A large intro, fanfiction progression, and an episode review! · 7:18pm Jul 17th, 2012
First off I would just like to say congratulations to Rated PonyStar, writer of 'How We Met', a fanfic I help proofread, for managing to get his new fanfic, 'Palace Perils' onto Equestria Daily. I was a lucky one in having the honour to read this story early and I enjoyed it quite a bit, definitely worth a read, and I recommend it to you all as well as checking out the rest of Rated PonyStar's library. So once again, congratulations Rated PonyStar. With that out of the way I should go onto what I originally planned to mention in the first place which is another case of recommendation. Now, as you may or may not know I have shared my thoughts on various episodes of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic episodes before however I have often been reluctant to call them reviews in the fact that I know that they are not as analytically refined or structured as the reviews I do for fanfics. If you wish to read what I would consider proper reviews for episodes of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic then I suggest you look to the following four people. If you want decent written reviews then I would advise you to read James Corck's reviews on his blog, http://awthredestim.blogspot.co.uk/, and/or Thejboy88's written reviews that can be found on his DeviantART page, http://thejboy88.deviantart.com/. At times I disagree with them, particularly Thejboy88, but they do write decent reviews and are worth reading. If you're not in the mood for reading then I also know of two decent YouTube reviewers of MLP:FiM, PaleoSteno, http://www.youtube.com/user/PaleoSteno?feature=g-all-lik, and Strebiskunk (yes, the same one who drew the Bedshy comic that inspired 'Thank You Cider' and serves as my story's cover image), http://www.youtube.com/user/Strebiskunk. So if you want properly organised and analytical reviews, go check them out, if you simply want to know my opinion that includes praises and criticism for an episode, then come to me and preferably look at my backlog of blogs for various season 2 episodes of MLP:FiM I've already shared my thoughts on.
It is unfortunate but I have not been able to do a great deal of 'Magnetism' so far, having had much less time with my computer than I usually would and as I'm constantly working on 'Magnetism' I can't just write some of it on paper. Unlike 'Open to Interpretation' which I decided to pull out of storage and work on between lunch breaks, quickly type up on the computer back home, and have now almost completed it. Certainly it will need a lot of polishing but by next weekend I will have 'Open to Interpretation' finished and hopefully I will able to get a lot done on 'Magnetism' both today and during the next weekend (and in turn, hopefully finishing off chapter 3). Though I will have finished writing 'Open to Interpretation' by next weekend it will be a while before I upload it, what with having to fine-tune it and all, and I will probably upload it closer to the release date of 'Magnetism' so I can use it as another tool of promotion for my first big fanfic as it were. I've been having a little bit of difficulty with Applejack's accent, which is not quite as easy as writing for Mario in a Super Smash Bros fanfic, but that problem I will come to later and hopefully advice given for it for when I upload 'Open to Interpretation' can be used to improve 'Magnetism'. I've managed to sneak in some neat things into 'Open to Interpretation', two video game references thanks to extending the amount of screen time Pinkie Pie gets, and Rarity quotes one of my favourite parts of a much loved novel and it will be interesting to see who can spot these little bits. Well, once I've finished uploading I'll get cracking on with 'Magnetism' but I've got one last thing to do, something I mentioned in my last post and have actually done it. Watch an older generation of the My Little Pony cartoon and share my thoughts on it.
I can absolutely, definitely, positively assure you that the G3 My Little Pony is not as bad as people tend to say it is. Well, that is if the collection of G3 animated shorts, ‘Meet the Ponies’ (totally not a Team Fortress 2 reference) is anything to go by. When reading up on the older series and generations of MLP, with the intention to look into them I was wondering where I should start off. I was first thinking that I should begin off with the G1 series, as after watching ‘Rescue From Midnight Castle’ I actually wanted to watch the rest of the series (I will eventually share my thoughts on ‘Rescue From Midnight Castle’ but I’ll save that for some other week). I then realised that I should probably start off with a generation I won’t like, in order to be able to get it out of the way, so I started things off with G3. I looked into the G3 animation shorts and specials and found the perfect one to start with, ‘Meet the Ponies’, a collection of seven animated shorts with one focusing on each of the core seven characters, or Core 7 as they were known as back then (not quite as catching as Mane 6 but it will do). A quick bit of info, the Core 7 consists of the characters Pinkie Pie (the main character), Rainbow Dash (always dresses in style), Cheerilee (Scootaloo’s older sister), Scootaloo (voiced by Tabitha St. Germain…yeah that is just…odd), Starsong (sadly has not made an appearance in G4), Toola-Roola (I can easily think of a role and plot developed around this character if she were to appear in G4), and Sweetie Belle (who is bad at singing and a good cook…how things have changed) and the episodes focus on each of them hosting a different kind of party. The YouTube video where I watched the episodes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJXtvxVmfQo) showcased the episodes in the following order, Rainbow Dash’s first, followed by Cheerilee’s, then Toola-Roola’s, then Sweetie Belle’s, then Pinkie Pie’s, then Starsong’s, and finally Scootaloo’s.
On with my review though, you’ve probably got a slight idea of my opinion on it but I will elaborate said opinion as I discuss. First off, yes, this was a lot better than what the brony community makes it out to be, is it as good as Friendship is Magic, no, is it great, not really but it does shine on occasion and I didn’t find much to dislike about it. I know of tons of cartoons better than it, but I did not find it painful to watch…eventually. You see, like with G1, the cartoon did feel rather off-putting at first, especially with the video starting off with Rainbow Dash’s, and I kid you not, Hat Fashion Party…it would actually be rather amusing if current day Rainbow Dash had a secret obsession with hats. At first it was hard to watch, but like with how G1 had the sudden unexpected moment of dragon monsters out of freaking nowhere, G3 also surprised me when, and I kid you not, Starsong came out in a pimp suit. I’m serious, Starsong’s gold suit with matching gold top hat is totally a pimp suit and it just gets better because her hat doubles as a keyboard/piano. She has these little antennas like things on the top of her hat which dips down and taps against the boarder of her hat which is made out of piano keys and thus play music…well, finding my favourite character of G3 was quick. The hats in the episode were actually pretty cool, and Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie prove to be quite humorous simply from having good voice acting, otherwise the episode was weak. It luckily is not as weak as the next one I watched, Cheerilee’s Pyjama Party (no, don’t even think about it, don’t even go there), which comes across as bland, unintelligent and forgettable. Nothing more to add that one so let’s get started on the better episodes, as the third one I watched, Toola-Roola’s Mixed-up Painting Party, was better than the previous two. It has a focus I am familiar with, arts and crafts, and even though I hate arts and crafts I recognise it as not being nearly as gender orientated as the previous two episodes subjects. Voice acting is pretty good here, and the tones of the characters voices give off a great deal of amusement. I snickered quite a bit and found nothing bad about it really, a simple plot with a few small dabs of wit. It moves onto the great Sweetie Belle’s New Cake Party (the fact that she was a good cook back in G3 may take some time getting used too) which is not only funny but actually tries to teach a moral. It seems at first to be a little in your face when Sweetie Belle points out the moral but Scootaloo saves it with a brilliant follow up joke. The lack of expression on the characters faces at times become a little clear in this short however it is funny throughout and carries a decent helping of charm, humour, and wit. Then we get Pinkie Pie’s Party Party, which is pretty average. It has some great humour moments but has this one pretty dull moment that lasts too long. If I were to compare it to a Friendship is Magic episode I would compare it to ‘Friendship on the MMMystery Express’, great humour marred by a lacklustre second half (except in this case it is a lacklustre middle with a neat opening and ending). Then we have Starsong’s Dance and Sing Party which is in my opinion the best of the shorts, and actually pretty darn amazing. Starsong starts off by singing and the song is actually really good, it is sung well and has decent lyrics. Frankly I feel a rock tune would have been better music than the pop music they use for it but it doesn’t hinder it much, it is a surprisingly good song. After Starsong suggests a karaoke party Sweetie Belle declines as she is no good at singing and so Cheerilee follows her and tells her of how Starsong used to be really shy about singing. In fact, through this flashback we get a decent case of character development, a little rushed of course but these are shorts, but the fact that Starsong used to have a personality more resembling of Fluttershy and progressively changed to a more Rainbow Dash (G4) personality is really interesting and well presented. This episode showcases some real depth to the characters of Sweetie Belle and Starsong, contains great songs and development, and is just all-round awesome. Finally we have Scootaloo’s Outdoor Play Party, which while not amazing, works well because Scootaloo is pretty funny and does carry an okay message. It suffers from the same problem as Pinkie’s episode and as such is around the same quality, but like Pinkie’s episode, it is enjoyable to watch.
Now to start talking about ‘Meet the Ponies’ overall, and I think I’ll start off with the negatives. One of the things I found negative about the series is its music, not the singing, but the background music and sound effects. Most of it is rather generic and they all sound the same, it’s all too sugary and some range would have been nice. Also, every time the girls run off there is this strange fizzling sound and the characters begin laughing, just constant giggles as they run, and it is one of the few sounds in this cartoon which hurts the ears…that and I think it will be haunting my nightmares. The characters facial expression don’t have a huge amount of range, and the characters themselves all enjoy the same hobbies (albeit to slightly different degrees) leaving their to be no conflict between the Core 7 (Starsong’s Dance and Sing Party might be an exception to this, depending on how you interpret it). The episodes are entertaining but with exception to one of them, don’t have a huge amount of depth, Rainbow Dash’s Hat Fashion Party is undermined when the problem of how their can only be one winner is dealt with in a better, less cheesy manner in Scootaloo’s Outdoor Play Party, and Cheerilee’s Pyjama Party is completely forgettable with nothing worth noting about.
There is however a lot of good to be found within this cartoon although it is clearly targeting the young girl demographic and so may not please everyone, it is still of good quality. For instance both the animation and voice work is amazing, the animation goes well with the designs, and the voicing is top notch. At first the characters voices may annoy (although I did start off with Rainbow Dash’s Hat Fashion Party so there is that) but I got attached to them and a lot of the exchanges of dialogue are made humorous simply by the tone and manner the characters say the lines. The singing is also pretty nice as a result. Humour is not up to Friendship is Magic standards but you’ll find something to make you smile in each episode and other times, lots of things. Quite a few of the characters have little quirks that allow them to stand out even with their shared interests (I referenced Pinkie’s in the title as hers is consistently saying “absolutely, definitely, positively”) and they are rather endearing. Pinkie Pie works well as a consistent character through all the episodes (though her personality is quite different from G4 Pinkie, her expertise as a party planner remains) and allows her to gain an extra bit of depth alongside characters such as Sweetie Belle and Starsong.
Before I conclude I think I’d like to say a few words about the Core 7 and how I would rate them. My least favourite of the Core 7 is Cheerilee who I dislike because she comes across as bland and forgettable. It seems like they were trying for a story loving character but that factor is never invoked much and doesn’t come across well in any part of her personality. Next would be Rainbow Dash and Toola-Roola, who I don’t dislike in any way but I do find there is little to differentiate them. They both have artistic based hobbies of clothes design and painting, but other than their own episodes this isn’t pointed out much and the concept of design is lumped together. The only thing that makes you think they are different characters are there little quirks, Rainbow Dash saying “dashing” a lot of the time and Toola-Roola constantly blowing a lock of hair out of her face. Again, not being able to decide who I like more is Pinkie Pie and Scootaloo, both the funniest characters from what I’ve seen, and while Pinkie Pie has more depth than Scootaloo, Scootaloo has this lovable cluelessness about her. Sweetie Belle would be second, not going much into explaining why, just that I liked her. Finally there is car racing (they called it a scooter but it had four wheels and make engine noises) awesome singing, high flying, pimp suited, piano hat wearing Starsong who is awesome for all the reasons I said and because, thanks to having a flashback, she has the most depth and development to her character. It’s a shame Toola-Roola and Starsong have yet to appear in Friendship is Magic but here’s hoping for them to make an appearance, either as a one-shot, support, or background character.
Overall My Little Pony G3 ‘Meet the Ponies’ is a non-offensive charmingly innocent collection of stories that does fairly well in introducing each of the characters with only about five minutes to each episode. Some episodes are not as good as others, and being so short it is unfair to compare them to Friendship is Magic’s full length episodes, but if you’re having a bad day and just want some brightly coloured simple fun then this would be pretty good. I can think of only two moments that made me cringe with the rest getting quite a few giggles from me and surprised me a good few times.
You are a braver person than I for watching these. You gave a pretty good review and now I actually want to see this pimp hat wearing Songstar, either in the G4 series or (gasp) watching that episode in particular.
I swear, though, if my family finds me watching the older generations they'll think I've finally gone off the deep end. It took a lot to convince them I was watching a new, updated version that isn't like the old stuff, and then next thing you know I'm watching the old stuff and it gets weird.
233128 Hello Bel-10000 B_C? Why do you never have an easy to type username?
Anyway, as it is much quicker to type and pronounce whenever I say it out loud I will just refer to you as Civille. So hello Civille, thanks for seemingly being the only person to comment on my blog this week
...
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Now first off, I would not consider myself brave for watching G3 My Little Pony, that honour should be reserved for when I trek the waters of G3.5 My Little Pony. I wouldn't say this review is all that great, at least compared to my other reviews, but I will take the compliment gladly. Oh, and just to correct you as well as myself, the character is not named 'Songstar' but Starsong. I started off my post calling her by her actual name, Starsong, but towards the end I for some reason typed her name as 'Songstar'. Sorry about that.
My family never had a problem with me watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, my dad and my older brother find it a tad strange but they accept that I'm a strange person and we make jokes about it together. My mum is okay with it, and though my oldest brother doesn't watch the show he has laughed quite a bit when he comes in and sees some scenes or clips of episodes. My little brother also watches the show, though not to the extent that I do, and he has managed to convince one of his friends into watching and enjoying the show as well. As for the older generations, my oldest brother accepts that as I am a brony I wanted to explore the history of My Little Pony while my little brother enjoys finding plot holes or things that can be misinterpreted and so greatly enjoyed my explanation of what happened in the G3 episodes. So yeah, watching My Little Pony has never been a problem for me, new or old, (though my mum says that my dad will be unable to comprehend me purchasing one of the toy sets...not that I want too unless they come with a free DVD) my apologies that you have had to worry about convincing your family about it.
Thanks again for commenting Civille, I appreciate it.
238742 No problem
I mean, if you're going to watch someone on here, you come for the whole picture. Not just the stories- you can't ignore the writer as a human being, right?
And also, you're a middle child? That's rough buddy.
Also also, I did change my name, mostly because I kinda thought Bellum_Civille was a wimpy name. It isn't as striking as, say, Pegasus Rescue Brigade or TheOnly, and it isn't a simple one like kits or Jimbo. I ended up hating it after awhile, seeing it in chats and stuff. I'd rather have people call me Dan, to be honest.
I guess 10000 B_C isn't too good of a name either, huh?
I am going to start with a little bit of "Applejack Accent Lessons". Honestly, her accent isn't that hard to do, and here are a few things I do when I write it for her...
1) First off, and this one is the big one, "yall" is short for "you all". It is only used when addressing multiple subjects, not singular. You is still used by saying you.
. Oh, and even when using contractions, go with "Ah've" and "Ah'd", and such like that.
2) Second, Ah replaces I. I capitalized the "Ah", mostly because she is still saying "I", so I want her accent to be grammatically correct
3) Mah replaces my. No capitalization for the same reason as before.
4) Almost every word that ends with a hard "T" sound, or a hard "G" sound (like doesn't or going drops the T or G, and adds an apostrophe if there isn't one (so they become doesn' or goin'). The reason I say ALMOST is because there are some times where it makes sense to let her say the entire word. This usually is when you have a lot of words in a row with those hard T's and G's. Example: "That ringing that I can't sing with Pinkie" would normally translate to "Tha' rinin' tha' Ah can' sin' with PInkie." Now, normally, this is right, but I don't like how it looks on paper, so I might cut out a few of those accents, so it reads, "Tha' ringin' tha' Ah can' sing with Pinkie." Usually it'll be the least accented word, but its a guess and fudge sort of thing.
5) tha replaces "the" SOMETIMES. Reason I say sometimes is that if you have a sentence that speaks like "I can't believe that the lime is a mushroom swarm," saying, "Ah can' believe tha' tha lime is a mushroom swarm," makes the sentence slightly confusing. While that may be the point, restrict confusion to the characters, and not the readers. I personally would write the sentence as "Ah can' believe tha' the lime is a mushroom swarm." People won't notice I skipped it, and its much easier to read.
6) For the love of god, use the word "Suga'cube" sparingly. I don't care how much it's her catchphrase in the show, she doesn't say it too much, and even if she did, it gets old fast.
7) I use ya for you sometimes. No real rule here, but I dabble it in for flavor, and only when (if I read it out loud) it sounds decent.
Now sure, there are a few that I don't do. Some say "yer" instead of "your" or misspelling her saying big words (like coordination might become cord-in-nation), but I find both more confusion than adding flavor. However, the only thing I have to say is (unless you have a reason for it) make sure that the accent is, while present, is easily readable, and the readers don't have too much trouble with it.
As for your fictions, I wish you the best of luck, especially with Magnetism, because that's starting to sound like a boss story, and you better not fuck it up, or else... well...
You are going to hate me, but I don't have much to say on the whole "non-G4" mlp shows, other than, like 233128 said... you are a brave sonofa bitch.