Manic Breezie Dream Griffon [episode spoilers!] · 2:08pm Sep 11th, 2016
Buckball Season really is one of those "that was an episode" episodes, but I still can't find a reason to be mad at it. It's light, it's fun, Applejack's spinning fault in the first scene is her best moment ever. The worst thing about it is probably the muddled moral, but there are a lot of things they could have gone with: don't take sports too seriously, another "how to be a good fan" thing, something about not living vicariously through others, etc. Well, and I'm still disappointed Fluttershy and Pinkie weren't hiding in a piece of luggage. :V But overall, it's a positive experience. Also, check out the seat dividers when Rainbow and AJ are walking through the train. That's some solid animation there!
Believe it or not, I was not able to see the episode yesterday! That would explain the lack of journal. :V I am making up for it this morning. Of course, my DVR didn't record it, so thank you, Dailymotion. Today, we confront the inherent superiority of ponies over all others species! :V
I say that flippantly, but in some ways, it's true. You've got this one griffon who recognizes a cutie mark as something special, that marks a person as having something others don't. It's not possible for creatures other than ponies to get them. She tries anyway, and is eventually rewarded for her dedication with a facsimile created by the superior beings, then leaves for home to, and I quote here, "spread the values" she learned during her time in the oppressive over-culture. It's really an episode about how victory can be achieved through assimilative colonization. Viva Equestria.
...Okay, now I am being flippant. :V Really, I'm just glad they didn't go the epiphany route and actually give Gabby a cutie mark. I mean, I was waiting for it at the end there, and I would have flipped the fucking episode if it happened.
Because, otherwise? Not a bad little thing. I went into this thinking I was super-done with the CMCs in general. And yeah, the song was pleasant, mild and forgettable, just like a lot of songs -- especially CMC-related ones -- released over the past three years. But Gabby, for all that she's a Mary Sue, is irrepressibly adorable, and it's nice seeing someone able to break away from the nature vs. nurture side of the mold that tends to go into the species-building in this show.
...Kind of like Thorax, now that I think of it. <.< This bothers me for some reason.
I think the most important moment of this episode, though, is Scootaloo acknowledging she can't fly. Not because she remains a buttmonkey, but because she's no longer hung up about it, and uses her disability as impetus to spur her on and help others. Like, that's a really, really positive message, and I'm proud of the writers.
Or, y'know, when Apple Bloom said "What the apples". I can't get over this, Applejack did the same thing last episode. XD Also, holy shit, Sweetie's face when she says "Huh?"
A Hearth's Warming Tail
Gauntlet of Fire
Dungeons and Discords
No Second Prances
Spice Up Your Life
Stranger Than Fan Fiction
28 Pranks Later
The Fault in Our Cutie Marks
Buckball Season
The Times They Are a Changeling
Flutter Brutter
The Crystalling
The Cart Before the Ponies
Applejack's "Day" Off
The Saddle Row Review
On Your Marks
The Gift of the Maud Pie
Newbie Dash
Luna's Future
Say Goodbye to the Holiday
Seeds of the Past
Hearth's Warming Eve Is Here Once Again
It's Gonna Work
Pinkie's Present
Derby Racers
A Changeling Can Change
Can I Do It on My Own
Find the Purpose in Your Life
Out on My Own
I really liked this one. I don't think I stopped smiling the whole time it was playing. Gabby was adorable, but more than that. She was like tossing the CMCs into a blender and pouring the result into a griffin-shaped mold. The enthusiasm/hero thing was very Scootaloo, she was bubbly like Sweetie, and went through some Apple Bloom-specific ideas/plot threads from S1/S2, even getting a bit of flavor of Apple Bloom's Luna episode in how she was worried she didn't fit in with her people. And of course she was a bit annoying, but in the exact way the CMCs are, and directed at them, so it was hilarious. :V
Faces were more subdued, and where there were some that were a bit funny it was a better fit: the super squeeze hugs were pure comedy points and gelled with weird faces tonally and logically. "What the apple" was ... sigh. I'm not even sure I noticed last week, but then there are big differences between Applejack and Apple Bloom that could contribute to that. The biggest being that Applejack is applehorse, Apple Bloom isn't, she's just applehorse adjacent. In any case, who introduces generic-use catchphrases for long-running major characters six seasons in?
4204806
I dunno, but "What the apple" is my new catchphrase. :V
And I've noticed that CMC episodes lately... Well, okay, it's just the same thing going on with the mane six: side characters and new characters going through the same lessons they learned seasons ago.
4204897
Well, they live together, it's only natural that she'll pick up AJ's countyisms, I mean, that accent had to come from somewhere.
"But the Cutie Mark Crusaders never fail!"
/Coughs awkwardly, shuffles, says nothing.
FiM:MLP uses mostly 2D-Animation using Flash-Puppets, but also uses some 3D-Animation. Rumor has it that the MLP-Movie will use Stereoscopic 3D, but bun through digital filters for the 2D look and Feel —— the movie might look like 2D animation, but with 3D-Glasses will be 3D. I take the rumors with a grain of salt because EG#1 had the exact same rumor associated with it.
The interior of the train is 3D (this is an upgrade from previous seasons). The characters are 2D Flash-Puppets. The dividers are 2D-Objects in 3D-Space. The reason they disappear is is that they are utterly flat with 0 thickness.
Here is a picture from Cassini of Saturnus with the Rings scene edge-on:
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Saturn_Storm.jpg
I only have one thing to say.... BUY SOME APPLES!
When the song came out with the line "Build a boat and sail it out across the sea", I mentally rhymed it with "Mary Sue is canon now as my OC."
Very much agreed on the averted table-flip. And you make a great point about Scootaloo.
For all that you protest about the pony-superiority moral, though, I have to disagree, because I think it's also legit to read this episode as a weird sort of Equestrian racial deconstruction. This random gryphon swans into town, the CMCs run her through the Pony Skills Checklist, and she's effortlessly good at everything that ponies normally fail at. The CMCs are shocked that she can do everything, because normally ponies find their purpose by failing at everything except their special talent.
This is a recurring theme of previous episodes, too, especially the ones with chaos in Ponyville. Ponies are panicky, helpless creatures that couldn't pour water from a boot with instructions on the heel (unless they happen to get a mark in water-pouring). It's their marks which allow them to function at all, and they have massive mental breakdowns when that process hitches even slightly. They rule the world because their god-queen literally moves the sun at her whim, but despite their tactical (and cultural) superiority they are the furthest possible thing from a master race.
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Who's protesting? From day one, I have always been about pony superiority and applaud the writers when they promote it. :V
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Actually, they're using ToonBoom now, instead of Flash.
4206057
¡Thanks for the correction!
This was the first 10/10 ep for me. Not only was it great, it was as good as it could have been and fully lived up to it's potential. Even the song was probably my favorite CMC one. There were no awkward phrases, it wasn't repetitive like hearts as strong as horses or bad seed, it filled a purpose that progressed the plot (rather than it's purpose being to show the plot NOT progressing, a subtle difference), and a lot of the sight gags during it had me laughing out loud. Finally the hayburger patron is happy again!