It begins once again; presenting my Season 4 Premier Review! · 5:02pm Nov 23rd, 2013
Adorable pictures like this give me the urge to write more comical and hilarious FlutterDash one-shots. I'm having enough trouble writing The Shy Knight and the Rainbow Princess as it is, stop getting ideas brain. Aside from writing this week I have been entertained by frustration at trying to fund kickstarters (Tadpole Treble and The Girl and the Robot in case you were going to ask) due to the various kickstarters having different methods of payment that all require you to have an account with them. I've also, as a Wii U gamer, been trying to hide my smug expression as news of PS4's Red line of death and Xbox One's faulty disc trays reached my ears and instead just face the direction of all the wonderful reviews of Super Mario 3D World. Finally, I found some One Piece in my My Little Pony. My compliments to the chef.
Fanfiction Progress
Now then I was quite rushed with uploading chapter 2. So rushed that it derailed a lot of my plans and as you might have noticed there was no blog last week. When it comes to discussing chapter 2 there is not really much to address in its creation. There is that little bit though and to save time I will simply copy and paste what I talked about concerning chapter 2 from upload of the chapter to Fanfiction.net;
Now then I guess there are only two things to address with this chapter. First off, as you obviously notice from this author note and the story, there shall be OCs of mine in this story. When planning it out this was unavoidable, there was neither enough characters to fill all the roles nor were there many characters suitable for the various roles. I hope to craft for you though depth filled and enjoyable OC's whom you will be able to appreciate, even when they are made for the purpose of being disliked. Two OC's are thus introduced in this chapter, the adorable guide for the Mane 6 Parapony, and Fluttershy's arch-nemesis whose name shall be revealed later. Both are characters I have so far enjoyed writing and whom will have a lot of interaction with the mane 6. I hope you'll come to like them as much as I do.
The other thing I feel is worth mentioning is why, only within the 2nd chapter, have I started a flashback. There are two reasons for this; the first being is that I always wanted to use this particular style of narrative I guess you could say, within a story. By that I mean the way in which Fluttershy is telling the group about the experience but it is being presented to you readers as a flashback, they key difference between it and a normal flashback being the occasional interruptions from the group. I tried this out for a one-shot once, yet sadly I never finished said one-shot as I could not create a satisfying ending for it. As to why this flashback is occurring so early on in the story; well it kind of just made the sense. In a situation such as this I'm sure the first thing people would demand is an explanation, and if someone their had answers, then in the first opportunity where they could receive answer then the group demand that answer. So it is shown here, Applejack asks Fluttershy for an explanation of how their current situation came to be and so Fluttershy gives the answer the moment she can sit down and answer properly.
As for chapter 3's progress... well so far it’s not so good. Nice enough quality though I feel need to slow down the two scenes I've written in full but I haven't progressed much at the time of writing. Aside from watching Season 4's premiere my focus will be entirely on chapter 3 this weekend. I'm sure if I sit down and give it my all I will be able to finish the chapter by either Wednesday or Thursday. In either case the chapter may not be up on Saturday. Also in either case Ugugg is probably going to suffer, being given very little time to proof-read this chapter. So best wish him luck with this chapter, probably your sympathies as well.
Episode Review of Princess Twilight Sparkle
I shall warn you in advance, my live streams had some difficulties. The opening part to season 1, the scene where the mane 6 ask Discord whether he is responsible for the episodes events and the end scene of episode 1 were all a little glitchy. I saw and heard enough to tell what was going on but I may have missed a funny visual pun or artistic moment in those scenes as a result. Thankfully I had no such problems with the 2nd part and my overall opinion should be considered trustworthy in regards to these two parts.
Now where should I begin with the positives? I guess the first thing to say is that this is the best premiere this series has ever had. Heck, it's the best two part episodes it’s had. Both episodes, part 1 and 2, are absolutely fantastic. It's funny and serious, has obvious foreshadowing and not so obvious foreshadowing, and contains a great mystery, terrific action scenes and a decent lesson.
Part 1 starts with Twilight's friends having to leave for Ponyville while she stays at Canterlot, a scene well handled with many great Pinkie antics (and if you have your shipping goggles on, plenty of TwiPie). When, as you already know from previews, the princesses disappear. Twilight gets loaded down with the royal duties and the episode does well in showing her being both good at the job and not so good. She is unsure a lot of the time and not nearly as decisive as previously, yet manages to give out orders efficiently. There are also some creepy moments in this episode what with Everfree Forest expanding. Its various affects are shown; some with comical intent, but others actually come across as rather creepy. This is first time I feel the Everfree Forest truly becomes scary, whereas before it merely looked the part.
Great moments abound in this episode as Discord is introduced well. They pay references to both The Return of Harmony and Keep Calm and Flutter On with accusations that he is responsible being parried by his supposed reform. I still have my doubts to Discord and feel it is a shame he is a good guy now but he is used to great effect, and best of all, not used in order to allow great affect. Zecora shows up, awesome as always, and we get a lot of flashbacks to past events including one I won't spoil for you. Let's just say there is an incredible action moment in this episode; wonderfully depicted, chilling and intense. The same could be said for all the action though. It's reserved for the 2nd part but there is numerous action scenes, well depicted and true to each character. Furthermore the mystery within this episode comes in layers; some which you'll still be wondering about as you finish watching the episode but in turn leads me to believe that this could be the very best season of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic of all. For the last positive I will mention one last thing, a small moment where Fluttershy is attacked by the Everfree roots. Barely a second, Dash cuts the root away. Yes my ship, grow and grow my glorious vessel!
There are negatives to this episode, though thankfully in small amounts and for the most part minor. One negative concerns Pinkie, well played at the beginning, I feel they neglect her a lot throughout the rest. She gets two other small scenes, both comical though one being part of the action, but ultimately she isn't given enough to do. Pinkie is mostly there to make lots and lots of TwiPie love during the first half... okay maybe it's not so bad then. Something which is bad though is how one of the problems, which I guess features as a moral in the episode but feels to be the lesser one of the two pretty much provided, comes across as forced. Basically when the others go through the Everfree Forest Twilight gets attacked. Applejack then decides it is too dangerous for Twilight to go through the forest. She brings up the fair point that Equestria would start panicking if it lost another princess but it just comes across stupid when moments later they realise they need Twilight. It could of been effective given more time but it's not. The episode doesn't even treat it like a rushed core element, it's more like something that was placed in their but ultimately is unnecessary.
Other than the single moment though, guess what flaw I haven't remarked upon this two part episode. The pacing, aside from the forced secondary moral, was absolutely perfect. I am truly impressed with these two episodes. The upcoming season 4 episodes worry me, from summaries and screenshots I have a feeling I'll be disappointed in the next 3 episodes, but what happens within these two episodes is very promising. Something changes, something big happens and it will affect the entire season. I'm looking forward to it. I claim the Princess Twilight Sparkle episode as Fantastic, a 9.5 rating, and an episode very close to being in my top 10. Cheerio!
Don't hold back
Feel free to do this
And yeah, that was a good premiere (not as good as Crystal Empire and Return of Harmony).
I loved how Discord was portayed. I was afraid that he became too good after Keep Calm and Flutter on, but no. He's still a master-troll anti-hero.
And liked those flashback, even though I think they take a little too much of the episode.
We had some TwiPie, RariLight and also a lot of TwiJack moments, that was good
Wait until tomorrow and we'll have a lot of hentai/tentacles clopfic to read
There's Flutterdash in there you say...? Right... now I think I am going to have to watch it. TwiPie is a plus as well, even if its all Pinkie is there for some of the time.
next 3 episodes? Oh dear...
I have to say, when celestia went down and twilight began to cry, I nearly wept. That was heart breaking in its purest form.
I'm not a fan of the game, but...
i.imgur.com/i2xmMvT.png?1?3171
i.imgur.com/fZKooVh.jpg?1?2786
Celestia/Sonic ship is now canon.
As for Applejack, I think it was more of her being overprotective. I really enjoyed it on a personal level because it was showing that AJ would put her friends and family own protection over hers. Also, I like how, in a way, AJ was using the princess thing as an excuse to say "I'm afraid that you might die, you don't have all of the skill nessecary." This does lead to an awesome Appleack moment though...Is it just me or does Megan have a love for AJ? This is like the third time the gal's been awesome (and the hat over the eyes pose that she had in that episode was beautiful, the scene when she was standing over the dead plant I mean)
Now, I am not looking at the EQD comments for fear of my sanity, but I have to know...how is it going out there? Is this being bashed and hated as much as the Season 3 premire?
Look on the bright side, at least your writing derailment didn't leave you depressed.
As to the episode, I have some disagreements as you can see on my blog, but while less excited than you, I do look forward to the awesome that is season 4. (IMO, though, it will take a lot to top season 2's awesomeness). Honestly, with all the appearances of Luna throughout the ep, I hope we see more of best princess throughout the season (Why no Luna emoticon? Dammit FiM Fiction) and I'm guessing the box with the six locks is going to alicornize the rest of the mane six as the series ender, though that's just speculation on my part.
Edit, By the way, I know exactly what you mean about too many ideas. I got an idea for a completely genderflipped Equestria being teleported to the "normal" Equestria a while back and can't write it at the moment, as well as having an idea to set up Rarity on a blind date via a dating service, as a way to write a ship I desperately want to write and a Flutterlestia shipfic that won't resolve itself in my head.
I couldn't reply yesterday seeing as how I had trouble watching the episode on Youtube, even then some chunks were missing. However I managed to see the full episode eventually and even had enough time to write my own review and watch Doctor who. Anyways back to commenting.
I found the premiere to be excellent and I agree that it's one of the best episodes so far. Some good call backs to the first episode of season one with Summer Sun Celebration, venturing into the Everfree, Nightmare Moon feature (in flashback of course).
I found Discord to be very enjoyable to watch and I thank the writers for making him an Anti hero. They really were telling the truth when they said he had to be like Q from Star Trek Next Generation. On the side of good, but not entirely a good guy.
The plants are probably the most creepiest designs to come out of this series. Some reminding me of the Face huggers from Alien. I actually got a little disturbed when Twilight's whole body got wrapped a vine near the end.
There's something I didn't understand about the episode though. The flashback to Nightmare Moon didn't really serve a purpose other than showing Twilight what happened between Luna and Celestia 1000 years ago. Discord and the Tree of Harmony flashback gave away hints about the plants, but the Nightmare Moon flashback had nothing to do with the forest. I can see the suspension of disbelief in this scene,though, like maybe potion can only show certain answers, maybe Twilight was thinking about the princesses and not so much the forest. Either way, I know why this scene was put in and I did enjoy it. But's almost close to filler. Good filler.
Overall this episode's pros have outweighed the cons. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Sorry for the late replies here, hopefully I'll be able to avoid this happening again. Now the episode isn't quite as fresh in my mind as it otherwise would be so I'm sorry if my replies are a little bit shorter or less aware. Well then, I shall now begin.
1532568 I'd be more than happy to write more adorable FlutterDash one-shots using the free time that I have placed over here...
If I had any! Sadly it is one of those things I have to keep within my heart, I'm having enough trouble trying to write and update The Shy Knight and the Rainbow Princess as it is.
As you know I much preferred this over both Crystal Empire and Return of Harmony. Glad Discord was well presented. I noticed the TwiPie and TwiJack but not so much the RariLight. Refresh my memory if you have the time my good sir. Thanks for commenting Fernesh.
1533072 So I saw you did. It was a well composed and enjoyable review to read. If I remember correctly you did enjoy it to which I'm glad you did. Thanks for the comment IonXtreme.
1533270 It was just one scene but there was FlutterDash nonetheless. We don't seem to be having as much of it as season 2 or even season 3 though it is too soon to tell. We did get a FlutterDash opening recently so you never know, we may remain victorious once more.
As for the TwiPie, loved it within this episode. Sad to hear that it looks to be giving way to the unexpected ApplePie (a recent episode has just been confirmed to be called Pinkie Apple Pie). Thank you for commenting FlutterDash7.
1533702 That scene didn't have much impact for me. I can see why it might others but I didn't feel it either because I don't care for Celestia or because I was aware it was a flashback (and really, Twilight should have been able to notice that sooner). They did a very good job with the atmosphere and art direction of that moment though, let us hope they continue to impress. Thanks for the comment Derpyhooves15.
1534256 You're here being as odd as ever. I see nothing has changed then. Sonic X Celestia... I can see the benefit to Celestia but not so much to Sonic. I guess it could work though relationships are hard to picture properly with Sonic as I feel he doesn't want to be tied down with anything, if at all possible. Thanks for your once again unusual comment Ugugg.
1535218 I can see your point about Applejack but it doesn't change the fact that it was rushed in presentation and as such ended up being conveyed poorly. I do agree on Applejack being awesome though. She fills in the leader spot very well and always has some of the cooler action scenes. That last action scene against the plans was awesome.
As for EQD, I believe they received it well. I didn't check it out much this opening has been praised all around from what I can tell. Thank you for commenting Alchemystudent.
1535368 I have read your review of the episode but it has been a while so I can't remember the differences. I could look it up quick but I've got writing to get back to in a bit. Nice to know you enjoyed this opener though, my favourite one so far.
Well Twilight is the main character so I assure you, we will be seeing more of best princess.
Thank you for the comment Zyr. 
1536424 I couldn't reply until just about now so don't feel bad, you're far sooner than me. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the episode as well and true, there were a lot of great callbacks.
I can see your point regarding the Celestia and Luna battle not needing to be shown. Perhaps it was there to show how the problem is not just related to the elements of harmony but also how the tree is coincidentally near the princesses castle (I'm assuming they built the castle after they defeated Discord I guess), Thanks for commenting Funinightmare.
1602737
(the tone of her voice makes the quote