Episode One-Hmmm-dred · 11:25pm Jun 13th, 2015
I'm divided. I liked it, but not as much as I'd like to like it, or maybe it's a matter of how critically respectable it might be to like it. The sincerity of the ending graciously offset a lot of the wink-wink-nudge-nudge stuff, which is lucky because MLP is pretty much the only show from which I tolerate that kind of guilelessness. But because it is MLP, namely its own specific show, it was sorta like, a little bit here and there is great, but leave the Doctor and Jeff Lebowski back in their own stories—It's not their place to do any heavy lifting here. It was sorta like the Tirek fight: This is awesome and fun and all, but does it belong here? It's always been a pretty self-aware and playful show, though, so I dunno.
But that bit with Gummy was great. And the writing and pacing were snappy, which is something I thought was lacking in season 5 up until the Discord episode, making everything seem kinda clunky before that.
All that aside, though, Tabitha killed it as Derpy Muffins.
I'll have to watch it again in a few days before my opinion on it will congeal. While I felt like I could hear DHX behind it going "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED??," well, I was, so...
I mean, on the one hand, wow! 22 minutes of fanservice!
But on the other hand, ugh, 22 minutes of fanservice...?
In any case, they clearly worked hard and went out of their way to make something for the fans, so I hope they get a positive reaction, which so far it seems like they are. Hopefully people don't turn against it in a month, because it'd make me really sad to see that kind of playful effort backfire on them.
...Wait. So this show is based on a toy line, right? What if all this reification of fanon is a mirroring-back of the way people play with the ponies?
Think about it.
We're getting into some Lego Movie-level recursion there. Larson may have given us a glimpse into his mind.
And now I'm somewhat disturbed...
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Now you've got me thinking it's only a matter of time before we get a Chris Pratt pony.
Lol. Well, I loved it. And I love that we have it. I can think of a hundred ways I'd do it different. But hey, I wouldn't honestly have it any other way now that we got it.
It's like, this was for us, with the best intentions.
Something like EQG was for money, and for toys, plain and simple. I'll look at this as an apology.
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That's a really good point.
I certainly liked it, just not unreservedly.
Agreed, they really got the balance much better with episode 200 than they did with this one.
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Yeah, I really liked the part where they had to do a "Fantastic Voyage" into Rainbow Dash's brain to pull out that hailstone, but I thought the extended shot-for-shot homage to "2001" with all the cave-ponies hooting around the giant cake was a little much.
Of all the directions I could have moved with this, my mind chose this one: MOAR.
And for that, I'm sorry. It's embarrassing, really, but, if they can pull this off, why the hell not get crazy shit like Patrick Stewart voicing for Star Swirl the Bearded against John DeLancie's Discord? It makes me itch in a way that only the actual happening of these speculations can scratch, and it's all because Episode 100 literally, not figuratively,
JUMPED.
THE.
FREAKING.
SHARK.
pbs.twimg.com/media/CGxaCkIWgAA4UIx.jpg
See, after that, a bar has been set. Set higher than ever before. But it's not so high that it's unattainable; it's just high enough that all I can think about is topping it. I understand it may never happen. I understand I may remain itchy for a very long time, to serve my prior metaphor, but AUGH IT IS TORTURE, PURE TORTURE, NOT KNOWING WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN NEXT!
You know what you did, Larson -_- you magnificent bastard.
I will never escape this fandom now.
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Yeah, I definitely think the show works best as a goofy, rather self-aware action comedy, but because it takes place in its own specific fantasy world I'm just concerned it'll lose a lot of its charm if it gets too meta.
This still sums up my thoughts pretty well: