignoring that, continuous generic plotlines with one-dimensional villains who “just needed a friend” led the entire series to feeling like it was more or less copies of each previous one with slight modifications.

By comparison, the shorts featured on Youtube were a bit better received as they were small vignettes that allowed the individual girls to shine in different situations rather than have most of the Humane Seven squashed into a “character lump” while one or two other characters did everything. Yet once again, the shorts shined when they went to the star of the EG series, Sunset Shimmer. Through them, Sunset has been revealed to be a multi-faceted, oddly pragmatic, and lovable character…especially in ones like “My Past is Not Today”, “Monday Blues”, and “Rarity’s Display of Affection”.

It seems only natural that what would get the “Equestria Girls” franchise back on track would be a special devoted to everyone’s favorite bacon-headed girl.

“Forgotten Friendship” was widely loved by the fan base, and with good reason. Not only was this special a bit of a departure from the normal fare, but it also was a bit more “mature” than those others. It relied a lot heavier on character and internal conflict rather than on a lot of magic and colorful pictures and action sequences. In that sense alone, the new Y7 rating was justified. This special was good in the same way that “The Perfect Pear” was good–the story is great but really little kids likely won’t understand why.

Going with that, this is a special that focused more on a theme and concept rather than an overt tangible antagonist (although there was one of those too): namely the idea of how much of our own identity is, ironically, shaped by the perception of others toward us. Most of us work very hard to make sure people only see the “best” side of us, and if we do something wrong we work even harder to try and show off so much good that people will forget those moments. Sunset is caught in the situation of what would happen if all anyone could remember about them was everything bad they had ever done. The end result is a look at just how much of ourselves we define based on the reaction of others, and what sort of existential crises might result. (There are a number of times in the episode Sunset begins to revert to her old way of acting as a result of being treated like her old self.) The lesson Sunset herself learns (Can you really go around calling yourself a good person if all you are is “not mean” to people?) even goes back into that–causing her to ask herself if it really matters if the school gives her an award for a superlative when she personally knows she didn’t live up to that standard.

Some fans might have thought making Trixie be the surprise co-star of this special was just to capitalize on her newer, more prominent role in the main series. Since she’s Starlight’s friend now, they decided to make her Sunset’s friend. I…disagree. Going with the theme of the special, she belongs here. As is pointed out, Trixie is the very poster child of an individual who is constantly trying to make herself into a better individual by making herself appear to everyone as a greater individual. She always fails at it, but…in spite of continuously failing, she always sees herself personally as “great and powerful” even if no one else does and never gives up trying to promote that view. In that odd way, for all of her obnoxiousness, selfishness, childishness, and pettiness…Trixie is rather endearing and even slightly admirable. It’s something of the same deal as with Wile E. Coyote or Team Rocket: you admire a character for never giving up or abandoning who they are.

Wallflower Blush ended up being one of the more popular EG villains as well. While I’m pretty sure the Dazzlings still hold Number One, I’d place her up there with Midnight Sparkle in a tie. While Midnight Sparkle definitely has more charisma, in terms of realism and motivation it goes to Wallflower. Since “Rainbow Rocks”, the villains were pretty much cookie cutouts: character who doesn’t rely on friendship acquires Equestrian magic, ends up misusing it and being corrupted, turns into a monster, and gets blasted into submission/tearful apologies by the Humane Seven. Wallflower Blush…didn’t really break the mold, but she did “deform” it quite a bit.

On the spectrum of villains, there’s multiple axes to consider. Most modern ones place villains on the range from “True Villain” to “Anti-Villain”, dividing villains between those who are genuinely evil and those who are pretty much just confused or misguided individuals with good intentions. A different spectrum not often considered is motivation. Even if a villain does something genuinely cruel and malicious out of spite or hostility, there are some with such good motivation that we can’t help but admit we might have done the same thing. Wallflower isn’t quite to that extreme, but she’s close. Most fans of the show probably couldn’t identify with Gloriosa Daisy or Juniper Montage, but a lot of them have experienced feelings of invisibility or the dehumanization of being part of the high school crowd. In Wallflower’s case, she was an individual who had done a lot of work toward digging the hole she found herself in. The flashbacks reveal she didn’t make a ton of effort to try and join in at parties or social gatherings, and later she reveals that she erased memories of anything she had ever done to stand out…ironically making herself invisible as those would have been the things that would have made her stand out in people’s memories. Nevertheless, the fact remains Sunset never noticed her as a bully and never noticed her as a good friend either, so from her perspective Sunset never changed at all. So to see someone who you remember being a tyrant and a brat be loved and admired by everyone while you yourself, having never done anything cruel to anyone, still remain ignored by everyone?

The other part of this is that Wallflower shares something with older EG villains: egocentricity. She tends to see the world only from her perspective. She’s not as overt or obnoxious about it as other villains were so it doesn’t stand out, but it’s clear based on the episode. Wallflower continues to act the same way around Sunset in the editing room in spite of the fact she knows what she did to her. She describes the entire thing as trying to “teach her a lesson”. It heavily indicates that Wallflower does not realize just how badly she hurt Sunset by what she did, or what she would be doing if she fully erased the high school memories of the Humane Six. It’s not until she removes Sunset’s memories that she finally sees what she’s really been doing to her all this time, and the look on her face makes it clear she doesn’t like it. The fact that we get that instead of Wallflower turning into some magic memory-stealing demon is a major step forward. It’s not perfect, but it’s enough to make Wallflower’s change far more genuine.

If that wasn’t enough, this episode gave a lot of what fans had wanted to see. Sunset gets to interact with the Equestrian Twilight Sparkle, who hadn’t been seen since the brief appearance in “Friendship Games”. And it also gave what they had really been longing for, namely the reconciliation between her and Princess Celestia. Similar to a few scenes in “Legend of Everfree”, this special also indicated that Sunset Shimmer has a closer relationship with Sci-Twi than the other girls. Now…some fans have made the jump straight to homosexuality from that, but I think that’s extreme. For one thing, it would be one-sided because Sci-Twi has a boyfriend, and that would only make things more awkward for her to be around Sunset in that case. I tend to think that Sunset sees Sci-Twi as a “little sister”. And there are some genuine dramatic and gripping moments, including the climax in which Sunset cries out in anguish as her memories of the girls are removed one by one and how she looks at Sci-Twi and says: “Don’t forget me!”

Alas, there are some negatives.

This special has been compared to the infamous “Anon-a-Miss” arc from the IDW comic, which enjoyed a resurgence in popularity following the release of the special. One of the big differences between that story and this is that in this one the Humane Six have a plausible reason for instantly giving Sunset the cold shoulder. Nevertheless…most fans were a bit upset that the friendship-orientated personalities of the Humane Six didn’t make more of a connection. There are a fistful of scenes in which Sci-Twi starts to question it, which makes the most sense for her because she only has one “bad” memory of Sunset Shimmer and most of who Sci-Twi is today depended on Sunset Shimmer’s actions, meaning she would be the most likely to conclude something was “missing” in her memories. However, none of the girls ever seem to get the sensation that their group is somehow incomplete or question Sunset’s absence…in spite of the fact a comment by Rarity indicates they should have been experiencing deja vu of some sort or another. I think it would have been a nice touch myself, although going with the theme of the special I’m not sure it would have meshed.

The resolution was a bit hurried as well. While I compliment it for evading some of the expected tropes and cliches, it still adhered to quite a bit of convenience. The Humane Six just happened to be at that location and, what’s more, after giving Sunset the cold shoulder for three days they’re suddenly paying enough attention to her to overhear the key parts of her argument with Wallflower. And by not doing what I said above, it makes the fact that the girls turned around so easily, even considering Sunset’s sacrifice, a little unbelievable. If they had been starting to question if Sunset might be telling the truth, it would make sense. Since they didn’t, it seems like it was just a tad convenient.

Lastly, the moral was a tad smudged again. Everything started because of those superlatives in the yearbook. So was it arguing that superlatives were bad? Or that everyone should get a superlative just so that you acknowledge them, which defeats the purpose of a superlative to begin with? Also, by presenting the idea that Sunset was indeed in the wrong about her treatment of Wallflower, it leads to the idea that some of what happened to her was “merited”.

Nevertheless, none of those are major issues. This special was rightly one of the best in the entire Equestria Girls franchise. If future specials stick with the concept behind this one, not being afraid to consider a theme and treat the audience as being a bit older than the original crowd, and the EG franchise might indeed be able to endure when the main series departs in two seasons.

Fun Facts:

This special was the first entry in the “Equestria Girls” franchise to be rated Y7 instead of Y. While the dominant thought for the rating change is Wallflower Blush shouting: “I hate you!”, I noticed old Equestria Girls specials were retroactively upped to Y7 ratings as well, indicating it’s likely more of a change of ratings policy than new content.

This special was originally conceived as a five-part miniseries to be showed as part of the Equestria Girls Youtube series, which was eventually put online in weekly installments under the title of “Most Likely to Be Forgotten”. The special itself is a condensed version of the miniseries and is six minutes shorter, with several jokes and asides cut out, such as the pony Sunset Shimmer briefly spotting the pony Flash Sentry and a broken library index machine.

Similar to other Equestria Girls specials, this initially debuted in junior novel form under the title: “A Friendship to Remember”.

This special has frequently been compared to the IDW Comic Equestria Girls Holiday Special. Both plotlines featured Sunset Shimmer being unjustly accused of still being a cruel bully, the other girls casting her out, and the one responsible wanting to make Sunset suffer out of jealousy. It also shares a lot in common with the popular Season Five episode “Amending Fences”, which dealt with a character thinking of herself as a great friend discovering she had been neglecting someone for years.

A “wallflower” is a type of introverted person who attends social events but tends to stick to themselves and avoid standing out in any way.

Snips and Snails, in keeping with early episodes of the main series, have become Trixie’s minions again. With their memories erased, shouldn’t they be serving Sunset again?

Twilight’s drone had its AI changed by the Memory Stone to fear Sunset…somehow.

It has been noted that the Memory Stone is very similar in appearance to the Gossip Stones in “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time”. However, as Silver Quill noted in his own review, this is likely not so much inspiration from Zelda as both drawing inspiration from the same source: namely the “third eye” in many Eastern belief systems such as Hindu and Taoism. It’s considered to be a point of higher consciousness, intuition, and spiritual perception. As Silver Quill also mentioned, it is worth noting whenever the girls either lose or gain memories, the point of entry/origin of the memories is the same spot where the “third eye” is said to reside.

In a surprising change to Equestrian history, it is revealed Clover the Clever was in fact a stallion. Apparently back in Season Two’s “Hearth’s Warming Eve”, the girls weren’t necessarily playing roles to gender.

Both songs in the special are incidents of the characters being aware of their own musical number. Wallflower mentions she was trying to get Sunset’s attention through her own song, and Trixie later fast-forwards through Wallflower’s on the drone recording.

When Sunset “ponies-up”, her memories are still missing and so, naturally, she looks confused about the entire experience.

Rating:

4.5 Stars out of 5

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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ Season Seven, Episodes Twenty-Five and Twenty-Six: “Shadow Play”

Tags

Applejack, Flash Magnus, Fluttershy, Mage Meadowbrook, Mistmane, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, opinion, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, review, Rockhoof, Shadow Play, Somnambula, Spike, Starlight Glimmer, Starswirl the Bearded, Stygian, Sunburst, the Pony of Shadows, Twilight Sparkle

Synopsis:

Sunburst has discovered that one of the treasures in the “blind buy” he made (in “Uncommon Bond”) was actually Starswirl the Bearded’s old journal. He reveals its contents to Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, the Mane Six, Spike, and Starlight Glimmer. Starswirl was gathered by an unnamed pony along with the five other legendary individuals mentioned in the Mane Six’s favorite tales, revealing them all to have been actual ponies and not mere myths, to form the Pillars of Old Equestria: the original group that devoted itself to banishing the newly-formed Equestria of the various evils inhabiting it and upholding the ideals of strength, bravery, beauty, hope, healing, and sorcery. However, he says the unnamed pony only brought them together to try and steal their power for himself. On driving him away, the pony embraced the powers of darkness and was turned into “the Pony of Shadows”, a foe devoted to covering Equestria with the same shadow. Unable to defeat him, the journal says the six went to confront him with a desperate plan, but fails to mention what happened afterward, and neither Starswirl nor the others were ever heard from again. Celestia entrusts the journal to Twilight and Sunburst to crack the mystery of their old mentor, and after extensive study and help from Starlight they discover a clue about a place called Ponehenge and, following the journal, uncover its ruins. On accidentally placing the journal at one spot in the ruins, a vision is projected showing what happened. The Pillars united their power through a magic artifact in each of their possession (Starswirl’s journal, Rockhoof’s shovel, Flash Magnus’ shield, Mistmane’s flower, Somnambula’s blindfold, and Meadowbrook’s mask) to create a spell to banish him to Limbo at the price of banishing themselves as well. As time and space has no meaning there, they have been trapped in that instant ever since. After further research, however, Twilight discovers that the spell can be broken and the six of them freed by reassembling their old artifacts, and the Cutie Map activates to show them where each of them are. Starlight suspects that Twilight only wants to break the spell for a chance to meet with her idol, and that they wouldn’t have banished themselves without good reason, but in the end her decision and those of the rest of the Mane Six and Sunburst overrides hers, and the artifacts are reassembled and the spell cast. The Pillars are immediately returned to the exact place where they disappeared, but as soon as they get their bearings Starswirl immediately tells Twilight to reverse the spell, shouting “you cannot bring only the Pillars back”. Moments later, the Pony of Shadows manifests himself as well.

The first act he performs is to immediately destroy Starswirl’s journal and Ponehenge so that he can’t be banished again. He attempts to destroy Starswirl next, but Twilight and Starlight intervene and, to his surprise, prove to be stronger than him in his currently weaker state. Vowing to destroy all hope in Equestria, he vanishes to regain his power and leaves everypony else behind. Starswirl is furious at Twilight for undoing the spell, and the chastisement by her idol leaves her feeling miserable. He states that they need to find where the Pony of Shadows went to perform the banishing spell a second time. The group takes the Pillars to the Cutie Map, where the Pillars reveal that the Tree of Harmony that resulted in the formation of the Castle of Friendship and the Cutie Map came from a seed they planted with a bit of their own virtue imbued into it. Seeing how much its power has grown in a thousand years, Starswirl decides to use the Elements of Harmony to perform the banishing spell again, much to the reluctance of the Mane Six on realizing doing so will kill the Tree of Harmony. Twilight, desperate to atone for her mistake and to prove she’s a good magic user to Starswirl, works on modifying the spell so that the Pillars themselves will not have to be trapped as well, and comes up with a solution that will allow the Elements of Harmony to open the gate to Limbo so that one powerful magic-using pony can push the Pony of Shadows inside; a solution Starswirl, after some pressure, accepts. However, when the Cutie Map activates again and all six members of the Mane Six are drawn to the Hollow Shades to confront the Pony of Shadows, Starlight grows concerned as the map has only ever sent the girls to solve friendship problems. On speaking with the other Pillars, she discovers the identity of the unnamed pony: a magic-less and weak unicorn named Stygian who had scholarly knowledge but no skill like them. She also discovers all of them always simply assumed Stygian tried to steal their powers out of greed and envy rather than knew for sure. Fearing this might be another friendship problem, Starlight confesses that banishment might not be the best course to Twilight but she, eager to prove herself to Starswirl, doesn’t listen; causing Starlight to chastise her as well. The Mane Six reclaim the Elements of Harmony from the tree and depart for the Hollow Shades, where they finally track the Pony of Shadows down. The gate is opened and starts to draw him inside, but Twilight hesitates to push him in and, in the course of doing so, notices a pony struggling to get out from within the Pony of Shadows. Diving inside of him, she meets Stygian face-to-face, who reveals he wanted to copy the powers of the Pillars not out of jealousy but because he always felt useless compared to them and wanted to help. When he was cast out as a result, he turned to “the darkness” and accepted its offer to make him stronger than the Pillars so he could have revenge. Unknown to Stygian, everything he has said is audible outside of the Pony of Shadows, and the Pillars realize their mistake. Starlight jumps in as well and she and Twilight encourage him to try and reunite with them, but when the shadows respond by clinging to him and forcing the two of them out, everyone, including Starswirl, shifts from trying to blast the Pony of Shadows into Limbo to seizing Stygian and yanking him out from within the monster. They’re able to separate him, and the shadows themselves are banished into Limbo instead. Starswirl finally admits he was wrong and he and the Pillars reconcile with Stygian, while the Mane Six are happily surprised to see the Elements of Harmony remain. Starswirl reunites with Celestia and Luna in Canterlot, but says that it isn’t the place for him. Instead, realizing he has a lot to learn, and with the Pillars eager to see how Equestria has changed, they decide to journey through Equestria before deciding where they will go. The episode ends with Twilight thanking Starlight for helping her to remember her “lessons” that she already learned.

Review:

And finally, the culmination of months of IDW Comic collaboration with the show in another two-part dramatic season finale. What’s my personal verdict?

Well, I find it better than Season Five and Season Six’s finales. Beyond that…it’s complicated. Short version, it had a couple things I liked and a lot of things I didn’t necessarily dislike but I was very “meh” about. Similar to the case with “My Little Pony: The Movie”, I expected more than got delivered. However, as time has gone on I’ve appreciated the movie more for what it did have and its villain. This episode, on the other hand, is very by-the-numbers…which is a much bigger minus.

It would have been one thing if this was a typical season finale, but this is a season finale that was being built up to in the IDW Comic for months. In the comic, the Pony of Shadows was made out to be such a powerful and malevolent villain, one so beyond any of the other villains until now, that his descendant Shadow Lock was purposely trying to erase any knowledge of his existence specifically to keep him from ever returning. That’s pretty intense. That promises something huge. And…we got a friendship misunderstanding with a character who’s practically a background pony. It may be the theme of the show, but…”Twilight’s Kingdom” left too much of an impression that’s being felt to this day. Fans long for powerful villains to defeat. It’s only a minor complaint, but it is a letdown. All that build-up for this.

There were some good points. Although it was mostly episode padding, Spike did get a little scene to himself with Rainbow Dash and Garble in which his clumsy, timid, yet determined nature comes through. And while Starlight does get a lot of credit for the resolution, this ended up being an episode where she and Twilight worked more alongside each other to save the day rather than one standing out above the other. And again, the end of this episode rams home the point made in the previous episode and the reason I finally accepted Starlight as a cast member: Starlight means a lot as a friend to Twilight, and if that’s the case then I can accept her based on that.

The nicest thing about this episode, however, is the Lore associated with it. We’re finally really breaking ground on the history of Equestria and making it canon. While a lot of the characters in this episode were alluded directly to by the comic, interestingly the one comic-concept that seemed to become canon from this episode is the idea that there are dark and malevolent forces, “shadows” if you will, that actively tried to ruin and corrupt Equestria in ages past. Thanks to efforts of Celestia, Luna, and the Pillars, most of them are diminished or banished and Equestria is now the land it is today, but they aren’t gone completely. The idea was used frequently in the comic with creatures such as the Nightmares and the Umbra, entities of nothing but darkness that constantly look to claim others and use them for their ends. It’s somewhat analogous to the shadow entity in “A Wrinkle in Time”, the idea that all civilized worlds have to constantly be on guard from interstellar darkness invading them and that their best defense are those that embody love, peace, justice, and everything good and wholesome in this world. It also ties in further to the idea that began to come to light in the movie, that Equestrians are in fact terribly powerful and destructive but because they’re so peaceful and friendship-loving their power is never used for ill ends. I’m wondering if more of this Lore will come to light in later episodes.

Unfortunately, that’s where the good stuff ends to me. If I had to sum up what’s wrong with this two-parter in one phrase, it would be this: character overload.

This episode features all of the Mane Six, Spike, Starlight Glimmer, Sunburst, and all six of the Pillars of Old Equestria in the roles of protagonists…a staggering 15 characters. Each one of them gets a couple lines. With so many characters and so many things to do in order to set up this episode, there’s no time for all of them. In fact, there’s practically no time for any of them. Almost all of the first half of this has to be devoted to exposition, and a lot of the second half has to be devoted to backstory. Whatever is not devoted to that is devoted to the tension between Starswirl the Bearded, Twilight Sparkle, and Starlight Glimmer…three characters out of fifteen.

With all of this taking up so much time, there’s little opportunity to devote to character interactions with the rest of the girls and their respective idols, building up the malevolence and tension with the Pony of Shadows, getting into the heads or personas of the Pillars who suddenly find themselves instantly 1,000 years in the future, how they all react to suddenly being in this new world so radically different from theirs, or even having enough backstory to really have a chance to develop sympathy for Stygian and a sense of the relationship he once had with Starswirl. Instead, the last part has to be spoon fed to us in a monologue. That’s a real shame in light of the movie, which managed to garner sympathy for Tempest Shadow without any lines in a silent flashback.

All of those other details could have made for good plot points. Perhaps even good distinct episodes. Any one of the Pillars of Old Equestria adjusting to this new world they find themselves in could make for a good storyline, or any of their old exploits as a group and how they met (which I hear is being handled by the comic). Instead, because so much exposition has to be presented and so many characters are there to cycle through, we barely get any time at all for most of them. About the only thing new we know about any of them other than Starswirl at the end is…Flash Magnus and Rainbow Dash want to hang with each other.

None of that necessarily makes the episode “bad”, but it does water it down quite a bit and diminish its dramatic impact to practically nothing. This has the feel of a story that could have stood to be three or even four episodes long to try and dig into everyone a little more. I appreciate that in every scene the shot is overloaded with characters that the animators took time to give them all their own reactions, but that doesn’t change the fact they’re mostly there along for the ride.

At least the Elements of Harmony are back and doing their thing. And this episode does leave me hopeful for the future and where the show could go from here.

Fun Facts:

As mentioned in the previous review, IDW My Little Pony: Legends of Magic #6 leads directly into this episode. That issue concludes with Sunburst first reading the journal, discovering something shocking, and then running off to tell the princesses. This episode begins with him revealing his findings to them, the Mane Six, and Starlight Glimmer.

“The Pony of Shadows” was first introduced in IDW My Little Pony #53. His presentation and modus operandi, as well as his backstory, is somewhat similar to Ganondorf from “The Legend of Zelda” series, in particular with six “sages” unable to defeat a force of evil and instead sealing him away. However, he also has a lot in common with Venom from “Spider-Man” comics. In particular to his appearance, how the “darkness” appears to have latched onto him like a corrupting symbiote, and in one particular scene in which extensions of his fake wings act like Venom’s own synthetic webs. The Pony of Shadows is the closest the show has come so far to depicting a male alicorn.

Each of the “Pillars” corresponds to an “Element” in the sense that when the pillar is upheld, it gives rise to the virtue the element represents:

• Strength begets Honesty.
• Bravery begets Loyalty.
• Healing begets Kindness.
• Beauty begets Inspiration (and kind of Generosity…note Inspiration was originally supposed to be Rarity’s element, not Generosity)
• Hope begets Laughter.
• Sorcery begets Magic.

As I mentioned in an earlier review, Celestia and Luna now share the throne.

Twilight has a “nerd laugh” (with snorting) when she giggles about Starswirl’s hoofwriting.

Limbo was a non-Biblical idea Roman Catholicism endorsed back in medieval times as a place where those who lived morally righteous lives (and therefore were not culpable for suffering within Hell) yet who died prior to the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ (and therefore were not eligible for Heaven) went after death. (It is separate from the similar and likewise non-Biblical Roman Catholic idea of Purgatory, which is endorsed to this day.)  It was rejected with the emergence of Protestantism and the idea that mankind’s own righteousness alone is insufficient to gain any form of salvation, and rather that all salvation is purely through the work of Christ and that His Sacrifice transcends past, present, and future. Nevertheless, it remains a popular literary device as an extra-dimensional realm separate from the mortal realm. Now it’s apparently part of Pony Lore.

Petunia Paleo cameos at the old Mighty Helm site, who first appeared in Season Six’s “The Fault in Our Cutie Marks”. There’s also Indiana-Jones-pony, and looking like the “Crystal Skull” version. 😛 Ironically, Daring Do was originally a knockoff of Indiana Jones, and she cameos in this episode too.

Holy crud, Applejack is super-pony-ly strong. O_O

When Rainbow Dash answers Garble’s wager with “Fine”, I like how Spike panics. 😛

Ugh…Pinkie Pie carries Somnambula’s slime-coated blindfold in her mouth…

By far, this two-parter sets the record for the most voice actors in a single episode (ok, technically two). Mostly because so many of the voice actors have done only one or two voices in show history. Starswirl the Bearded, first mentioned all the way back in Season Two’s “Luna Eclipsed”, finally gets a voice by Chris Britton, who has had an assortment of voice acting and live acting roles with his more notable ones being Mr. Sinister on the old “X-Men” TV series and Soichiro Yagami on “Death Note” (he also played a role in Netflix’s poorly-received live-action “Death Note”). Bill Newton, who plays Stygian/the Pony of Shadows, is new this season but got a lot of work as he’s also the voice of Pharynx and Bright Macintosh. Other “one-voice” roles include Ian Hanlin reprising Sunburst and Chiara Zanni reprising Daring Do.

When Pinkie Pie interjects to explain all the foes they’ve defeated to Starswirl, she produces the Journal of Friendship out of nowhere. The original one no less. Yay, hammerspace.

Neither Rockhoof nor Somnambula ever spoke in their original appearances. This is the first time either of them received a voice.

I pointed this out in an earlier review, but…Somnambula’s personality ended up being radically different from how she was depicted in the IDW Comic. Whereas that made her more like Pinkie Pie, here she’s definitely more sagacious and reserved.

I’m still kind of stunned that Mage Meadowbrook knows so much about magic and can’t do any. 😛

Does Rockhoof use his shovel as…a weapon? I’m getting flashbacks to “Mystery Men”… Does that make it a Warshovel?

One of the biggest surprises in this episode came from the flashback, in which one of the foes of the Pillars of Old Equestria were revealed: the Sirens in their original bodies. This was rather shocking because the show creators had officially stated that the “Equestria Girls” universe was a spin-off and distinct from the show’s universe. In fact, previous attempts in the series to feature a cameo by Sunset Shimmer have been shot down on those grounds (such as in “Slice of Life” and “The Cutie Re-Mark”). There’s a chance that this is an alternate version of the Sirens who got banished to Limbo themselves rather than the human universe, but most fans consider this permission to start including Sunset Shimmer as part of the regular show. At any rate, this is the first look we’ve really gotten of their true forms. Although they appeared somewhat in “Rainbow Rocks”, those forms were inconsistent in size and it was debatable if it represented reality or simply projections the actual Dazzlings were making of themselves. The design is mostly identical as is their size, which is revealed to be several times larger than a normal pony. Changes included adding different tones of color and reducing the size of their eyes. “The Art of Equestria” reveals one of the basic ways the artists make “evil-looking characters” more Y-rating appropriate is by enlarging their eyes, such as they did with Chrysalis. Apparently we can “scare” the kids a bit more now. 🙂 It seems even in Equestria their jewels were key to their power, although in this version they seem to be embedded in their chests rather than simply jewels they wear. Ironically, although this episode represented a collaboration with IDW Comic, it renders IDW’s FIENDship is Magic #3 completely bunk. 😛

In the flashback with the Sirens, a filly version of Esmeraldas teases a hunchback pony, who in turn slams a giant bell down on her. 😛

“Stygian” is an adjective that refers to the river Styx, a place in Greek mythology which represents the barrier to the Underworld. A very dark place, in other words. His design is rather interesting, made to look like the “dumber” ponies in the series and, therefore, more unremarkable and forgettable ones.

While the Castle of the Two Sisters makes an appearance in flashbacks, no sign of young Celestia and Luna like in the comic. Aw…

“It seems I never accounted for the Magic of Friendship.” This is an echo of the line Princess Celestia gave to Twilight in “Magical Mystery Cure”: “Something even a great unicorn like Starswirl the Bearded was not able to do, because he did not understand friendship like you do.” It’s a nice nod.

Rating:

2.5 Stars out of 5

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ Season Seven, Episode Sixteen: “Campfire Tales”

Tags

Apple Bloom, Applejack, Campfire Tales, Flash Magnus, Flash Sentry, IDW comic, Legends of Magic, Mistmane, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, opinion, Pillars of Old Equestria, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, review, Rockhoof, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle

Synopsis:

Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash are out with their respective “little sisters”, namely Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, on another camping trip to Winsome Falls. Unfortunately, their campground is attacked by a group of ravenous “flyders”, forcing them to take shelter in a cave and eventually getting trapped there. As the CMCs consider the trip a disaster, the older girls tell them three campfire stories to cheer them up. Applejack tells her favorite legend of an earth pony named Rockhoof, who by strength of will and determination single-hoovedly saved his home village from a volcanic eruption. Rarity tells her favorite legend of a unicorn named Mistmane, who sacrificed her physical beauty for the sake of restoring her own friend’s lost beauty and the ability to spread it throughout Equestria. Rainbow Dash tells her favorite legend of a pegasus named Flash Magnus, who bravely risked his own life to act as a diversion for dragons to save his comrades. When the stories are done, the girls are unable to get out the way they came in and instead find a new exit through the rear of the cave that leads straight to Winsome Falls. Encouraged by the stories, in spite of having lost their original campground the girls decide to make the most of their trip anyway.

Review:

And with this episode, we got the kickoff of probably the strangest thing the series has done so far. Keying off of the IDW Comic’s high popularity, Hasbro actually worked hand-in-hand with them this season not only to produce the various movie prequels but to create the “Legends of Magic” arc that introduced and elaborated on the Pillars of Old Equestria. For several months, both the TV series and the comic ran with parallel stories, gradually building up to the Season Seven finale. The comic arc ran a continuous story of Sunburst investigating the ancient library of Starswirl the Bearded and discovering stories about the Pillars of Old Equestria. In turn, the show would debut an episode featuring that character having been introduced in the comic.

From a personal standpoint? It sounded like something that should have been pretty awesome. In reality, I didn’t find it too intriguing. I’ll be honest…none of the Pillars of Old Equestria are that noteworthy to me. A huge problem was made with them that drags them down throughout this entire arc, and it boils down to forgetting what the show was all about.

Applejack embodies Honesty. That means she always tells the truth, and it also means that she can be pushy and mean because she always gives her opinion and says it’s the right one. Rarity embodies Inspiration and Generosity. That means she is always willing to share beauty with others, but it also means she fixates too much on external beauty at times and lets herself get taken advantage of. Rainbow Dash embodies Loyalty. That means she always sticks up for her friends, but in sticking up for them she’s learned to love the nature of a competition as well as winning and has gotten an ego.

By comparison, Rockhoof embodies Strength and that’s it. Mistmane embodies Beauty and that’s it. Flash Magnus embodies Bravery and that’s it. None of them have any negative characteristics, and because of that…they’re legends on a page, not real characters like the rest of those in the series are. What made the girls so great was because they were so well developed and rounded, to the point where their own virtues could be flaws in the right situation, that you could admire them no matter what situation or plot they were in. The Pillars of Equestria only get one “good side” and that’s it. The only one who would eventually be shown to have a negative side would have that be his only side, and the same problem but in the opposite direction. More on this later, but…it’s a general complaint for now.

This episode in particular, though?

It’s got more than a few flaws. For the overarching narrative, it’s not too bad although there is one huge one. Scootaloo has been Flanderized from how she appeared in “Sleepless in Ponyville”, now being scared of everything even in broad daylight. Scootaloo wasn’t even scared in that episode until she heard her first scary story. Yet aside from that, the six girls don’t do much this episode other than set up reasons to hear the other stories.

As for the stories themselves…none of them were terribly great to me. Honestly, I found the best part of all of them was the art design. It looks like the animators really had a chance to be creative with the Pillars of Equestria and the associated worlds they are from.

In terms of the content, though, they didn’t really grab me. Rockhoof’s was considered the worst by at least a few fans and…I’m kind of one of them. It’s basically perpetuating the immortal myth that so long as you just simply “believe in your dreams” and “be determined” you’ll always succeed. In reality you usually need to put in a ton of effort and hard work to reach your goals, and even then there’s a good amount of talent that needs to be there usually. Bottom line, you’re not going to just get the best possible outcome handed to you because you believed in it.

Flash Magnus’ was better, but still nothing too wonderful. In his case, bravery in the face of almost certain destruction was emphasized, and it’s a story that has happened many times in history from many brave men and women. Situations where they knew they were likely doomed to die but they had a chance to save others if they risked their lives. Yet in real life, you usually don’t get magic shields to help, and many of those stories end up with people making the supreme sacrifice rather than achieving eternal glory. Still, many times people do survive and get Medals of Honor, and so this one was better at least, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen characters we like more and understand better having done before.

Mistmane’s was the best of the set, as it featured, a bit surprisingly, a character making a permanent sacrifice. That’s actually a little surprising for the show, and it was a decent lesson to show kids that true beauty comes from within and not all stories have a perfect ending. It had more interpersonal drama than the other two stories as well, which were more tales of one lone hero standing up against forces of nature when everyone else was ready to give up. The design was nice too. Yet in spite of all of that…I dunno. Something seemed so “bare bones” about all of it. Maybe if we would have had more of a chance to get into the characters and the setting it would have left more of an impact.

It’s not a bad episode by any means. But with something mixing the IDW Comic, which is prone to taking more content risks than the show does, in a grand arc with the actual show, I expected something with a bit more punch. Instead, to me, it was something that was more, like most of the second half of Season Seven, solidly average.

Fun Facts:

This episode continues the new tradition started way back in Season Three’s “Sleepless in Ponyville”.

I’m sorry…because Equestria actually has swarms of flying spiders, it is the most terrifying place in existence, friendship or not. 😦

Sweetie Belle has mastered how to use magic shields.

Rainbow Dash can carry fire.

As mentioned in the review, this episode marked the start of the build up not only to the Season Seven finale but was part of an arc that tied into the IDW Comic’s “Legends of Magic” series. The first issue of the “Legends of Magic” series was put out on April 12, 2017, several months before this episode would air. However, this arc officially kicked off with Friendship is Magic #50, the first issue in the “Chaos Theory” storyline, that was published on February 1, 2017, which introduced Shadow Lock who would later turn out to be a descendant of Stygian. At the time the episode debuted, only four issues had been published introducing four of the Pillars of Equestria: Starswirl the Bearded (in his appearance he would take on the show in spite of earlier renditions), Rockhoof, Mistmane, and Flash Magnus.

Each of the Pillars of Equestria corresponds to a different nationality. Rockhoof is Norwegian-based. Mistmane is Chinese-based. Flash Magnus is Roman-based.

In spite of being tied in with the IDW Comic, fans of both were quick to notice a discrepancy. Rockhoof’s story in “Legends of Magic” #2 indicated that he gained his incredible power through hard work, determination, and sticking to his routine no matter what. In this episode, however…he just sort of gets it magically bestowed on him for plot convenience.

Rockhoof does not get any lines in his story. It wouldn’t be until “Shadow Play” that we would hear his voice.

Interestingly enough, in this episode Rainbow Dash mentions how it would be impossible even for her to dig the trench in time, yet in “Shadow Play” there would be an allusion that Applejack herself might actually be physically a match for Rockhoof. 😛

Rarity somehow makes shadow puppets with her hooves… Not only that, they’re of “Ballerina Twilight” from “A Royal Problem”.

Both Mistmane and the other Chinese-inspired unicorns in her story have somewhat unique physical features, in that their ears are more pointed and their horns are recurved. It’s possible that she and the other Chinese-inspired unicorns are supposed to be “Kirins”, the Chinese unicorn, although those are usually depicted with long necks.

Mistmane has the unusual and unique design choice of having two-toned legs, ear tips, and a horn that blend into another color rather than having a clear demarcation.

It’s entirely possible that one of the dragons in Flash Magnus’ tale was Dragonlord Torch, not just in appearance but actual identity.

Rating:

2.5 Stars out of 5

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ Season Seven, Episode Fourteen: “Fame and Misfortune”

Tags

Applejack, Coconut Cream, Fame and Misfortune, Fluttershy, Journal of Friendship, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, opinion, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, review, Toola Roola, Twilight Sparkle

Synopsis:

After breaking up an argument between two filly friends, Toola Roola and Coconut Cream, Twilight Sparkle goes back to her library and digs out her old Journal of Friendship and gets an idea. With Starlight Glimmer’s help, she makes hundreds of copies of it to distribute across Equestria, believing all the friendship lessons she and the girls learned will benefit ponies all over with their own friendships. Soon after, however, everything becomes a disaster. Apple Bloom is only using the book to market her own Cutie Mark related activities, ponies who hate Rarity in the book have driven her to compulsively “stress sew”, everypony won’t stop laughing at Pinkie Pie for thinking everything she does is supposed to be funny, pegasus fillies won’t stop mobbing Rainbow Dash, ponies are accusing Fluttershy of never growing out of her shyness everywhere she goes, and Applejack is overrun by fans who want to “join the Apple Family”. Things continue to get worse until a mob of so-called “fans” are nearly rioting outside the Castle of Friendship, and Twilight is miserable and blames herself for their own outrageous behavior for publishing the journal in the first place. Even when she and the girls confront the crowd, they only rage at each other even more. Feeling hopeless, the girls retreat back into the castle only to have Starlight bring around Toola Roola and Coconut Cream, who both read the journal and had their friendship strengthened as a result of it. Seeing that at least two ponies read and appreciate the journal for what it was trying to be, the girls are encouraged to believe it was worthwhile. They share a “friendship hug” while leaving the raging crowd outside to rant and fume.

Review:

This is another one of those weird ones. This episode got pretty much universal hate from the fans…while I really enjoyed it. For everyone who hates it, heh…I got two things for you. (1) I wonder if you’re missing the point of this episode. (2) Most of the people who hate this episode make me laugh because they don’t realize what they’re doing: essentially becoming the lesson of the episode themselves.

To sum up: if “Slice of Life” was the ultimate love letter to the fans, “Fame and Misfortune” is the ultimate hate mail to the fans. Almost everything that went on with all of the characters in this episode wasn’t meant to make background ponies hateworthy or, in my opinion, to even be considered as canon with the rest of the series. It was for the writers and show creators to vent their frustrations they receive on having to deal with the (often toxic) fandom.

Here’s what I found:

• Ironically, the show takes a stab at its own original purpose with the CMCs, who decide to use the book to push their idea for a Cutie Mark Summer Camp. Twilight gets unhappy that the book is being used simply to sell a product…which is the whole purpose of “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” to begin with: to sell toys.
• The ponies who simply get signatures from Twilight Sparkle on their journals before turning them into collectibles is poking fun at the fans who don’t even really care about the show to begin with–they simply buy all the merchandise hoping to sell them for a profit years from now.
• The two ponies talking at the outdoor cafe represent the “haters” of a fandom: individuals who do absolutely nothing but hate a particular character and, in order to justify that hate, constantly misinterpret everything they say or do as something despicable and loathsome. Starlight Glimmer has been the target of this section of the fandom for some time. As a result, these two ponies are the only ones she confronts personally off camera. 😛 In fact, fans disliked Starlight Glimmer so much they did indeed begin to boycott the show…which is exactly what ponies do to Rarity’s business later in the episode.
• Pinkie Pie’s “fans” are those who read way too much into something. While these ones aren’t always as annoying, the fact that they continuously see things, good or bad, that were never there when that was never the intention gets annoying after a while. They declare certain things brilliant or hilarious simply due to love of a character rather than reality. Princess Luna and Derpy Hooves were targets of this early on.
• Rainbow Dash’s “fans” are the ones who go crazy about only one character in particular. Basically they only care about one character and think everything they say or do is wonderful and brilliant, and anything negative about them (even if they’re intended to be a negative character) was really them secretly being wonderful or sabotages by others. It’s somewhat similar to Pinkie Pie’s fans, only they go to the extreme where they think all other characters need to be diminished to prop that character up or even project negative characteristics onto them to make them look less. Fans like this eventually give rise to Draco in Leather Pants and Ron the Death Eater tropes.
• Fluttershy’s haters…well, um (swallow)…are those who get upset that characters never seem to grow even late in the series or even regress from time to time…you know, people like me. ._. (Yes, I’m ashamed…)
• Applejack’s fans are the ones who take their love of the show way, WAY too far, essentially making themselves “honorary ponies” and trying to act like the characters on the show. Every fandom has them. You know…crazy people. 😛
• Finally, Toola Roola and Coconut Cream represent the “real fan”; not so much from learning lessons about friendship, but the individuals who take what MLP:FIM is and appreciate it for what it is, no more and no less.

Fandoms are, unfortunately, a misfortune of life when you want to be a fan of anything, yet the Internet has made them a whole new level of insane and crazy, to the point of shaming people into wanting to commit suicide and forcing show writers to bow to their insane delusions even if they were never the original staff. Often they drive more casual fans away from the show with how crazy they get and can be downright savage to one another. However, writers, actors, and staff for a show get it even worse because they have to be subjected to every nut out there. People often say they dislike something because of the “toxic fandom”. What they fail to realize is that fandom is short for “fanatic domain”. If a show has a fandom, by definition it’s made up of crazy people who represent the absolute worst of the fans. Every fandom is toxic because that’s what a fandom is.

And frankly? They need to be called out on it. Being a fan doesn’t give you a license to be a maniac or a jerk.

This episode was an attempt by the writers, to me, to highlight the irresponsible and downright nutty behavior of the fandom. It was an allegory for how the people behind the show feel when being subjected to this insanity, and how the fame and notoriety the show has achieved nevertheless is a mixed blessing because of how people act and rave. It showed how emotionally draining and miserable something that you love, something that your passion is, can be when it’s forced to be subjected to fandom poison.

The lesson at the end was supposed to be that the people out there who genuinely appreciate the show, who see the mistakes and flaws of characters as the very things that make them more real and relatable, are the ones who make all of the toxicity worthwhile. The girls are able to press on because they realize “someone out there gets what this is supposed to be”. It’s a lesson for anyone who wants to pursue an artistic fashion, and it’s a lesson for the fans themselves who aren’t toxic: you can’t control other people, only how you respond to them.

It’s disheartening that so many people in the fandom ended up doing exactly what their pony representations did at the end of this episode…missed this point entirely and argued instead about how repulsive the ponies in the crowd acted. They don’t even realize they ARE the ponies in the crowd. Yet even this episode seemed to anticipate that would happen, and the answer is to simply ignore them and press on.

For me personally? I saw what this episode was supposed to be on the nose, and it’s a bit sobering for my own reviews. I only mark it down because, er, it’s not exactly the most uplifting of episodes even with the end. And none of the target little kids would get what it was trying to say.

Uh, heh…I’ll try to tone down my Fluttershy criticism from now on… (gulp)

Fun Facts:

This episode was penned by M.A. Larson, the most infamous writer on the show. With episodes like “The Return of Harmony”, “Magical Mystery Cure”, and “Slice of Life”, he’s gained the reputation of being the most unconventional writer of the show who never writes an episode unless something striking is going to happen. As a result, misinformation was leaked about who the writer of this episode was to the public. It wasn’t until the episode debuted that he was revealed as the writer.

Toola Roola and Coconut Cream were both G3 My Little Ponies originally. Similar to Moondancer, they have identical coloration in their Friendship is Magic incarnations.

As another nod to Larson’s influence, the moral that Twilight teaches Toola Roola and Coconut Cream (“Friendship isn’t always easy, but there’s no doubt it’s worth fighting for.”) was for “The Return of Harmony”…and which Discord infamously gagged to on hearing.

I hate to emulate one of the ponies in this episode, but…the “Journal of Friendship” phase of the show only was during Season Four. In Season One and the first part of Season Two it was Twilight’s letters to Celestia, while most of Season Two and Three it was the Mane Six’s letters to Celestia. There haven’t been any since the Cutie Map took over in Season Five, although the IDW Comic (which, as we will see, influenced the second half of this season) continued to use them. The letters could have always been compiled in the journal, I suppose.

One of the pages in the book completely disintegrates. Twilight makes an odd face after Starlight’s mockery.

Failed attempt at continuity. Apple Bloom mentions she’s thinking of creating a “Cutie Mark summer camp”. This seems to allude to the future episode “Marks and Recreation”, but in that episode the idea is fresh to them again.

The Journal of Friendship only received 1 and a half stars according to the book review.

By far, the most infamous face from Season Seven is the one Rarity has when Twilight and Starlight confront her in her sewing room.

Toward the end, the crowd of ponies echo various complaints that the writers had to have heard a dozen times. Probably the two biggest ones are “Twilight was more interesting before she got wings”, which was a major complaint of fans when she was turned into an alicorn at the end of Season Three…and one M.A. Larson himself is probably sick of hearing. Another one is “Are Pinkie Pie and Applejack related or what?”, which really shouldn’t have been a big of a deal as it ended up being but was drug up with “Hearthbreakers” and Marble Pie (I’m sore about that one ruining MarbleMac. :()

During “Flawless”, the girls pair up with their own species: the pegasi (Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash), the earth ponies (Applejack and Pinkie Pie), and the unicorns [originally](Rarity and Twilight Sparkle).

I noted after the song Amethyst Star seemed to “get it”, but she joins back in with the arguing soon after.

Rating:

4 Stars out of 5

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ Season Seven, Episode Thirteen: “The Perfect Pear”

Tags

Apple Bloom, Applejack, Big Macintosh, Bright Macintosh, Grand Pear, Granny Smith, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, opinion, Pear Butter, review, The Perfect Pear

Synopsis:

While going about the market, Apple Bloom meets an elderly pony who has opened up a pear stand named Grand Pear, who she learns used to live in Ponyville but moved away to Vanhoover where his pear farm met financial success. He talks kindly to her and gives her a jar of pear jam for free, which she rushes home to show Applejack and Big Macintosh. However, on seeing the pear jam, they react strongly: saying that the Apple family and the Pear family have been feuding for years and have nothing to do with each other. Yet when Apple Bloom asks why, neither of them know as Granny Smith has always gotten emotionally distraught when asked about it. They end up going to visit Goldie Delicious to ask, who reveals the Apples and Pears used to have farms adjacent to each other in Ponyville, and Granny Smith and Grand Pear led their respective families in a feud over who was the better farmers for years. The only two who got along were Bright Macintosh of the Apples and Pear Butter of the Pears, who the three realize were their deceased parents. They next go to Burnt Oak, Bright Mac’s best friend, and find out the two started a secret romance after Bright Mac refused to let Pear Butter take the rap for him accidentally breaking a Pear water tower. They next go to Mrs. Cake, Pear Butter’s best friend, who got her Cutie Mark and talent for baking thanks to her and discovered how much time they spent together while trying to bake her a “thank you” cake. After years of secret dating they confessed their love for one another, but soon after Grand Pear gave the announcement that the Pear family was relocating to Vanhoover and the two realized they’d soon be separated. Finally, they go to Mayor Mare, who reveals the night before the Pears were supposed to leave Bright Mac had a secret wedding ceremony with Pear Butter so that they’d always be a part of each other’s lives, which they sealed by planting an apple seed and a pear seed on the very spot where they exchanged their vows. Yet at the conclusion of the ceremony, both Granny Smith and Grand Pear stumbled on the marriage. Grand Pear, unable to stomach the idea of Pear Butter being married to an Apple, forced her to choose between her family and Bright Mac, breaking her heart. She ended up siding with the Apples and Grand Pear angrily disowned her and walked away, never seeing her again. Hearing all this, Applejack, Big Mac, and Apple Bloom decide to confront both of their grandparents. They first go to Grand Pear, who finally realized after all these years how foolish he had been and moved back to Ponyville to try and get to know his grandchildren while he still had time. They bring him to Granny Smith, and the two apologize to each other and finally reconcile. Their grandchildren then take them out to the grove where Bright Mac and Pear Butter were married, and reveal that the seeds they planted have grown into trees that are wrapped around each other.

Review:

When “My Little Pony: The Movie” came out, there was some fan hype that it might actually be a contender for Best Animated Film. I never seriously believed that, and I feel these fans shouldn’t have either. They forgot the one crucial element about “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”: it is a show that exists for the explicit purpose to sell toys. It probably has had more effort put into it than any other show that exists simply to sell merchandise, and definitely far more than was ever necessary, and as a result it helped elevate the quality of children’s animated programming as a whole and got viewers to “expect more” from their shows…but it still is there to sell toys. It’s not out there to make anything dramatic like “Steven Universe”. It’s not out there to make anything intelligent like “Gravity Falls”. You can’t expect anything award-winning from it as if it was. This isn’t Disney, Pixar, or even Dreamworks; it’s Hasbro.

Yet every once in a while, through a combination of the talent, heart, love, and intrigue that the writers and animators put into it, it manages to make something genuinely beautiful, poignant, and honestly heart-wrenching. It did that once with “Crusaders of the Lost Mark”. It did it again with “The Perfect Pear”.

Needless to say, “The Perfect Pear” remains the most highly-rated episode on IMDb of MLP:FIM. This episode finally got into the topic that the audience has been kicking around for a couple seasons: what happened to Applejack’s parents? The funny part is it didn’t really answer that particular question, and it probably never will thanks to the show rating. Nevertheless, this episode did everything humanly possible to say “their parents are dead” without actually saying it. Just like the romantic content in this episode, a lot of “dancing around the issue” without making it look as if they were dancing around the issue had to be done in order to meet archaic censor requirements. (Balderdash, of course. As I’ve said before, death really doesn’t care how old you are. Might as well expose kids to it now.) The episode deserves some credit just for that.

The side characters in the episode are also notable. Burnt Oak was obviously created just for this episode, and it’s clear from his design that he was meant to be at least partially a gag character, but he still works in very well. Very natural. So does Goldie Delicious, Mrs. Cake, and Mayor Mare. None of them seem like they were “forced” to be in this episode in order to tell the narrative. So another good point there.

The fact this episode actually had some “star power” behind it was likewise surprising. Both William Shatner and Felicia Day were in it, and both of them did a great job. The role of cartoon ponies is something that would have been so easy for both of them to just go silly with. The fact that both of them took their parts so seriously for, again, a show designed to sell pony toys is a major credit in my opinion to them both.

Now, of course, the actual plot…

I’m not sure I liked this episode for the same reasons everyone else did. People were quick to point out the “Romeo & Juliet” nature of Bright Mac and Pear Butter’s relationship, or the idea of them being from feuding families. I didn’t really care too much for that aspect. That’s been done to death for literally centuries. It was already an old plotline by the time “Romeo & Juliet” made it famous. Nevertheless, it’s because it’s a timeless tale that it’s stayed around for this long. And compared to “Hearts and Hooves Day”, between the animation and the voice acting, this is finally a genuine romance. In “Hearts and Hooves Day” it was nothing more than a parody of what kids thought romance was like. This one, on the other hand, definitely feels far more genuine and sweet. Again, not something that’s easy for a Y-rated show to pull off, and it works because everyone commits so hard to making things look natural. Bits like Bright Mac and Pear Butter having a playful exchange over the guitar song and the etching in the rock, or Bright Mac sending that picture of Pear Butter to her only for her to send it back with him added to it, or Pear Butter waking up that morning seeing Bright Mac passed out pulling her weeds for her that night. All things that are genuine and sweet. Honestly, far more convincing than the actual “Romeo & Juliet” (then again, most romances are, but moving on…).

Yet like I said, that wasn’t what got me. Part of the appeal with a timeless story is not in retelling it verbatim but rather finding a different way to tell it. And that’s what this episode did. While everyone (including the characters within it) makes it look as if this episode is all about the story of Bright Mac and Pear Butter, at the end it’s clear it’s really the story of Grand Pear.

I come from a family myself in which, unfortunately, clinging to a hatred of an individual is ultimately more important than familial relationships. It’s a tragedy. It does nothing good for anyone involved. It’s astonishing to me that we as human beings can get it into our heads that somehow the best thing we can do in regards to someone else is “stay angry”. This is another episode in which I feel the moral is solidly for adults rather than children, but it’s one that needed to be shared.

Ultimately, it wasn’t Pear Butter who chose between her father and Bright Mac. It was Grand Pear who chose between his grudge and his own daughter. He ended up placing a higher value on his grudge, and as a result he never saw his daughter again and will now have to live his remaining years knowing that the last thing he said to her was words of anger. And it took him years of a wasted life to finally come to his senses and realize he could either regret what he lost until the day he died or try and get back what his daughter left him while he still had a chance.

I fixated a lot in this episode on Granny Smith. Although her role in everything ends up being downplayed, along with her reactions, I did notice that right up until the break up at the wedding she had as little love for Pear Butter as Grand Pear had for Bright Mac. It’s not until she saw Pear Butter get disowned by her own father that, I think, she got a wake-up call of her own. I’m probably reading too much into cartoon characters, but…I do wonder if Granny ever asked herself after that…possibly more than once…”If their roles had been switched and it had been Bright Mac choosing to stay with the Pears, would I have done the same thing?” I figure it was that which got her to embrace Pear Butter as her daughter-in-law, and that was the real reason Granny got upset every time the feud was brought up. She knew all along she played as bad a role as Grand Pear. In the end, yes, it was he who did the leaving and that’s probably the reason she’s still a bit upset to see him again at the end. Yet I also think she realized she was in the wrong, and that telling her grandchildren the truth would have meant admitting there was a time she hated their mother.

The ending of the episode is happy…yet still bittersweet. The Apples and Pears are finally one family as their children had always seen themselves, but it was something that took years to finally happen. There was a lot of wasted time there, and there ended up being some things done that can never be undone. Yet even then, it’s like Apple Bloom said. They can’t go back in time and change what happened no matter how much they want to, yet now they can move forward together as Apples and Pears.

The result is a haunting message for those at home. Don’t waste your life being angry at people. It’s too precious for that, and you aren’t even guaranteed that they’ll still be here at the end of today. As was once said, “holding a grudge is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die”. This episode made that abundantly clear.

This episode was far more realistic drama than had ever been seen before on the show. The final supreme irony is that it was an Applejack-themed episode, ones that are traditionally, as I have said before, bland. Loaded with sweetness, sadness, heart, and tears, this was the rare episode that fully shed its “toy sale chains” and rose to be something genuinely poignant and beautiful.

Nothing else to say besides that its nickname is well-deserved: “The Perfect Episode”.

Fun Facts:

Although it is hinted at in every single possible way by the nature of the character dialogue and responses, as well as the memorial at the end, due to being a Y-rated show it is never explicitly stated that Bright Mac and Pear Butter are dead. One of the writers, however, at one point tweeted that they were killed by Timberwolves.

Burnt Oak appears right in the beginning in the background when Apple Bloom is walking through the market.

Grand Pear is voiced by William Shatner of “Star Trek” infamy. I can’t help but marvel at the irony that this is the first non-comedic role that William Shatner has played in years, and it’s a cartoon pony. Nevertheless, there is just a touch of meta humor with his character, as his hair style is the same infamous one Shatner had in the Star Trek “movie era” as Captain Kirk.

Applejack’s family “washes up” in the outhouse. Ew. Also, Granny Smith is totally oblivious to the hole Applejack and Big Macintosh dug in the floor. She even walks over it without a thought.

Kudos to Tabitha St. Germain for her “young Granny Smith” voice. It sounds as if she decided to go with her best imitation of Ashleigh Ball’s Applejack.

I’m not sure if it happened in earlier episodes, but young Goldie Delicious appears in her story. Her mane used to be green.

It’s a great episode and all, but…uh…wish they could have afforded younger voice actors for the part where Bright Macintosh and Pear Butter talk to each other as foals. The adult voices are awkward.

Pear Butter is voiced by Felicia Day, who I personally know best from the revival of “Mystery Science Theater 3000”.

Burnt Oak is a pony version of Sam Elliot. Specifically, the unnamed cameo that he played in “The Big Lebowski” who acted as the narrator. This is emphasized in his official introduction in the episode when he just gets done talking to “Lebowski Pony”.

Mrs. Cake’s maiden name is Chiffon Swirl.

On a personal note, I hate the whole “two lovers sharing the same scarf” thing. That’s the sort of thing that they do all the time in animation but in real life would be terribly awkward. Moving on…

Way back in “Ponyville Confidential”, it was revealed that Mayor Mare’s natural mane color is pink and that she dyes it gray. This episode showed that it really is pink.

To emphasize the time period, in all of the flashbacks there is still a “Mare in the Moon”.

Note that Bright Mac and Pear Butter are never depicted kissing until they are explicitly declared to be married. Censors for ya’. 😛

Rating:

5 Stars out of 5

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ Season Seven, Episode Nine: “Honest Apple”

Tags

Applejack, Hoity Toity, Honest Apple, Inky Rose, Lily Lace, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, opinion, Photo Finish, Rarity, review, Starstreak, Strawberry Sunrise

Synopsis:

To try and help other new up-and-coming designers get exposure, Rarity is holding a special fashion show in Ponyville for new talent of which the winner gets to feature their line at Carousel Boutique. While she’s gotten Hoity Toity and Photo Finish, two notable ponies in the world of fashion, to act as judges, she surprises Applejack by asking her to be the third judge as she wants her to add a touch of practicality to fashion and to utilize her honesty. Applejack is standoffish at first, but on thinking about how she knows about making clothes practical she agrees. Unfortunately, things go sour when Applejack is shown the work of the three contestants (Lily Lace, Starstreak, and Inky Rose) as she finds all of their designs and ideas silly, impractical, or ugly, and freely and loudly voices her opinion about them. She eventually gets so worked up that she declares the whole idea of being into fashion ridiculous, causing the judges and contestants to storm off angrily and ruin the show. Applejack defends her actions, saying she was simply giving her honest opinion. In response, Rarity introduces Applejack to Strawberry Sunrise–a pony who hates apples and isn’t afraid to share her opinion. On seeing herself get enraged at how casually Strawberry dismisses the hard work and effort she puts into making good apples simply because she doesn’t like them as much as other ponies, Applejack realizes the mistake she made. As a result, she (literally) ropes in the judges and contestants and brings them back, apologizing for her earlier comments and saying she can appreciate all the hard work they put into fashion. As a result, they decide to go forward with the contest, this time with Applejack quietly helping the designers finish their work for the show. At the actual fashion show, the designers end up in a three-way tie and look to Applejack for the deciding vote. She ends up choosing all of them, as she felt they all put in a deserving amount of effort to make their designs perfect. The episode ends with Rarity and Applejack mutually deciding that one of Rarity’s failed designs was horrible.

Review:

Another solid episode. Was it “good”? It definitely wasn’t bad, that’s for sure. And it was definitely better than the first Applejack/Rarity episode, which was Season One’s “Look Before You Sleep”, and, in my opinion, also better than “Simple Ways” and “Maid in Manehattan”. That’s not saying too much, however. I love Rarity, but she and Applejack are pretty much the most “straight mares” out of the Mane Six, and Applejack episodes are, as a general rule that I have declared many a time, bland. Still, I think this might be the best Applejack/Rarity episode of the entire series, and cameos by Pinkie Pie and Photo Finish help liven things up quite a bit.

Fluttershy gets the most hell for having a hard time growing past her character flaws, but in truth Applejack is probably just as bad an offender. As Pinkie Pie pointed out back in “Hearthbreakers”, she’s pushy, aggressive, and mean. And while Fluttershy actively tries to improve her own character traits, Applejack is so stubborn and traditional that she ends up not only clinging to them but often doubling-down.

As a result, one thing I liked about this episode was how Rarity dealt with it. She didn’t bother getting into an arguing match with Applejack once she realized she had entrenched herself and was ready to be stubborn. Instead, she wisely put the shoe on the other foot and let Applejack condemn herself with her own reactions. And, of course, I also loved the now meme-worthy Rarity shredding on guitar.

Nevertheless, the rest of this episode doesn’t hit as hard as one might think, and that’s even with Pinkie Pie and Photo Finish along for the ride. It’s not that it doesn’t try. Lily Lace’s way of talking and Inky Rose being a pony ripped right out of Hot Topic definitely do their best. It’s just…not quite as effective as one might think. It ends up being a good episode, but probably not one that will rank as a must-see on anyone’s list.

Fun Facts:

Applejack says that her closet is nothing but twenty versions of her same hat. This was shown on screen in “Somepony to Watch Over Me”. 😛

I just want to say I like how the animation flows together for when Rarity picks up the rest of the fliers en masse with her horn.

At one point, Applejack indicates to Apple Bloom that she’s the one member of the family into fashion. This actually makes sense. It’s a callback all the way back to Season One’s “The Show Stoppers” when Apple Bloom showed off she was the best at making costumes out of the CMCs.

One of the nice details in this episode is how Photo Finish is even more “Photo Finish-y” than usual, such as calling out all of her actions. I especially like one part where everyone is gasping and she simply yells: “Gasp!”

We finally get a look at Photo Finish’s eyes for the first time, when she removes her sunglasses after Applejack says: “These are clothes?”

By far, the most amusing, and infamous, part of this episode is when Rarity shreds a killer guitar solo on an acoustic, two-stringed guitar. Pinkie’s frizz has been freaked. 🙂

The bit with Hoity Toity and Photo Finish arguing over which belt to use that Applejack finds funny is similar to a scene in “The Devil Wears Prada”.

While all of the contestants have their quirks, I think Andrea Libman had the most fun voicing Lily Lace, with her constant stream of Valley Girl euphemisms. Among them is how she keeps overusing the word “literally”. It eventually gets to the point where Applejack says the word doesn’t mean what she thinks it means. A similar joke with Vizzini and the word “inconceivable” occurs in the movie “The Princess Bride”.

Strawberry Sunrise is voiced by Maggie Blue O’Hara, a veteran voice actor who mostly does anime dubs; the most notable of which was one of the voices of Bulma in “Dragonball Z”. However, she was the voice of Sweetheart as one of the main characters of the short-lived “My Little Pony Tales” series, where she co-stared with Kelly Sheridan (the voice of Starlight Glimmer).

Rating:

3 Stars out of 5

My Little Devotional #151: “Stranger Than Fiction”

Tags

Apple Bloom, Applejack, Bible, Campfire Tales, Christian Life, Christianity, devotional, fairy tales, folklore, God, Gospel, inspirational, Jesus, motivational, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, myth, New Testament, Old Testament, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, truth, validity, witnessing

Inspiration for Today’s Devotional: “Campfire Tales”

In today’s episode, while stuck in a cave following a disastrous camping trip, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash tell their three “little sisters” some of their favorite stories about their historical heroes. The stories are practically legendary, depicting situations that seem too fantastic and incredible to be true. As a result, there’s a degree of disbelief on the part of the listeners, or at least a sense that part of the stories are a bit fabricated and blown up to make the situation look better. Nevertheless, the three older girls not only believe them but take the episodes from history as lessons for them to apply to today.

When I thought about this, only one thing came to mind for today’s devotional: what Christians themselves look to for lessons from history, and how others see the same.

When Christians hold up the Bible as defense of their beliefs, the typical response from most non-Christians is that it’s “a book of fairy tales”. It may support our beliefs, but ultimately it’s considered another work of fiction and so can’t be taken literally or authoritatively. And while Christians can defend a lot of the Bible’s content by pointing out how it collaborates with other ancient world history recordings and documents, such as the records of Josephus, and even confirm that certain prophecies did indeed exist prior to their fulfillment via documents like the Dead Sea Scrolls (for another accusation toward Christianity is that the only way the ancient prophecies could have been fulfilled so exactly would be if they were written after the historical event occurred), at the least we all know that there are very few things recorded in ancient world history that didn’t have the truth “stretched” over several thousand years.

Moreover, when it comes to the Book of Genesis, it seems there is direct contradiction between everything we know about science and the Bible. To this day, “Creationists” continue to claim Earth, and the universe itself, is only a little over 6,000 years old, in spite of mountains of evidence in astronomy saying otherwise. Many Christians today continue to aggressively insist evolution does not exist without even understanding evolution; even though in doing so they’re saying that HIV only needs one drug and not a cocktail to treat it, we don’t need any new pesticides ever, and that every generation looks exactly like the previous one. Their rationale is that, since the Bible is the only thing that can be considered to be 100% true and authentic, everything we know about everything else must conform to it or it’s a lie…completely ignoring the fact that people, and especially Christians, have been misunderstanding and misinterpreting the Bible since the beginning of Christianity and have continued unabated to this day.

But the bottom line from all of this is that, to the non-Christian, citing the Bible as authority and everything that is within it is as meaningless as holding up “The Cat in the Hat” and doing the same. Christians fail to realize this constantly, and I’m a bit stunned that they aren’t getting it. Back in college I got in a discourse with a Muslim about my faith, and at the end of it he gave me a copy of the Koran to cite his own authority for his own faith. Now, to me, the Koran may have parts of it that are adapted from history but ultimately I consider it, more or less, to be a “book of fairy tales” myself. I expected him and other non-Christians to feel the same way about the Bible. The question is how do I prove that the Bible isn’t and has the greater authority?

“Oh, the Bible is the Word of God!” Most Christians will immediately answer. The non-Christian responds: “How do you know that? I think this book is the word of God.” “Oh, but the Bible says it’s the Word of God!” “Well…my book says it’s the word of God. Why should I think yours is and mine isn’t?”

And, at this point, I see a lot of Christians take the “wimpy” way out: “Oh, the truth just hasn’t been revealed to you, so you’re going to be obstinate no matter what. Otherwise, you’d immediately see I’m right and you’d accept Jesus right here on the spot.” Maybe not that extreme, but something like that.

The Word of God, the Bible, is important and it does have power inside it. “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12); “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” (2 Timothy 3:16); “And the words of the Lord are flawless, like silver purified in a crucible, like gold refined seven times.” (Psalm 12:6); “Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4). Yet not everyone will immediately see it that way or accept it as such.

There are a lot of books out there in the world that promise to have words that lead to life and self-fulfillment. Most of them are lying, but from a distance they all look the same. The Word of God itself has been twisted and warped into something horrible to suit a lot of people’s private agendas over the centuries. Even the Devil did the same with Lord Jesus. (“Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”” (Matthew 4:5-7)). Aside from that, a lot of people have used their own books, religious and secular, as justification for some rather bad things.

A responsible Christian, therefore, has to realize that there’s a lot of external factors at work actively trying to make non-Christians doubt the Bible’s authenticity besides simply “not having the truth revealed to them”. Frankly, I think the average Christian, and probably all Christians, have to deal with doubt regarding the Bible every so often (which is why most Christians avoid the bulk of the Old Testament because it’s “too hard to swallow”). If even we run afoul of that, how much more the non-believer?

So how do we remedy that?

I think the way is contained right there in the Bible. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14) Lord Jesus Christ is described as “the Word made flesh”. Just as we believe the Bible is the Word of God, we believe Lord Jesus is the Word fulfilled. It’s because the Word of God is more than text on a piece of paper and brings life and contains power that it’s not limited to a book but became tangible and alive in His body. In the same way, that’s how people will see that what we proclaim is real–by how we manifest it in our own flesh. And we should. If we truly believe the Word of God changes lives, then at the bare minimum our own lives should be changed by it, and changed enough to where others will see it.

To me, I never get caught up in doubt regarding the age of the universe or evolution, because I know the Bible is real from the people whose lives I’ve seen changed and the miracles that happened to them. People that I’ve dismissed as lost causes and wanted out of my life I now see as my best friends because of the power of the Word of God. The rest of that stuff doesn’t bother me because of that.

If you want non-Christians, or anyone, in your life to see how much power is in the Bible, to see the authority in its word, the best way to do it is live in accordance with it…just as Lord Jesus did.

Suggested Prayer: “Lord God, thank you for your Word, the Bible, and the incomparably wonderful message of salvation contained within. Thank you also that your Word is not merely text on a page but alive, active, and powerful. Help me to always remember that, as a Christian, I am proclaiming the Word of God at all times; whether I do so directly or in how I live my life. Grant that the words I “preach”, verbally and nonverbally, are always sharing the Gospel at all times. Gratefully in Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

My Little Devotional #149: “Open to Misinterpretation”

Tags

Applejack, bias, Bible, Christian Life, Christianity, devotional, evangelism, false accusation, Fame and Misfortune, Fluttershy, God, inspirational, intention, Jesus, motivational, motive, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, New Testament, offense, Old Testament, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Twilight Sparkle

Inspiration for Today’s Devotional: “Fame and Misfortune”

In today’s episode, Twilight Sparkle hits on a new idea she hopes will help all ponies across Equestria with friendship problems by publishing the old friendship journal she and her friends used to keep up. Unfortunately, things soon turn disastrous as a result. It seems every pony in Equestria reads something “different” into it. One misinterprets Rarity as being completely self-centered and mean. Another misinterprets everything Pinkie Pie says as funny. Still another demands that Fluttershy justify all of her individual negative character traits. Yet another thinks Rainbow Dash is “better” than everyone else…and so on and so forth. In the course of doing so, everypony misses the point of the journal completely. It’s only a pair of small fillies who end up getting what the journal was going for out of everyone else in Ponyville.

Unlike most other Christians, I believe that our society needs some measure of “political correctness”. I feel everyone is entitled to at least some amount of respect, if for no other reason than that is the tradeoff for a polite society and obeying the Golden Rule. But political correctness has gone too far in modern times, as it’s no longer about showing respect to other people at all but a means of silencing people. In a world where everyone has grown to believe their opinion is worth more than it is, many people have reached the point where they feel they have a right not to “be offended”; as if being offended is somehow an act of external immorality on someone’s part.

It’s true that there are things that are put up with the explicit desire to offend people. Racial epitaphs or symbols, explicit imagery, or pure hate speak condemning a group of people…all of those are designed to incite anger and express hate. The problem is nowadays even the slightest thing that is unintentional can cause things to grind to a halt and demand for change. Wearing a Cat-in-the-Hat hat is suddenly racial. Game developers are suddenly offending an entire country if they use the wrong slang term on a sign in the background. Even the word “history” is suddenly gender biased because it says the word “his” in it. (Does that mean I have to say “ther” when I mean “this” now?)

As this episode illustrated, anyone can find anything wrong with what you say or do. They can always misrepresent it and claim a wrong motive. And nowadays, they can put that opinion everywhere and find like-minded individuals to say the same thing. Occasionally, it can get savage and mean. Yet the part that scares me is that, more often than not, people end up apologizing and changing to accommodate the people who complain. They catch themselves up in a never-ending cycle to “please everyone” and leave no one upset. That, unfortunately, is a dangerous precedent to follow. Yes, there are some things that genuinely do merit an apology. Yet to apologize for something that genuinely had no ill intent in it and try to change the world to accommodate the “offended” is essentially making everyone cater to their whims and, occasionally, their biases and imaginations. Especially if the person already has a mindset against something, for in that case no amount of apology or censorship will ever be sufficient. And for many people, they use that as a tool to completely silence all opposition period. After all, if “being offended” becomes an act of immorality itself, then you can shut down an opposing viewpoint for even existing.

Where does it end? At what point do we think something is so unreasonable that we tell someone, “I’m sorry, but that wasn’t my intention. You’ll just have to ignore it.”?

I don’t know if it will end any time soon, but there’s an important lesson we can learn from it right now. We should realize that someone will always, always, always see something wrong in what we say or do. If you’re a Christian witnessing the Gospel, that’s a given. We know it all too well. But they’ll do the same for everything else. Say you want to let some refugees into the country and you’ll be accused of promoting terrorism. Say you want to allow people to own guns and you’ll be accused of being a murderer. Say you’re against abortion and you’ll be accused of wanting to make women second-class citizens/slaves. Say that police acted inappropriately shooting an unarmed man to death and you’ll be accused of wanting lawlessness. Say that you voted for Donald Trump and you’ll be kicked out of your local YMCA (the last one actually did happen to my father after nearly 20 years of attendance and donations).

The important thing is not to care so much about what people say your motive is as to know what your motive is. Jesus was constantly accused of saying things that were all together untrue. “Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. But some of them said, “By Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.”” (Luke 11:14-15) “A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man[Jesus] is a sinner.”” (John 9:24) “The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward.” (Matthew 26:59-60a) It never stopped Him because He knew exactly what He was about and His intentions. After that, He left it up to whether some people would accept what He said and some people wouldn’t; and ultimately it was all about the people who would accept it. He never changed the message for the people that needed to hear it for the people who didn’t want to hear it at all.

Whenever you find yourself speaking boldly about something important and being assaulted for the wrong motive, always remember to be respectful and calm (for by getting angry and defensive you’re merely playing right into their hands), but so long as your motives are pure and true keep on going. Remember that it is inevitable that people will assign false motives to you. That’s life. Or, as Winston Churchill once said, “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” As with so many uncontrollable things in life, our response matters more than whether or not it will occur, which is why we should care more about what we say than how some people will react.

And for that reason, equally important is to also make sure our own hearts are in line at all times…both to make sure the words we speak are good as well as to avoid the sickness of distorting what we hear to suit our own agenda. As the Bible says, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Luke 6:45) Therefore, let’s all make sure our hearts stay full of good things.

Suggested Prayer: “Lord God, thank you that your Word is right and true, and contains the ways of eternal life to all who are able to hear it with a clean heart and let it “bear fruit”. Whether I am proclaiming your Word, explaining a viewpoint, sharing advice, or admonishing someone, please let my motives always be pure and in tune with your Will. And when opposition inevitably comes, let my focus always be more on quality of my message over the whims of society. Gratefully in Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

Everything Wrong With “My Little Pony: The Movie”(2017) In the Time It Takes You to Read This

Tags

Applejack, Capper, Captain Celaeno, Cinema Sins, Everything Wrong With, Fizzlepop Berrytwist, Fluttershy, Grubber, humor, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, My Little Pony: The Movie, parody, Pinkie Pie, Princess Cadance, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Skystar, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Spike, Storm King, Tempest Shadow, Twilight Sparkle

As always, this is a shameless knockoff of “Cinema Sins” and you should check out their vast collection on Youtube. They’re hilarious if you don’t mind nitpicking.

After years of eager anticipation and months of excitement buzz from previews, stills, and the soundtrack, the bronies and pegasisters finally got the feature film they craved and declared it to be overwhelmingly and astonishingly passable. Let’s see why!

—

Everything.

Wrong.

With.

“MY LITTLE PONY: THE MOVIE”

In the Time It Takes You to Read This or Less.

SPOILERS!

(duh)

—

Movie about “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” will be surprisingly void of ponies and Equestria, so shotgun blasts your eyeballs with pastels of ALL the ponies in the first ten minutes.

SIN COUNT: 1

Movie shows how dated its script is by featuring Starlight Glimmer, the show’s deuteroagonist who single-hoofedly saved everypony else in the main cast, in a completely non-speaking background pony role with less screen time than Derpy.

SIN COUNT: 2

Seven seasons in and you can’t highlight an episode with Twilight Sparkle unless it starts with her OCDing about something.

SIN COUNT: 3

(First close-up of Twilight Sparkle)

New animation style makes Twilight look like she’s on meth in every close up, and yet heartless animators give her nothing but close ups the rest of the film.

SIN COUNT: 4

(Twilight’s long, rambling proposal to the princesses)

For fans of the show in the audience, you know this is a par-for-the-course Twilight obsessive-compulsive nerd rant. For those who aren’t fans, this is the signal for you to check your watch and groan that the movie still has an hour and a half to go.

SIN COUNT: 5

(Pinkie Pie’s Discord-shaped balloon)

For the bronies in the audience, sorry. Tiny morsels of fanservice like this is all the filmmakers have left to throw to you after things like “Slice of Life”.

SIN COUNT: 6

(Shot of Fluttershy’s bird choir)

Should we ask why Fluttershy felt the need to put Angel Bunny in a bird costume and stick him in with the choir? Of course we should. Pondering things like this keeps us from asking the real question of why they bothered putting Fluttershy in this movie.

SIN COUNT: 7

(Tempest’s Airship arrives)

Movie features the mixed-media blending of 2D style and 3D style animation in the same scene. It was jarring and odd looking back in the late ’90s and it still is in 2017.

SIN COUNT: 8

(Grubber walks out to make his announcement)

Discount Olaf…or Equivalent Value Sid.

SIN COUNT: 9

(Tempest Shadow makes her first appearance)

Darth Neigh-der.

SIN COUNT: 10

Well, out of all of the characters they left out of the film from the show, they still kept the three non-Twilight alicorn princesses, so it’ll be nice to see them get to have some action to themselves for a chan-

(Cadance gets petrified)

SIN COUNT: 11

Ok, Cadance gets a lot of screen time anyway. It’s Celestia who really needs the counterweight. So I’m sure she’ll have a big role to-

(Celestia gets petrified)

Sigh…

SIN COUNT: 12

Alright, Luna is everyone’s favorite and she’s already in the air, so we’ll get to at least see-

(Luna gets petrified)

Celestiadamnit, movie!

SIN COUNT: 13

(Cadance’s screamed line while being petrified)

And that is Britt McKillip’s second and final line of the film. She had an easier time earning a paycheck for this film than Anna Paquin for “X-Men: Days of Future Past”.

SIN COUNT: 14

(Twilight catches Luna as she’s falling)

So, what would have happened if Twilight hadn’t caught Luna? She would have shattered, and…then Tempest would be screwed, because she needs all four alicorn princesses…unless she’d go get Flurry Heart to substitute.

SIN COUNT: 15

Tempest was such a smug equine she only brought exactly how many gem bomb thingees she would need. She learned nothing from that one episode of “The Simpsons” where Homer impersonates Krusty. “I told ya’ we shoulda bought more than four Obsidian Orbs!”

SIN COUNT: 16

Sigh…ok, let’s go over a brief list of all the ways Tempest’s plan should have failed immediately. 1. Cadance could have just stopped her Obsidian Orb in midair using telekinesis rather than a shield. 2. Luna can both turn into mist as well as into multiple individuals, both which would negate an orb. 3. Celestia could have simply flown to the Queen of the Hippogriffs herself rather than spent an excessively long time standing still in one spot attempting to explain the detailed plan to Luna. 4. The girls could have evoked their Rainbow Power forms and instantly annihilated the Storm King’s army as those are more powerful than all four alicorns combined…

SIN COUNT: 17…18…19…20

Tempest disables three princesses single-hoofedly but after messing up on the fourth one lets her minions decide things.

SIN COUNT: 21

“…hungry.” “Hungry?” “Hippos?”

Hasbro’s shameless plug of their own board game is only slightly more dignified than the movie “Battleship”.

SIN COUNT: 22

PINKIE PIE: (Crazed and picking up a skull) “Maybe THIS guy knows where we are!”

Insanity.

SIN COUNT: 23

SPIKE: “…And this cactus…” (Showing his rear end)

Damnit, children’s movie. You had to put in one butt joke, didn’t you?

SIN COUNT: 24

Pinkie Pie’s scene in the market attracts all sorts of unwanted attention, and yet we’re supposed to think Twilight was in the wrong for not suggesting this first later in the film.

SIN COUNT: 25

Capper suavely befriends and charms lost ponies, takes them back to his place, and then later means to sell them to individuals who would sell ponies to the highest bidder. Replace “ponies” with “young women” and this is probably the most disturbing thing in this entire film.

SIN COUNT: 26

CAPPER: “My apologies for the state of the litterbox.”

And a fecal related joke too? Shame on you!

SIN COUNT: 27

(On learning about Mount Aris)

Ponies now know their destination, how to get there, and three of them are airborne including the only one who is actually a target, and yet continue to use the ground and transportation for locomotion the remainder of this film.

SIN COUNT: 28

Twilight attempts to get girls away from pony trafficker as quickly as possible, and yet we’re supposed to think Twilight was in the wrong for this later in the film.

SIN COUNT: 29

Capper’s life and moral outlook is changed by a unicorn putting two buttons on his jacket. Granted, if this were real life, that would actually be somewhat plausible. As this is a cartoon, that’s a sinning.

SIN COUNT: 30

5. Twilight could have instantly frozen all attackers in place like she did with the Hooffields and McColts. 6. Discord could have instantly snapped his fingers and freed the princesses while imprisoning Tempest. 7. Starlight Glimmer could have knocked several of the airships out of the sky by herself, especially since she can fly and teleport. 8. Shining Armor could have accompanied Cadance to Canterlot since “everypony” was supposed to be there and used their combined shield to blow Tempest all the way to Klugetown…

SIN COUNT: 31…32…33…34

It’s understandable that Captain Celaeno and her crew wouldn’t waste their only allowed meal break to throw ponies overboard. What’s not understandable is why they invite them to join them and feed them as well before planning to throw them overboard once finished.

SIN COUNT: 35

The Storm King forced Celaeno and her sky pirates into a life of menial servitude but not only left them all of their weapons but apparently all of their loot as well.

SIN COUNT: 36

Pirates regain their impulse to be pirates and decide to revolt against a tyrant because someone essentially says: “Why don’t you go back to being pirates?”

SIN COUNT: 37

Rainbow Dash thoughtlessly performs a Sonic Rainboom that acts as a massive signal flare to Tempest Shadow, and we’re supposed to think Twilight was in the wrong for not wanting her to perform it later in this film.

SIN COUNT: 38

When the Sonic Rainboom goes off, Tempest’s airship is close enough to actually distinguish the pirates’ airship, which means that it must have still been in visible range when they took off from Klugetown. Yet she and her minions continued to act as if they needed Capper’s directions to find the ship, which they now catch up with in less than half a minute.

SIN COUNT: 39

Movie teases Rainbow Dash learning how to fight with a sword with Celaeno and never delivers.

SIN COUNT: 40

Pirates and pirate ships are an easy way to inject fun into a film…unless you only want them for toys and have them instantly defeated as a result like this movie did.

SIN COUNT: 41

Tempest totally destroys pirate ship with Celaeno, her crew, and Capper on board and yet fails to kill anyone. That horn is busted.

SIN COUNT: 42

(Rarity’s drama queen fits)

Over-the-top Drama Queen Rarity is hilarious. Mediocre, slowly-animated, subdued Drama Queen Rarity makes non-bronies in the audience check their time and thank Celestia the movie is over half over.

SIN COUNT: 43

(Princess Skystar appears)

Discount Dory.

SIN COUNT: 44

Kingdom of Hippogriffs, who later in the film show one of them is strong enough to subdue five of the Storm King’s minions at once, transformed themselves into Kingdom of Merponies because…TOYS! I mean, REASONS!

SIN COUNT: 45

The Mane Six would still asphyxiate rather quickly from carbon dioxide poisoning in those small bubbles.

SIN COUNT: 46

Kristen Chenowith, the voice of Princess Skystar, stared alongside Idina Menzel, also known as Elsa from “Frozen”, in the original run of “Wicked” and later as Maleficent in “Descendants”, and yet filmmakers only give her half a song.

SIN COUNT: 47

9. Equestria is allies with the Yaks, who wouldn’t take kindly to the threat of invasion and would stomp on the invaders. 10. Equestria is allies with the Changelings, who wouldn’t take kindly to the threat of invasion and would devour the invaders. 11. Equestria is allies with the Dragons, who wouldn’t take kindly to the threat of invasion and would stomp, incinerate, and then devour the invaders. 12. Sunset Shimmer could have popped back into Equestria to lend a hoof…which would have been awesome…

SIN COUNT: 48…49…50…51

TWILIGHT: “We can’t just dance around with con artists, make Sonic Rainbooms in the sky, and expect everything to work out!”

Twilight points out everything wrong with film’s own resolution.

SIN COUNT: 52

(Spike escapes Storm King minion by lighting him on fire)

Apparently so long as this happens from a perspective of 100 feet away, it can stay a PG movie, because a similar shot is used later in the film when Spike is turned into an incinerator.

SIN COUNT: 53

(Twilight’s prison chamber)

Tempest Shadow is such a Darth Vader ripoff she even stole the Carbonite Freezing Chamber from “The Empire Strikes Back”.

SIN COUNT: 54

Twilight and Tempest make it back to Canterlot via an airship only about ten minutes faster than the rest of the protagonists who are ground-bound and apparently took the time to bake a gigantic Trojan Horse cake and build the wagon to put it on first.

SIN COUNT: 55

Is Songbird Serenade being impressed into singing like a real songbird? If so, why are these big white things ordering her to sing only to order her to shut up soon after?

SIN COUNT: 56

Also, Twilight, for some reason, focuses on Songbird’s misfortune although she’s surrounded by countless friends in much worse circumstances, including the CMCs.

SIN COUNT: 57

The Storm King is easily one of the most entertaining characters in the film, so naturally he only gets two scenes. …Wait, huh?

SIN COUNT: 58

Evil army of brutes that conquered hundreds of ponies in ten minutes, a third of whom could fly and use weather as a weapon and another third of whom could use magic lasers, now gets totally defeated by thirteen individuals. Equestria seriously needs a real military.

SIN COUNT: 59

Alright, which of you folks at home predicted that the Storm King would never honor his promise and would end up backstabbing Temp-alright, alright, you can all put your hands down.

SIN COUNT: 60

TWILIGHT: (On grabbing Tempest) “Hold on!”

Telling a character with hooves to hold on to something. For that matter, how is Twilight holding Tempest right now?

SIN COUNT: 61

So the ultimate reason Fluttershy and Applejack were in this film was to help form a pony-chain just long enough to get the Staff of S…S…MacGuffin, whatever.

SIN COUNT: 62

Not counting King Sombra, “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” franchise is finally ballsy enough to kill a villain on screen…and wastes it on a villain who spent so little time being malevolent and genuinely despicable that audience is fairly blase. Honestly, Tempest Shadow being killed would have left more impact.

SIN COUNT: 63

Magic MacGuffin Staff has a Comic Reset on it to nullify any of the drama that accompanied Canterlot Palace and most of Equestria being destroyed.

SIN COUNT: 64

Sia’s “Rainbow”. A song explicitly written for this movie by a singer who had a pony version of her made for the film in the single greatest act of MLP:FIM fandom that will ever be done.

SIN COUNT: 63

Tempest Shadow is worried she won’t fit in with the rest of the Equestrians at the party because she has a broken horn…instead of fact there are countless multitudes she tormented, enslaved, terrorized, and possibly killed.

SIN COUNT: 64

TEMPEST: “…Fizzlepop Berrytwist.”

No sin here. Like Pinkie Pie says, that’s awesome.

SIN COUNT: 63

(Discord appearing in foreground and background of end credits)

Don’t worry if you felt cheated by the background appearances of Starlight Glimmer, Trixie Lulamoon, and Cheese Sandwich in this movie. Feel cheated by this instead!

SIN COUNT: 64

(Credits scene where ponies are playing pinata shaped like the Storm King’s severed head)

That is quite honestly morbid.

SIN COUNT: 65

FINAL COUNT: 65

SENTENCE: MOICHANDIZING (“‘Moichandizing’? What’s that?” “Merchandising! We put the picture’s name on everything! Ha-ha! Merchandising! Merchandising! Where the real money from the movie is made!”)

---

 

(Scene where Tempest Shadow walks up to the open door to Capper’s house and looks in grinning)

JACK TORRENCE: Heeeeeere’s…JOHNNY!

 

---

 

(Scene of Pinkie Pie going crazy in the desert)

RAOUL DUKE: We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold…

 

---

 

(Scene where Rainbow Dash throws the Storm King Rulebook off the pirate airship)

ELIZABETH SWANN: Hang the code, and hang the rules! They’re more like guidelines anyway!

 

---

 

(Scene where Twilight gets the girls to distract Skystar and looks back to the Pearl)

HAL 9000: …What are you doing, Dave?

 

---

 

(Scene where Tempest Shadow gets in Twilight Sparkle’s face while caged)

JOKER: You want to know how I got these scars?

 

---

 

(Scene where Twilight catches Tempest Shadow before she can fly off the balcony)

TWILIGHT: Hold on!

TEMPEST: Why are you saving me?

DALEK VOICE (V.O.): I…SHOW…MERCY.

 

---

 

(Scene where the Storm King is about to petrify the girls, Tempest sees it, and runs to save them)

DARTH VADER: No…NOOOOOO!

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Reviews ~ My Little Pony: The Movie

Tags

Applejack, Capper, Captain Celaeno, Derpy Hooves, Festival of Friendship, Fizzlepop Berrytwist, Fluttershy, Grubber, Muffins, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, My Little Pony: The Movie, opinion, Pinkie Pie, Princess Cadance, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Skystar, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Queen Novo, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, review, Songbird Serenade, Spike, Storm King, Tempest Shadow, Twilight Sparkle

(Spoilers obviously follow, so you’ve been warned.)

Synopsis:

The first Festival of Friendship, a new event proposed by Princess Twilight Sparkle, is upon Equestria, and she is heading up the festivities in Canterlot by getting pop singer Songbird Serenade to perform; but, true to her normal neurotic form, is fearful that her own “magic of friendship” isn’t good enough to highlight the event as much as it deserves. As the rest of the Mane Six and Spike try to reassure her that they’re all there to help her, a dark cloud bearing a fleet of airships descends on Canterlot. They reveal themselves to be the armies of the Storm King, a monster obsessed with world conquest, and are led by his greatest minion: a scarred unicorn with a broken horn named Commander Tempest Shadow. After Princess Celestia refuses her ultimatum for an unconditional surrender and all four princesses giving up their magic to her, she shows off her astonishing power even with a broken horn by easily defeating and imprisoning her, Luna, and Cadance with special gem bombs that immobilize the victims in crystal statues. She nearly does the same to Twilight when Rainbow Dash saves her (freezing Derpy instead), and she, Spike, and the Mane Six manage to escape in the chaos by falling into a river. On learning of this, Tempest goes off in pursuit, revealing that in exchange for giving the Storm King all the magic in Equestria she’ll get her own broken horn restored.

On reaching solid ground, Twilight directs the Mane Six to follow a direction Celestia attempted to call out to Luna before she was imprisoned and find the “Queen of the Hippos” past the Badlands beyond the borders of Equestria. After crossing a barren desert and arriving in a run down city full of scavengers only interested in making money, they are nearly accosted by a group of locals wanting to capture and sell them until they are bailed out by a local anthropomorphic cat named Capper. In spite of Twilight not trusting him, the Mane Six go with him back to his place, and while inside she finds a map in his possession that indicates what they really need to find is the “Queen of the Hippogriffs”, creatures that are part eagle and part pony. They are about to leave for their kingdom on Mount Aris when debt collectors for Capper arrive, revealing he only helped them because he intended to sell them to pay a debt of his own, along with Tempest and her own minions. As a result of the confusion the Mane Six and Spike escape aboard a departing airship. Tempest demands that Capper tell her where they were headed, but Capper, on thinking of how Rarity repaired his coat and wanted nothing in return, lies about their destination; yet is dragged along by Tempest until they’re found.

On board the airship, which is crewed by anthropomorphic birds in the service of the Storm King, the girls are discovered. On being confronted, their captain, Celaeno, reveals they used to be sky pirates but were impressed into menial cargo labor by him. Rainbow Dash and the others, except Twilight who feels it is a waste of time, encourage and convince the pirates to get their old spirit back and resume their former lifestyles in rebellion against the Storm King, and in the process take them to their destination. Unfortunately, Rainbow decides to cap things off by performing a Sonic Rainboom for them, and as a result the blast leads Tempest’s own airship right to them. While Celaeno stalls, refusing to tell Tempest about the girls in spite of her threats, the rest of the Mane Six escape. In retribution, Tempest blows up their airship with the bird pirates and Capper on board, although the group manages to survive.

The girls and Spike arrive on Mount Aris only to find the kingdom long abandoned, but are attracted by a voice to a pond in the middle of the kingdom where they see a mysterious glowing figure vanish in the water. On jumping in after her, the pond sucks them into a sealed underwater cavern, but the figure rescues them from drowning and reveals herself to be Princess Skystar, seemingly a merpony. She shows the girls to the rest of their kingdom and introduces them to her mother, Queen Novo. It is revealed that the merponies were once the hippogriffs, but when the Storm King attacked them years ago they used the power of a magic pearl to transform the entire kingdom into merponies, and they made a new kingdom under the ocean. She does the same to the Mane Six and Spike, which prompts Twilight Sparkle to ask for the pearl to use it to transform the citizens of Equestria into creatures powerful enough to defeat the Storm King’s minions. Novo refuses, both due to mistrust as well as fears the pearl would be lost to the Storm King, although Skystar extends an offer to the girls to live in the safety of the kingdom instead. When they move to leave and Skystar looks unhappy that she’s lost a chance to have anyone to play with, Twilight suggests the girls have fun with her for a few minutes. As a result, Pinkie Pie and the girls end up enthusing the whole kingdom, Novo included, and persuades her to let the girls use the pearl after all–only to find out soon after that Twilight used the whole thing as a diversion to try and steal the pearl. Furious, Novo returns them to their former forms and banishes them from their kingdom. The girls angrily confront Twilight and her behavior; pointing out that since she left Equestria she’s constantly been refusing to give friendship a chance in helping them on their journey as she doesn’t believe that’s “good enough” to help them succeed/survive; and Twilight, bitter at both her failure and how she’s just ruined Equestria, ends up lashing back at the girls for not going along with her and calling them friends she doesn’t need. The rest of the Mane Six, hurt by the comments, leave Twilight and Spike on their own; and while Twilight begins to sink into depression over how she treated them on top of everything else, the Storm King’s minions come upon her and capture her.

Caged on board Tempest’s airship, the unicorn mocks Twilight at having no friends to help her now and boasting that by rejecting friendship and making herself into who she is today she’s superior to her. She reveals that as a filly her friendship with two other young unicorns caused her to get into an accident with an Ursa Minor that left her scarred and without a horn, and that they ended up abandoning her on seeing her unable to do magic; leading her to believe the only individual she could ever rely on was herself. On hearing this, Twilight realizes she’s been making the same mistakes Tempest made in not having faith in friendship with others and doing whatever she could to succeed, and, in spite of the unicorn’s heartless and self-interested demeanor, feels sympathy for her.  Meanwhile, the girls learn of Twilight’s capture but feel unable to do anything, until they’re joined by Capper, Captain Celaeno, the rest of the pirates, and even Princess Skystar (transformed back into a hippogriff), who agree to help effect a rescue.

Twilight is taken back to the Canterlot Palace, now the domain of the Storm King himself who has gone about destroying the rest of Equestria in her absence. She and the rest of the princesses have their magic forcefully removed and put into his staff. The Mane Six and their new friends attack soon after and manage to clear a path through the Storm King’s army all the way to the palace, at which point he summons a massive tornado with his new power to block them from getting any closer. Tempest tells the Storm King to honor his half of the deal and pledges to continue to serve him with her restored power, yet he simply says he has no more use for her power and never intended to give her back her horn at all. After a failed attempt to do away with her blasts the Storm King and the staff to one side while Tempest is nearly knocked into the tornado itself, Twilight ignores her chance to get the staff  and instead, much to Tempest’s own surprise, rescues her; telling her this is what friendship is really like. The Mane Six use Pinkie Pie’s massive cake cannon to fire themselves into the Storm King before he can finish both Twilight and Tempest, and with their help Twilight grabs the staff before both she and the Storm King are sucked into the tornado. Twilight is able to stop it using the staff’s magic and goes back to the others, but the Storm King also survives and has one last gem bomb to try and trap Twilight and the girls. Seeing him about to throw it, Tempest jumps into the path of the gem bomb to intercept the blast; imprisoning both her and the Storm King before they fall off a parapet. The Storm King hits the ground and shatters, but Twilight saves Tempest again before she can fall.

Using the staff, Twilight frees Tempest, the three alicorn princesses, and Derpy, and restores everything the Storm King and his army destroyed. Songbird Serenade performs as intended for the new audience, which now includes Capper, Celaeno and her pirates, Skystar, and even Queen Novo and the rest of the hippogriffs. Tempest, ashamed both of her actions as well as the fact she’s still a unicorn without a horn, attempts to leave discretely, but Twilight stops her…assuring her that her horn is just as strong as the pony who owns it and that “the party” could always use more friends. She ends up using her broken horn to make fireworks and, to her own embarrassment, gives out her real name to her new friends (Fizzlepop Berrytwist), which Pinkie Pie declares the best name ever.

Review:

Well…here it is.

After months of hype, anticipation, trailers, teasers, and waiting…we got “My Little Pony: The Movie”, an actual full length movie of the characters from Equestria rather than the Equestria Girls spinoff. For weeks the fans had poured over art, announcement of voice actors, clips in trailers, and music from the soundtrack. There were prequels, merchandise, and interviews abound, and all building to this one moment. No one knew exactly what to expect. Would this boldly go in new directions? Armed with a PG rating, would it push the content envelope? Would this be the most epic story of all time? Would it be “Hollywoodized”? Would it have some sort of major event to change the show forever?

Well, finally it came out. And what’s my own verdict?

Mmm…pretty good.

On a personal level, I was a tad disappointed. All of this hype, work, partnering with Lionsgate, and three years worth of development for a film that is, quite basically, a giant drama-based episode.  It had some things that were a little better than average but some things that were a little worse than average, and…well, let’s get into it.

Let’s start with the artwork.  It went in a slightly different direction from the show’s art. On one hand, I like a few details. The new animation of perspective of pegasi flying gives a new appreciation for it, as on the show itself they’re usually only flying at a side profile. Rainbow Dash’s Sonic Rainboom looked amazing. And the perspectives used in “Open Up Your Eyes” enhanced the presentation.

Yet…there was some bad stuff too. The “cruder” animation on the show allowed for more cartoonish rapid movement. In this movie, everyone “takes their time” moving. There’s nothing rapid and fast that happens on screen. Even the fight sequences seem to be slowed down.

Also, none of the characters move rapidly anymore as they would on the show either. Body language on the show is such a major part of actions and reactions, along with exaggerated facial expressions. In this movie, they do something bizarre for an animated film…close ups. Lots of close ups. They attempt to suddenly make the characters emote through facial reactions alone. And, to me, it doesn’t work well. Especially since it constantly happens to Twilight Sparkle, and she honestly looks tired, emaciated, and, dare I say, a bit ugly in most of the film.

The thing is most of this new animation seems designed to enhance the new characters and their own way of acting and reacting, which is at odds with the original pony characters. The end result is that they end up standing out while the ponies we know and love are boring. More on that soon…

As for the music, Sia’s “Rainbow” is, naturally, beautiful. Nothing less than I’d expect from the co-writer of Zootopia’s “Try Everything”. If the movie gets any acclaim at all, it might take home a Best Original Song Oscar. As for the rest of the music…it’s there. I think Daniel Ingram is rather talented but his songs on the show usually “average out”. I don’t feel there were any “dud” songs in this film, and I’m so grateful it didn’t include a “Twilight is Unhappy” song. But ironically, I think he shot himself in the foot. Vocals are usually the biggest part of his songs on the show. He mentioned that he was excited to get to work with a full orchestra in this movie, but that ironically drowned out some of the vocal appeal. On the high end I feel “You Need a Friend Like Me” had a quality of charm to it, while “Open Up Your Eyes”, like most of Tempest Shadow’s lines, was monotone and “disinterested-sounding”.  I was crossing my fingers for another “Luna’s Future” in this movie, but…nope.

Character-wise… One of the big problems with Megan McCarthy is that she usually tends to focus on Twilight Sparkle and ignore everypony else in the Mane Six except to be used as gags or one-liners. This movie didn’t make that mistake…kind of. Twilight is still the focus but the girls get to contribute…a little. Pinkie Pie is definitely in position number two for getting the most focus, as she easily has more stand-out screen time than any of the other girls. Almost too much. The scene with the confrontation with Twilight seems like Applejack should have been the one to deliver it, but instead it’s Pinkie Pie of all characters–one of the least confrontational out of the set. She’s highlighted with Princess Skystar to boot. Conversely, Rainbow Dash gets highlighted with Captain Celaeno, but aside from a brief cider gag at the beginning of the movie and her Sonic Rainboom she doesn’t really get much that stands out. Rarity doesn’t really get much, although her brief 15 second scene with Capper was important. Yet she suffers the worst for the animation style, because even her drama queen bits seem underplayed when that’s supposed to be over-the-top to a hilarious degree. But Applejack and Fluttershy are just along for the ride, and Fluttershy has so little to do she uses her old “yay” joke twice. Neither are really utilized or even have a reason to be in the film other than they need all six of them. Aside from that, Spike serves his usual role of letting Twilight say her emotional state rather than needing to show it or imply it, and Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadance are only around to be Worf Effect #1, Worf Effect #2, and Worf Effect #3…as usual. The latter really disappoints me. I thought they would have had something for those three to do after all this time. Now…I realize we need more episodes like “A Royal Problem” and “Once Upon a Zeppelin” just to make them stand out as something besides characters to get instantly smacked down by every villain. (I feel really bad for Britt McKillip, who probably was able to come in one day for an hour to do her lines. :/)

The characters who really stand out are the ones for the movie. At first I was wondering why they got billing over the actual show cast, but…on seeing the movie, they deserved it. They had the most energy and interest, although I’m not sure if they were directed or written that way or it came off from their personalities. Taye Diggs’ Capper ended up having more charisma to him than I thought he would. Michael Cena’s Grubber was such a good Olaf imitation that the voice acting managed to make up for much of his lamer jokes. Liev Schreiber’s Storm King ended up having a delightful Adorable Psycho ring to it that reminded me of Lord Dominator from “Wander Over Yonder”. And I loved Kristen Chenowith’s Princess Skystar. She reminded me of kind of a mix of Dory from “Finding Nemo” and Pearl from “Steven Universe”.

Yet even that got ruined a bit by not making effective use of everyone. Kazumi Evans, Rarity’s singing voice, is one of the better vocal talents on the show and yet it was Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie who got songs to themselves. Likewise, Kristen Chenowith is a great singer and yet she only got “half a number”. The Storm King was probably my favorite of the new characters and his childish demeanor could have made for a lot of entertaining bits…and how many scenes did he get? TWO.

And of course the pony of the hour…Fizzlepop Berrytwist AKA Tempest Shadow.

In terms of persona, she definitely managed to pull off an aura of looking dark, cold, and merciless. She sold herself not only as being ruthless but also personally dangerous; a character who not only looked intimidating but was. She had the advantage of being a character not really used on the show yet: a dark, emotionless “dark lord” type. And in the scenes where her eyes go wide and she grins malevolently…whew.

And yet, Emily Blunt’s voice acting “killed” a lot of her persona. I don’t blame her. She tried. Tempest is mostly monotone throughout the whole film, and I know why. Her voice actor was likely trying to make her sound cold and ruthless like a Darth Vader type. The problem is…Emily Blunt’s voice is too pleasant to pull that off. Rather than sound dark, Tempest sounds bored or disinterested.

As a villainous character, I will say I like her better than Starlight Glimmer, and out of all the villains on the show who have done Heel Turn Faces she’s the most complete. Unlike Starlight, Tempest had a real tragedy happen to her. Left scarred and deformed trying to do something for her “friends”, reduced to being a “freak” of a pony, having lost the one thing that made unicorns unique… It’s understandable how she could have gone down a path where she no longer cared about what happened to the rest of Equestria so long as she got what she wanted, or even wanted them to suffer feeling she had been cast out. Furthermore, she’s clearly made a name for herself and learned to survive and even thrive in the world outside of Equestria. Therefore, the real reason she may want her horn back is because, on a deep level, she doesn’t feel like a “real unicorn” unless she has it. Perhaps a part of her emotionally scarred does still long to be accepted like everypony else. She gets a few other subtle moments too. When the Storm King starts abusing the magic he’s stolen for selfish, childish reasons, Tempest is visibly hesitant and uneasy. Earlier she chastised the citizens of Equestria for “wasting” the power on parties, but now she seems to realize the true waste is to make it the plaything of a child-like tyrant. That using this sort of power just to destroy and show yourself off really isn’t as great as she thought it was. Even before the Storm King makes it clear he never planned to live up to his end of the deal, she’s starting to wonder if giving him what he wanted was a good idea to begin with, horn or no horn. And rather than spontaneously turn around, what pushes her “back into the light” is seeing Twilight abandon her chance to save Equestria to rescue her after all of her persecution and taunting.

Finally, the main plot, and the main “lesson” of the movie. To be honest, I didn’t think much of it on the first viewing. I thought it was alright, but basic and unremarkable. Yet on seeing it a second time, as I do often with many MLP episodes, I saw a lot more to it.

The big trend of the series has been to make the villains, especially ones who will be redeemed, “alternate versions of Twilight Sparkle”. Sunset Shimmer was definitely that. Starlight Glimmer was that in a lot of ways. Even Moondancer was a “Twilight that could have been”. This movie did it a bit different. Rather than trying to juxtapose an alternate Twilight Sparkle onto Fizzlepop Berrytwist, they do something more subtle and focus that it’s the choice both of them are making that is bad.

Twilight is no stranger to being neurotic, but her problem in this movie is that once she’s moved out of her “comfort zone” she started to doubt the power of friendship. No longer in the realm of Equestria, she starts feeling like she’s in a sphere where the old rules don’t apply anymore. And, as the film goes on, it progressively gets worse. With Capper, she was just being overly cautious, and she ended up being that way with good reason as he did end up betraying them…although she didn’t have faith that friendship with the girls would win him over. With Celaeno and the pirates, she’s to the point of not even wanting to bother with their help. It’s the other girls who take all the initiative. Finally, with Queen Novo and Princess Skystar, she starts to cross the line. She does something downright dishonest and unethical, feeling it’s the only way to succeed outside of Equestria.

There’s a very interesting detail in the scene where she gets in an argument with the girls. Right when she reaches the zenith of her anger and says she doesn’t need friends like the Mane Six…her horn sparks–just like Fizzlepop Berrytwist’s.

That’s what drove the rest of the plot home for me from there. Twilight, over the course of the film, was gradually “turning into Tempest Shadow”; making the same mistakes she made. The real “punch” to the “Open Up Your Eyes” scene soon after that isn’t supposed to be Fizzlepop oozing her malevolence and power over Twilight, but Twilight realizing what she had been doing and how she was going down the same road she once went down. From that point on in the film, she starts to force herself to turn around in spite of being in the worst situation yet. In spite of the fact Fizzlepop still treats her cruelly and as a fool, she expresses her sympathy to her for what happened to her horn.

Yet the biggest movement happens several minutes later–when Twilight is given the chance to get her magic back and end the invasion of the Storm King if she’ll let Fizzlepop die.

In all honesty, it’s somewhat a condensed version of Season Four, and in particular an alternate version of “Twilight’s Kingdom”. In that one, Twilight had her “virtue” put to the test when Discord betrayed the Mane Six to help Tirek. In terms of the drama, it’s a bit weaker since the rest of the girls making friends had to be emphasized, and because the Storm King, in all honesty, is a subpar villain in terms of raw malevolence to Tirek. Yet nevertheless it still does a bit better in terms of who is redeemed. In Discord’s case, it was a sign of Twilight’s virtue that she was willing to forgive someone who honestly didn’t deserve it and who knew he didn’t deserve it. In this one…even after everything that happened and as cold and ruthless as she was, Twilight honestly felt pity for Fizzlepop–that she “deserved a true friend”. In “Twilight’s Kingdom”, you felt good for Twilight for making that choice in the end. In “My Little Pony: The Movie”, you feel good for Twilight for making that choice and a bit good for Fizzlepop for getting that act of compassion. So even though it’s a bit over old territory, like most plotlines that MLP:FIM uses that are from the old cartoon playbook, they manage to put their own little spin on it.

So to sum up, at it’s core, it had a nice lesson about holding true to your principles even when times get difficult and you’re forced out of your “comfort zone” that I felt was expressed a bit better and more mature than the season-wide moral of Season Four; but for all the colorful animation, the fact that everyone seems to move slower and be more subdued, to say nothing of the fact the villain seemed too childish to be taken too seriously, the climax lacked the dramatic punch that “Twilight’s Kingdom” did. The new characters are a lot of fun, even if they do the old deal of degenerating the rest of the Mane Six into placeholders. It almost feels like an original animated film rather than a “My Little Pony” movie with how little ponies, or even Equestria, even factors into everything. We never even see Ponyville. Nevertheless, the movie did take the bold step of actually killing a character on screen, and Sia’s original song was phenomenal. At the end of the day, you feel good that Twilight Sparkle used the staff in time to keep Fizzlepop Berrytwist from shattering; and since she was such a domineering, cold, and ruthless villain for most of it…that means the plot did its job.

I don’t think this film will end up attracting too many more to “the Herd”, but for the brony community it will be a nice bit of entertainment. Now the only question is where do things go from here. After taking three seasons off to devote himself to this movie, Jayson Theissen is back in the director’s chair for the main series on a show that has changed quite a bit from what it was when this movie began to be conceived. A feature film is normally the “kiss of death” to an animated series. Whether or not the show will continue is as up in the air as if we’ll ever see Capper, Captain Celaeno, Princess Skystar, or Fizzlepop Berrytwist ever again.

Fun Facts:

Based on the timeline of the movie’s announcement, the film began production around the end of Season Four. This is appropriate, as both Jayson Theissen, the director, and Megan McCarthy, the writer, handed over responsibilities to other newer show staff around this time. Thiessen, along with James Wootton, was the director of all MLP:FIM episodes until “The Cutie Map”, at which point Denny Lu, Tim Stuby, and Mike Myhre took over the reins. McCarthy was one of the show’s original writers and is responsible for the first two Equestria Girls movies, “A Canterlot Wedding”, and “Twilight’s Kingdom”. Considering the fact that Starlight Glimmer appears only as a background character in a few scenes, it’s fair to say that this movie was made only with up-to-Season-Four in mind.

While only a few members of the show’s regular cast have speaking roles, there are a number of odd cameos. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom are in a cage in one scene, and Apple Bloom appears very briefly in the opening. Starlight Glimmer and Trixie Lulamoon appear as background characters and even highlight one of the stills in the credits, but neither have speaking lines or any other actions in the movie. Discord fails to appear, but in the beginning Pinkie Pie makes a balloon Discord, and both his silhouette and him in the background appear in the credits. Very few of these characters get any speaking lines. Ironically, the most infamous “muted” character, Muffins/Derpy, gets plot relevant device in this movie.

The first time Canterlot Palace has had two thrones of equal size and stature in it for Celestia and Luna. In Season Seven, Celestia and Luna sit on the same enlarged throne.

Britt McKillip, voice of Princess Cadance, has a grand total of two lines in the entire film.

While never stated directly on the show, it’s canon that Cadance was adopted by Princess Celestia as a filly. Her reaction to Cadance being “crystalized” is one of the few moments that seems to punctuate that relationship.

The movie hints that the alicorns of Equestria are themselves the ultimate source of magic in Equestria. This was vaguely referenced way back in Season Three’s “Magical Mystery Cure” when part of the reason Twilight became an alicorn is because she created new magic, and the book version of “The Journal of the Two Sisters” had the unicorns of Equestria get their magic restored when Celestia and Luna (both alicorns) gained their Cutie Marks.

When Capper suggests that the “illness” the Mane Six have will cause those infected to have their extremities fall off, the fish man grabs for his nether regions off screen.

The sounds made by the spell when Fizzlepop attempts to contact the Storm King resemble old 56K dial-up modems.

In the movie’s official prequel, it is revealed that Fizzlepop Berrytwist was the one who caused Queen Novo to hide herself and her kingdom when she and Grubber first attempted to steal her pearl, by pretending to be homeless and destitute travelers in need of shelter. The queen initially thought she’d make a good playmate for Princess Skystar. In effect, it shows another parallel between Twilight and Tempest–in Twilight’s case the incident caused her to turn around, while in Tempest’s case the incident led her to believe she was at the “point of no return” and where she became a monster. The prequel, however, is somewhat at odds with the movie version as well as the show’s timeline. It hints that the reason Fizzlepop joined with the Storm King was partially because he and Grubber appreciated her power in spite of her broken horn, and there was some indication that she thought of Grubber as her only friend. In the movie, however, she treats him like a disposable lackey. On an additional note, the prequel is told entirely from Fizzlepop’s perspective, so that her real name is never mentioned.

Sia is so far the only person ever to play the pony version of themselves. Her Cutie Mark bears some resemblance to that of Countess Coloratura from ‘The Mane Attraction”, indicating extremely musical Equestrians may share similar Cutie Marks.

Fizzlepop Berrytwist shares many similarities with Darth Vader. She abandoned her own identity when she turned to evil, changing her name to Tempest Shadow and becoming “more machine than man”. She’s scarred and unable to use her full potential as a result. The area where she cages Twilight Sparkle is similar to the carbonite pit in “The Empire Strikes Back”. She uses “Force Lightning” as her primary weapon. Finally, she’s seduced by an offer of power by her master, and in the end sacrifices herself for the sake of the protagonist as part of her redemption.

Fizzlepop Berrytwist’s movements and demeanor are very similar to Maud Pie’s, including her way of walking, keeping her head still when talking, and even her Crystal-Pony-like eyelashes.

After being fired out of the Confetti Cake Cannon, when Pinkie Pie crashes into Fluttershy she emits a “squee”.

The show “killed a villain” arguably as early as Season Three with King Sombra (ignoring the IDW Comic), but he was portrayed so subsentient and as such a force of darkness rather than an individual that I don’t feel that counted. To me, the first real death on screen happened in this movie with the Storm King. Way to use the PG rating. 🙂

The actual “Queen of the Hippos” appears in the end credits.

Rating:

3.5 Stars out of 5