Pipe Land 24 · 2:00pm Oct 21st, 2017
Ahhh, it's nice having a whole week of not having to watch the show, where I can do whatever I want and still have no time to do anything I need to because good lord do I have a lot of balls in the air. D: I feel like I'm repeating myself, and that's only half the problem!
If you're just seeing Uncommon Bond for the first time, I hope you enjoyed it, because it is but a portent of great things to come. :3 Uh, ignore the fact that it doesn't officially premiere in the US for another hour and a half. >.> I have other things to do today, okay?
Oh my god, Starlight is just the worst. XD No one cares about your lame friend, Starlight!
BOY HOWDY I SURE DO LOVE WHEN VINYL DJ PON-3 SHOWS UP IN AN EPISODE THAT MAKES THE EPISODE BETTER ALL BY ITSELF
Huh. Also waiting on the platform are a couple of crystal ponies. I swear the taller one looks familiar somehow…
Boy, there sure are a lot of crystal ponies visiting Ponyville all at once. I wonder why we never see any in background shots. :V
Those doors will kill a pony someday. >.> They need to invent warning announcements.
God, Sunburst is such a dork, I love him so much. XD
How weird is it watching a pony wrench with her neck while trying to lift something with magic. >.> It's such an intriguingly unnecessary movement, and suggests a lot about how magic is perceived by unicorns. Or maybe Starlight is just dumb. :V
Such. A. Dork. But seriously, if you want antique, go to Rainbow Falls. :B Which is totally a place that still exists.
Sunburst PACKS LIKE A WOMAN is that the joke here I can never be sure >.>
Starlight Glimmer is the thirstiest pony in Ponyville. Further proof that Trixie does not understand the concept of sex. :V
Nopony works at the Ponyville Antique Mall. It does not get deliveries. The inside is larger than the outside. The contents change, sometimes by the hour. It has no doors. To enter, one only need desire it; to leave, one only need pray. Don't forget to leave your bits on the counter. Don't forget to leave.
I do like that Twilight's annoyed by her friends being considerably dorkier than she is. Like, Starlight's got dorky tendencies, but they seem to end at "poor social skills". She knows lots about magic, but she's not a nerd. And of course, Sunburst and Twilight are, so this scene just fits them to a T. V:
OH MY GOD TWILIGHT SPEAKING OLD PONISH THOUGHT THIS IS ONE OF HER BEST MOMENTS EVER XD
And the thing is, if you look at the phrase — and I trust the MLP wiki, here — it's "Hliet foresettan pliht!" which means she didn't even say it right. <.< Old English is far more phonetic than modern; it should be more like "hlee-yeht fore-eh-seht-tahn plikht" because yes, you pronounce the h's (that word may be more recognizable today as "plight"), and fucking major kudos to the show writers, they got the translation and the conjugation goddamn right! :D
I do love ponies commenting on things being adorable. Because Twilight is right.
So yeah, is Dragon Pit basically Fireball Island? Because I never ever got to play that game, and I always wanted to. D:
Yeah, shippers, Twilight and Sunburst each think the other is adorable, you heard it here.
Oh my god, I hate morning people, too. D:
So ponies that wear clothing regularly hate being seen without it. Either that, or, between this scene and the one where Rainbow pulls the covers off of Fluttershy, there is some kind of taboo about seeing a pony directly after they've gotten out of bed. (Or, y'know, Sunburst is just trying to hide morning wood, it happens. <.<)
I do love this scene at the tree hammering in just how much Starlight lives in the past. Not that it's much of a surprise. One bad thing happened to her, and she let it ruin her life. She's always lived in the past.
Is anyone else weirded out by a unicorn more or less successfully applebucking? c.c
TEACUP! :D
No, Trixie, you often sleep in the orchard because you're a drunk. :B
In this moment, Starlight can just tell how things are going to go if she lets her old boyfriend start talking to her girlfriend. It's not that they're gonna fuck, it's that they're gonna be gross about it. :V
Yeah, that "best friend of Starlight" with the wink. Ain't no friends here but marefriends. :V
Goddammit, Trixie, you are the worst. XD
SERIOUSLY, STARLIGHT IS WATCHING HER FRIENDS PLAY BONDAGE RIGHT NOW
So this scene is great not just for all the sexual tension, but because it confirms what was only suggested in The Crystalling: Sunburst knows lots of stuff about magic and magic theory, but he's very poor at actually using it, and likely always has been. No doubt this made him self-conscious all throughout unicorn school, and that's why he tried to pass himself off as a wizard when Starlight first reconnected with him.
And Starlight facehoofs like "You guys are such dorks why do I love you?"
I do appreciate that the montage shows both Trixie and Sunburst being alternately good and bad at their tricks.
Also, how the fuck do you do a cup and ball trick with cups that all look different? D:
And now you witness Starlight starting down the path to true madness as she brings Sunburst to the Mirror Pool. Nothing good will come of this.
It's kind of nice seeing Maud actually doing rock stuff for once.
I would like to point out that while, gneiss, phyllite and slate are all foliated metamorphic rocks, as Maud said, none of them looks like what is clearly amethyst. :|
And "speleothem", for the uninitiated, is the general term for stalactites and stalagmites.
Ponies don't have heels, how does she rock back on them? XD
So once again, Starlight makes everything worse with magic, though at least this is a big step up from "mind-control your friends".
You gotta love Trixie just casually sawing herself in half while holding a conversation. Like, who does that? XD The Great and Powerful Trixie, that's who.
For some reason, I really like Maud's interactions with Sunburst. Like, I think he's the first pony I really like seeing her with.
Yeah, and Boulder somehow dunked himself in the Mirror Pool and duplicated, and you just have to wonder. c.c
I love how Maud says "Prepaaaare yourseeeeelf". XD
So Starlight spends the episode trying to play Dragon Pit with Sunburst, because it's literally the only positive thing she can remember from their foalhood friendship. Sunburst tries to come up with something he and Starlight still have in common… and ends up with Dragon Pit. <.< Are they saying that this is literally all their friendship is based off of? Memories of the past the only thing they have in common?
Of course, the other conclusion is "the one thing we still have in common is… liking your friends!" :B
"Sunburst is in pain! Now it's fun!" :V
Lyra welcoming her waifu back from her business trip, by which I mean secret agent assignment. >:V
Seriously, holding all of Sunburst's stuff aloft in her magic is causing Trixie to sweat. c.c
And I really love that stinger for sending me down the rabbit hole of season three stringers. :D It was quite rewarding. See my previous blog about this episode for how that turned out!
So if there's anything I can say against this episode, it's that it really piles on the "Starlight talks about what they have in common so her hopes can be dashed by the end of the episode" line. Like, it's not subtle at all. But that's also hardly a problem? Like, I really feel like I have to dig to find anything to dislike about this. It's the culmination of all the Starlight-centric stuff from season seven — which has been overwhelmingly more enjoyable than the same from last season — we get to see Sunburst again, the shipping potential is off the charts, all the setpieces are just really fun to watch, and it sets up the season finale in a small but significant way. Again, I love the moral of "you can't necessarily be friends in childhood the same way you're friends in adulthood", and the worst I can say is that this is the level of episode I was hoping for more of this season. It's not the best episode ever, but there's just nothing to say against it. 5/5!
This was the only iffy part for me... if the whole episode is a sexual tension metaphor, the ending was a pity date. Would have been nicer if they all went to hang out, with the lesson being "we don't have much in common, but neither do you and Maud or Trixie and that doesn't stop anyone from being friends."
Aside from that, it was great.
(And you missed absolutely nothing with Fireball Island... 100% luck with a shiny coat of paint and mousetrap mechanic.)
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Honestly, if you were playing actual Fireball Island, you were doing it wrong. The real appeal was in that bad-ass sculpted plastic board, which made perfect terrain for other toys at a similar scale. :)
I had no idea Dragon Pit was based on an actual board game. Thanks for that!
A little, but it's not like she got all or even most of the apples. These trees are likely bred for good mundane vibration conduction. Every little bit helps.
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So it's more just a question of surprise at seeing a hornhead do physical labor. :V Sheesh.
Yeah, an overall fantastic episode IMHO. Part of why the shipping seems so strong here is because either Starlight and Sunburst are platonic friends who only ever have a kids game in common so they can play it a few more times, or Starlight and Sunburst are hooking up and they have that in common, plus a children's board game.
4704175 I love the idea of the Apples breeding their trees for buckability.