Tumbleweed vs. Frenemies · 10:27pm May 19th, 2019
Well then!
Hope everyone had a nice weekend. I did, at least-- even though I was pretty worthless yesterday, and spent most of my time watching random stuff on Netflix (sidenote: Jojo's Bizzare Adventure is great), I actually, like, got out of the house and DID stuff today! Coffee helped. And I even wound up re-working some stuff on a NON PONY FICTION (gasp, I know) project, which winds up changing its themes and also making it work better, kinda? It involved cutting around 2000 words or so out, but hey, that's how things go.
In a bit I'm gonna go grab some food with family ... but in the meanwhile, I had enough time to watch Frenemies ... and well, that was fun.
Just the other day, I watched a video about old 80's cartoons, and how, since the heroes had to be good role models, the villains got to be the fun ones, which is why everyone makes memes about Skeletor and not He-Man. Or, well, at least more Skeletor memes than He-Man memes.
'course, FiM has a bit better characterization than that (in that the mane 6 have, y'know, flaws), but it's still super fun to goof around with the bad guys anyway. I mean, that's kind of the thing we've been expecting since the season premiere, right? And maybe it's just the kids show thing, but it kiiiiind of seems like Tirek's been toned down from his original appearance. Or maybe I was just used to fan-thinking of him as a Big Dark Lord of Evil guy, so it's ... odd to see him in a slightly goofier role. On the other hand (hoof?) Chrysalis was great. Of all the bad guys, it feels like she's the only one with a voice actor who's really chewing the scenery. (Cozy Glow's VA comes close, though). Not to mention, y'know, villain song! A tango, no less!
If nothing else, it's a nice change of pace after last weeks Student Six episode. And there's even a bit of continuity to it, as I look forward to the bad guy three inevitably betraying Grogar.
Also, I find myself liking Rusty Bucket a surprising amount. Dude's just doing his job, you know? He'd be a great addition to a Daring Do fic, or even an installment of the Flash Sentry Papers ... though I'm not quite sure how I'd include him in the latter case.
But yeah. The thing about a good episode is that, sometimes, there's just not as much to talk about in comparison to a bad one, y'know? But then again, if I really wanted to complain, I'd just watch the last Game of Thrones episode.
Tirek has been toned down a bit, but it makes sense. He's a machine when he's got a clear goal in mind; lacking that—because he's stuck in Tartarus, or stuck being Grogar's missionless minion—he get bored. Personally, I found it amusing how Chrysalis is playing the role of (dumb) muscle and Tirek the brains. Cozy Glow is the heart: Small, volatile, petty.
It's nice to see your opinion on some of the villain and how to use their flaws. Do you have some opinions on some of the one time characters that appears through the show (tv series, movie or comics) that you think could have potential for your main stories ? Likes Trouble Shoes, Steven Magnet, Captain Delano and her crew or Capper?
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Trouble Shoes? Kiiiiind of boring, honestly. He's a one-note character, a clumsy clown ... although, if I absolutely HAD to pitch a story centered on him, I'd spin it as, like, a country take on Commedia Del'arte, perhaps, and thusly have Trouble Shoes trying to connect two young lovers together, despite the efforts of a couple of other stock characters. (Guest starring Flash Sentry as Il Capitano!). Just, uh, at a rodeo, I guess?
Steven Magnet at least has some backstory to him, in that he apparently hung out with Cranky Donkey back in the day? There's something to be done with that, I suppose.
Captain Delano's a sky-pirate, which is easy enough to work. And, y'know, Capper honestly could fit the Harlequin role a lot easier than Trouble Shoes would, but that's neither here nor there. Like, there's plenty of stuff to work with with either of those characters, buuuuut at the same time, they're almost TOO straightforward of characters, in that there's not much room to vary from? Like, when a cute magical pony is a con-man scoundrel, that's funny. When a cat-furry is a con man scoundrel, it's ... to be expected. Cats are jerks.
You're goddamn right it is.
The weirdest thing about this weekend was that that was the second "Cozy Glow sings a song to manipulate people" I heard.
The villain song was quite good. Tirek may be toned down a bit, but he's weirdly more interesting to me now. He let slip some intriguing information about himself, like how he can absorb magic only from living beings (which I could have surmised on my own, but it's still cool to have confirmation). And there's got to be a story behind his Gram-gram and why he still talks to her.
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I’m just bummed Netflix only has the 1st season. Crunchyroll lags on my laptop for some reason.
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I can PM you a way to watch Battle Tendency (Part 2) all the way through Golden Wind (Part 5) if you're interested. Subbed and dubbed. Well, only subbed for Golden Wind because that's still coming out. Diamond is Unbreakable dub is nearing the end though.