• Member Since 12th Jul, 2013
  • offline last seen 9 minutes ago

ThatOneWriter


Definitely gonna write the thing... tomorrow.

More Blog Posts93

  • Saturday
    Reflecting on Rewriting and Revisiting

    I am not the same as I was when I wrote all those stories a decade (what?!) ago.

    Thanks, Captain Obvious.

    But it presents an interesting challenge I had never thought about back then. How do you try to tell the same story to bring it up to (hopefully) better, later standards?

    Read More

    3 comments · 30 views
  • 37 weeks
    Unimagination

    Hey, all. I guess I'm in a reflective mood, and I thought where I'm at might be something relatable for a lot of us.

    Read More

    1 comments · 84 views
  • 120 weeks
    A Humble Proposal

    Hey, everybody! I missed this community. I've kind of felt like an outsider, since I haven't watched the show since the end of Season 4, but I thought I'd check in on my old stomping grounds. Some familiar faces still say hi from time to time, after all.

    Read More

    13 comments · 237 views
  • 418 weeks
    what if tow was not kill

    what if tow used a meme joke to break his long silence?

    So, yeah, sorry about that. It's my last semester (hopefully) of college, so I've been pretty busy. To be honest, I've also been really lazy with my free time and spent more time on Youtube than on here or on Skype. Sorry that I've been a butt. :twilightblush:

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    6 comments · 632 views
  • 424 weeks
    A Break to Discuss Visual Novels

    Yes, this is mostly an excuse to discuss a visual novel I recently played, but partly to dissect it as research. See, I've wanted to make my own visual novel for a while (probably for free or under $5, because it'd be more for fun than for a profit motive). I really like reading/playing visual novels, and I like experimenting with my writing, so writing my own visual novel seems like a natural

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    4 comments · 579 views
Jun
14th
2015

I guess I have to do one of these, don't I? · 12:35am Jun 14th, 2015

Well, episode 100 happened. It was a thing. Was it a good or bad thing? I ain't saying here! Read below the page break, ya bum! And to those of you who haven't watched the episode, watch it! Then you, too, can become one of those people screaming that it was the best/worst thing ever!








All right, with about ten or so blank lines and an actual page break, I think I've given sufficient room to ensure no spoilers. So now, allow me to be the hundredth person you've seen blogging about this episode.

I suspect that most of you are not going to like my opinion. It's not because I fall in the "wrong" camp, but rather, I find myself in the middle.

Let me explain. I guess the first topic I should cover is the pandering. It was everywhere. And... I have mixed feelings on it. They handled it pretty well, I thought, but I don't really like the idea of pandering to the point of making it a specific focus. If pandering works into the normal scheme of things, great! I absolutely agree with throwing your fans a bone wherever it has no detrimental effects.

But here...?

Eh. The individual scenes were fine enough. Doctor Whooves was surprisingly bearable (I expected full-on Doctor Who to the point of only those fans getting it), and I thought his scenes were pretty solid overall. Derpy's voice wasn't all that great, in my opinion, but I was glad to see her come back. People said Whooves X Derpy was canon now, but I just don't see it, personally. Maybe I missed an offhand line or something. After Rainbow Rocks, Lyra and Bon Bon couldn't be portrayed as anything other than "best friends" (Hey, a lover is technically a really good friend, right?), but they actually got some good chemistry in there. The spy thing was kind of stupid and random, but it got a chuckle out of me nonetheless. Gummy's bit was funny. Vinyl and Octavia literally jumped the shark. Make of that what you will.

It was at about that point that I realized something: this episode wasn't really much of an episode. It wasn't a cohesive whole; rather, it was a series of (admittedly amusing) shorts with not much to tie them together. And that's where it really fell apart for me. I'd have preferred this if it had been just a series of silly shorts. They could have released them separately, or they could have used them as outros. I wouldn't really care. They just didn't work for me as one comprehensive, twenty-two-minute unit.

I will say, however, that M.A. Larson remembered to take his meds again when he wrote the last scene. And it was pretty touching, actually. I especially liked how we got the callback with Steven Magnet cutting off his mustache, much like Rarity did the same with her tail. The message was good, and I do think it's a fitting concept. I'm just not sure Larson pulled it off as well as he could have.

What are my thoughts overall? It was pretty enjoyable. It wasn't the strongest technical episode the show has given us, but it was a thank-you to all the bronies out there. The show staff clearly had fun with it, and I had fun watching it. It was kind of like a crack fiction episode: not much substance, but a whole lot of laughs. Those are good every now and again. I'd give this episode a 7/10.

Now I just hope it goes back to normal for a few weeks. I'm not sure I can handle the show making so many meta comments.

Comments ( 12 )

May as well just cut this to the basics.

"Your opinion is different than mine, you must be wrong. Terrorist! "

Isn't that how all arguments start? :derpytongue2:

I actually agree 100% with this.

Personally I LOVED this episode. Yeah it didn't have that much of a plot line and it jumped from one thing to the next but it was a fun episode. I don't think that there is anything there between Hooves and Derpy BUT the interactions they had between Lyra and Bon Bon are far more than that of best friends. There was quite a bit of a romantic undertone between those two and that little squabble they had over Bon Bon's secret identity, that reminded me more of a spousal argument than one between friends. It still wasn't as funny as Lesson Zero, which is my all time favorite episode but it was a great episode.

I was sad though that Pinkie couldn't be there for Cranky and Matilda's wedding. She did reunite them after all and I do think that DJ-PON3 should have had a speaking role. I give this episode a 9.25/10

3146914
No. Clearly, the fact that you have terrible taste in ponies is why you're a terrorist. :P

3147052
Oh, it has been obvious since Rainbow Rocks that the show has wanted to make LyraBon a thing, but... y'know, controversy. And the last thing a cash cow like FiM needs is controversy.

Similarly, Vinyl was mute because they cannot give her the voice the fandom demands, and there would be an uproar. Apparently, Nowacking isn't in the right voice actor unions to do the show or something. Something about needing to be based in Canada instead of New York.

Honestly, I don't think they could have celebrated the 100th episode any other way than making it a full on fan service episode.

Remember the whole scene with the near-accident caused by the Twilicane? It's there for only about a frame, so you have to pull it up on YouTube or something and try to pause that frame. I won't say what is there but it made me laugh so hard I actually fell off my bed. It is so random and unexpected that it's amazing. Seriousky, you will know it when you see it.

It was a decent episode overall, for me at least. I agree with TOW completely about the episode in a summary though the thing that is scaring me is that I think they are going to try to implement the background characters more into the show now. The little speech mayor mare gave foreshadows it a bit. At least to me it does. Personally I don't like that idea, it might test some of the lines and borders between hardcore bronies and people who just watch the show. I'm hoping for the best and trying to prepare for the worse

I was happy to see an episode made just for us.

It wasn't the best on a technical level, but they did try to accommodate several fannons at once in about 22 minutes or runtime. Pandering? Yeah, but why not? We are definitely responsible for its huge success.

I didn't really care for how Vinyl and Octavia were handled. I did like the Lyra and Bon Bon element even though the secret agent thing was dumb. Seriously, who's fanfic did they steal that one from? Can we confirm lesbian horse as canon? I sure hope so. Also, did Bon Bon's voice change?

3147195
Eh, debatable. Making the episode about background ponies was a really nice touch, and I love that. But M.A. Larson went a little too crazy with the fanon and the fan jokes for my tastes. Once it hit the Vinyl and Octavia scene, it started to feel like it was descending into a cluttered mess of jokes that, frankly, I just didn't find funny.

3147385
I saw the horsehead thing. It's really hard to make me laugh at that, so it fell flat for me. And the Twilicane thing just made me roll my eyes. That wasn't funny the first time, and after all this time, now it's just a stupid meme that most fans have let die.

3148015
I don't think this episode is going to affect future episodes to any significant extent. There will be callbacks in the background, I'm sure, and LyraBon seems to be something that will be there from time to time, but I don't think background ponies are taking over or anything. However, if they do, perhaps the plush shark won't be the only shark jumped on the show.

3148136
They tried to cram in too much, and that was the main problem. Again, making it into a series of shorts would have helped, if only to ease the time crunch. It would have allowed for much more focused scenes, and it probably would have reduced the number of throwaway jokes. (I assume, anyway. I mean, more time for actual jokes with a setup and a punchline, right?)

And speaking of punchlines, that's probably why I sound more negative than I feel. At a certain point, the whole thing felt like punchline after punchline with no time to recover or to absorb each joke. I mean, people were missing jokes after the bass cannon thing happened because the episode became that frenzied. That's not good comedy, that's 'throw every joke at the wall and hope they laugh at something.' Which is a shame. I feel like it lived up to the hype up until then, but it just kind of put a sour note on the whole thing.

Also, did Bon Bon's voice change?

Of course! That's like a running gag by now. Her voice is always changing. That's probably why they made her a spy. And also why I'm mad at myself for not thinking of that earlier. I mean, I thought of spy Octavia! Why not spy Bon Bon? Past me, I am incredibly disappoint.

P.S. The only way LyraBon could be more canon is if they actually kissed. Right now, it's more like they're secret lovers or something.

3148930 Well, look at it this way:
Had M.A. Larson only focused on one or two of the background ponies, there would have been complaints that the others didn't get enough screen time.
And I'd rather have an episode that has too much going on than too little, because at least then there's always something to keep you occupied.

But the best thing to come out of the episode, aside from Derpy talking again, was definitely the potential stories that were opened up. I'm especially interested in learning more about that Changeling.

3149010
The whole thing was a nice sentiment, but it was a terrible idea. With this fandom, some people are always unhappy, and some are always unhappy, and when you throw in something controversial like pandering, it's just fuel for flamewars. There are always complaints about too much/too little pandering, and people also argue about who should be pandered to. This is why I generally go by the rule that pandering is a bad idea. It just becomes a huge distraction, and it doesn't even end up making everyone happy, which is the whole point of it.

I guess I've been a bit more alienated from the fandom than usual lately, and this episode really highlights that for me. I had no strong opinions on it. I don't think it was the best episode ever or that it was something Hasbro owed us for being such loyal fans, like some people seem to think. (Many more are in the first camp, but the latter is definitely something I've seen explicitly stated.) Nor do I think that this one-off episode is destructive to the show, or something that kids can't enjoy, or most of the other criticisms. I'm just... mildly positive. And watching these flamewars over what I felt was a pretty average episode just makes me feel more on the outs than usual. I don't know if it's a phase or not, but I've seen a lot of fighting in this fandom lately, and I'm re-evaluating if I even want to be a part of it. I don't know what happened, but things seem pretty toxic all of a sudden. Combine that with stress from settling back into schoolwork (Starting back up in the half-length-but-full-load summer semester? Bad idea, TOW.), and I think I may take a bit of a hiatus.

Really, that whole attitude of "Why the fighting? Why the cries of "BEST/WORST EVER!"? It's just another episode, and not really a noteworthy one outside of the nod to the fandom." was my whole purpose for posting this blog.

3149246 I can see where your coming from. I too don't have that strong a connection with the fandom as a whole. I visit here a lot, and I check Equestria Daily, and I follow some groups for the show on deviantArt, but that's it.
Heck, I got into the show at some point during season 3, after the majority of the major memes were created.

And granted, I mostly liked the episode because of all of the very entertaining ideas that were brought up in it, as well as the potential stories that resulted from those ideas. Especially with the changeling and Gummy.

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