Treat yourself to a review of Magic Duel, sadly with a distinct lack of trading cards. · 12:02am Dec 2nd, 2012
You people have no idea how hard it was for me to type all of today’s blog. For you see I attended the midnight launch of the Wii U on Friday, and in having to write out my Fanfiction progress and episode review I had to pry myself away from my beloved console. One last thing, after finally setting up the Wii U guess what the first thing I did was? Getting a FlutterDash PMV up onto the TV. It, was, glorious!
Fanfiction Progress
Honeymoon in the Everfree Forest, the sixth chapter of Magnetism, was uploaded on this Thursday for your enjoyment and hopefully by now you have read this chapter because this here is its development discussion. The best thing to start with concerning this post is the things that were originally planned for this chapter but did not get incorporated in the end, as there was only really one major thing that did not make it into this chapter. That would be the original reason as to why Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy did not just fly out of the forest. For you see, it’s current reason being how Rainbow had sprained her wing, was something I was against due to how common the ‘Dash has damaged her wing’ trope is but then I found out I could use that for some good parody humour. The original reason though was going to be that before taking off, Rainbow Dash found herself thirsty and so decides to have a quick sip from a pool of water. This water though was some form of special alcoholic water and would result in Rainbow Dash being drunk. Another reason as to why I thought of this idea initially is my perception of a drunk Rainbow Dash in which she becomes all cutesy and starts telling everypony how much she “wuvs” them. Imagining Fluttershy having to control herself as Rainbow hugs and strokes Fluttershy while saying how much she means to her was most amusing but I decided against this idea because Rainbow Dash drinking from a pool of unknown water in a dangerous location made her seem completely retarded (if you want to know my view on drunk Fluttershy, I imagine her to be flirtatious, hitting on all the mares, though mostly Rainbow Dash, and throwing out innuendo after innuendo).
A good element of this chapter that is worth talking about is Angel Bunny. For instance, that opening bit with Angel Bunny, that wasn’t originally planned. I incorporated it into the chapter to show off Angel’s side of things, allow the readers the chance to either empathise or sympathise with the character, and reveal that there is more to Angel’s dislike of Rainbow Dash than the bracelets. All of the scenes I created for Angel’s flashback have had little change, with exception to the third scene. The third scene which shows how Angel tries to get Fluttershy to stand up for herself was originally going to be a scene showing how Angel protects Fluttershy. It was going to have a stallion bullying Fluttershy, Angel leading the stallion down a dark alley, and then the stallion crying out “Please stop breaking my kneecaps!” This I changed because I wanted to demonstrate the difference between Rainbow’s way of protecting Fluttershy and Angel’s method of protecting her. Rainbow Dash handles the problem for Fluttershy while Angel tries to encourage Fluttershy to handle it herself and this difference was originally going to be a big reason why Angel dislikes Rainbow Dash; Angel would fear that Dash’s constant protection would undue all of the encouragement Angel had given Fluttershy to try and protect herself. A scene that also wasn’t going to be included was the apology scene at the end, or rather; I wasn’t going to show you the apology scene at the end. Angel’s apology was going to be mentioned at the start of chapter 7 but never detailed as I had a different point I wanted to end the chapter on, but in the end I felt seeing Angel’s apology would have more impact and found myself a decent way to end the chapter.
A key moment that had me concerned with uploading this chapter was how you, my readers, would take the monster chase scene. The monster chase scene was something not planned from the start, but when noting down what events would occur in each chapter I believed the chapter would come out boring without a key humour/action moment like the others. So I decided to add the idea of them being attacked by something and it was this idea that partly led me to remove the drunk Dash feature, because a drunk Rainbow Dash would skip over and hug even something attacking her. Then obviously came the point where I had to think of what I should have attacking them. A manticore was the first idea, though Fluttershy has handled them before so I opted out of that (it also would have meant ripping off How We Met by Rated PonyStar). My next idea was having some form of guardian for the memorial, and so I thought of them being attacked by a gargoyle. My final and current idea though was inspired by various reader’s comments on the second chapter of Magnetsim.
So uhh... How are they going to deal with the fact that the plants outside are now possessed by eldrich toaster spirits?
Thus the Toast Monster was born… no seriously, Rainbow Dash and Sweetie Belle were correct about what they said, the thing attacking them was literally Rainbow Dash’s cooking. A part of me, quite a lot of me in fact, worried that this would be too weird for many of you swallow but in the end I couldn’t think of a better idea and I just love the comical nature of it. Sweetie Belle and Rainbow Dash’s line about the monster is quite possibly my favourite moment of the chapter.
Many of you probably noticed that I had quite a few references within this chapter. Now, the foreshadowing ones I’ll get to in a second as I would first like to mention the purely referential jokes of this chapter. In fact, I will quote my own chapter for each reference I’m going to explain. First;
“How about a hat fashion party, or a pyjama party, or even a mixed-up painting party? A new cake party, a dance and sing party, an outdoor play party, or how about a party party?”
Those of you who bothered to read either of my two reviews on G3 My Little Pony will know this to be a G3 My Little Pony reference, not the first one I've used in this fanfic and certainly not the last. To note, my favourite of the party themed G3 episodes that Pinkie Pie mentions is Starsong's Dance and Sing party
“Because he reminds me of you!”
Was based on the following adorable FlutterDash comic;
Finally, the last two features of the chapter below were both references to one of my favourite MLP fanfics, The Cutie Mark Conspiracy by Cold in Gardez.
“Well we heard what happened Rainbow Dash and so we decided to try out for our cartography cutie marks.”
as well as
“Well earlier this day we came to the forest to try out for out lumberjack cutie marks buuut Sweetie Belle went a little coo-coo.”
The last thing I guess I should talk about is foreshadowing, a rather strong point to this chapter in a way. The chapter works in two ways; foreshadowing canonical episode events as well as events of the fanfic. Many of you have noticed the reference to Read it and Weep though from what I’ve seen so far many of you have missed the foreshadowing to The Cutie Pox. I’m very surprised that so many people missed the first reference to The Cutie Pox as I made it rather obvious;
“Y-yeah, sure but… I can’t with these bracelets on. Why don’t you try bowling, I’m sure you could get an awesome cutie mark in bowling.”
Now tell me what do the crusaders do at the start of The Cutie Pox? The other reference was a lot more subtle, a case of head-canon more than anything, but I feel it wise to place it down as another reference to the episode;
“Hey, if any of you spot it in Griffon, I can read that too.” Dash remarked as she scouted the ground for both the languages she was fluent in.
“Ah’m surprised that ya know how to speak that there fancy language, never gonna ‘ere me speakin’ those funny words.” The bow tied earth pony replied, but chose to follow Rainbow’s words all the same in spotting the other language.
“Mah Sister’s speakin’ in fancy!”
This chapter also brings us back to the plot, and progresses the main story point of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash being connected by the magic bracelets more than any other chapter. It in turn kick-starts the events of the last two chapters, and if you pay good attention, also foreshadows the events of future fanfics of mine. You can guess what points hint to the future of my writing but I shall neither confirm nor deny.
Other Review for Too Many Pinkie Pie’s
This may in fact confuse you a little as this section should be about other reviews for last week’s episode One Bad Apple, and fear not, I have found other reviews for that episode. Recently though, possibly my favourite MLP reviewer updated his YouTube account with a review of Too Many Pinkie Pie’s and as such I had to post here for all of you to see.
Strebiskunk
Other Reviews for One Bad Apple
With an episode like this one, where the key flaw in the lesson is that the problem differs from person to person and as such the solution is different for each person, having a variety of viewpoints is more helpful than ever.
James Corck
Paleo Steno
Thejboy88
NintendoGal55
Episode Review: Magic Duel
Do you want to know what this episode unintentionally has in common with MMMystery on the Friendship Express? Both my live stream views of these episodes failed. It was not until 11pm that I found myself the ability and time to watch this episode and from then, with no break, write up this review here.
Heading straight into the good I will just say that I found all but two things to be decent about this episode. Not only do I find this to be a fantastic episode but quite possibly an entry into my top ten favourites (I wouldn’t say it is as good as Secret of my Excess but it can certainly go toe-to-toe with spot number 10’s It’s About Time). It starts off well, mysterious but quirky, and then goes onto a real comical with Fluttershy and Twilight, I really did not expect that moment with Fluttershy and it was great to see (though Fluttershy was all round great in this episode). The reintroduction of Trixie showed her off as sinister really well and I loved the reference to the rock farm. Twilight being banished wasn’t lingered on too much but it was lovely to see her friends go to her aid and the sadness they felt. My favourite part of the episode then occurred, Twilight seeking training from Zecora and I loved every moment that Zebra was shown. It was a delight not only to see her again but for her to take on a mentoring role, and her interactions with Twilight were brilliant. The interactions between Twilight and Zecora were not the only brilliant ones though; Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash’s were too, though short. Rainbow Dash shows off not only her constant physical contact she engages Fluttershy in, but also seems to have complete, unwavering faith in her friend (how things have changed since Dragonshy). As for the magic duels, well they were more magic talent shows than duels but I guess that makes more sense considering this shows target audience. Both of them were well played and I loved the second one, not only for the implied jokes (Applejack turning into a stallion had me in hysterics) but also because I got to see Fluttershy wearing a Rainbow Dash wig… and Pinkie Pie’s talent with music was a lovely call-back.
So then, there were two things I did not like about this episode. Okay, three things really but the first is such a minor nit-pick that it doesn’t really lower my opinions on the episode. My minor nit-pick is that the race from Saddle Arabia are horses… why are they not camels? Couldn’t they have at least made it more varied than horses? I like to think (because we have seen nothing but ponies they are in turn, the most boring of the races because as a result we know so much about them) that each of the different countries have a different dominating race. One has griffons; another has Minotaur’s, and let’s just say that I would love to see an intelligent insect based race within the show. Onto my real criticism, I guess you could lump it together as the last two minutes of the episode. There really wasn’t much time to do anything within that time and as such the visitors from Saddle Arabia end up playing no real role in the episode outside of that starting conversation involving Twilight. It kind of makes both scenes, regardless of humour and animation, feel pointless. As for the one point that truly irritated me, that would be Trixie at the very end. This is not to say that I dislike Trixie being forgiven, okay I do as I feel this show doesn’t have enough villains, but the way they did it was crummy. They squeezed into the last few seconds and rushed the entire thing, whereas a focus on forgiveness should effectively be an entire or at least a quarter of an episode. It also doesn’t leave things open unlike Boast Buster did, where Trixie returning as either good or evil were both likely possibilities. This episode was doing amazing but my gosh the ending moments (except the very, very last moment) were terrible and pointless.
The real thing to take away from this episode though is that those two things, restricted into about two minutes and not with a moral or overall theme effect, are the only complaints I have about this episode. Everything else was superb, absolutely superb. At the moment I would rank it as my 11th favourite episode but over-time I may forgive it’s end, it has a chance to topple It’s About Time in my top ten list.
Now then are next episode is going to be Sleepless in Ponyville which will be about… which… Sc-Sc… HOLYFLIPPINGBDSFJ(WNRGDKOJWJDGOFIKJOK:TLfdkjo-YES! It is about bloomin’ time, brace yourselves, we finally are getting a Scootaloo episode. The episode summary sounded a little weak about it at first though recent additional information has helped it sound a lot better but you know what, I’m looking forward to this more than any other episode of the series ever! Scootaloo, it’s time to show them your stuff.
Oh, I do want to add one quick thing onto my review of Magic Duel although this is aimed specifically towards my proof-reader Ugugg93. Ugugg, did you see that very last moment where Pinkie Pie breaks the fourth wall and then Twilight Sparkle breaks the fourth wall?
Anything your best pony can do,
mine can do better.
My best pony can do anything
Better than yours.
On to the episode. XD I made my own review of it.
I shall just say one thing. Yes, the ending bit with Trixie's forgiveness was a bit rushed, and that is a bit of a detriment. But that was the only real problem, they really should have given that more time. Heck, I'd like to have seen them interact, with Twilight reaching out to her. But hey, who knows? This helped close Trixie's, well, sorry to say, ego-maniacal idiocy, and maybe a future episode could showcase a bit more?
The point is, I'm glad she learned something and became a better pony for it. It was all based on petty revenge. And well, honestly? Characters who are out for petty revenge on mistakes they themselves made is not engaging nor interesting. It's annoying, especially when they don't learn anything from it and continue to do the same thing over and over again. I'm glad she changed. I'm glad they made her a better character and yet still had her retain her pride.
But I digress. That's just the way I see it. I liked her redemption, even though I wish there were more time.
Overall, I loved the episode.
It was fantastic.
A visual representation of this week's episode:
diamondringsaustralia.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/diamond_b.jpg
Hrm. One thing I feel i should mention... Pinkie was playing wind instruments. Without a mouth... Also, is the distinct lack of trading cards cause you didn't mention them, or because you can't find them to buy?
Oh yes, and I forgot.
The way Rainbow had so much faith in Fluttershy was awesome (and how she was in near-constant physical contact with her the entire time! XD) and really sweet. Oh boy, I can imagine the argument against that from Antis (someone did the same on my Hurricane Fluttershy analysis....)
Here's a dramatized idea of what would happen if they did:
"Dash picked Fluttershy so that she could go do the dangerous work!"
No she wouldn't. Dash would never hurt Fluttershy or get her hurt.
"Well, then it was so she herself wouldn't have to do it!"
Rainbow would've jumped at the chance of a dangerous mission.
"Rainbow was all mean to Fluttershy by making her do it and not listening to her!"
No, she had confidence in her and knew that she was perfect for the job. Fluttershy just had to meet them halfway and be brave.
"It was still mean!"
There was nothing mean-spirited about it. Being mean-spirited requires intent. And Rainbow Dash is not a bully. She has learned a lot since "Dragonshy". And even in "Dragonshy", she never wanted Fluttershy to get hurt. She was just frustrated at her slowing them down. She wanted her to remain back in Ponyville.
And so forth. XD But you definitely had a good point about it. If this had been like Dragonshy, Dash would definitely not have been this confident in her about it.
The apology scene did seem a little forced, I'll give you that. That the Saddle Arabia ponies were ponies might be an attempt to avoid seeming racist, and as for the fact that they barely showed up... Ponyville is usually depicted as somewhat off the beaten track, so it might be a bit odd if foreign diplomats were walking around in it. If Equestria is anything like the US, they would've been too swamped in security to go anywhere else. Which begs the question of why they would have foreign diplomats go near Ponyville, since there's a crisis there on a weekly basis. Also, that Trixie comic is hilarious.
561491
She's Pinkie Pie. I shouldn't even need to say this by this point in time, but... "Screw logic, she's Pinkie Pie!"
.561572
Finally, someone else who noticed that. That little nod was definitely one of the bright spots for me.
561918 Oh, I understand that, but I thought is was worth mentioning. Also, breaking the 4th wall on purpose is now canon. It isn't just Pinkie anymore.
A few things I'm going to say...
.... wut.
Because in medieval times, the Arabian nations relied heavily on HORSES, not camels in warfare. Therefore, whenever you think of Arabian Knights, you think of a guy on a horse. That, and why can't we have different LOOKING horses? Racist.
Oh really? Well, let me tell you something. The entire episode (or close to it), Pinkie Pie is like this.
25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_medki4QSX61r77sfho1_400.png
What do you notice? She DOESN'T HAVE A MOUTH OR A NOSE!!! How is this important? Well...
SHE ISN'T BREATHING!!
That's right. The entire episode, which is at least a full day, Pinkie Pie not only holds her breath, but she doesn't have a single issue doing so. Further, she goes over the top and begins to play ten instruments at once.
(Go to 18m, 09s)
That's right, she's playing a GOD DAMN SOUSAPHONE WITHOUT A MOUTH.
What does Twilight have? Nothin'.
+1 Pinkie Pie
//dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Twilight_Sparkle_lolface.png + //dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Trixie_lolface_2.png
Oh, and I'm surprised nobody said it, but Magic: the Gathering reference FTW.
Have you ever experienced the situation in which you have just finished a comment but then accidentally delete the entire thing by reverting back to the previous page? I have, which is why the replies to this blog comments todays have been so late and I'm now going to try and remember what I was originally going to say to each of you in the first place.
Joy.
561389
Not have I made Nintendo Gal angry but I've also found that it's possible to make Nintendo Gal angry. I feel accomplished. But yeah, as super cute as it would have been it would have also made Rainbow Dash out to be an idiot (a problem I have trouble with enough in having Rainbow Dash as romantically/sexually oblivious). One of my readers on Fanfiction.net though did suggest an alternative, in which a gas or pollen floating about in the forest could have made Rainbow Dash drunk but then I'd have to try and explain why Fluttershy didn't get effected as well. No biggie, that scene could pretty much be a fanfic of its own.
As for Trixie, I originally had this large in-depth explanation of my point of view but as mentioned at the start, this got deleted. I do not plan to rethink it all out right now as I have quite a few things to do still before the new episode airs but I will point out two of the points I remember. First off, the big thing about Trixie returning is that she was the first returning antagonist. Her role as an antagonist is what made her so important and without that there doesn't seem to be any reason for her to return at all as she wouldn't add anything, in the form of a villain. My second point is that so far the show has been teaching some terrible views concerning forgiveness. I'm a huge supporter of forgiveness being key but I do believe that forgiveness should not be given but rather earned. All of the characters so far who have asked for forgiveness have been given forgiveness just for asking, without actually showing that they are apologetic for what they have done. A better way to have done Trixie's forgiveness (which they would have been able to fit in by removing the minute length details about Saddle Arabia) would have been have to Twilight say that she would forgive Trixie but only if Trixie started fixing all the messes she caused and personally apologising to each citizen of Ponyville she has caused harm to (particularly Snips and Snails, who had consistently remained faithful to her even when she was a jerk to them). Then, as Twilight begins writing a letter to Celestia, we could be shown Trixie fixing up the town and apologising with her head to the ground, and this would have been a proper lesson on forgiveness. You can't just expect to be forgiven, you must earn it.
That explanation wasn't nearly as good as my previous one but I've reiterated my lost point. As for your second comment, which this time I'm aware of, I had a similar thing happen with my review of Hurricane Fluttershy. Even if we were not to interpret it as romance, I just don't see how anybody could deny the great relationship presented between Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash within that episode. Likewise, here, Rainbow Dash clearly bears no ill will towards Fluttershy, and even has confidence in Fluttershy's abilities, nothing to suggest a poor relationship between the two.
Anyway I hope to get around to commenting on your recent review of Magic Duel before the next episode but if not, sorry. Thanks for commenting and cheerio for now Nintendo Gal.
561429 Aside from some a couple of minor chinks, that while not damaging, would be noticeable in a diamond, I agree that this metaphor works perfectly for the episode. Thanks for commenting.
561491 I think the most amazing thing regarding Pinkie's lack of a mouth, to which many have pointed out, is that Pinkie Pie was managing to breathe without a mouth or nostrils. As for the distinct lack of trading cards, while both your suggestions can be applied it is more due to the lack of trading cards within an episode called Magic Duel. As for MLP trading cards,
I can't find them anywhere in the UK. Despite America having a similar language to the UK, MLP:FiM is not popular over here and as such we rarely get the merchandise. Thanks for the comment.
561572 I spotted that Lyra moment as well and I thought, 'I can see a lot of bronies talking about this'... funny enough I've seen it mentioned very little.
My own head-canon regarding Lyra's personality is that she is very expressive. Her moments in the background usually depict her as quite emotional and you can tell when she is happy, sad or excited. Your idea I can see fitting quite well as all of her more expressive scenes have been to rather minor things (her sad faces include having her sandwich eaten and being unable to grab ahold of her drink with her hooves). Thank you for the comment.
561918 In regards to Equestria I have always seen them as a large but isolated country. They fear that outside influence will bring with it war and conflict, and so keep to themselves. This would explain why ponies dominate the land and there seems to be a lack of knowledge/respect towards zebras, buffalo, and dragons (though the last one has a decent explanation). I believe the US (though my history on it is a little foggy) was once like this, I think after the first World War when they decided they did want to risk getting involved in other countries wars again. I don't think it was a strong of an isolation as what Japan went through but I do believe they isolated themselves to an extent. Correct me if I'm wrong and thanks for commenting.
563246 For your first point
do I need to further comment.
Your point on the use of horses to represent Saddle Arabia does make sense what with little bits of trivia I have been seeing on the usage of horses in Arabia but it does feel a little dull having them as effectively, slightly different looking equines.
Third point, Pinkie's main power is her use of cartoon physics, while Twilight's use of it has always been secondary, only used in a few odd instances (such as in Feeling Pinkie Keen where she recovers from all those injuries in seconds).
You got a good point though, and there have been several dark humour and fourth wall humour comics arising from this instance.
Looks over to my collection of Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh! and WoW trading cards
y-yeah, Magic: the Gathering reference, I totally meant that. 
As always thanks for commenting Ugugg and cheerio.
563675 Twilight + Trixie = a pairing that only now makes any form of sense thanks to this episode having them actually interact with one another (the end scene also helps). Still not a fan of it, I had to endure TwiXie being a popular pairing with little basis for a long time and that memory is going to be lingering in my head for a while... also doesn't help that I'm not a big fan of Trixie whereas Twilight is my favourite character. Thanks for the comment.
586704
Actually, it takes a lot for me to get angry. I just get increasingly annoyed. XD And I was more disappointed than anything. But, like Fluttershy, when I'm pushed too far, I have a short fuse. 
Really though, that kind of scene just NEEDS to happen. 
I do agree too, forgiveness is definitely meant to be earned, not given. Like I said before, that was the problem I had with the ending, the fact that it was rushed and, now that you bring it up, yeah, lack of earning. I wish they could have handled it a bit better and added more to it.
586704 I noticed that thing with Pinkie having no nose as well... I bet she has gills.
Hrm. Id say you could get them online, if nowhere else. Depends on how much money you want to drop on it. I like to use Toywiz. That link is to their page on international orders. Shipping may be a bit crazy, though. They do have the cheapest cards I've been able to find. They are currently offering a box of 30 packs for 3/4 the price enterplay is. Fairly good deal, though again, shipping. Anyway, hope this helps!
586704 >Have you ever experienced the situation in which you have just finished a comment but then accidentally delete the entire thing by reverting back to the previous page?
Save them in a basic text editor