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  • 304 weeks
    Season Eight Episode Reviews: Molt Down

    This week is a Spike episode? What a re-”molt”-ing development this is!

    Let's look at “Molt Down,” the episode that will surely be perfectly normal and have no long-lasting repercussions on a character's appearance.

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    2 comments · 2,376 views
  • 305 weeks
    Season Eight Episode Reviews: Break Up Break Down

    I dread going into this week's episode. For today, we discuss matters of the heart. Romance, love, heartbreak, and all that rot. Which means we run right into the most loathsome of all fandom constructs, the kind of thing that destroys friendships and leaves the most brilliant of minds curled up helplessly in a corner, foaming from the mouth:

    SHIPPING.

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    6 comments · 1,676 views
  • 306 weeks
    Season Eight Episode Reviews: Non-Compete Clause

    We've had a string of good episodes the last few weeks. Whether it be shapeshifting seaponies, an actual Celestia episode, or discovering Starlight's dark phase, we've had lots of fun and plenty of laughs.

    Today's episode is about Applejack and Rainbow Dash competing.

    The good times are over.

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  • 307 weeks
    Season Eight Episode Reviews: The Parent Map

    Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone who cares about that! What better way to spend the day than watching a cartoon about horses dealing with their mommy/daddy issues? Well, tough, because that's what we're doing. This is “The Parent Map.”

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    4 comments · 1,115 views
  • 308 weeks
    Season Eight Episode Reviews: Horse Play

    So hey, it's a new episode. Surely nothing to be excited about. Just another standard episode of a cartoon pony show.

    Only it's a CELESTIA EPISODE!

    Prepare for extra spicy biased scoring as we look at Best Princess' newest episode, “Horse Play!”

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    5 comments · 1,261 views
Oct
31st
2013

Comic Review: Issue #12 (Neigh Anything Part 2: Presentable in Periwinkle) · 2:38am Oct 31st, 2013

Welcome back to the 1980s, where fashion and good taste vacated the premises and the populace decided a cowboy actor would make a good president. But this isn't our eighties; this one belongs to Equestria. And a young princess and future paladin are looking to get together. Can love survive the divide between geeks and the popular ponies?

I needed to work on that intro more. Anyway, Issue #12.


Our story picks up right as the last issue left off...sort of. Cadance has taken up the reins as the narrator this time, and begins on the night she foalsat Twilight Sparkle. As it turns out, she was just as obsessed with Shining as he was with her, and after pressganging Twilight into helping with the promise of cookies, she prepares to make her move. Unfortunately, the school's head jock, Buck Withers, has designs on her, and a misunderstanding about Shining's intentions causes her to accidentally accept his invitation. Can she and her friends hatch a crazy scheme to get out of this mess? What about Shining Armor's own plans?

Once again, our issue is mostly a collection of tropes and cliches from 1980s teen romance movies, for good and for bad. It follow the general setup of the boy and girl loving each other, not realizing the other is available, getting into misunderstandings, and finally hooking up after dealing with the now-ex boyfriend. The only major difference is that this is a land of magical talking ponies. Even Buck begins to descend to this level:

In the end, though, I liked this issue more than last month's. The first half of the story it told from Cadance's point of view, from her hatching her diabolical plan with Twilight to when she accepted Buck's proposal. The second half alternates between the two protagonists as their plots collide, ending in a cavelcade of crossdressing, public shaming, and the nerd getting the girl. And both parts are actually a lot of fun, although fairly standard in terms of comedy. (Shining spends the three hours before the dance playing “Hocuspocus: The Get-Together.” Cadance and friends descend into full-blown panic once they realize they only have three hours left.)

What makes the issue work for me is the small gags and jokes that work their way throughout. Twilight has a poster for “My Tiny Gecko.” (I guess ponies find small lizards cute.) Celestia has one of the greatest scenes in the comic's history, despite only being around for one page. (Plus, there's a small background joke in that scene that references Sunset Shimmer, meaning this was before she was formally disowned.) And tucked away in the far, far background during the dance is a fairly stealthy reference to Carrie. I also absolutely adore Twilight in this issue, from her snipes at Shining in the present (a far more believable relationship than the two never having a single disagreement) to her meticulous scheming and planning with Cadance. (Keep in mind that she's probably around five or six years old.)

There's also a two-page gag at the end with PTV (so they have televisions now...I can hear Lauren Faust screaming from here) with ponified parodies of popular 80s songs. Unless you are up with “Take on Me” and “Let's Get Physical,” this one might fly over your head, but it's a nice capstone to our nostalgia trip to one of the most overrated decades in history.

Overall, this was a better issue than last month, although still not up to the standards of #9 and 10. If you loved the first one, you'll enjoy this one. If you didn't, it's still a good read, and vastly superior to the twice-as-expensive annual.

And next time, we have Spike falling for one of the most legendary scams in history, and...

♫A pirate I was meant to be♫
♫Trim the sails and roam the sea!♫

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Comments ( 12 )

Danger Beans over at Protect Celestia posted a thread centering on the Celestia panels, we all agree that those panels are some of the greatest done so far.

Funny thing is Celestia finally gets what she wants, a pony willing to treat her like a normal mare, of course he ruins it by being a douche.

I also absolutely adore Twilight in this issue, from her snipes at Shining in the present (a far more believable relationship than the two never having a single disagreement)

Personally, I never took that line from the song to mean a lack of quips and such. Heck, we already saw subtle hints of as much in the way Twilight initiially address him on her arival in Canterlot before the wedding. More so just that while they might ocasionly bicker --as all siblings are prone to-- that what they never had were any serrios fallings out, and that arguments were generlly just superficially and/or playful.

Basicly a relationship more like AJ and AB as opposed to like Rarity and Sweetie.

♫A pirate I was meant to be♫
♫Trim the sails and roam the sea!♫
We all would avoid scurvy if we all would eat an orange. :trollestia:
Best monkey Island game.

Time to go buy a comic. :ajsmug:

I noticed that Carrie reference and was amazed it made it in.

Same as last month, I loved this issue.

As a kid, I had some Seamonkeys brine shrimp that I bought mail order too. It was actually pretty educational, on several levels...

The one slip-up is that it makes it implausible that Twilight would be so surprised to learn that Shining Armor and Cadance were engaged.

Ah well... the more slip questions, the more fun it is for fanfic writers to answer them.

♫A pirate I was meant to be♫
♫Trim the sails and roam the sea!♫

1467995 I never watched Quantum Leap and I still laughed at that joke hahaha.

1468492

Actually the way I figure it...Twilight saw that Shining was too much of a dork to be able to grow any in order to pop the question to Cadence. That, and the fact that Cadence was refered to her maden name of " Mi Amore De Cadenza" would kind of hurt Twilight's attempts to figure out that "Cadence=Cadenza". Remember, she wasn't approving until she heard Cadence's name, not Cadenza

1467984 Yea, I mean this is Twilight so as long as Shining never surpassed her own level of biting sarcasm, she wouldn't even consider it an argument at all. Of course the way I figure it Shining is actually a little afraid of her, so even if he was about to start a real argument he'd suddenly think "She turned our parents into plants" and calm down. This would also why Twilight didn't know they were getting married, he realized he hadn't exactly kept her up to date on their relationship and was terrified to tell her so kept putting it off. Well that and Twilight obviously being a little clueless about relationships so didn't realize they moved well past dating a while ago.

Found this review while looking to see if anypony's actually written a "My Tiny Gecko" fanfic. I wasn't disappointed. (and it turns out nopony has.)

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