• Member Since 24th Oct, 2011
  • offline last seen Nov 16th, 2018

Whirring Gears


A guy with crazy ideas and a little free time.

More Blog Posts96

  • 408 weeks
    Update

    With mostly radio silence with vague/broken promises, a lot of you are probably wondering what's going on with the last chapter.

    Read More

    5 comments · 1,456 views
  • 443 weeks
    Any Advice for ASMR Writing?

    If you didn't know, I have a passing interest in ASMR.

    Read More

    4 comments · 618 views
  • 452 weeks
    Scratching Itch (Also, Where Do You Come From?)

    Wow, the votes were pretty scattered. Oh well, we had a couple come up above the rest. I have an idea that I will be working on when I can. Something quick and dirty, just for the sake of getting it out and posting something.

    Read More

    4 comments · 530 views
  • 453 weeks
    Have an Itch (Vote for Best Pony)

    I have that niggle in the back of my brain telling me to write. However, I'd like a little warm-up exercise before jumping back into any major projects.

    So, because it worked so well the last time, let's do this again. Vote for best pony! Preferably none that I have or are currently writing about.

    Let me know in the comments below.

    14 comments · 547 views
  • 463 weeks
    Where the Hell Have I Been!?

    Hey guys.

    Unfortunately writing has been completely dormant as I've hit the insane schedule regarding three jobs that pick up when the weather is warm on top of other projects. In fact, I'm convinced that I've actually messed myself mentally through all of this.

    Read More

    4 comments · 603 views
Nov
24th
2013

Season Four Premiere (Spoilers) · 3:07pm Nov 24th, 2013

New big episode, new chance for discussion!

So I watched the premiere and one thing I have to say, I think fics and comics are spoiling me in terms of pacing through anything pony. Is it just me or did a lot of the moments they tried to play seriously just come off as rushed? For example:

-Friends trying to convince Twilight to stay behind.
-Celestia and Nightmare Moon fight.
-The walk though the Everfree.
-More I can't remember at the moment.

Which is a shame, I felt the beginning was really well done with the friends leaving for Ponyville and Celestia meeting Twilight while she's going through the checklist. It's also nice to see Twilight not wanting to be a princess. I don't think anyone expected different, but it's cool to see that, you know, she's still a character with flaws.

But then came the Deus Ex Zecora moment. Oh, how convenient, a potion that shows you exactly what's wrong that can only be activated by alicorn magic. Twilight should ask for the recipe.

Although, even as I ragged about it earlier, the flashbacks were pretty awesome. Luna's speech was actually pretty scary, setting the tone with a hint of confusion about why she was saying such things to Twilight. Although, at that point we could already gather what was going on. Confronting Discord was cool. And admit it, you giggled at the tail scene as well.

The Tree of Harmony. Not bad, a tree is always a good metaphor or growing, life, etc. And it seems Lauren Faust got her wish, the elements are no long pieces of jewelry. They're just gone, returned forever to the Everfree Forest.

Oh, and it was all Discord's fault. Yeah, okay, um... fine? I guess? Not to be a big complainer, but didn't the advertisements imply there was going to be a new villain? Hell, I would have loved it to have just been the Everfree Forest itself. The Tree of Harmony dying because the elements were taken and the forest was trying to kill it. That would have been awesome.

Or perhaps, the entire Everfree forest is Discord's creation? A mass of chaos they could not destroy, so they do all they can to keep it from spreading? There's probably a fic about that.

And, the box. Less subtle than the book in Season three, but okay. I bet they find six keys to open it throughout the season, like one of those RPGs in show form. As for speculation of what's inside, I have guesses. Number one guess is something akin to the Alicorn Amulet. The first being created after the elements were taken, the tree attempting to contain the darkness that was trying to attack it. But then it was discovered and taken, the evil magic within corrupting whoever wore it.


So those are my thoughts on it. What did you guys think? Post below with your favorite parts, unfavorite parts, and a guess to what's inside the box.

Report Whirring Gears · 265 views ·
Comments ( 11 )

Favorite parts:
Head-canon almost accurate: Celestia was attuned to the warm & fuzzy Elements (Kindness, Generosity, Friendship/Magic), Luna had the less-fuzzy ones (Loyalty, Honesty, Laughter). I had Magic/Laughter backwards, but this works too.

If we assume the animators weren't just reusing effects, the Sisters do use Unicorn magic to move the Sun and Moon (as stated in the opening), and Alicorn magic is the crazy stuff we saw in the S3 opener. Sombra may have been attempting to brute-force an ascension, or there may have been wings under that robe. Alternately, Alicorn magic can only be used safely by Alicorns, causing madness in boring old unicorns. Meshes well with the Alicorn Amulet giving Trixie dark-ish magic, but not quite what Sombra, Celestia, and Twilight were throwing around.

Unfavorite parts:
That was a lot to cram into 44 minutes. I didn't dislike any of it, really, but several parts would have benefited from more time. Just part of the medium, I guess.

The Box:
I'm going to go with "expect the worst, and all your surprises will be pleasant" and say "wings/horns for everypony!" I'm calling it for one key per (ex-?) element, so they all get to "win" at a quest. The show does seem to want something to replace the EoH, since they can't cart them around anymore.

Only part that felt rushed to me was the "Friends trying to convince Twilight to stay behind" part. It was over and done with in 2-3 scenes. Yeah Zecora kinda came out of nowhere, but we got to see Twilight drink a cloudy, white potion, so it's all good according to who you ask. :twilightsmile:

The Celestia/NMM fight was pretty quick, but let's be fair; it was longer than most other fights in the show. NMM's laser beams were pretty cool to see, blowing up everything they touched. And, the transformation was done really well.

I liked what they did with Discord as well, made him out to be a bit of a strategist. He would have won long ago if the seeds weren't stunted by the tree's power. Also, he's shown to be more of a neutral entity, not really on their side, but not outright against them either. I wonder if he would have been more cooperative if they hadn't immediately become aggressive to him when summoned.

This episode belonged to Big Macintosh. End of discussion.

In my perspective the flashbacks alone in episode 2 would put a great majority of fics on the site in the non-canon grounds so I expect alot of writers to either put up an alternate universe tag or a note in the story summery that it ignores season 4.

I'm waiting to see if they will make an episode that will make Discord forget his Friendship with Fluttershy and start doing Chaos again since they no longer have the Elements of Harmony to use against him anymore.

One thing I'm hoping for throughout the season is (preferably just one of) the Mane Six coming across a pony with a missing limb, like a missing leg/wing, or maybe just physically disabled, like a unicorn who gets too many harsh headaches to use magic that often.

Rainbow and Twilight could learn a lot from those hypothetical ponies, respectively.

I'd agree that the walk through the Everfree and the Nightmare Moon battle with Celestia seemed a bit rushed. The potion was a bit too convenient. Otherwise, I thought it wasn't too badly paced. The part where they're trying to convince Twilight to go back to Ponyville seems a bit rushed, but I don't really know if I would want them to spend a huge amount of time on that one bit. Maybe that's just me though. You could potentially say the Everfree was kind of the villain here. It might still be, if the tree ever stops working again for whatever reason. I'm finding it kind of funny that an entire world, or at least a big chunk of it, requires that one tree to be in perfect health. If not, death.

I think the box wont be a great plot thing. I'm willing to bet that at some point they'll need the Elements again, or something similar, and whatever is in that box will replace them.

Nail on the head, bro; you hit it. :moustache:

My flimsy theory of what may be in the box is that it might have to do with how both Celestia's and Luna's cutie marks appeared on the tree's trunk before the box was revealed. Perhaps it might possibly be something that unlocks dominion over a celestial object (such as Luna and the moon and Tia with the sun)?

I do rather like the purified Alicorn Amulet idea, though.

I'm just gonna say that after all the stories we've made and read on this site, nothing, not even the show itself, can compete. Now we've got the mindset of expecting perfect pacing and such because of our reading of these stories that the show never had, kinda ruining it for us.

Just a random thought, what if its something that makes them all alicorns? I know this idea is probably overused but if there is nothing left after this season, wouldn't that be sad as hell for Twilight to not have her friends later in life.

Login or register to comment