Miss Koi Finally Reviews "Campfire Tales" & "To Change a Changeling" · 10:10pm Jan 22nd, 2018

I gotta say, these two episodes were fun:) Especially “To Change a Changeling”:) But first, let’s start with “Campfire Tales”:

The story starts with a nice continuity nod by the writers by having the sister gang’s annual big sis & little sis camping trip:) With less luggage this time;)

But this continuity nod soon ends when a new species of bug invades the camp: Fly-ders. AKA every bug haters’ worst nightmare

This forces our sister gang to retreat into a cave and tell each other stories. Specifically, stories of Equestria’s greatest legends: Rockhoof (AKA Viking Horse), Mistmane (AKA The Last Curved Horn Unicorn), and Flash Magus (AKA The Good Kind of Flash).

Applejack recalled her favorite legend Rockhoof due to his incredible strength and perseverance and determination, and I kinda see why she likes him as hero but her reasons seemed a little lacking to me and his story was a little lacking for me. But that’s just me personally. For some reason, Rockhoof’s story gave me a Beowulf vibe, except its a lot shorter and Rockhoof is WAY MORE likable than Beowulf himselfXD Plus, Rockhoof has a overall good design and it’s nice to see viking culture and mythos in MLP:) But I can see why they made Rockhoof’s story lacking because the story telling structure of Rockhoof’s story is very much a tribute to legends like Beowulf and strong and indestructible heroes like Beowulf.

(Haha sorry couldn’t resist, it was just too adorable and corny;))
As for Flash Magus, told by Rainbow Dash, I can see why Rainbow would admire him more as a hero (you know, due to his great bravery and loyalty to his crew and awesomeness and all;) There’s definitely a bit more to his story compared to Rockhoof’s story, I mean, after all we got to see Ember’s dad and maybe supposedly her mother?

But much like Rockhoof’s story, Flash’s story is still very simple and tribute to stories like Hercules. Especially Disney’s Hercules;) But still enough for me personally, that’s why the next story is my personal favorite;)

Mistmane’s story, told Miss Rarity, was my favorite story:) Of course second best pony had the best story in this episode;)

And the story’s setting takes place in a beautiful MLP rendition of the Asian culture and land itself taking place far away with no name, hopefully we’ll get a name soon in the future and explore this destination more <3 Especially since apparently in this new land, it’s mostly made up (In fact all of the population is made) of unicorns and these unicorns have curved horns!:D Oh my gosh, they look like the Chinese Interpretation of Unicorns: Qilins!:D

Hmm, I wonder why this land is solely made of unicorns. Anyway, Mistmane’s story had pretty much everything that one could want in a story like this: a beautiful display of culture, a well paced narrative, a simple but powerful and deep moral, drama, friendship, a great plot twist to boot, and a freakin battle dragon spell and battle:D Spell dragons you guys!:D Spell Dragons!:D

This segment of the episode not only made Mistmane my favorite legend pillar so far and made me want to learn more about her, but it really compensated the episode and the other stories in which they lacked in. This segment signifies why Rarity promotes generosity and beauty as values, but shows the audience why beauty and generosity are values that we as the viewers should promote too<3 Truly an overall touching and beautiful fairy tale <3

Though question: How powerful is Mistmane? I mean, how powerful is she to get her mane flow like Celestia’s and Luna’s like that without being an immortal alicorn? I mean I know, this is the writer’s way and the creator’s way of being creative because her name is Mistmane and her mane flows like mist. But, Twilight’s mane and Cadencence’s mane don’t flow like Mistmane’s does. So, what’s makes Mistmane different? I know she’s a powerful unicorn, but still...questions need to be answered here:/

Also, I noticed that the MLP official comic writers have written several comics on the legendary pillars of magic:) Would you guys want me to review those? I want to learn more about these characters and I’m curious to see if you guys want me to do comic reviews. I have done some in the past, but not much. Please let me know in the comments below:)

Also fun fact: the koi fish pony species that my OC is comes from the area that Mistmane is from^^ This episode gave me an idea on how the koi fish ponies came to be:) Would you guys be interested in an fanfic explaining this origin? If so, please let me know in the comments down below^^

(Haha lol who knew that kois like watermelonXD)

Overall, I gave “Campfire Tales” 8 hearts out of 10 solely because of Mistmane’s story, the fact that we are expanding more on the lore of MLP, and we get a fun set up by the characters to tell these fairy tales <3

Now, onto our episode about our favorite two new bros: Thorax and Pharynx <3

What I liked the most about this episode are the following two things: 1) the bond between Thorax and Pharynx, and 2) how the episode played with my expectations for Pharynx’s character:)

At first, I thought that before the episode begins and even during the intro of this episode, that Pharynx was behind those groups of changelings trying to stick to the old ways and rebelling against Thorax during “Triple Threat”, but surprise Pharynx is just a grumpy guss trying to protect the hive to the best of his ability and sticking to what he has always known. It’s not that he’s against Thorax and the hive, it’s just his protective instincts taking over and making him very blunt about the manner:) Good job with that nice unexpected twist there writers:)

In fact, after looking back, if Pharynx was the leader behind that group of changelings trying to rebel against Thorax, I think Thorax would have known about it since he knows his brother well and his hive well. Though question: if Pharynx wasn’t behind those rebel changelings, then who was it?;) Cough Cough Chrysallis Cough Cough! Although, it is possible that there was no leader to start this rebellion though.

(Fear me, my hair is poofy! >:D)

Not only is Pharynx protective of the hive, he is also protective over his little bro Thorax:3 Daww:3 Even though he has no idea how to express this love like Thorax canXD Question: How can they be brothers if everypony in the hive is technically related to one another? Does brother mean the hatchlings closest to you during your hatch time or something?

Not only do we learn more about Pharynx in this episode, but also about Thorax and a good message on family and just our relations with other people:) We learn that Thorax is truly loyal to a fault, not just to his friends, but also to his family, his hive, and for what he stands for<3 Before the audience really gets to know the real Pharynx, we can see how Thorax sees and believes in this real good Pharynx in Pharynx despite everypony doubting it. Thanks to Thorax, the message of the episode is to not only let love be our eyes to see others and their potential, but to also have this unwavering faith and confidence in others no matter what and to never give up on them. I know we’ve have MLP episodes like that in the past, and plenty of cartoons have done episodes with that kind of message, but for some reason for me on this episode, this message really comes through and sticks with me<3

And to put some more cherries on this changeling sundae (uuuhhh, for some reason this sounds wrong to me:/) is that they made Pharynx’s reform design match more of his personality and didn’t make him look too colorful like Thorax and the rest of the changelings, making still intimidating to look at so that way he can scare predators yet still be approachable:) Actually, this is the kind of design they should have done for the changelings:) Give them a dark color appearance, fill in the holes, give them sparkly wings and a smile and you’re good to go:) Sidenote: Wouldn't it be hilarious if they made Pharynx's reformed form just be completely and utterly pink and purple!XD Lol!

Speaking of predators, this season is just killing it with the killer combos to make absolutely horrifying monsters 0-0

Speaking of the changelings, I think I found a new best friend for TreeHugger:D ;) :3

And I know what they can all do together: the therapy circle together!:D And even TreeHugger’s boyfriend can tag along: Smoozie!:D Haha lolXD

Overall, I give this episode 8 hearts out of 10<3, and while the two episodes in the review are tied, I prefer “To Change A Changeling” over “Campfire Tales” because the story is well constructed, the humor is well written, and the overall theme is alot stronger:)