Friendship is Card Games: The Manesquerade Ball · 11:46am Jul 9th, 2023
Ugh. I hope that pun is the worst thing about this episode. I also doubt we’ll see any vamponies. We’ll see as this chronicle begins…
I can only imagine what it took to get Zipp into Mane Melody for this level of up-gussying. Probably societal expectations. Haven will not be pleased if the heiress to the throne misses this event.
Your customers have their eyes closed, you two. They can’t appreciate the synchronized dance number while they’re still waiting for more work on their eyelids.
Ah. Upon reviewing the scene, Sunny is watching them… and Zipp’s on her phone. Heh.
Interesting to see the finer details of pony cosmetology. There are definitely some adjustments to make when dealing with a species with a full coat (not that some of the cosmetics account for that change, but nyeh. 
)
Also, took me a moment to register that Zipp was getting a wing massage.
The end results seem… off. The mane streaks are fine, but their legs look somewhere between ice cream push pops and rejected pride flag designs. (And, of course, that plasticky aftertaste of BUY OUR TOYS.) I imagine this is the kind of trend that future decades will look back on with bemusement, like leisure suits or JNKO jeans. Also Hitch, I’m sorry, but this just isn’t a good look for you.
Also also, not sure if Mane Melody’s augmented reality mirror was ever acknowledged as magitech before now. Good to know.
I need “belizzle” to stop being a thing. I’d rather have them bring back “20% cooler.”
I hope Sunny got the others to practice that unity dance at some point. We’ve gotten songs in this generation, but little in the way of full-on spontaneous musical numbers. (Heck, one of the most memorable was engendered by Sprout.)
Spray glitter. Spray. Glitter.
… Ah. It appears this does exist. Still seems like it’s a good way to give yourself glam lung (which is like black lung, but with much more outrageous hair.)
“Everypony that attends always looks beyond!”
Either this isn’t the first Manesquerade Ball Zephyr Heights has held since reunification, or Rocky and Pipp showed Jazz photos from previous balls. Just because they had to edit out her ears doesn’t mean they also had to remove wings. (Poor mare; they just couldn’t fit things in with how her mane was modeled.)
And yes, given that it’s specifically a Zephyr Heights event, Zipp has no choice but to attend. Which means the full glitter treatment whether she likes it or not.
Given that the main cast is getting ready for the ball now, I feel like Pipp should’ve given her employees their invitations much earlier.
I do like how the sheer quantity of glitter in Izzy’s mane evokes Luna, and that’s before she decides she needs even more.
“The only dress code is to wear what makes you feel fáncy”
That seems… exploitably subjective. Though that may just be my inner Diogenes eager to pluck a figurative chicken.
Thinking about it, the outrageous colors do make some sense in a masquerade ball for a culture with no nudity taboo. There’s the argument that dresses would still be appropriate, especially for covering cutie marks… but given how the animators handled smoothie puddles in the previous episode, I don’t think the budget can cover fabric.
Plus, like many masquerades, part of the social contract is not admitting you can recognize other people even when you can. Especially given ineffectual disguises like Zippy Stormdust’s half-mask.
Ah. And the ominous consequences of the previous episode were resolved offscreen. Great work, team, no notes. 
Yeah, Opaline was justified in creating this test of loyalty. At least in terms of maintaining her grip on her sole minion. Definitely not saying she was justified in any of the horrible things she did as part of Misty’s upbringing. Even Misty realizes she’s caught in an abusive relationship; the catch is getting out of it.
I do love baby dragons in bowties. Bowties are cool. (A shame we’re still a few months away from more information on the Doctor Who Commander decks…)
Going to hold off on mask analysis until I get better looks at the whole group, but Pipp having a flagrant hammerspace access point under her wing is somewhere between frustrating and hilarious.
Huh. The fact that the Zephyr Heights royal archives have a section even the crown princesses aren’t allowed to access is fascinating on its own. The idea that it might contain information on alicorn magic… That’s potential support to the theory that Zephyr Heights was built on the bones of Canterlot, comics notwithstanding.
Real subtle, Misty.
Izzy’s excited shout gives an… uncomfortably good look at her teeth. Can’t put my finger on why it’s uncomfortable, but that’s the Uncanny Valley in a nutshell, a certain horrifying je ne sais quoi.
It’s an interesting question: Should Misty know it’s abnormal to refer to one’s home as “the lair”? I suppose she never heard it from the others, but it still bears consideration.
“Are you getting ready to go to a place?”
And do a thing? Do you have a thing at the place?
Yes, Misty is one of the most transparently suspicious characters in modern media, but there’s something endearing in how terrible she is at failing to blend in. It’s like if Zim genuinely wanted to fit in among human children.
So… Misty not being invited to the ball isn’t an issue? I suppose there is the possibility of plus-ones.
“You want me? To go with you? To a thing?”
… I was joking.
Ponies treating “fancy” as a synonym for “especially colorful” works for any generation of the franchise. Also, I hope this doesn’t make them late. (Silly FoME. This one operates on RPG timing: The party doesn’t start until the protagonist(s) arrive.)
Okay, a little mask analysis. I do love the butterfly imagery for Misty. It works on a number of levels: The chaos butterfly whose small actions lead to big consequences, the delicate creature who relies on camouflage to survive, the pollinator whose exchange of information between different and largely sedentary organisms allows for more to happen… and Fluttershy, who always saw the best in everypony and strove for mutually beneficial solutions.
On a less YouTube-analytical note, kind of funny how she ended up getting the other half of her Nightmare Night mask.
“Are you in?” Zipp asks after Misty got her full makeover. Bit of a leading question at that point.
Sparky is understandably wary of his attempted dragonnapper… though I think I recall previous times between than and now where he wasn’t.
The metallic texture on Misty’s eyeshadow is pretty good. Pleasant memories of Beast Wars.
Aside from the dubious identity protection of the masks, Misty also has the benefit of very few ponies ever having heard of her… though she does have a number of other distinguishing features. Again, masquerade etiquette calls for ignoring those.
I do love the charm bracelet. I’m pretty sure Izzy painted bottle caps for most of the charms.
Ah. Sunny hadn’t taught anypony the dance until the flight to the ball. 
Some sense of the necessity of prep time would be nice in this generation, but it’s not like they spent any planning out its narrative arcs.
Oh. She posted a video in the group text. … Then why did she say she hasn’t taught it to them yet? (Because part of her acknowledges that nopony was going to watch the video, I suppose. Even Sunny has a cynical side. Mostly directed towards Hitch.)
Performance anxiety from the butterfly-marked pony and her friends insisting she try anyway. The more things change…
“Wait! We need to rehearse!”
Should’ve thought of that before the day of the ball, Activist Horse. It’s a flaw she and Hitch have in common; they’re so focused on the good of The Community that they can forget about the individuals who comprise that community, and how those individuals’ goals and drives may diverge from the grand vision for the greater good.
Ah, this is the first post-reunification ball. Good to know.
Why are literal children at the biggest social event of the year? Please tell me their association with Pipp hasn’t forced them into the spotlight at a young age. No one deserves that.
Hmm. Not as much to say about some of the masks as I’d hoped, but I do love how Sunny’s incorporates the moon, the sun, and Twilight’s star into its design. The ornamentation on Hitch’s mask inspired by Sparky’s horns is a nice touch as well. (Sparky’s own mask is a bit ridiculous, but again, they’re not supposed to be actually effective disguises. And I suppose it’s no worse than Cloudpuff’s.)
Of course, that only goes so far when you’re still wearing the crown, Haven.
“Who are you wearing?” is a ridiculous question to ask someone wearing only a mask. Again, this is an event that wanted to have elaborate outfits, and I get the sense that budgetary limitations were the only reason it didn’t.
Also, clearly I was off the mark about masquerade etiquette given how the pegarazzi feel no compunction about questioning Pipp by name, nor does she feel any about a selfie she has no doubt already posted to five different social media sites.
This is familiar territory for Hitch, given the pinup calendar.
Zipp and Misty bonding over not wanting to be seen is a lovely touch, and a good way for the latter to fly under the former’s radar. (As opposed to all of the bad ways that worked because the plot needed them to. 
)
A bit delayed on your “Wow” there, Sunny.
“Hay-fever-happy-berries”
Either Izzy’s making up exclamations again or we just heard the secret to her bubbly personality.
Ooh, more classical riffs in the background. Always nice. Though I wish the ice sculpture incorporated an earth pony and a unicorn to properly commemorate the historical significance of this ball.
I see the fluid dynamics learned from weather factories have preserved through dessert catering (to say nothing of how the pony diet is still roughly half sugar by mass.)
The magnetic hooves with the macaron were mildly absurd, but Izzy extracting and throwing a perfect dollop of whipped cream by sticking her horn in it is truly ridiculous. And possibly concerning, depending on how much glitter came off of said horn in the process.
Izzy investigating Zipp’s suspicious behavior. How the turn tables.
I appreciate how Pipp got the whole dance routine easily; she just got knocked over by Hitch’s flailing.
Let it go, Sunny. This is on you for not planning ahead. (But hey, at least I got that emphasis on the importance of prep time I asked for.)
I do love the Haven-Alphabittle exchange. Wonderful presentation of the moment when you realize your significant other is, in their own (hopefully) harmless way, a little crazy. And then rolling with it, because they’re your significant other.
“Who’s more authorized than a princess?”
… Evidently no one. What was keeping Zipp from examining the archives any other day if she actually has permission in the system? (Going home without Haven knowing, I suppose. Consider the opening of Chapter 1.)
I feel like blocking the doors as they close should trigger some kind of alarm. That’s an obvious breach.
This entire sequence feels unnecessarily elaborate. Zipp has a complexity addiction that would make a Bond villain blush. To say nothing of the lack of any logical sorting system in this archive; Twilight frowns upon it from the Astral Plane.
Ah yes, the infamously stealthy sound of hooves on an uncarpeted floor. No wonder Misty’s escaping Zipp’s notice. (Okay, Zipp’s hyperfocusing, but there’s clear collusion from the sound team.)
You can tell the book Misty found is important because the animation team bothered to give it a different cover than the rest.
Also, no one tell Sunny about this archive. If she found out Zephyr Heights had been hoarding this much ancient history and not doing anything with it, she’d either level the palace or try to move in.
“I bet Opaline would reward me for something like this!”
On the one hand, I doubt it’s anything Opaline doesn’t already know. On the other, she might appreciate the opportunity to destroy something that contradicts her claims. On Ahuizotl’s tail, the fact that that’s Misty’s first thought is… Hmm. It undercuts her conflicted feelings about Opaline, but it also acts as a contingency if she gets caught sneaking out.
Yeah, all told, I’m really not sure how to feel about this line.
“Misty? Did you… follow me?”
The alternative is that this random unicorn had an approved hoofprint, Zipp. Use some actual logic, o great detective.
… Okay, good.
Okay, great. Zipp’s actively rebelling against the narrative mandate that she let Misty go with a warning. (And trapping herself with the mare who’s tried the hardest to poke holes in her story wasn’t Misty’s wisest move.)
Ooh. Genuinely good ploy on Misty’s part. Use one shocking truth to cover up an even more incriminating one. Especially useful against a mare who immediately pats herself on the back once her suspicions are confirmed and her self-image is reinforced.
“I’ve never had [a cutie mark].”
This, of course, raises the question of whether Misty means since the main cast met her, or for her entire life. Do marks appear at birth in this generation? I can only hope these questions get answered at some juncture in the next two episodes, though I fear they won’t be. This is part of why Cheerilee was such a useful character in G4; who better than a teacher to introduce the concepts of the world every adult knows, but onlookers from another universe wouldn’t?
“How boring would it be if we were all the same?”
Given the theory that this world is the end result of a Glimmer splinter timeline, there’s a delicious irony there. (Hey, the special coming in November is called Secrets of Starlight.)
Taking another look, that is clearly Celestia on the bottom of Alicorns of the Ancient World’s cover. But the coloration for the center figure isn’t right for any alicorn from G4. The closest match that comes to mind is pony Elphaba from that production of Wicked. (Or Anonfilly, but I’m trying to keep this canon.)
Darn it, Pipp, we almost had something interesting happen. But it’s not like Zipp will just leave this book in the archive and never look at it again, right?
Right?
Ooh, bit of comic integration with Pipp being a horror fan. Nice to see it… though there is the question of what her favorite foalhood book series is doing in the secret royal archive.
“Let’s just make it up as we go.”
The Left Shark school of improvisational choreography runs counter to Sunny’s vision of synchronized unity… though given the earlier celebration of differences, that may be the point. The shift from Harmony to Unity in this generation has been a curious one, and somepony piping up and saying “Isn’t it great to be different?” may be exactly what she needs to hear. It certainly was for Misty.
… Huh. How will the crowd react to a blank-flanked adult mare?
Okay, good, they remembered the Book of Future Plot Relevance Mark IV (after Star Swirl’s journal, the Friendship Journal, and Star Swirl’s other journal.) I just hope it doesn’t end up in a chocolate fountain before the night is over.
Perhaps there’s an alicorn instinct that expects ponies around them to obey. It’d explain a lot.
I do love the forestpunk aesthetic for unicorn items, but I have to assume Izzy brought that deck with her. That or she chopped down several trees from a city park. Worst-case scenario, she knows several royals who can pardon her…
I won’t worry about how it isn’t actually connected to anything. It’s not like Equestria Girls ever concerned itself with wires.
(actual, real-life sharp inhalation)
I could have lived a long, happy life without hearing a pony imitate an air horn. Why is it always the wacky ones?
Misty stalking Zipp, Hitch reassuring Sunny, this episode’s big on reversals.
Ah. Semi-spontaneous musical number to the rescue.
Good to see some acknowledgement of Alphabittle’s DDR skills. Honestly, it’s just refreshing to see episode writers who have actually seen the prior material.
It’s a low bar, yes, but there were times G4 couldn’t clear it.
Ah. I’ve been giving ponies too much credit this whole time. They’re just that bad at recognizing people. (At least, Haven is.) This is, after all, the species for whom Plainity and Eyepatch were 99% effective disguises.
Hmm. Given that suspicious obstruction that kept Alphabittle from getting a good look at Misty, I’m not sure what would be more surprising: If he didn’t recognize a unicorn, or if he did. He is the closest thing to an authority figure in Bridlewood, and he presumably knows most of the residents. This could lead to something intriguing if taken in either direction.
Oh dear. Misty, you may not want to snap that selfie. (At the very least, doing it in the middle of the routine is iffy.)
And Opaline got her Mineral MacGuffin offscreen, presumably because interspersing the ball with several minutes of her scrabbling in the dirt and cursing Twilight’s name would’ve thrown off the pacing. (There is the argument that she could have acquired it last episode and spent this one occupied in some kind of delicate ritual to prepare it for her later use. Frankly, that might have been the better approach.)
Oh, and Opaline also accesses hammerspace through her wings.
Opaline, as far as you know, Misty’s stayed home this whole time. Following your orders meant that she never had any more opportunities to get you your fix. (Of course, that would require Opaline to consider that something might actually be her fault.)
Very fortunate that Sparky didn’t turn the priceless, ancient tome into a key lime pie.
“My evilness, Misty!”
… You know, I still prefer that over “My hoofness.”
Ah. It’s hard to completely move away from the mare who’s raised you from a foal. And Opaline’s presence in that book lends some credence to her claims of being the old diarchs’ contemporary… but “the Ancient World” is as vague as moons as a unit of time, and she could be a much more recent entry in the book. (Also, if she only comprises two pages, there must have been a lot of alicorns back then. And Zipp can always check the table of contents to at least get her name.)
In all, the biggest issue with this episode is that in terms of the overarching plot, it renders the previous one completely unnecessary. Aside from Opaline’s fascinating journey to who-knows-where, it does everything “Sunny Side Up” did, but better: A conflicted Misty getting positive reinforcement from her friends, Opaline advancing her wicked schemes, Sunny trying to balance authority and individual expression, so on and so forth. “Sunny Side Up” acted as a good follow-up to the Canterlove Studios development, but it still feels superfluous in light of this.
Mind you, that’s not to say this was flawless. It’s a puff piece of an episode. There are some delightful moments and several fascinating implications to be found in my habitual deep dives, but there’s not much on the surface.
That said, let’s pull off the masks and see who’s attending:
Dress Code 2W
Enchantment
Creatures that aren’t modified can’t attack. (Equipment, Auras with the same controller, and counters are modifications.)
3: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control with no +1/+1 counters on it. Any player may activate this ability.
“Sorry, this is a white-clamp affair.”
Zephyr Heights Caterer 2W
Creature — Pegasus Citizen
Flying
When Zephyr Heights Caterer enters the battlefield, create a Food token. (It’s an artifact with “2, T, Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.”)
If you would gain life, you gain that much life plus 1 instead.
2/1
You Arrive at the Ball 2WW
Instant
Choose one —
• Comport Yourselves Well — Creatures you control get +1/+3 until end of turn. Untap them.
• Make a Scene — Creatures you control get +2/+1 and gain first strike until end of turn.
Twilit Scorn 1U
Enchantment
Whenever an opponent scries, surveils, or searches their library, that player mills three cards.
3U: Each player scries 1.
It is said the old queen’s rage at what her subjects became still lingers in every neglected bookshelf.
Marestream Aviator 2U
Creature — Unicorn Pilot
At the beginning of combat on your turn, target artifact creature you control gains flying until end of turn.
“The skies are open to all ponykind now. Some of us just have to work harder to claim them.”
3/1
Masquerade Ball 2UU
Sorcery
Each player exiles all nontoken creatures they own in a face-down pile, shuffles that pile, then manifests those cards. (To manifest a card, put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature. If it’s a creature card, it can be turned face up any time for its mana cost.)
Hostile Interrogation 2B
Sorcery
Target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card. Investigate. (Create a Clue token. It’s an artifact with “2, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.”)
Sometimes cracking the case means fracturing a witness’s sanity.
Lunar Embrace 2BB
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
If it’s neither day nor night, it becomes day as Lunar Embrace enters the battlefield.
Enchanted creature gets +2/+2 and has flying. As long as it’s night, that creature gets an additional +1/+1 and has menace.
Moonlight is still a refuge for the lost.
Choking Glitter 3BB
Sorcery
Target player loses 1 life for each counter on permanents they control.
Cycling 2 (2, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
Spending too long in Mane Melody can leave a pony bedazzled within an inch of their life.
Queen of the West 3BB
Creature — Warlock Noble
Alicorn (This card is also a Pony Pegasus Unicorn.)
Flying, menace, hexproof from white
Whenever an opponent casts a white spell, that player loses 1 life.
“How can I defy natural law when I was born to rule?”
4/3
Ballroom Bleeder 2R
Creature — Unicorn Berserker
Spectacle 4R (You may cast this spell for its spectacle cost rather than its mana cost if an opponent lost life this turn.)
When Ballroom Bleeder enters the battlefield, if its spectacle cost was paid and it’s your postcombat main phase, Ballroom Bleeder deals 2 damage to each other creature that didn’t attack or block this turn.
3/2
Personal Inventory 2R
Enchantment
When Personal Inventory enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, exile the top card of your library.
During your turn, if you cast a noncreature spell this turn, you may play lands and cast spells from among cards exiled with Personal Inventory.
Paternal Flamebonder 4R
Creature — Pony Shaman
When Paternal Flamebonder enters the battlefield, if you don’t control a Dragon, create a 2/2 red Dragon creature token with trample.
Dragons you control get +2/+0 and have “Ward — Pay 2 life.”
“Even the mightiest are born vulnerable.”
2/2
Bridlewood Remixer 1GG
Creature — Unicorn Bard
Finale — Whenever you sacrifice a Song, create a 0/0 green Spirit creature token, then put a +1/+1 counter on it for each verse counter on that Song.
Troggles aren’t the only spirits in the forest, just the most misophonic.
3/3
Rock the Carpet 3G
Enchantment
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control with lesser power.
“Don’t just love the camera, love the ponies on the other end. Tell them they can look that good too.”
—Princess Pipp Petals
Unity Dance XGG
Instant
Creatures you control have base power and toughness X/X and gain indestructible until end of turn.
Sunny’s initial vision would have been almost eerie in its lockstep synchronicity. The others’ efforts made it far better.
Beyond Description 4
Enchantment — Aura
Enchanted creature is colorless and gets +X/+X, where X is its mana value.
When enchanted creature dies, if it had mana value 6 or greater, return Beyond Description from your graveyard to your hand.
Dress to impress. Or to shatter reality.
Palace Statuary 5
Artifact
When Palace Statuary enters the battlefield, you become the monarch.
Spells the monarch casts cost 1 less to cast.
Strictly speaking, the royal family owns very little. The palace, its contents, and even their likenesses belong to Zephyr Heights.
Frozen Masterpiece 7
Snow Artifact Creature — Pegasus
Flying
Frozen Masterpiece enters the battlefield with four +1/+1 counters on it.
Whenever you cast a snow spell, put a +1/+1 counter on Frozen Masterpiece.
Remove a +1/+1 counter from Frozen Masterpiece: Add C.
0/0
Distracting Revelation WU
Instant
You and target opponent each draw a card. Creatures that player controls get -X/-0 until end of turn, where X is the number of cards in their hand.
Misty answered one question and made sure Zipp didn’t think there were any others worth asking.
Masked Stitcher 2(ub)
Creature — Unicorn Wizard
Morph 3UB (You may cast this card face down as a 2/2 creature for 3. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)
When Masked Stitcher is turned face up, exile target creature card from a graveyard. Create a token that’s a copy of that creature, except it’s a Zombie in addition to its other types.
2/3
Spooky Stablehoof 2(wb)(wb)
Creature — Pony Citizen
Flash
When Spooky Stablehoof enters the battlefield, return to the battlefield target creature card in your graveyard that was put there from the battlefield this turn.
“He’s just resting.”
2/2
Welcome to My Collection
Scheme
When you set this scheme in motion, gain control of target creature an opponent controls. It becomes an artifact and loses all other card types.
“Please, stay a while. Feel free to admire the other exhibits.”
Haven is probably one of the best things in this season of MYM. I found her very entertaining every time she was on screen.
Yeah, for all that this is one of the show's best-looking episodes, mostly off the colour palette, the dress-up modifications lack the finesse of not looking gaudy that DHX made seem so effortless.
Not in MYM, but it's been seen in action many times in TYT, since the first batch of shorts, just over a year ago. So probably one of the first true instances of this show pulling finished, implemented ideas from that one.
By this point, too many episodes not picking up on suspicious plants like this, most notably the chronologically-incompatible "The Traditional Unicorn Sleepover" and "Hoof Done It?" episodes from last year, made it a given this reasonably plant would never be addressed again. Even if, by some miracle, future episodes do, they'll have to reintroduce it again, making this moment worthless. Which is a pity, as in isolation, it's a great idea.
I have found, in retrospect, it's hard to say why this was the second-highest episode of this chapter for me, because it is an absolute puff piece. Probably just a mix of not having such tangible disinterest on the writers' part, the colour palette and better-for-this-show visuals, and having some neat conceits for Misty and Zipp, even if the dialogue and plotting still makes the latter out to be a terrible detective.
Which really isn't much – there's nothing here I'd ever watch again, and still many subtly repulsive character and plot dead-ends that are wheel-spinning, especially for the Mane 4. It's amazing how transparently the ball is just a plot device to facilitate the Zipp and Misty scenes, off how it gives virtually no energy or space to the ball's ostensible purpose as set up early on.
So, I'll concur that coming in the wake of "Sunny Side Up" makes its steps above that one seem more impressive.
Next time… oh boy. Even setting aside whether one can feel any sympathy for as terribly-written a character as Pipp, it's in possession of such transgressively schizophrenic writing as to undermine its goal. We'll have… a field day ahead of us there.
Throwing a few unicorn Tremere in might make things more interesting, TBH.
Or writing quality?
"…we're all mad here."
Trying to logic it out, but I can't, so I'm just going to chalk it up to "lazy writing by people who don't consider the effects on imersion for what they're doing."
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: If your opponents control creatures you own, Masquerade Ball will steal them back. Even if it's the result of an Aura, because you flickered them.
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Stupid Complicated Game Alert: Indeed, an excellent time to gather specimens.
Maybe it's the fact that they're so human-like and/or uniform.
Like literally two episodes ago, when he voluntarily walked out of the brighthouse to give Misty a photograph. He couldn't have been nicer to her then. I thought that moment meant that Sparky viewed Misty as the friend that he gets to play hide and seek/tag with. Turns out it just meant that there's apparently no one at the show in charge of making sure the scripts maintain a consistent tone.
Hyperfocusing is one thing, but entering a restricted -- presumably silent -- room and then not hearing, in succession, a sneeze, a thud, the sound of multiple books falling on the floor, and an exclamation of "Ow!" is just plain incompetent.
And then the writers finally decide to release Zipp from the shackles of plot contrivance to confront Misty about her suspicious behavior. I nearly got whiplash from that turn.
Between Izzy introducing the dance as "the electric unity shuffle" and Hitch assuring Sunny, "They'll follow your lead. They always do," I assumed the subplot would culminate in Sunny performing a "Cha Cha Slide"–style song in which the lyrics are the dance instructions. Nope -- just a generic song in which all the characters magically know the words and choreography. On brand for My Little Pony, but a disappointing resolution.
Disappointing resolutions all around. When did Misty find the time to locate those specific pages in the middle of the alicorn book and decide to tear them out? Also, I'm growing increasingly exasperated watching Misty repeatedly stare at items representing the path of friendship and feeling conflicted while doing nothing. Either have her decide to risk everything to join Sunny and the gang or have her ally with Opaline until a climactic confrontation with the protagonists shocks Misty into realizing she's on the wrong side. I know that in real life, people in abusive relationships frequently feel that there's no way out and therefore take no action, but this is fiction, which demands some amount of plot progression.
I don't remember seeing cards that care about day and night before Lunar Embrace here, and I'm interested in seeing where you take it.
Ballroom Bleeder: And the man in the back said "Everyone attack!" and it turned into a ballroom blitz!
Bridlewood Remixer: Always glad to see more "Songs matter" cards.
Beyond Description is, alas, anti-synergistic with much of my Reaper King Commander deck, which prominently features the Things of the Spirit Avatars from Shadowmoor/Eventide alongside the Skullkin and "colors matter" Scarecrows. On the other hand, Hedron Matrix is already in the deck and grants the same +X/+X.
5737021
And similarly, casting Masquerade Ball when you've stolen a bunch of your opponents' (non-token) creatures is probably a bad idea, because they'll get them back.
5737138
Inside Baseball Alert: Innistrad: Midnight Hunt and Innistrad: Crimson Vow would like a word with you.
5737172
Oh, derp. Yeah, I dimly recall reading about that, now. (I haven't visited my local card shop, never mind actually played, in... too long.)
Oddly enough, while those are all really clever, none of them are even the first interpretation that came to my mind - the idea that Misty being among our heroes and gaining friends would be like a caterpillar emerging from its cocoon as a butterfly. So, add that one to the pile.
Always nice to see a bit of real care, depth and nuance slip out of the constraints of time, budget and executive mandate.