Doctor Perseus Reviews: MLP S6E13 "Stranger Than Fan Fiction" *SPOILERS* · 9:56pm Jul 30th, 2016
Season 6 sure returned sooner than I expected. But now that we've officially reached the mid-point of the season, I'll write my mid-season overview towards the middle of this week. For now, here are my thoughts on Stranger Than Fan Fiction.
This was an episode that I was definitely interested in. The concept intrigued me and I was looking forward to seeing how this episode played out. And, overall, I really enjoyed it.
Rainbow Dash was a ton of fun throughout this episode and I could relate to the situation she was in (more so her dilemma with Quibble Pants than her real-life Daring Do adventure). As it's been made obvious time and time again (if you've read my reviews and blogs for any amount of time), I tend to lean more towards the positive side when it comes to the shows and movies I love. Of course, there have been exceptions when an episode didn't sit well with me or and moment severely irked me. But I usually tend to be as positive and optimistic as I can be in my reviews. It's not something I force out of me or pretend to me. I just tend to genuinely enjoy a lot of what, to name an example, MLP has given us. So I could definitely understand Rainbow Dash's perspective throughout the episode. Plus her various entertaining face animations were a welcome laugh now and then.
Quibble Pants is a character who I'm not entirely sure how to feel about. There were moments where I liked him and moments where I disliked him. He was sincere in some moments and incredibly annoying at others. But I think that was the point. He served his role for the episode well. It was also nice to see AK Yearling aka Daring Do again.
What really stands out to me in this episode is the moral. I think it's very easy to look to this episode as a commentary on battling fanboys and fangirls across the interwebs. I liked how this episode shows that you can still get along and respect each other in spite of not agreeing on everything. This is a very good lesson to teach in an age where flame wars will start over a simple disagreement of opinions. This episode sort of made me think of the relationship I have with two particular close friends. The three of us are huge Doctor Who and Harry Potter fans. But we disagree on a lot of things. I loved the Harry Potter movies, they thought the movies weren't good adaptations. I loved Clara Oswald on Doctor Who, they hated Clara. But, in spite of that, we're still able to get along and maturely discuss our differing opinions; and, most importantly, remain close friends. I feel like this is an episode that came out at an all-too perfect time. Unless you've been living under a rock, I'm sure everyone is aware of the Ghostbusters drama that plagued the internet. After all that BS, it's nice to see an episode like this come along and teach the message of being respectful and friendly despite having differing opinions. And although the internet will always be an opinion flamewar waiting to explode, it's still nice to see messages like this being taught in fun ways every now and then.
And on a quick final note, Twilight's mention of a Friendship Summit in Griffonstone has definitely got me thinking. Are we going to return to Griffonstone at some point? Will we see Gilda again? Will the griffons have improved since last season? It was a short moment but it gave us a lot to think about.
So, overall, I thought Stranger Than Fan Fiction was a really fun and incredibly relevant episode with a great moral.
What did the rest of you think of Stranger Than Fan Fiction?
Oh and on one last note, here are my quick thoughts on the trailer for Equestria Girls: Legend of Everfree.
It's an alright trailer. Some wonky editing here and there. But the movie has an interesting premise. Definitely looking forward to it.
I know I've already talked about this before on your homepage, but this episode has helped bring MLP: FIM's list of celebrities up to 4 (John de Lancie as Discord, "Weird Al" Yankovic as Cheese Sandwich, Lena Hall as Countess "Rara" Coloratura, and Patton Oswalt as Quibble Pants). You know, I can't help but find a bit of irony in the fact that Friendship is Magic is produced by the Canadian company DHX Media, yet all of the celebrity guest stars they've gotten so far have been American.
While on the subject of Equestria Girls: Legend of Everfree, it's recently been announced who will be writing that movie. As it turns out, it won't be Josh Haber like I originally guessed. Instead, we've got two writers for the price of one for this installment with Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco, better known collectively as the "Lady Writers". So far, their contributions to Friendship is Magic have been writing for the following episodes:
* Castle Sweet Castle
* Rarity Investigates!
* The Hooffields and the McColts
* Gauntlet of Fire
I also very much enjoyed his episode as I go through it on a molecular level on my own blog. I, however, enjoyed Quibble Pants a lot more than you did.
4122928 Imagine if you could add William Shatner as the fifth to that list. He's into MLP, and apparently he's interested in being a guest star.