DANNYJ REVIEWS: MLP SEASON 7 PART 2

Holy shit, so I've got to split this in two, because the full review is too long for a single blog post. I didn't even know blog posts had a character limit, but there we go.

Episode 14 - Fame and Misfortune:

So now that the good stuff is out of the way, let's get back to the trash, and OH LOOK, IT'S AN EPISODE ALL ABOUT MEEEEEE!

I'M WALKING ON SUNSHINE, WOAHHHHHHHHHH

I mentioned briefly before that season six had the first instance of the show getting meta in a confrontational way, as opposed to the pandering, fanservice-y way that Slice of Life did. It was a sign of things to come. Quibble Pants was the archetypical obsessive fanboy nerd complaining about how his favourite franchise sucks now because it's not as good as it's used to be, and that's basically supposed to be people like me. I didn't feel it at the time, because back then I was still fairly happy with the direction the show was going in, but yes, it's totally about people like me.

This episode is not about me, despite my jokes to the contrary (or at least I hope it isn't about me), but I still don't think anyone will be surprised to hear me say I didn't like it. So let's break this down in a critical fashion, and I'll try to explain why this episode is HORRIBLE, and OFFENDS ME, and how LARSON IS THE DEVIL.

I'm joking, you twats. But it really does suck, though.

We'll start with the obvious. In this episode, the mane six publish the Journal of Friendship that they were writing in all through season four, and gain a horde of pushy, disrespectful fans because of it. The journal is the show, and the pushy, disrespectful fans are us. Or at least, they are some of us. They're an allegorical representation of a portion of the fandom that behaves in a certain way, or at least they're supposed to be. More on that later.

mfw I realised what kind of episode this was going to be.

Now, when you're a writer for a popular show like FiM, and you're active on Twitter, interacting directly with fans and members of the public who consume your creative work, it's almost inevitable that you will come across people like this. Fans will criticise the show directly to the writer's proverbial faces, and they won't always do it in a polite way, nor will they always make good criticisms. Nitpickers like me obsessing over small details are dime-a-dozen on the internet, as are the other kinds of people portrayed here, who in many ways miss the writer's point in favour of blindly loving or hating a character or becoming lost in their own misconceptions. And while I personally don't badger the writers themselves over my grievances (because I, too, am a creative, and I understand how that can get annoying), I know that plenty do. That is an understandable frustration, and whenever I hear about Twitter drama, writers getting hatemail, writers going offline due to harassment, I feel bad for them. I get it.

What I don't get, and what I don't understand or sympathise with in any way, is using your creative work as an outlet to attack your detractors. Even if we're talking about rude, obsessive armchair critics who harass the writers over Twitter, I just don't think it should be done, as a general rule. Christian Weston Chandler uses his stories to attack trolls. Professional writers should be above that. Because using your fiction to attack your critics, whether they deserve it or not, inevitably results in a bad story which misrepresents the other side with strawmen. If you're writing to mock, belittle, attack, or even just argue back against someone, and you're playing the role of both yourself and them, then how can you possibly represent them without bias?

In fact, I generally advise against creatives arguing back against their critics at all. It is certainly true that not all criticism is fair, useful, or informed, but everyone has a different opinion, and the writer's opinion of their own work is not relevant to the consumer and does not necessarily affect their experience. My own stories have received plenty of criticism over the years, and not all of it has been valuable. Some of it just hasn't made sense to me at all. But in all cases, explaining my intent to someone who had a bad time with my story and telling them that they're reading it wrong does no good to anyone. It doesn't change their experience, it doesn't make my story better, and if I don't hear them out and consider their words, then I don't learn anything from them.

Take the Fluttershy scene, for instance, wherein Fluttershy herself argues in defence of her character arc to in-universe representations of people who think Fluttershy's character arc is bad.

An exclusive look into the writer's room.

Now, her argument itself is fine. People in real life learn in baby steps and occasionally backslide. Okay. Do you know why I think that's fine? Because I agree with it. I've previously made the exact same argument myself in defence of Fluttershy. But here's why it's bad when the show does it:

Firstly, it strawmans the critics of Fluttershy's character, portraying them all in an explicitly negative light and cowing them them into silence, whereas the real life people who actually hold this view would probably make a counterargument at this stage. Secondly, it fails to address the audience's experience. This argument might explain or justify the writer's intent, but it doesn't change the fact that those fans perceived Fluttershy as a static character because of the way she's written, and consequently had a bad time with the story. And thirdly, by having this specific criticism voiced by a group of strawmen characters who are supposed to represent douchebags on Twitter, you apply the douchebag characteristics to everybody who feels this way about Fluttershy's character, at which point the line between "Twitter douchebags" and the fandom at large is blurred.

And speaking of blurred lines, that's really this episode's main problem. When you're making an allegory, you have to really think about what exactly you're representing, and the implications of your allegory, otherwise it's just weird and uncomfortable for everyone.

True Blood was a story about vampires fighting for civil rights in modern America, and it was pretty obviously meant to be a metaphor for the LGBT movement's struggle for acceptance. The only thing is, vampires in True Blood really are vicious monsters who are naturally driven to violence, with even the heroic, sympathetic vampires having histories of murder, so all the grumbling old Republicans and crazy evangelicals fighting against vampire rights seem really fucking justified in their concerns, and oh look at that, suddenly True Blood's allegory is full of unfortunate implications and it doesn't work as a pro-LGBT narrative.

This episode basically has the same issue. Now, I'm willing to extend the benefit of the doubt here. Larson didn't even want to write this episode, so I seriously doubt he harboured any ill intent towards the fandom at large. Even for the people who told him to write it and gave him the specifics, I can believe that they only wanted to take aim at this specific, annoying subsection of the fandom that they have to deal with. I can believe that it's not meant to be about all of us, or at the very least, that if it is, it's a warning for the rest of us to not become like this. Because like I said, there are people who behave this way.

But you know what? If the annoying Journal of Friendship fans are meant to represent a vocal minority, then where are the rest of the fandom in this episode? Because as far as I can see, there are just two extremes present. There's the vast majority of (mostly adult) ponies who bought the book and acted like raging assholes for the whole episode, while also rudely and obnoxiously voicing opinions that plenty of reasonable, moderate fans probably hold. And there's those two little fillies from the beginning that showed up again at the end, and learned the exact lessons that Twilight intended to impart while asking no questions and voicing no complaints.

Now, I don't know about you, but to me, a surface-level reading of this allegory reveals a troubling message: "This show is for little girls, because they're who we write for, and they're completely uncritical of what we do. The adult fans are all creepy obsessive weirdos who are missing the point by thinking about things and should probably go away."

Not encouraging, is it? Like I said, I'm going to extend the benefit of the doubt and assume that that wasn't the intended message. But regardless of the intent, it was botched by bad writing and an allegory that wasn't thought through. There's a reason why this episode caused a shitload of drama, and it's not just because of people getting triggered over being justifiably called out. If you're a regular fan who doesn't act like an asshole, and you just happen to think that Fluttershy is a static character or that there's such a thing as a worst pony, then this episode directly insulted you without provocation, and I think you're well within your rights to feel upset by that.

AND DON'T IT FEEL GOOD?

Oh, and before we leave off, yeah, this episode had shit continuity, too. Go back to season four and listen to the journal entries as they were written, or even read them yourself in the real-life Journal of Friendship, and then tell me how in the fuck these people know as much as they do about the mane six's lives. Here's a hint: the Daring Don't entry? Does not reference Daring Do or A.K. Yearling by name. I guess Dash's filly fans from that one scene are just fucking telepaths.

Episode 15 - Triple Threat:

So moving on from one drama-bomb, let's tackle another, by which I mean Thorax and the changelings. Now, since only Thorax himself is present in this episode, I'm going to save my autistic screeching about the nu-changelings in general for later, but I think this is a good point to talk about The Problem of Thorax.

Not this problem. Though yeah, this is a problem too.

But let's start from the beginning.

If you only recently got into MLP, you probably don't remember the rush of changeling fics back in season two, but they captivated the imagination of everyone at the time. This was an era when the fandom was much bigger and more active than it is today, and also one where we didn't get a whole new season leaked every other week, so believe it or not, Chrysalis and the changelings' sudden appearance midway through A Canterlot Wedding was an actual surprise. It completely blind-sided everyone, suddenly turning what we thought was going to be another low-key slice of life finale like Best Night Ever into the most badass thing to have come out of this show at the time. And it came complete with a whole new mysterious race of shape-shifters who we knew nothing about, and who were ripe for exploration.

...Yeah, the show did nothing with them for another three seasons. But that's okay! Because the IDW comics and the fandom picked up the slack, and we got our fix of changeling stories over the intervening years. In fact, we got so many changeling fics, that they practically had their own subgenres, some of which are still going strong today. In particular, I could point to the many reformed changeling fics, wherein a changeling protagonist, usually separated from the swarm following the failed invasion, hides alone amongst ponies and grows to enjoy their company. Typically, they will make pony friends who will at some point learn the truth, and there's also often a narrative of the revealed changeling struggling to convince others that they're not a monster and that they really do care for their new friends. You've probably read this story before. And whichever of the many versions of it you read, it was probably better than The Times They Are a-Changeling.

Now, there's a lot I could criticise that episode for, but the main reason I bring up reformed changeling fics as a point of comparison is that most reformed changeling fics I could name had more interesting protagonists than Thorax. They were characters who were curious about the world and had a drive to discover, or who were torn between loyalties to their people and their new friends. Most had a hint of the alien to them, outsider perspectives, perhaps some greyer morality or an edge to their personalities from being born deceivers or bred for war. They all had something going on for them, at least.

But Thorax has none of that. Thorax is just a guy. A pretty bland, milquetoast sort of guy with a normal-sounding voice, who's just generically nice, unconflicted about his past, and generally has nothing interesting about him. His only real notable trait in season six was being a basically decent individual, which yeah, was unique for a changeling, but not for a FiM character. I guess he'd hiss uncontrollably sometimes, but that was it. Even now, what's special about him? Just that he's a king, really. He's not even unique in his ugliness, because his entire species looks like vomit now.

So, on the whole, I don't like Thorax. I didn't like him in season six because he was a boring character. I don't like him now because he's a boring character who also hurts my eyes. Thorax had and still has nothing going on for him.

Except in Triple Threat.

...What do you want me to say, guys? Come on.

Horrible garish design aside, I kinda liked Thorax in Triple Threat. In fact, the episode came pretty close to making me like Thorax in general, because for the first and only time, the episode actually gave him some sense of character, and it did this by playing up his contrasting traits. Thorax here is a king, but he's also a loser. He's cast as a weak ruler, lacking confidence in himself, too meek to really deal with the kind of internal strife that you'd expect the changelings to be going through at a time like this. And while I will say that playing up how ineffectual Thorax is just makes it all the more baffling that he's a king at all, it also makes him more endearing. He's almost like a male Fluttershy in some of his scenes this episode.

Another smart thing this episode did was pairing him up with Ember for a scene, because their dynamic, however briefly we experienced it, was very different than any of Thorax's other relationships. Spike, Glimmer, Twilight, and most other characters will normally just respond to Thorax's generic niceness with more generic niceness, but Ember and Thorax could relate to each other, talk about their issues with each other, and help each other overcome said issues. I wish the whole episode had been about the two of them rather than Spike's problems.

Unfortunately, it wasn't. Triple Threat may have had an interesting character dynamic to take advantage of, but everything else about it was weak. Spike, Twilight, and Glimmer were all in stupid mode so that this contrived conflict and flimsy story could play out, and nobody ever stopped to make the sensible and obvious observation that Ember and Thorax have literally no reason to immediately hate one another. So instead of an episode about Ember and Thorax doing something interesting, we have to go through this stock sitcom scenario about trying to keep them apart with an elaborate series of distractions and lies.

I don't know about you guys, but to me, this episode felt like a waste of potential. And wouldn't you know it, wasted potential would be the theme of the next changeling episode, too! But before we get to that, we have to address...

Episode 16 - Campfire Tales:

Yes. It's time to talk about the Pillars.

AWAKEN, MY JOJOKES!

OKAY, so... unless you're a time-traveller from the recent past, you've probably seen the season finale, and know that it revolves around Star Swirl the Bearded and his five hangers-on. In recent seasons, it's been a trend to build up to the finales with season-long arcs laying the groundwork, or at least little hints in a handful of episodes. In season seven, that was the Pillar episodes, which revolved around learning the backstories of the Pillars and why they were important, before they finally appeared for real in the finale. This is dumb, because the Pillars aren't important in the finale and nobody cares about them, but we'll cover that when we get to it.

What's actually interesting about the Pillar episodes is the manner of their presentation, because it's a huge mess. We were first supposed to be introduced to the five new characters through these episodes in season seven. For whatever reason, it was decided that Somnambula and Meadowbrook would both get episodes of their own later on, while Rockhoof, Flash Magnus, and Mistmane would have their introductions crammed into this episode. Meanwhile, in an effort to tie the show and the comics more closely together, it was decreed that the Friends Forever comics would be cancelled to make way for Legends of Magic, a series all about the Pillars. The first six issues would each focus on a different Pillar in a sequel story to their debut episode, and then they'd all cross over for multi-issue arc about their briefly glimpsed battle with the Dazzlings from the finale.

This was the plan, but somehow (and I don't know how), even with the constant leaks that occurred this season, the Legends of Magic sequel comics still ended up being the actual debuts for most of the Pillars, with their "main" stories from the show itself coming out afterwards. I blame this on the boneheaded decision to shove all the Pillar episodes into the back half of the season rather than spacing them out, but I guess it doesn't matter. The point is, the comics came first, and they got to set the tone for the Pillars arc, for better or for worse.

So, let's talk a little about those comics, because I'm sure you'll all love that.

I fucking hate myself.

As I said, I'm a fan of cohesive fictional universes, with internally consistent rules and strong continuity across stories, especially stories in multiple mediums. It's part of why I like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it's part of why I don't like FiM as much as I used to. Hasbro's claim that the show and comics are meant to be a single consistent universe just doesn't hold up to scrutiny. You need only look back at A Royal Problem and everything I said about that to see as much.

But roughly around this point, there was a concentrated effort to address that issue. The main comic series started off with an arc foreshadowing (no pun intended) the season finale villain, and later turned to direct episode tie-ins, while Friends Forever, as I mentioned, was cancelled to make way for Legends of Magic. And all of these stories are indeed much more compatible with each other than the show and comics usually are.

You may think that I'd be happy about this. Normally, I would be.

But I am not.

My main problem with this initiative is that it's too little, too late, and it doesn't actually solve the problem. Future comics and future episodes being in harmony is good, but even within this very season, there were episodes like A Royal Problem ignoring previously published comics entirely. Even the Pillars arc itself, the very core of this movement, ignores older comics, most especially the Dazzlings issue of FIENDship is Magic, in which Star Swirl banished the Sirens in a completely different way than later depicted. Which isn't to say that the Dazzlings FIENDship is in any way worth preserving, but come on, they're not even going to try to salvage it?

My other issue with this is that IDW still employs all the same people on the new stories as they did on the old ones, so they're still mostly garbage. From the Shadows, the arc all about building up to the spoopy final villain, was just a bunch of nonsense centred around a character whose motivations were so flimsy that he literally couldn't remember them. The direct episode tie-ins from later main series stories were just bland and unremarkable at best, and at their worst they were issue #54, wherein industry professional Jay Fosgitt copy-pasted the same ball of animals about five times.

Yes, this is a real, official comic that the artist was actually paid for.

And Legends of Magic, while it has a few decent-ish issues, was in no way worth losing Friends Forever for. As a series, Friends Forever was pretty hit or miss, but at least if one issue sucked, the next would have a different artist/writer, a different character pairing and story, and thus a chance of being better. With Legends, you're stuck with the Pillars, so you'd better hope you like them.

But whatever, right? So the comics are bad right now. I hear that water's wet, too. We're here to talk about season seven, so from here on out, I'll try to keep discussion of the comics to a minimum, though it will naturally come up where relevant.

So, Campfire Tales. I didn't like it. Why? Well, mainly because the tales themselves were full of nonsense. Each one had at least one big moment that made me shake my head in disbelief. For Rockhoof, it was him suddenly transforming from a young colt to a burly stallion in a flash of light, as if we're supposed to believe that ponies don't age, but just evolve like Pokémon. For Flash Magnus, it was the mere idea that dragons, a species who bathe in lava to relax, can be harmed by storm clouds. And for Mistmane, it was the more minor but still eyebrow-raising way that depleting one's magic somehow causes advanced aging, and that aging can just be transferred as if youth is a commodity, which again reinforces the Pokémon evolution theory of pony growth that I seriously do not want to believe is actually the case.

Now, to be clear, these elements would've always bothered me, because their unbelievability pulled me out of the story, but the episode makes clear that these are legends and tall tales, not actually true events. So that makes it all okay. Yeah, maybe they're still weird and jarring, and this framing device is arguably just an excuse to not have to think about the implications of all this, but if even the characters acknowledge that these tales don't really make sense, then it's not really bad writing, is it? Because they're supposed to be that way, right?

...Oh, except that the finale later confirmed that all these characters are real, and that everything they did was real, so there's actually no excuse for that. Ponies really do just evolve like Pokémon sometimes, apparently.

And speaking of Rockhoof's evolution, this is one of those cases where I'm going to have to bring up his comic issue, and all the ways it screws with this. Remember, the comic came out first, so that was our actual introduction to Rockhoof, and this was the follow-up. In the comic, Rockhoof is said to have been a scrawny guy who grew mighty and earned his strength and position of respect through sheer effort and determination, and the story revolves around Rockhoof having to learn to keep working hard, because growing complacent with success is the key to losing it.

I thought it was a pretty decent story when I first read it, but then this episode came along and revealed that he didn't get strong through sheer effort and determination. I mean, he kinda did, but I was naturally picturing him actually working out and building muscle mass, not... you know... literally transforming from a kid into a superhero by bullshit pony magic. Doesn't really carry the same narrative weight, does it? So the episode undercuts the moral and themes of the comic, and if the episode had come out first, then this would look like the comic writer not paying attention to the show. But since the scheduling was screwed up, and I read the comic first, it makes it feel like the episode's mistake, even if that's not necessarily the case.

I guess in the end it doesn't matter whose fault the discrepancy is. All that matters is that there's a discrepancy. And when the whole point of the Legends of Magic series is to tie the show and comics closer together and put an end to these stupid contradictions, this comes off as staggeringly incompetent. They tried, but they fell at the first hurdle. Point and laugh, everybody. Laugh at the failures.

The stand battle was pretty cool, though.

Episode 17 - To Change a Changeling:

So after that tangent, let's get back to the changelings. You'll recall that I had a lot of nice things to say about Thorax in Triple Threat, and how he was actually one of my favourite parts of that episode. Well, forget all that, because it's gone now. Any struggles that he might have had with rulership were raised and dealt with in that one episode, and now we're back to bland, boring, unconflicted Thorax, who's pretty much perfect for this job, because the new Changeling Kingdom is basically a giant kindergarten.

And that gives me the perfect segue into talking about the nu-changelings as a whole, so here we go.

Based Pharynx lays down the truth.

I really do think Where and Back Again was a horrible episode, you guys. I know some of you probably like it, but to me, the whole thing just felt like one narrative fuck-up after another. I don't know if I'd call it the worst episode of the show, but I think it's up there. Taking out every single competent and plot-important character off-screen was the height of laziness. Discord just walking into a magical dead zone with no plan and without even attempting to cheat was idiotic and out of character for him. And I don't think I need to explain to you again my problems with our central characters for the episode.

But hey, at least it had the changelings going for it, right? They're some of the coolest things to come out of this show. The old black changeling design is metal as fuck, the Changeling Kingdom's hive had some cool concepts, and Chrysalis, though prone to villain monologues and overly elaborate plans which don't always make sense, is a great villain. Seriously, she was a delight whenever she was onscreen.

Except that by its end, Where and Back Again managed to screw all of it up. The Darkstone Throne and the original hive were destroyed, so now we have this big overgrown garden for the Changeling Kingdom instead. Chrysalis is no longer the Queen of the Changelings, and instead we have Thorax, a character who makes Flash Sentry look like Tyrion Lannister (seriously, at least Flash Sentry played an instrument). And perhaps worst of all was the transformation of the changelings themselves, and I'm talking about both their design change and their reformation here, because both were severely mishandled.

I think it should be obvious why I don't approve of the redesign. It's the same reason why everybody else doesn't: the new designs are hideous walking toy commercials, possibly the gaudiest yet, and the original changelings were fine as they were. They looked badass as villains, and they could've still looked badass while reformed if we really needed to make them good guys. Hell, the old changeling designs would've actually been better for a reformation story. It's easy for ponies to let go of grudges and accept the changelings as friends when they look even more gaudy and colourful than the ponies do. If they still looked like monsters, though, we might've actually had prejudices to deal with, and conflict, and a good story to tell with a relevant lesson to teach. But no, only evil people are allowed to be ugly, apparently.

And speaking of interesting things to explore, my main problem with the reformation of the changelings is that we skipped over everything of interest or consequence to jump straight to the colourful hippies.

Where and Back Again would have us believe that for the entire history of the changeling species, none of them ever thought of sharing love with each other, with even Chrysalis herself having no love for all her children, and Thorax is the first one to not be a literal psychopath. That's dumb, but if the show wants that to be the case, I would've wanted more explanation of how the old Changeling Kingdom even functioned for as long as it did. But despite ample opportunities to do more with villainous changelings in the intervening years (especially in season six, where the changeling threat could've been built in a season-long arc), we got nothing. We barely knew any more about the old changelings by the time they were gone than we did when we first met them. Unless we count the comics, of course, but the show clearly doesn't, so why should we?

Then there was the speed of it. After Thorax's transformation, the entire changeling species apparently went from literal psychopaths incapable of love for others to colourful happy bug-friends in a matter of seconds. Maybe you could excuse this if there were some kind of hivemind or something that Thorax was tapping into or taking over, but the show refuses to really explore the changelings as a species, so we don't get explanations for this weird shit. It's just an instant redemption for everyone, and Thorax is instantly proclaimed king, and we never once stopped to explore why any of this was happening, or what the changelings themselves felt about all of this at the time.

Not until we get to season seven, anyway, and Thorax had that line in Triple Threat about rogue cells of rebel changelings still fighting the new regime. And suddenly I was paying very close attention, because this hinted at an actually interesting story to tell. A civil war! Ideological conflicts! Hold-outs of the old guard, to give us a view into changeling culture under Chrysalis, and why some might fight for it! Alternative perspectives on the sudden transformation and everyone's instant turnaround! Dare I even hope for the return of Chrysalis herself?

But no. Chrysalis is gone until next season, and the rebel cell and all the ideological conflict and interesting story possibilities they brought with them were dealt with off-screen between episodes. It was just a total tease, and by the time we get to this episode, all that's left is Thorax's brother, Pharynx. And don't get me wrong, I like Pharynx a lot, but if he's reluctantly working for the new regime too, then he's not really a rebel anymore, is he? The only thing that's rebellious about him is that he still has his old attitude and the black changeling design. Which is apparently a massive fucking problem for this brave new society of frightened children.

Based Pharynx is the last of the resistance.

If I haven't made it clear enough already, I really hate what they did with the changelings in this episode. Making the changelings good guys was never something I was in favour of, outside of lone examples like Thorax, because this show really doesn't have many good villains left. But if the reformation of the entire changeling species really had to happen, and we really couldn't explore anything interesting or cool in the process, then at the very least couldn't the writers have done the courtesy of not making the nu-changelings complete pussies?

Happy and friendly changelings who are basically just ponies in another skin would've been bad enough, but this episode took a species of warriors and predators who conquered Equestria's own capital, and made them completely unable to handle conflict of any kind. They even had a changeling feelings forum. This sort of thing used to be a joke. We'd see Discord going to tea parties with Fluttershy and say something like, "Ha! What's next? The changelings all become brightly coloured pacifists and spend all day talking about their feelings?" The joke being that the changelings becoming a hippie commune is a humorous and ridiculous exaggeration of Discord's situation, but then it actually fucking happened, because this show has zero self-awareness anymore.

Honestly, I totally sympathised with Pharynx throughout this whole episode. Yeah, he was a dick, but he was also the only character in-universe who actually had a problem with how horrible this all is. He had nothing but disdain for everybody around him, and he was hilarious, so I tended to automatically take his side. Yeah, Pharynx, you rip down those wall decorations! Make a scene in the feelings forum! Fight the power, bro!

This is why the ending made me sad. As the last living representation of the edge that the changelings used to have, Pharynx becoming a colourful bug-deer as well was disappointing. Granted, I appreciate that his new design isn't quite as horrible as the others, and that he kept enough of his old personality to not become a total pussy like everybody else, but I still think he shouldn't have transformed at all. It again comes back to the problem of only bad guys being allowed to look dark and scary, when Pharynx's thing was that he liked things dark and scary, and that this sugar-coated nightmare wasn't for him. If the ending was supposed to be a compromise of him trying to fit into the new hive while holding onto that part of himself, then him transforming too kind of flies in the face of that.

I just think the episode would've been better if Pharynx had kept his old design. And I think it would've been a lot better if Pharynx really had left and let the random monster thing kill everyone, because then we wouldn't have any more nu-changeling episodes.

Pictured: DannyJ's salt repository.

Episode 18 - Daring Done?:

Back to Pillar episodes, and Jesus Christ almighty, this one was terrible.

I didn't like To Change a Changeling, but that was mostly because of the concepts. I didn't like the nu-changelings, or Thorax, or the fact that it didn't actually deal with the rebels we heard about, but all that was just my personal gripes. In technical, objective terms, it probably wasn't that bad. It didn't have any plot-holes or bad continuity that I can remember. But Daring Done is just a huge, poorly written mess.

First you have questions of logic. Why does Dr. Caballeron loudly explain his plan in public when he's caught, thus completely undoing it? How did three ground-bound earth ponies capture and tie up a pegasus, Rainbow Dash no less, when she could've just flown away? Even if she didn't fly, how were they able to restrain her, tie her up, and blindfold her in public while Daring Do and Pinkie were literally within shouting distance? They didn't even knock her out. Why didn't she call out for help while they went through that presumably lengthy binding process?

Why do northern and southern Equestria apparently not communicate with one another at all? Yearling's novels not being sold in the south I can understand, but why don't any Daring Do fanatics make pilgrimages to the settings of their favourite adventure series if they're apparently real? Walter White's house gets enough visits from Breaking Bad fans every year that its actual owner put a fence around it to stop people throwing pizzas on the roof, but nobody who reads this series has ever visited anywhere in this entire region and learned that Daring Do is real?

What's up with this temple? Why are the steam vents still operating after centuries of neglect? Why is the Sphinx's magic still in effect? How did Dr. Caballeron get on the roof? Why couldn't they just drain the slime like they did in the season finale? Is the slime even dangerous, or did everyone just assume it was?

And perhaps my biggest question, why for the love of all things holy would you write this whole anti-flight temple scenario in the first place? Do you even realise how backwards this thinking is? The episode's major set piece revolves around taking a leap of faith over a dangerous obstacle à la Raiders of the Lost Ark, only the two most important characters of the episode can fly. So rather than changing the set piece, or even just using the one non-flying protagonist for this part (you know, the one who's actually connected to Somnambula?), the writer instead invents a contrived anti-flight spell which was put on the temple over a thousand years ago and is somehow still there even now, just so that two characters with wings can jump over a pit instead of fly.

Which brings me to my second point. Seriously, if anti-flight spells are a thing in this universe, then we really should've seen one before now, because that would probably be the single most useful spell for any antagonist to have. Imagine if Sombra had a spell like that in effect over the Crystal Empire? Wouldn't affect him or the crystal ponies at all, but it would fuck up Cadance, and then Sombra wouldn't have lost the Crystal Heart. He would've fucking won. Starlight Glimmer, too. If she had an anti-flight spell over Cloudsdale during her time-travel adventure, not only would it have been a major hindrance to Twilight herself, but there would've been no possible way for the Rainboom to ever happen. It's an instant win.

Then finally, there's my third point, which is the story's themes and messages. We're set up for a story about how well-intentioned actions can sometimes have negative consequences, in this case, Daring Do accidentally causing collateral damage in her adventures. That would've been a pretty interesting thing to explore, with some potential for actual moral complexity and depth. But then it turns out that Dr. Caballeron is spreading rumours to defraud Daring as part of his evil plan, and all negative sentiment towards her is completely negated by his loud public confession, so everything that Daring actually did wrong is swept to the wayside. So all that potential goes out the window. We're teased with nuance, and then it's undercut in favour of bad guys being bad. It's lame.

And that's not even touching on the legend of Somnambula. She has to cross a bridge while blindfolded, and she makes it across by... hoping. So the message is, hope you can do something, and then you can? Do I even need to explain why this is stupid? You all see this, right? Hello?

This script seriously feels like a first draft. A bad first draft. I have no idea how this was actually aired in its current state.

This might possibly be the worst episode of the season. And I hope you realise the sheer magnitude of that accomplishment.

Episode 19 - It Isn't the Mane Thing About You:

So after the episode about hope, I had ironically given up hope completely, and resigned myself to one day making a blog post like this. I don't think this episode is very good, but coming at the time it did, I enjoyed it just for the fact that it wasn't Daring Done. Actually, a lot of people seem to enjoy this one, and I can see why. It had a lot of nice little moments, like Rarity's freak-outs, or shouting at the spooky Everfree eyes, or the way she turned it around with the punk rock look at the end, so I can see its appeal. But it's not for me, because as we've established, I get hung up on small details, and this episode had a few of those.

Like Pinkie celebrating the one year anniversary of the Cake twins' first sneeze. The timeline implications of that are staggering. Some people find it unbelievable to think that seasons 1-3 take place over a single year. This episode wants us to believe that seasons 1-7 all took place over less than three years, assuming generously that it took the Cake twins over a year to sneeze for the first time. And yes, it has to be all seven seasons, because Grand Pear is also in this episode. The chronology of this show has always been a nightmare, but this just makes my head spin.

DannyJ and a friend contemplate the deep questions.

What really gets me, though, is the fact that magic can't fix manes. It's just like the previous episode. The writer conceived of a plot that should've been trivially easy to solve, realised that they'd written themselves into a corner, missed the simple and obvious solution (Twilight and Starlight are out of town for the next few days for [INSERT LITERALLY ANY REASON HERE]), and instead decided to make wide, sweeping changes to the core rules of the world which make no sense. It would be one thing if mane-altering spells were difficult for the average unicorn and Rarity didn't have access to anybody else, but no, magic just outright can't do anything for manes. It can bend space and time, change species and age, selectively invert gravity, and grow a moustache on a lizard, but regrowing lost hair on a pony is impossible. I call bullshit.

And yeah, that's another thing. Twilight had a moustache-growing spell that worked on Spike in season one. Remember that? From Boast Busters? This is what I'm talking about when I say that season seven has atrocious continuity. Okay, so MLP has freelance writers, and you can't expect them all to watch every single episode and remember all the small details like these, but this was written by Josh Haber. He's been with the show since season four, and he was the lead story editor for season six. So what's his excuse?

Bah. Whatever. Let's talk about the final Pillar episode.

Episode 20 - A Health of Information:

We are really scraping the bottom of the barrel now.

So, show of hands, who here remembers the first and only time that Meadowbrook was mentioned on the show before this episode? For those of you who don't, it was in the premier of season five. Starlight Glimmer claimed that her Staff of Sameness was one of the nine magical artefacts of Mage Meadowbrook. It was a lie to cover up the fact that she wasn't actually equalised herself, and Twilight suspected this because she had done some minor reading on eastern unicorns, and knew that Meadowbrook only had eight artefacts.

Did you catch my emphasis? Meadowbrook was first mentioned as an eastern unicorn. She's not explicitly called one, but there's very little room for interpretation in Twilight's line, which outright doesn't make sense otherwise. So of course, of course, when they actually use the name again for one of their Pillar characters, it's for the swamp-dwelling earth pony healer who lives in the south. And no mention of the eight magical artefacts either, just for good measure. Literally the only thing they got right was the name.

And all of this would be bad enough on its own, but what's even worse is that there is a Pillar character of clearly eastern origin, who is a unicorn, and who is educated on matters of magic. If she had been named Meadowbrook, there would be no problem here. But they called her Mistmane, apparently for the sole reason of pissing off autists like me who care about these sorts of things.

Literally Meadowbrook.

I haven't even touched on the problems with the plot yet. The whole episode revolves around Zecora being sick with some disease that turns the victim into a tree, and for some reason, Fluttershy is the only pony in the world who cares about this or treats the situation with any sense of urgency. The doctor seems to pretty much write Zecora off for dead, and Twilight is weirdly casual about the whole thing. Fluttershy spends the whole night up studying in the library to save Zecora's life... and Twilight goes to bed. Later, when Fluttershy gets sick with the same disease herself, Twilight spends several days just sitting around doing nothing. I don't get it.

And just like the last Pillar episode, I find myself asking questions. Were all those trees from the grove at the beginning also ponies once, and if so, is Fluttershy going to cure them too? How has this random doctor heard of the swamp disease, but Zecora hasn't, when she actually lives in the place it comes from? If the doctor got sick from his brief contact with Zecora in the check-up, then clearly this condition is extremely contagious, so wouldn't there be an epidemic now? How have these trees not taken over the world already? How are Meadowbrook's swamp house and original notes still intact after over a thousand years, even allowing for maintenance by her descendants? Why are the flash bees immune to both Twilight's magic and the Stare, but are fooled by a mask? Why has half of Ponyville time-travelled?

...Why has half of Ponyville time-travelled?

WHY HAS HALF OF PONYVILLE TIME-TRAVELLED?

For fuck's sake. I alluded to this before when I was talking about how unreliable flashbacks are in season seven. This is just another one of those creative decisions that I simply don't get. Making new Flash assets for a bunch of generic recolour ponies isn't hard, but instead, they specifically choose to populate flashback scenes with ponies who should not be there.

In this scene alone, I can see Carrot Top, Pokey Pierce, Shoeshine, Berry Punch, and others. If this were back in season one, when these were just meant to be generic crowd-filler characters, that would be one thing, but that shit doesn't fly anymore. After episodes like Slice of Life and Amending Fences, and countless instances in other episodes where these background ponies are given names, personalities, and speaking lines, they cease to be just crowd-filler, and become characters. And once they become characters, you have to start thinking about where they show up!

I just don't know anymore. Is it just me? Am I asking for too much, expecting a flashback to a time and place we've never seen before to use new characters?

...No. No I am not. This scene is dumb, and so is this episode.

Episode 21 - Marks and Recreation:

I've been bitching about season seven for a long time now, but I will admit, it took a surprising uptick in quality towards the very end. By the time this episode came along, I had long given up on any hope of enjoying the season, but the last few episodes before the finale were actually pretty good. Marks and Recreation in particular really stood out for me.

Rumble.jpg

There was something fascinating to me in the idea of Rumble as an antagonist. With the Crusaders now going on to help others gain their cutie marks through initiatives like this summer camp of theirs, they've naturally moved past the sorts of conflicts that they used to have. So now, instead of bullies, what they have is opposition, more like the kind of episodic antagonists that their older sisters have. And what's especially interesting about Rumble is that he represents where the Crusaders used to be, and he argues against them by echoing their own words from back in season one.

When the Crusaders first met, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo argued back against Diamond Tiara's taunting with the same logic that Rumble uses here – that Apple Bloom's lack of a mark represents infinite potential, whereas Diamond Tiara is actually worse off because she's already tied down to her mark. And sure, it might've shut Diamond Tiara up and made Apple Bloom feel better at the time, but now the Crusaders are on the other side of that argument, and they've tellingly changed their positions. Rumble breaks away from the camp because he doesn't want to be tied down by a cutie mark, and Sweetie frustratedly shouts out to him that cutie marks are what make a pony special. I don't know why I like this ironic reversal so much, but I do. I just think there's something really clever about it from a storytelling perspective.

There are other things in the episode I could comment on, of course. I liked Thunderlane a lot, as he proved to be a pretty cool older brother. It was also nice to see the show remember that he was in the Wonderbolts, and even show him having made progress in moving up the ranks. It was a rare fit of continuity in a season largely devoid of it, so that was greatly appreciated. And since this is the last opportunity I'll have to talk about it, I should probably also mention that this was one of the few episodes this season to include a song.

Yeah, remember how this show used to have a lot of songs? I kind of miss that. I remember in the lead-up to season seven, one of the many reasons why I was so pessimistic was that I saw the promos and stuff boasting about how it was going to have a whole five songs, like that was impressive. A Hearth's Warming Tail alone had six. Magical Mystery Cure had seven.

But indeed, season seven came and went with only five songs, and not even five good songs, because I've already forgotten how some of them went. That's not to say that they're all terrible (some were better than others), but they definitely weren't Daniel Ingram's best work. I blame the movie for this, since it was very musically complex, and probably time-consuming for him. But to be blunt, I didn't like the songs in the movie either, so I don't think the loss was worth it. Season seven just felt so much more hollow without the songs. The lack of a musical episode in particular, a staple of the show since season three, was sorely felt. It makes me really appreciate the few episodes like this that still had some musical whimsy to them.

Come to think of it, resources being diverted to work on the movie would probably explain a lot about the general writing quality in season seven... Hmmm...

Episode 22 - Once Upon a Zeppelin:

Continuing on our surprising streak of good late-season episodes, I thought Once Upon a Zeppelin was a blast.

This show hasn't always had a good track record with bringing back old antagonists, but it really was great to see Iron Will again. He was just as entertaining as ever, and his move from motivational speeches to luxury cruise scams was both bizarre and hilarious, and also somehow really fitting for him. I liked his bogus tour full of inaccurate information, and the way he emotionally manipulated Twilight, and most especially, I loved the way he suddenly jumped off a moving airship at the end and parachuted away to avoid having to pay refunds. I wouldn't consider this episode a comedic stand-out for the series as a whole, but I thought it was definitely the funniest episode of season seven.

File photo: Mr. Iron Will, esq. circa 2013.

Other than that, we also finally got to see some more of Night Light and Velvet. Season seven really was the season of mane six parents, and that's one thing that I definitely appreciate it for. We've known about these two since all the way back in season one, but it took until The Crystalling for them to actually get voices, and until this episode for us to get any sense of personality from them. Night Light as a dork like Shining Armor and Velvet as a thrill-seeker weren't what I was expecting, but they were very welcome. And it was just nice to see the whole Sparkle family together for once. Really hope to see more of these two.

Not much else to say, really. It was just a good episode.

Episode 23 - Secrets and Pies:

Around this point in the season, or at least I think around this point, we were hit with the leaks. As such, I didn't watch the final four episodes in order. I actually skipped straight to the finale when the leaks occurred and went back to Secrets and Pies later. With how the rest of the season had been going, I was expecting the final episodes to all be terrible, and so went for the most interesting-looking one first. But like I said, season seven inexplicably got really good in the last few episodes before the finale, so I actually regret skipping this one now.

I-I won't do it again...

This episode felt like a throwback to older seasons. Not like Honest Apple, where the moral was so obvious that it felt like something that should've been covered way earlier. More like it just had the qualities of an older season's episode. I can't put a finger on it exactly. I want to say it's because it's a Pinkie and Dash episode, and we haven't had one for a while, but then I realised that we'd had one earlier just this season, and that I'd hated it because it was a poorly written mess.

Maybe it was just because it was such a simple, uncomplicated plot. No travelling to distant lands, no major action set piece, no third major character distracting from the core duo. Those things aren't bad or anything, but when taken away, what we're left with is just a straight slice-of-life about two of the show's most familiar characters having a low-stakes conflict over pie. There's just something pure in that kind of simplicity. Something I've been missing. Something that it was nice to see again for one last time.

...Ahem. Yeah. Good episode. 10/10.

Episode 24 - Uncommon Bond:

And now for the final episode that I have anything nice to say about, and... holy shit, it's a Glimmer episode?

As in STARLIGHT Glimmer?

Yeah, surprise surprise. I liked Uncommon Bond. Well, I sort of liked it. It's on the same level as A Flurry of Emotions for me, where I don't really care about the central character as much, but it's a competent enough episode that I still had a fairly good time with it. It had a solid concept in exploring the non-Starlight relationships of Starlight's friend group and using them to play with her insecurities, and I thought that the message of the episode was a good one. Plus, all the side characters kept me entertained, and I was amused by Starlight's attempt to literally recreate her childhood. It was both sad and creepy in the best way. Really made me feel for how emotionally messed-up Starlight is.

And while we're on the topic... I suppose a good way to begin closing out this review series is to revisit my opinion of Starlight, and how it changed throughout season seven.

I had many problems with Starlight in season six. I didn't like her taking over as the main protagonist, which is what she basically did in both the premier and finale. I didn't like how she would still do sociopathic things, and yet everyone still acted as if she was a changed pony. And I didn't like the way the world would occasionally bend around her to contrive circumstances in which she could take the spotlight.

But season seven was much better about all these things. Starlight still got a lot of praise, especially in Celestial Advice, but she didn't (intentionally) mind-control people anymore, so it felt like there was less of an incongruence. She was the protagonist of her fair share of episodes, but aside from her unwanted presence in A Royal Problem, I never felt like she was stealing the spotlight at all. And whenever she was given a major role in things, it wasn't a massively contrived scenario. Again, aside from A Royal Problem, when she became the first non-mane six character to have a map mission, as well as the first to ever have a solo mission. But as I pointed out before, Spike later did the same thing in Triple Threat, so I guess I can't get mad if it's not a unique circumstance.

In short, all the problems with Starlight gradually lessened until she was basically just another character on the show, which is all I ever wanted her to be. Season six almost never used Starlight unless the episode was all about her, and then she'd have to make a big thing of expositing her backstory and talking about her insecurities, but here she was often just around, doing her thing, and that was fine. She never became a character that I liked or looked forward to seeing, but I don't have a massive problem with her anymore.

I wish, though, that the season hadn't been front-loaded with Starlight episodes. Because although Starlight didn't take over the show, that's what it felt like in that early run. We had Celestial Advice, then All Bottled Up, then a one episode break from Starlight before she had a major role again in Rock Solid Friendship. And although there was actually a run of five episodes with minimal Starlight between that and A Royal Problem, I still felt like the show was oversaturated with her by that time.

I think they should've mixed it up a little. Perhaps we could've had Celestial Advice to deal with Starlight first, and then switched gears for the second episode for something dealing with the fallout of the changelings, maybe something like Triple Threat, but with more Ember and less ponies. Then we'd have another mane six story for the third episode, a fourth one kicking off the Pillars arc, and then we could've had a second Starlight episode like All Bottled Up.

But whatever. I could talk hypotheticals forever, and it wouldn't change the season we actually got. What's important is that despite all the missteps, season seven was still able to get me to feel differently about Starlight, and that in itself is a praiseworthy accomplishment. I might still make jokes occasionally about how Glimmer is a bad character and anything with her in it is trash, but the truth is, I wouldn't mind seeing more of her on the show. Just so long as she has more episodes like this, and less ones like Where and Back Again.

Episodes 25 & 26 - Shadow Play:

So, after everything, we finally come to the season finale, Shadow Play. As I said before, I skipped straight to it when the leaks happened, with only one question on my mind demanding answers:

Okay, technically two questions...

Shadow Play was the culmination of a lot of things that had been built up for a while. Star Swirl had been alluded to regularly since all the way back in season two, with multiple conflicting portrayals across the expanded universe, finally condensed into one defined character here. Accompanying him are the Pillars, five new characters who were established over the Legends of Magic series and what can charitably be called the season-long arc (which began with episode sixteen and ended with episode twenty, I remind you). And finally, for our big villain, we have the Pony of Shadows, another entity pulled from way back in the show's history (Castle Mane-ia, to be precise), who also had a comic story hyping him up.

It's a very ambitious story, very emotionally involving, with nice little character moments, and a coherent dramatic arc and themes. I can really see why people like it. Unfortunately, the Pillars arc is bullshit, the Pony of Shadows is bullshit, and the episode can't world-build or keep continuity for shit.

Let's start with the villain, the discount Nightmare Moon. Where to begin? Well, how about the fact that he's literally Nightmare Moon? And no, that is not a misuse of the word "literally." Cast your mind back to Castle Mane-ia and recall the legend that Dash and AJ used to scare each other. The Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters was supposedly haunted by a lingering remnant of Nightmare Moon's power called the Pony of Shadows, and Pinkie's screwing around throughout the episode was blamed on this seemingly fictional entity. But then in the episode's stinger, we saw that there really was a shadowy entity skulking around the castle, apparently the real Pony of Shadows. At the time, I figured it was the season four finale villain, but it never came back, and we never got any definitive answers as to what the hell it was.

So along comes Shadow Play to complicate everything, suddenly confirming that the Pony of Shadows was real, but also was trapped in an alternate dimension over a thousand years ago. So he definitely can't be Nightmare Moon, or a remnant of her. How did his name end up associated with Nightmare Moon and the castle, then? And he definitely can't be the mysterious shadow from Castle Mane-ia, either, because he should've been trapped in Limbo at the time. So what's going on? Was this just some completely unrelated shadow-ghost? This is like Meadowbrook all over again. Why the hell did they try to reuse this character if all they were going to acknowledge was the name? It just confuses matters unnecessarily.

And all that's just continuity stuff, not even getting into the problems with the Pony of Shadows as a villain. Don't get me wrong, I liked the redemption narrative of Stygian and his relationship with the Pillars, and especially the way he was finally defeated, but the Pony of Shadows was just so generic. It's not inaccurate to call him a discount Nightmare Moon, because that's what he is. He was an emotionally weak pony who gave into THE DARK SIDE, became an edgier and more powerful version of himself, and turned on his former friends shortly before they sealed him away for a long-ass time with their mystical power.

The only difference is that he's less interesting than Nightmare Moon in every way. He's less visually interesting, lacking the style and elegant design of Nightmare Moon. He's less thematically interesting, being mono-maniacally focused on THE DARKNESS while Nightmare Moon had thematic motifs of dreams, fear, the moon, royalty, betrayal, and familial relations (and lest we forget, her name was also the subtlest horse pun this show ever managed). Even his core identity is less interesting; underneath all the corruption, Nightmare Moon was Princess Luna, one of the most popular and enduring characters on this show, while the Pony of Shadows is just Stygian, basically the Spike of his day.

Which isn't to say that Stygian is a bad character at all. Like I said before, I really liked his relationship with the Pillars and the way he was redeemed. But he really can't compare to Luna. He shouldn't have to be compared, because that isn't fair when one character has seven seasons of history and the other doesn't, but drawing the comparison is inevitable when the villain is this derivative.

So to summarise, the Pony of Shadows was a boring, unoriginal villain with a confusing history that doesn't make sense with past continuity, and who in no way lived up to the hype from his comic story.

And speaking of not living up to the hype, I believe it's time to talk about the Pillars again.

No, wrong Pillars. Although... I suppose these ones were technically involved too...

I don't understand the point of the Pillars. I really don't. Yes, they were ancient heroes with heavy parallels to the mane six. Yes, they created the Tree of Harmony. Yes, their loss from the world is a great tragedy, and bringing them back is a worthy goal. That's all great. Fantastic, even. But the funny thing is that aside from the Tree of Harmony stuff, which I'll get to in a minute, this story could've easily been told with just Star Swirl.

I mean, think about it. We already knew that Star Swirl was an ancient hero with many accomplishments to his name, as well as one of the greatest minds of ponykind. In fact, we originally believed that he defeated the Sirens alone, and the revelation that he didn't was a retcon. If Star Swirl had done it all by himself, from stopping the Sirens, to planting the Tree of Harmony, all the way up to vanishing from the world while defeating the Pony of Shadows, the plot would barely change at all. And that's because all the Pillars aside from Star Swirl in this episode were completely superfluous and made no meaningful contributions of their own. Which is hardly surprising. The big two-parters often struggle to find things for six main characters to do, so of course they're going to fail to flesh out and share screentime between a cast of more than double that size.

And that brings me to the mane six's adventures in finding the artefacts of the Pillars. They spent much of the first part of the story tracking down all these objects, some from places they'd been to before, and some from entirely new locales, but it was all rushed and crammed into this one episode. Rather like how three of the Pillars themselves had their stories crammed into one episode with Campfire Tales. It's just unsatisfying, and I think it illustrates how badly handled the season-long arc was.

Here's a crazy idea. What if we'd had five episodes spread evenly throughout the season, where the characters are sent to these places on some kind of mission? I don't know who'd send them, but perhaps we could invent some kind of omniscient magical artefact that tells them where the plot is. Then once they get there, they'd have to do something, like... I don't know... Solve friendship problems, maybe? But on their missions, they'd come across or otherwise hear about these great legends, and find the artefacts associated with them, which they'd take back home as rewards or souvenirs or something. Then in the finale they realise the significance of the objects somehow, and Twilight has to find Star Swirl's artefact to complete the set.

But... I don't know, I guess maybe that's a little too out there. It's just an idea, really. I couldn't see the show ever actually doing anything like that. Could you?

Or wait, come to think about it, why don't we just not have the Pillars at all? Since we could've easily told this story with Star Swirl alone, why not just do that? Bring him and the Pony of Shadows back earlier in the first part without all the running around across the world, cut the five superfluous characters, and then spend more time developing Star Swirl and Stygian. We could've had more scenes with Star Swirl and the princesses, more fish-out-of-water comedy as he discovers the modern world, more world-building and ancient Equestrian history, more backstory for Stygian and the shadows that possessed him, more about Star Swirl and Stygian's relationship, and so on and so forth.

We don't even have to lose any of the Pillar episodes to do this. Personally, I thought Campfire Tales, Health of Information, and Daring Done were all awful, but there's no reason why they can't stay in the season in our hypothetical rewrite. The Pillars just wouldn't have met Star Swirl and wouldn't have been brought back for the finale. They'd be what we were told they were – stories and legends.

Ah, but of course, all this is forgetting the real reason that we had to have the Pillars, which was to provide an origin for the Tree of Harmony. Because we really needed that.

You know, Josh Haber and George Lucas have never been seen in the same room together. Really makes you think...

Look, I know that my own fanfics provide origins and backstories for Discord and the Tree of Harmony and the like, but that's because they're fanfiction. They're an interpretation of the source material. In the source material itself, there's a reason why these elements went undefined for so long, and why some are still undefined now. With such a wide range of interpretations available, they were shrouded in mystique, and our imaginations could conjure anything from that. Is the Tree of Harmony a deity? A spiritual avatar of magic? A natural part of the land? Last of an ancient species? An alien supercomputer? Oh, wait. It's none of those things. Star Swirl made it. Okay. Moving on.

This backstory adds nothing to mythos of the world. Depending on who you ask, it might not take anything away, but what do we gain from it? All we have is yet more story possibilities pruned, more overblown importance attributed to Star Swirl (and friends), and another part of the world reduced from something mysterious and otherworldly to something mundane and boring. It's the MLP equivalent of learning that the Force is just bacteria. And seriously, who was clamouring for the show to explain this? Seven seasons into this show, we don't even know where princesses came from yet, and Discord has been a recurring character since season two without so much as a hint of his origin. That's because these characters work just fine, perhaps even better, without such things. Sometimes, less is more.

Of course, if the Tree of Harmony having an origin at all was the only problem with this plot point, then I wouldn't make such a big deal of it. I don't like when the show does things like this, but not everybody feels the same as I do, and when you write fanfiction, it's something you tend to expect and get used to. But that's not the only problem, because this origin story is also (say it with me now) a massive continuity fuck-up.

Bear with me here. Star Swirl and his friends planted the seed that grew into the Tree of Harmony immediately before they banished the Pony of Shadows into Limbo and disappeared with him, and according to later dialogue, the princesses were children at the time. Okay, all good so far. Now, these are the same princesses who were apparently already grown enough to rule during the Tirek incident, since Twilight's Kingdom tells us that Scorpan approached them for help, and the storybook portrays them the same as how they appear in the tale of Nightmare Moon. Right. And Star Swirl was "a young unicorn wizard" when that happened.... Um... Okay... And the Tirek incident also happened to occur post-Discord... because Tirek recognised Discord despite not knowing anything else about recent events... and Discord was defeated with... the... Elements of Harmony... by the full-grown princesses... The Elements of Harmony which couldn't have existed yet... Oh...

Yeah... I may have mentioned once or twice that season seven is horrible at continuity, right? Pretty sure I did. Just one of those minor things, though. No big deal.

HOW DOES THE TIMELINE WORK?!

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. I haven't even mentioned all the problems with Hollow Shades. Plus there's a huge swathe of expanded universe stories that are completely incompatible with this episode for numerous reasons. Journal of the Two Sisters, Reflections, most of the FIENDship series, and anything which references them are all contradicted in one way or another. This one episode probably de-canonised about half the entire expanded universe, but that's par for the course by now, and you're probably sick of hearing about it. That's why I bring up the inconsistencies with the timeline of Tirek and Discord: to highlight that this isn't just about expanded universe materials being excluded, but about the writers not giving a shit in general.

Comics, books, movies, previous seasons, Shadow Play ignores them all equally as convenient, because the writer just did not care. And really, I think that's a perfect representation of what this season was. You almost couldn't ask for a more fitting finale.

Final thoughts:

I think Cadance is the only one who really gets me.

I've said a lot about season seven in this long rambling rant thinly disguised as a review, but if you want my honest appraisal, I'd say that the show's biggest problem right now is that it lacks consistency in its writing. The art direction, the voice acting, the creative episode concepts and character ideas, they're all still there. But sometimes, the writing gets sloppy and takes shortcuts. If the plot doesn't work unless a character behaves like an idiot, then they'll behave like an idiot, even if it's out of character. If they want magic to work completely differently than how it's worked before to accommodate an episode plot, then they'll just change it, even if it doesn't make sense. The world changes on a dime according to the whims of the writer, and pre-established rules and continuity are thrown out the window with no regard to the consequences for the world as a whole.

It's like Mysterious Mare Do Well back in season two. Does anybody remember how weird it was back then to see Ponyville suddenly have ten disasters a day, a hydroelectric dam that came out of nowhere, and a modern construction site? With season seven, that weird feeling was a distressingly common occurrence. Every single episode, with a few exceptions, made me throw up my hands and go "Oh come on!" at least once. The worst ones, like Daring Done and Health of Information, just made me splutter in exasperated disbelief.

Not to say that there weren't good moments, too. The Perfect Pear, in my opinion, was one of the best episodes not just of this season, but of the entire show, and as I stated before, I think the final few episodes before Shadow Play really turned it around. Despite my choice of header image for this section, I don't regret watching season seven. I think it definitely had enough good stories to make it worth viewing. It's just that it didn't have enough to excuse all the bad ones.

I'm not sure what the behind-the-scenes reasons are for the dramatic drop in quality from season six. Personally, I'm inclined to blame its simultaneous development with the MLP movie, but I don't know if that's the only reason, nor am I even sure it's a reason at all. Perhaps the main creative team are just running out of passion, worn down from having worked on this show for years. Perhaps there was a change to the process that hampered everyone's ability to communicate, or they had unreasonable deadlines and had to rush things. Perhaps it was just bad luck and circumstances, and they were off their game. But the reasons don't matter, really. Only the results do. And the result was that this felt like the weakest writing the show's ever had.

I said at the start of this blog that I never made regular episode reviews before because I didn't want to spread negativity, and I've been pretty damn negative in this review. If I upset anybody because of that, or made my points badly, I apologise. But in having confronted my conflicting feelings on the season and the state of the show, and getting them off my chest, I already feel better about it, and I think I'm ready to face whatever's next for this franchise.

Right now as I type this, we're about a month away from season eight. Will it be good? I don't know. Honestly, I rather doubt it. But I hope it will be. And whether it is or not, I'll take it as it comes and see this thing through for as long as I can. I've been with this show for too long to leave now. The ride never ends, or so they say. I guess in the end, all I can say is to forge on and hope for the best. And maybe, if we're lucky, this will all work out in the end.

...But don't go leaping across pits of potentially lethal slime if you don't know you can make it. That's fucking stupid. You'll die, you dumb idiots. Jesus Christ.

Holy shit, did I really bitch about this little girl's cartoon for 25K words? What is wrong with me?

Comments

[PresentPerfect]

goddamn, dude :O Considering I thought S7 was a serious uptick in quality from last season (not that that's hard), I think we are both of us going to be disappointed in the show going forward. D:

And I would say they salvaged the Dazzlings issue by ignoring it entirely? <.<

[DannyJ]

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I think we are both of us going to be disappointed in the show going forward.

What a depressing thing to say. I totally agree.

And I would say they salvaged the Dazzlings issue by ignoring it entirely? <.<

...Fair point.

[Armalite]

I loved changelings and their stories ever since season 2, and when I saw Thorax's design I physically cringed. Cause yeah, the whole thing that made changeling redemption stories interesting was that everyone fucking hated them and the changelings hated fucking everyone else. c o n f l i c t. Pharynx needed to go Wolverines on the hive, THAT would've been interesting. I haven't seen any of the pillars episodes, just didn't interest me, so I'm glad I didn't miss anything good. I am worried for your mental health, though. i image your your walls covered in pictures and events linked around with yarn and mixed with pictures of ponies, the ones you don't like are marked out with red X's. Empty pizza boxes and soda jugs lay scattered about the room along with empty ziploc baggies. The baggies are lightly dusted with a white powder. The windows are covered, not with newspapers, (it's been months since you've had any kind of contact with the outside world) but with EQD articles. Dominating it all, the centerpiece of mania, is a large chalkboard. It's covered in equations and numbers, ancient languages long forgotten are scrawled around the edges. And in the center, written in large, jagged handwriting are the words:

Why has half of Ponyville time-travelled!?

[DannyJ]

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Hell, replace the words with my other big question of the review (under King Crimson's delightfully serene face), and you wouldn't be far off. I have spent way more time than is healthy trying to work out a coherent chronological timeline for this series. Though, funnily enough, season seven was convoluted enough that I tossed my hands in the air and gave up on the whole project.

Thank you for describing your ideas of my mental health, though. The image gave me many laughs.

[Alondro]

Even if we're talking about rude, obsessive armchair critics who harass the writers over Twitter, I just don't think it should be done, as a general rule. Christian Weston Chandler uses his stories to attack trolls. Professional writers should be above that. Because using your fiction to attack your critics, whether they deserve it or not, inevitably results in a bad story which misrepresents the other side with strawmen.

Shyamalan did this in "Lady in the Water"... which was just hilariously bad (Narf!) and actually provided more fuel to criticize his shoddy film-making and obvious self-aggrandizement.

[Alondro]

The only thing is, vampires in True Blood really are vicious monsters who are naturally driven to violence, with even the heroic, sympathetic vampires having histories of murder, so all the grumbling old Republicans and crazy evangelicals fighting against vampire rights seem really fucking justified in their concerns, and oh look at that, suddenly True Blood's allegory is full of unfortunate implications and it doesn't work as a pro-LGBT narrative.

I do so love it when the allegory becomes so deliciously ironic like that... kinda points out why Tolkien hated allegory so much. It's usually either a bunch of biased propaganda, or it utterly fails to deliver the right message most of the time.

[Alondro]

Discord just walking into a magical dead zone with no plan and without even attempting to cheat was idiotic and out of character for him.

There was so much else wrong, I didn't even think of this point... so that's #198,384 on the list of why it was a terribly-written episode.

[Alondro]

Health of Information...

I liked the disease. It was a genuinely creepy and horrifying magical disease. The implication was that once the pony turned completely into the tree, they were effectively dead and the disease went about spreading itself via their flowering corpses. That's basically a less disgusting version of my Pony Cordyceps idea. But no less disturbing.

But that's all the episode did right. The continuity of Meadowbrook was a mess, and the reactions of the ponies were completely unbelievable.

For crying out loud, to make the disease's presence believable, all they had to do was introduce a note in Meadowbrook's writings that after she found the cure the ponies had gone about wiping out every trace of the trees and they felt sure it was gone forever... only to have the last vestige hiding out deep in the remotest part of the Everfree where Zecora would have stumbled upon it if the story had been written more sensibly. Then nopony else knowing about the disease would have been perfectly self-explanatory!

Good core concept, terrible supporting narrative.

[DannyJ]

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Bad writing with easy fixes that were completely missed was something of a common theme in season seven.

[Alondro]

Bear with me here. Star Swirl and his friends planted the seed that grew into the Tree of Harmony immediately before they banished the Pony of Shadows into Limbo and disappeared with him, and according to later dialogue, the princesses were children at the time. Okay, all good so far. Now, these are the same princesses who were apparently already grown enough to rule during the Tirek incident, since Twilight's Kingdom tells us that Scorpan approached them for help, and the storybook portrays them the same as how they appear in the tale of Nightmare Moon. Right. And Star Swirl was "a young unicorn wizard" when that happened.... Um... Okay... And the Tirek incident also happened to occur post-Discord... because Tirek recognised Discord despite not knowing anything else about recent events... and Discord was defeated with... the... Elements of Harmony... by the full-grown princesses... The Elements of Harmony which couldn't have existed yet... Oh...

I brought up all of this in the episode discussion on EqD the very day the episode aired, and hoo-boy were the obsessed fanboys PISSED! It made me giggle with delight.

But yeah, it's like the writers of these two episodes had never watched the show. The continuity errors are FLAGRANTLY obvious to anyone who's even been remotely paying attention for 7 years. And then we have to think about Clover the Clever, who was the assistant to Starswirl... at the time the 3 tribes first came together! SERIOUSLY, how old IS Starswirl?!

[son_of_heaven176]

. They spent much of the first part of the story tracking down all these objects, some from places they'd been to before, and some from entirely new locales, but it was all rushed and crammed into this one episode. ...

Here's a crazy idea. What if we'd had five episodes spread evenly throughout the season, where the characters are sent to these places on some kind of mission? I don't know who'd send them, but perhaps we could invent some kind of omniscient magical artefact that tells them where the plot is. Then once they get there, they'd have to do something, like... I don't know... Solve friendship problems, maybe? But on their missions, they'd come across or otherwise hear about these great legends, and find the artefacts associated with them, which they'd take back home as rewards or souvenirs or something. Then in the finale they realise the significance of the objects somehow, and Twilight has to find Star Swirl's artefact to complete the set.

But... I don't know, I guess maybe that's a little too out there. It's just an idea, really. I couldn't see the show ever actually doing anything like that. Could you?

Since nobody else said it (too obvious, perhaps?), I will:
THAT'S SEASON #$&%ING FOUR!!!

[RainbowSparkle3]

Why does no one realize the shadow thing could've been Tirek?

[DannyJ]

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I used to think it was, and it would've made more sense if that were the case, but then I went back and actually looked at the episode again. Something casts a shadow on a wall, and then the glowing yellow eyes come from the shadow itself.

vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/2/2a/Shadowy_figure_S4E03.png/revision/latest?cb=20131202182519

If this is Tirek, then either he can turn himself into a glowy-eyed shadow, or he has the ability to project light into shadows without dispersing the shadows themselves, somehow. As far as I recall, he has never displayed any such skills, so it's very unlikely that this was him. It might have been intended to be him, written and animated before they'd really pinned down who Tirek was and what his powers were, but as canon currently stands it just doesn't work.

[RainbowSparkle3]

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Not everything needs to make perfect sense. Especially not a bit of weird foreshadowing. It's just meant to build up hype. It was probably Tirek.

[DannyJ]

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I don't see how it could be, but I sense this is one of those cases where neither of us is going to convince the other, so I think we'll just have to agree to disagree.

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

I liked Campfire Tales and It's Not The Mane Thing About You.

[Impossible Numbers]

"Fame and Misfortune" and its problems can be summed up in one phrase: "guest-starring Fan Dumb".

I agree with what you say here about the massive amount of unfortunate implications in the way the show represented fans being bad, and especially taking legitimate fan opinions, lumping them in with obnoxious behaviour, and then presenting two unquestioning little demographic girls as the necessary antithesis (hell, I heard a couple of my own opinions implicated in there, and you bet I didn't enjoy the experience).

It's even more baffling because the show's rare nods to fans usually consisted of stuff that was either well-intentioned or at least unobtrusive, like those special OC guests (e.g. Angel Wings in "Top Bolt" and Stellar Eclipse in "Trade Ya!"). Even "Slice of Life", which was pretty blatant fanon-canonizing (and kind of annoying in some respects, but to be fair there was a variety of stuff going on; I can't like everything), was at least a one-off experimental deal with a good moral and some pleasant times to be had. It at least was a tribute.

But my biggest problem with "Fame and Misfortune" is more straightforwardly surface-level; we're watching unpleasantness. I don't watch this show for unpleasantness. If I for one second even wanted to watch "Fan Dumb" being "Fan Dumb"... which wouldn't happen without radical brain surgery... there's regrettably no shortage of it elsewhere anyway.

And now it's penetrating this otherwise sweet oasis, and I am absolutely not OK with that.

---

"Campfire Tales" I'm a little more generous towards (I pay little to no attention to the comics anyway, though that Rockhoof one sounds a lot more interesting and meaningful as a character showcase for him). Yeah, the tales are full of continuity issues and logical shenanigans, and as a case for the Pillars, it's barely a thin teaser. And I'll admit this might be another case of me letting an episode's potential crowd out, in my mind, some deeper flaws...

...but I gotta admit the tales at least were OK. The concept behind some of the Pillars I think would be great if given more space to breathe and time to actually characterize them to any substantial depth. As a teaser, it certainly whetted my appetite. Plus, some of the issues seem just a rewrite or two away from being fixed (Rockhoof's fix would be an easy one: just have a prior montage of him working out and getting stronger the old-fashioned way, and then present his digging scheme as a crazy plan that he determines his way through the old-fashioned way). Mistmane's is my favourite of the bunch, simply because the exotic setting felt better realized/more unusual for the show, and the theme of beauty at least informed more of the tale.

Flash Magnus's... leaves way too many questions hanging: What campaign were they on initially? Why cross through dragon territory at all if they're so dangerous? Why's Torch one of the dragons all of a sudden? Does Ironhead just carry that shield around in case one of his soldiers opts to go kamikaze? And yeah, the lightning. If it was a case of Flash using cloud as a smokescreen, that'd at least be understandable, but lightning?

I don't really have much to say about the framing device. Except Scootaloo's cowardice felt overplayed just to set up the Flash Magnus pep talk, and the whole life-or-death fly-der scenario felt unnecessary (a case of upping drama for the sake of it, I feel). But this one was mostly at least entertaining enough to pass muster for me.

---

"To Change A Changeling": Pharynx was the best bit, with Trixie not far behind. And I too lament the lost potential for a rebels subplot, which was now being reduced to a sour supporter who isn't even that by the time the episode ends. Still, Pharynx was fun while he lasted.

Though I'm annoyed by what became a recurring problem for a bit here, of "X is immune to magic! Guess now we can make the plot work a different way!" If it wasn't so arbitrary, I wouldn't be so ready to call foul, but it comes up at least four times in the span of four straight episodes in four entirely distinct scenarios (it's a major reason I detest "It's Not The Mane Thing About You" despite that being an ep that does a lot of other things right; "manes are immune to magic" is so breathtakingly inane I refuse to countenance it).

And honestly, the changelings stopped being actual changelings after Rainbow Dash's dream in "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?" From Thorax's debut onwards, they're just a tribe of Dittos who can shapeshift into anything. Which again brings up a major complaint I have with the Denny Lu "era" of the show: it's a fine enough conceit for a fanfic side project, but a pointless and aggravating restraint when it's official canon. Making the changelings omni-shapeshifters is a restraint in the exact same way that overpowering a single badass character is a restraint: it destroys all but a tiny slither of interesting stories that could be told with a character who, instead of having a limited power set and figuring out creative ways of exploiting it, now can just push through everything.

Have I mentioned I loathe what the show did to the changelings in Season Six? I think it's not obvious enough yet. And yes, Pharynx's fate sours what's otherwise a fun enough ep on its own terms.

---

"Daring Done?" is an Idiot Plot, and I have no defence for it on that front. I just give up and see it as a few flickers of interesting story ideas (the Daring Do responsibility thing), mindless spectacle (er... Somnambula vs. Sphinx has some good tension) and an occasional titbit of fanfic potential (again, the Daring Do responsibility thing, and, basically, most of the stuff when it comes to Somnambula herself).

Because I honestly think Somnambula's tale is fine as a fable on hope or faith or what-have-you, (as a very minor shout-out to that Indiana Jones scene), if a bit confusing here and there (like, why would beating the Sphinx twice make it less angry than beating it once?). But again, I think the tale itself is in the territory of "a few minor rewrites would yield something really good out of this". Also, I can't deny I'm biased by the Ancient Egyptian conceit. Actually, take anything I say about the Pillars with the same dose of salt. And, um...

Honestly, I can't defend this one as it stands, only on potential again. And even I'm not sure that's the whole reason. It's just one of those eps where I liked bits of it enough to overcome the more obvious and glaring problems. It wouldn't be the first time I've liked something despite clearly seeing why others didn't.

Perhaps it comes back to the point that you could, in theory, treat the tales as in-universe fables, or something? I dunno.

Sorry, I got nothin'. It's watchable-dumb and I don't really know why. There exist in this season episodes I utterly hated, so it's far from the worst as far as I'm concerned.

---

"A Health of Information" is one where the continuity issues you loathe are things I just shrug off. Maybe expecting continuity fidelity at this point is just a waste of time and I've subconsciously accepted that, or maybe I'm just more tolerant of them to begin with (hell, half the fun of reading reviews like these is in spotting things I completely missed or failed to consider more fully). So half of Ponyville time-travelling barely registers as a blip on my radar (besides, if we're opening that can of worms, we can really go to town on even the first season and its bizarre background clones).

I even love Fluttershy in this one, and the plot sounds like a winner, and I say this as someone who agrees that, in practice, the details of the plague suggest either that it should be a major outbreak by now or was never really as dangerous as they're trying to make it sound.

What breaks it for me is the developed sub-theme of "Just chill, OK?"

Like, if I squint and play along, I can kind of see the worthiness of the position they're trying for. Don't panic-work yourself to a complete drop. Fine. A great lesson, even in a crisis.

The reason it's a problem? I'm way, way, way more massively swayed by the life-threatening urgency with which Fluttershy is actually treating this serious illness and getting stuff done, because this isn't a term paper she's freaking out about, this is someone's very life. Freaking out may not be wise, but it's clearly getting stuff done and it's far more understandable a reaction. If I didn't know better, I'd say Twilight didn't give a tinker's cuss what happened to Zecora. Because, and I reiterate, for all of Fluttershy's exhaustion, she's getting stuff done!

It really feels like Fluttershy was the only one who'd read the right script. I just have no idea why the episode seems so perversely determined to get on her case for it. Skewed priorities, much?

---

"Marks and Recreation" and "Once Upon A Zeppelin"... the last two highlights! Yes! So it's embarrassing for me I don't have much to add to your examination of either. What I particularly love is your suggested idea that Rumble stands in for the Cutie Mark Crusaders at the beginning of the series, especially how the episode ends with both sides of the argument getting their dues. It's just such a mature way to round off the CMC's arc, and it gave two background characters (Thunderlane - bonus points for the continuity here) some time to shine in the light as a pleasant surprise.

---

Whereas "Secrets and Pies", I still don't get the appeal behind this one. It feels to me like a watered-down retread of "Party of One", but narrowed in focus from "friendship via collective parties that ponies like" to "friendship via pies... that one pony didn't like anyway".

The premise for me feels way too thin to carry an entire episode, more on par with "Applejack's 'Day' Off" or "What About Discord?" in terms of sluggish pacing, but - and I can't believe I'm invoking this as a defence - those two at least felt like they could be about something interesting and character-exploring. In potential, if not in practice. They even went in directions here and there I wasn't expecting.

Here, I don't think it even really qualifies as that much. Dash doesn't like pies, but doesn't want to offend Pinkie... that's maybe a throwaway background gag, but I'm stumped for how it's a comfortably-sized episode. And it was obvious from early on what was going to happen, and it just kept dragging and dragging.

It's rare for me to say this about slice-of-life eps, because I'm usually a gung-ho advocate for them over the more "epic" stuff (My favourite Season Three episode? "Apple Family Reunion". My least favourite? "Magical Mystery Cure".), but this was too trivial even for me.

---

"Uncommon Bond" I can sum up as "Go away, Starlight; I'm really enjoying the rest of the ep". A.k.a. the episode which made me like Sunburst.

---

"Shadow Play". Honestly, I'm mostly fine with it, even though it contains many season-long flaws. I'd have been fine if the show stopped here and let Stygian/Pony of Shadows-retconned-version be a kind of bookend for the show's very first villain, Luna/Nightmare Moon-why-did-they-retcon-you-in-Season-Four. Optimistically, I like the idea because this episode has what you say:

It's a very ambitious story, very emotionally involving, with nice little character moments, and a coherent dramatic arc and themes. I can really see why people like it.

Pessimistically, I like the idea because at least then we'd have a little damage control.

I'm mostly happy with the PoShadow's design - I particularly like the inky way it shifts in and out - for the same reason I quite liked Sombra's: it's nothing original, but it certainly achieves what it set out to achieve, and there's something to be said for classic, untarnished pure darkness. As I've said, I'm more forgiving of the Pillars, even if I fully agree the Tree of Harmony origin story took away far more than it added (though I don't really care for the sparkle tree anyway). And if none of them are characterized even close to Star Swirl and Stygian's level, at least they avoid the more annoying aspects of their characters (e.g. another goddamn redemption, and they even rub it in with Starlight's role yet again).

Admittedly, the retcons this season have been pointlessly messy (and how were they even possible? Haber wrote the episode that introduced the PoShadows in the first place!). Continuity-wise, the show was rarely great to begin with, but eps like these add more confusion to a pile that already failed to justify its own existence. Alas, I gave up looking for a consistent history a long time ago. I ended up putting up with it. Besides, I never took seriously the idea of cross-medium compatibility even before this damp squib attempt at it, so again, doesn't bother me.

I think that's why I look upon this finale more fondly than I likely ought to. The story's intriguing and resonant enough to bear all the scars and wounds, and if it's still a decline in quality, it would've been at least as classy a way out as could've been hoped for.

---

I think my most positive conclusion for Season Seven is that there were:

• Five episodes that knocked it out of the park as far as I'm concerned, including one instant classic.
• A few episodes that were compromised but either have enough good points or speak to my inspiration enough to get a pass.
• Some interesting ideas here and there.

A more "damn by faint praise" comment is that it at least didn't introduce anything that radically lowered my confidence in the show going forward. Season Five has that fucking finale, Season Six doubled down on that finale so much it actively repelled me, and Season Eight had a school that scraped the bottom of the barrel. Even Seasons Two, Three, and Four had, respectively, some edits to Twilight's backstory that weakened its personal appeal, an ascension that I felt was way too abruptly game-changing, and a library-replacing status-reinforcing castle that finally convinced me the writers have no clue why Twilight as a princess could be such an endearing character ("Castle? She lives in a library in Ponyville!" says Discord in what became my bittersweet favourite line in that particular finale).

Season Seven mostly managed to tone down Starlight compared to Season Six, at least, and by then I was just resigned to her presence anyway. Otherwise, what else did it introduce? The Pillars, and there my biggest complaint is merely "good opportunity wasted", which sounds like a ringing endorsement compared to other seasons. I'd have been happy to see Season Eight flesh them out and give them some proper attention. So Season Seven gets a tiny medal for that much, at least.

That said, overall it represents another big drop in standards for my viewing pleasure, and I'm inclined to consign the rest to "Canon Discontinuity". After pick-and-mixing a few liked elements, of course. Because seriously, "The Perfect Pear" is perfect.

[DannyJ]

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though that Rockhoof one sounds a lot more interesting and meaningful as a character showcase for him.

In my opinion, it really was. It was such a better introduction to Rockhoof that finding out his actual origin was a disappointment to me. I said in my season eight review that Rockhoof and a Hard Place got me to care about him, when I didn't care in season seven, but strictly speaking, that's not true; I did care about Rockhoof to begin with. It's just that Campfire Tales made me lose interest in him.

Mistmane's is my favourite of the bunch, simply because the exotic setting felt better realized/more unusual for the show, and the theme of beauty at least informed more of the tale.

I felt the same way about Mistmane's tale at first, but then Shadow Play revealed that her homeland wasn't a distant foreign land, just another tiny shitty village on Equestria's east coast, and then I immediately lost all interest again.

From Thorax's debut onwards, they're just a tribe of Dittos who can shapeshift into anything.

Yeah, I hate that too. I don't mention it in these reviews because I consider that more a matter of personal taste than an actual objective flaw, but I find it incredibly lame and annoying as a writer.

(besides, if we're opening that can of worms, we can really go to town on even the first season and its bizarre background clones).

I give the earlier seasons a pass because back then, these were just meant to be generic recolour ponies to fill the background scenes. But after episodes like Slice of Life and Amending Fences, where the background ponies are specifically acknowledged and given names and personalities of their own, you can no longer keep using them as generic crowd-filler. Once you acknowledge that "Lyra Heartstrings" is an actual character, a Ponyville musician who went to school with Twilight and is in a relationship with a secret agent, you can't just have her randomly show up everywhere, because then the audience is going to be questioning what she's doing there. And it's especially bad because the later seasons have otherwise been good about creating new background ponies with unique designs for these purposes.

Here, I don't think it even really qualifies as that much. Dash doesn't like pies, but doesn't want to offend Pinkie... that's maybe a throwaway background gag, but I'm stumped for how it's a comfortably-sized episode. And it was obvious from early on what was going to happen, and it just kept dragging and dragging.

I get the argument for it, but to be honest, quite a lot of season one episodes felt like that to me, and I didn't mind it. Look Before You Sleep and The Ticket Master both felt really slow and low-stakes to me too, and both made whole episodes out of what I thought were comparatively simple problems. But it was the first season, so I just figured, "I guess that's the kind of show this is."

The Pillars, and there my biggest complaint is merely "good opportunity wasted", which sounds like a ringing endorsement compared to other seasons. I'd have been happy to see Season Eight flesh them out and give them some proper attention.

I honestly wish they had done that too. I did not like the season seven Pillars arc at all, but following up on that and actually developing them as characters would've been a vastly preferable premise for season eight than the School of Friendship and the inelegant canon-welding to make the movie work.

That said, overall it represents another big drop in standards for my viewing pleasure, and I'm inclined to consign the rest to "Canon Discontinuity". After pick-and-mixing a few liked elements, of course. Because seriously, "The Perfect Pear" is perfect.

I've been working for the past couple years or so on a document to determine exactly what to consign to discontinuity for my world and what to cherry-pick, and working on these seasonal reviews really makes me want to finish it already.

[libertydude]

Another really dank review. “Fame and Misfortune” has only gotten worse for me over time, and “Triple Threat” is the definition of ‘focusing on the wrong thing’. Especially since, as you said, Thorax was a pretty bland character beforehand and that episode actually gave him something interesting to do. In light of the Corona outbreak, the attitudes of the doctor and Twilight in “A Health of Information” come off as borderline suicidal. I get the episode was going for ‘look before you leap/don’t overwork yourself trying to do the right thing’ moral, but that doesn’t really work when something as time sensitive as a lethal disease is going on and a cure is just within reach. “Shadow Play” similarly felt like a missed opportunity regarding the underused Pillars, and the fact they didn’t do much with them in either Season 8 or 9 just makes this episode feel all the more useless.

However, I do confess to liking some of these episodes. “Campfire Tales” I still have a soft spot for, even though it violates a lot of canon. I think it has more to do with the unique presentation via the campfire stories and the different environments the episode used for each Pillar’s story. Not the best excuse, but that’s how I roll. This is probably why I also like “It Isn’t the Mane Thing About You”, since it’s just one of those episodes that feels right in its emotional beats, despite having a lot of problems in regards to canon magic use. Though I agree they should’ve found a better way to excuse the inability to regrow the mane (maybe the removal formula was partly made of nitroglycerine? I know it’s stupid, but it’s the best reason I can think of for not launching energy at the old Marshmallow Noggin). “Daring Done” I actually liked until the final third, as I think it took the easy way out by absolving Daring Do of her responsibilities, and the slime pit was just weaksauce as a final obstacle.

The one episode I really don’t agree about is “Once Upon a Zeppelin”. I really disliked Iron Will being portrayed as so sleazy and manipulative, as I felt like it just turned him into a Flim-Flam knockoff. While he was similar to them in some ways, I always saw Iron Will as someone a little more on the up-and-up, even if he was a little greedy and very pushy. I mean, he actually let Fluttershy keep the money when she said she wasn’t satisfied in “Putting Your Hoof Down”; that’s a shockingly lenient business practice compared to the money-grubber who ditches his clients mid-air in “Zeppelin”. I actually really like the one Friends Forever issue where he had to come to Fluttershy to learn how to be gentler because his wife didn’t like the influence he was giving their child. That was a surprisingly mature way to look at an unhappy home life and with one of the last characters I would’ve thought would get the treatment. It’s why I really hate King Sombra’s return in the comics, since they made Iron Will turn into a bombastic prick just so they could have a villain team-up (though that’s hardly the biggest problem with that arc). I don’t know, maybe I’m seeing him more sympathetic than intended, but he’s one of those characters I think is more nuanced than both show writers and fanfic writers commonly acknowledge (see also: Filthy Rich), so it hurts to see him portrayed so one-note in his last major appearance.

[DannyJ]

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Fair enough on Iron Will. He did kind of get the short end of the stick in canon, because his personality was all over the place between his major appearances.

[Impossible Numbers]

I mentioned briefly before that season six had the first instance of the show getting meta in a confrontational way, as opposed to the pandering, fanservice-y way that Slice of Life did. It was a sign of things to come. Quibble Pants was the archetypical obsessive fanboy nerd complaining about how his favourite franchise sucks now because it's not as good as it's used to be, and that's basically supposed to be people like me. I didn't feel it at the time, because back then I was still fairly happy with the direction the show was going in, but yes, it's totally about people like me.

Rereading this blog post, the extract about "Stranger Than Fan Fiction" struck me, because it's a view I've seen expressed around the site a few times, yet it's contrary to my own impressions of the episode. If anything, I thought the episode worked as a sly dig at the fact that "Daring Do is real" was a dumb idea from the start.

Quibble Pants' obsessiveness in particular struck me as sincere appreciation for the books, rather than some kind of "bad" nerdy obsession, and the episode makes a point of singling out what he likes about the series that got lost in the later entries (its more intellectual angle with a dash of respect for literary tradition). Heck, he's the reason a simple puzzle gets solved later on, hinting that his focus on brains rather than brawn has a lot going for it.

His complaint about how farfetched the later action setpieces are is pretty much vindicated by the fact that the action setpieces in the episode itself are, well, ludicrously cartoony. He pokes holes in how stupid the cliches are, to the point it's probably no coincidence the episode takes so long to convince him that yes, all this braindead nonsense is real.

And ultimately, he's the one who voices the open-minded moral about liking the same thing for different reasons, all without pretending he suddenly likes the later series now or will treat them as his canon (which would have resulted in unfortunate implications for any "open-minded" moral).

I mean, it's entirely possible he was intended to be a jab at a nitpicky portion of the fanbase, and I'm either just overlooking details or blinded by how funny I found him. Still, it seems to me his most obvious failing is being harshly sarcastic and... well, he's faced by a Rainbow Dash who sounds like a conspiracy nutcase and a bunch of villains too stupid to follow common sense when guarding hostages, so I find it hard to blame him.

Fair acknowledgement at this point that I might just be airing my biases here.

[DannyJ]

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Oh, I'm not saying that's all there was to Quibble or the episode. They can absolutely be about both, and I think your interpretation of them as a commentary on Daring Don't is also valid.

To clarify, just because I think Quibble Pants is a jab at obsessive nerdy fans, that doesn't necessarily mean I think the episode was mean-spirited about it. Like most aspects of the series, the way the show addresses its audience simply degraded over time. Early seasons just gave fans the occasional shout-out. Slice of Life was full-on pandering. Stranger Than Fanfiction I saw as a transitional phase, where it was still kind of fan-pandering in a sly wink-at-the-camera sort of way, but it was also gently poking fun at us. Like how the convention scene had a Daring Do dakimakura. There's no way to interpret that scene as anything other than "Yeah, you guys can be a little weird," but Quibble just sort of rolls his eyes at it and smiles. It doesn't go out of its way to make fans look bad, necessarily. I don't think Quibble is supposed to look good either, but the episode is at least diplomatic about it, and compromises by acknowledging that it's fine to disagree.

But then by the time we reach Fame and Misfortune, that's all out the window, and the writers are in full attack mode; it lost the playfulness and sense of compromise that Stranger Than Fanfiction had, which I think is why a lot of people didn't like the former as much as the latter.

[Impossible Numbers]

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To clarify, just because I think Quibble Pants is a jab at obsessive nerdy fans, that doesn't necessarily mean I think the episode was mean-spirited about it.

Ah, now I see what you mean, especially with that example of the "Daring Do dakimakura". I did have the impression people meant it was a specifically mean-spirited take, but I suppose it doesn't have to be that kind of jab.

I do wonder if part of the confusion is with the allegory: the Daring fandom represents a real-world fandom for fiction (the show itself as a whole), but the actual context of the Daring fandom in the show is for something that, in their world, actually is real. Daring is not a fictional character in their reality. (After all, when we go to cons for comic books, we don't expect the Avengers to turn up).

A large part of "Stranger Than Fan Fiction" focuses on the irony of Quibble loudly insisting something is fake that's actually real. Only it gets even more confusing when the thing that's actually real is so over-the-top ridiculously unrealistic. So a lot of what makes his character look bad doesn't seem to translate well into a jab at nerds in general (at least to me). That's largely why I end up coming to the conclusion that the episode works better as a jab at the "Daring Do is real" angle.

It's basically the whole True Blood LGBT allegory issue all over again: the stand-ins don't carry over very well.

It's also what makes the "Fame and Misfortune" angle even more misguided: "Yeah, but the purpose of the journal isn't supposed to be marketing" pops up early on in the episode's dialogue at the end of the playground scene, and... that does not sound right if you treat the journal as a stand-in for the My Little Pony franchise.

[DannyJ]

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Yes, that is definitely a downside to the whole thing. I'll have to talk more about the decision to making Daring Do real whenever I get around to that season nine review, but I think as a metaphor for our fandom, Stranger Than Fanfiction still works a little better in this context than Fame and Misfortune did. Just because Daring Do is a real pony, that doesn't mean Quibble can't still critique the book series as fiction, because that's what he knows it as. It makse sense in-universe. But nobody in Fame and Misfortune ever thought the journal was just a story, yet they still critique it as one, and the mane six defend themselves on the grounds of "We're not a story! We're real!" Which obviously doesn't make a lot of sense, on top of reframing the fanponies to be far meaner than what they're standing in for. Like how the episode depicts people who dislike Fluttershy's character arc as literally ganging up on her and insulting her to her face. So what are we supposed to take from that? That the writers think the fandom are bullying a fictional character? It again feels like something Chris-Chan would write.

[Wild Stallion]

Quibble Pants was the archetypical obsessive fanboy nerd complaining about how his favorite franchise sucks now because it's not as good as it's used to be, and that's basically supposed to be people like me.

And me! Not that I particularly care anymore. Although to be honest, the consensus on franchises like these does a lot to sooth my savage heart. That said, I try not to base expectations on it. People tend to be way too malleable.

There's the vast majority of (mostly adult) ponies who bought the book and acted like raging assholes for the whole episode, while also rudely and obnoxiously voicing opinions that plenty of reasonable, moderate fans probably hold.

I mean to be fair, we see Fluttershy fans in the background. We also see fans of Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie, even if they wind up being inconsiderate here.

I don't think everyone who is in this episode is meant to be an inconsiderate douche bag, I think they're just meant to be annoying. Which is certainly not better, since it can be applied to a broader segment of people, but it also isn't as one sided as some detractors make it.

Incidentally, I do understand the frustration. Looking back there's an argument to be made that "Discordant Harmony" was made to address problems that fans like me had with Discord's reformation.

Which they only did by showing us a previously almost entirely untouched aspect of his character and addressing one issue (not even the main one) of a character who was riddled with them as his only problem.

Now if this character development they had done to make him more likable had stuck, I would have been as happy as a clam, but that's not what we got.

So yeah, I do understand the frustration with this, I just tend not to care as much personally. Perhaps that's an issue with my character though. Too accepting.

Here's a hint: the Daring Don't entry? Does not reference Daring Do or A.K. Yearling by name. I guess Dash's filly fans from that one scene are just fucking telepaths.

It wouldn't surprise me.

I guess he'd hiss uncontrollably sometimes, but that was it.

I mean that was implied to be because of issues related to his hunger for love.

Of course, the show never did much of anything with it, or explored in depth his feelings of alienation among his own kind, so I agree that they wasted a lot of story opportunities, but that's a given among late seasons MLP writing.

He's almost like a male Fluttershy in some of his scenes this episode.

They would have had great onscreen chemistry, not going to lie.

Spike, Twilight, and Glimmer were all in stupid mode so that this contrived conflict and flimsy story could play out, and nobody ever stopped to make the sensible and obvious observation that Ember and Thorax have literally no reason to immediately hate one another.

Yeah far too much of MLP was just about scenarios like this.

Even early season plots had a few episodes that ran on stupid, so it was hard to for me to really hate this scenario as much as I should have. Incidentally, I do agree that there was a much better episode they could have done in a show that took itself seriously, but that was never going to happen at this stage of the show.

So instead of an episode about Ember and Thorax doing something interesting, we have to go through this stock sitcom scenario about trying to keep them apart with an elaborate series of distractions and lies.

Yeah, way too much of the later seasons was comedy. Far too much of the earlier ones too, but occasionally you'd get an episode which balanced both in a fairly decent manner.

"Power Ponies" has a few hijinks but for the most part it's actually shockingly believable once you get past the whole enchanted comics thing. Which is a pretty fun plot gimmick if you have to give ponies a reality simulator.

I don't know about you guys, but to me, this episode felt like a waste of potential. And wouldn't you know it, wasted potential would be the theme of the next changeling episode, too!

And far too much of fim in general honestly.

camo.fimfiction.net/Fiw-31_7pYhETTBWM4AitUXaSI6AXlOGzlwscu7xRPg?url=https%3A%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2F697qC7VjR_-GOYCyqRDgU3QnvjqiOfdRBUBMMo2V1tIHhHbB77h8NnlnbjmhGUVpBoKV0QMXU5LWA0Ir5WlEIZmrwcTzFTwiGkseBJiWPuNkkvFBHbP_z7WqW30sHj-OZyZjEsKE

'Closes Door on Sunset's debauchery.'

But honestly, it's actually pretty funny that Sunset would go in for dude bros. Kind of makes sense given her relationship with Flash Sentry. I wonder if that Bulk Biceps thing is a possibility after all?

In season seven, that was the Pillar episodes, which revolved around learning the backstories of the Pillars and why they were important, before they finally appeared for real in the finale. This is dumb, because the Pillars aren't important in the finale and nobody cares about them, but we'll cover that when we get to it.

I don't know why, but your delivery of these lines cracks me up for some reason.

Meanwhile, in an effort to tie the show and the comics more closely together, it was decreed that the Friends Forever comics would be cancelled to make way for Legends of Magic, a series all about the Pillars.

Ouch! Curse you executive meddling! Seriously though, I know what it's like to watch hacks butcher something you liked. You have my sympathies.

So, let's talk a little about those comics, because I'm sure you'll all love that.

camo.fimfiction.net/fpwfPV655Ghzl4A4GJ2RIQ-UPwUJjMbgWWRTrzwkGS8?url=https%3A%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2FvAeA9co2aLYrsGtArYafC--YwjP8DGk94aFi7mAVCysogyDFPNTwH2xfjIxi7MdP-DWPhUFxHFjmf0FwO2itL55J6KxU0tzwI7fJU79XgWSfihMuj4UK8DtTb4mwFEK9IWJt0aH0

I fucking hate myself.

Your jokes are on point here, I cannot lie.

The direct episode tie-ins from later main series stories were just bland and unremarkable at best, and at their worst they were issue #54, wherein industry professional Jay Fosgitt copy-pasted the same ball of animals about five times.

camo.fimfiction.net/KbVQ8FfcPcGe3VlHyovsk2vhYhRRnpwMQO-t98VqgFc?url=https%3A%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2F-QungFBABUPpMDvC1HxKWlasjAJXfnwTFwqQn1TPZOUH8urVYZsnAfbplTGwARJhkD1ogtKaogmpIBDQjLipjLhjklDoPE4xotrZtYiEtEQrnZwkWgvfMyGNYVJTCPLbawnwOQmP
Yes, this is a real, official comic that the artist was actually paid for.

Damn this whole review is making me laugh and I feel terrible for it, but I just can't stop.

As a series, Friends Forever was pretty hit or miss, but at least if one issue sucked, the next would have a different artist/writer, a different character pairing and story, and thus a chance of being better.

Ahh episodic formats! How I love thee! Thou art underrated as an artform.

For Rockhoof, it was him suddenly transforming from a young colt to a burly stallion in a flash of light, as if we're supposed to believe that ponies don't age, but just evolve like Pokémon.

I did not catch on to that, but now it makes waaaay too much sense. Incidentally, the series final implies it's a magic unique to him, so I think you're safe on that front.

For Flash Magnus, it was the mere idea that dragons, a species who bathe in lava to relax, can be harmed by storm clouds.

I had forgot about that! Must have suppressed the memory. Probably because it's dumb!

In the comic, Rockhoof is said to have been a scrawny guy who grew mighty and earned his strength and position of respect through sheer effort and determination, and the story revolves around Rockhoof having to learn to keep working hard, because growing complacent with success is the key to losing it.

A secondary cannon source making a character look more interesting and competent than the main cannon ever accomplished? Rockhoof thy name is General Grevious.

I thought it was a pretty decent story when I first read it, but then this episode came along and revealed that he didn't get strong through sheer effort and determination.

Kind of like Rainbow Dash. Coasting on Bullshit Pony talent.

I mean, he kinda did, but I was naturally picturing him actually working out and building muscle mass, not... you know... literally transforming from a kid into a superhero by bullshit pony magic.

No, you were right the first time.

They tried, but they fell at the first hurdle. Point and laugh, everybody. Laugh at the failures.

One of the best comments on terrible producers I've seen. You haven't watched https://www.youtube.com/@disparutoo have you? Because his humor seems like it would be up your ally.

Well, forget all that, because it's gone now. Any struggles that he might have had with rulership were raised and dealt with in that one episode, and now we're back to bland, boring, unconflicted Thorax, who's pretty much perfect for this job, because the new Changeling Kingdom is basically a giant kindergarten.

Not inaccurate in the slightest sadly. Now I never ascribed any nuance to the Changelings, but it is a little weird how simplistic they were before and after reformation.

Quite frankly certain aspects remain painfully the same. They're group-oriented bugs pressuring people to get with the program. They did it with Thorax and now they're doing it to Pharynx.

You would think that would have been an interesting characterization to explore with Ocellus, but that never materialized. Then again knowing these writers it could have backfired in a big way.

Chrysalis is no longer the Queen of the Changelings, and instead we have Thorax, a character who makes Flash Sentry look like Tyrion Lannister (seriously, at least Flash Sentry played an instrument).

This seems like a good place to insert this here:

And perhaps worst of all was the transformation of the changelings themselves, and I'm talking about both their design change and their reformation here, because both were severely mishandled.

It helps when you see it coming in advance though. Like what they did with Starlight Glimmer.

It's the same reason why everybody else doesn't: the new designs are hideous walking toy commercials, possibly the gaudiest yet, and the original changelings were fine as they were.

I mean the entire show was kind of like that, so it was fairly obvious to see where they were going with it the moment Thorax became a thing. I get why you didn't like it though.

They looked badass as villains, and they could've still looked badass while reformed if we really needed to make them good guys.

In fairness that look probably makes for great camouflage when hiding in the oversized flower bed the Changeling Chateau has become.

Maybe you could excuse this if there were some kind of hivemind or something that Thorax was tapping into or taking over, but the show refuses to really explore the changelings as a species, so we don't get explanations for this weird shit.

I see it as a biological thing. Like how a mistreated person gets more agreeable with food or sleep. The Changelings were missing a biological component, making them fundamentally unhappy, and now they aren't.

And suddenly I was paying very close attention, because this hinted at an actually interesting story to tell. A civil war! Ideological conflicts! Hold-outs of the old guard, to give us a view into changeling culture under Chrysalis, and why some might fight for it! Alternative perspectives on the sudden transformation and everyone's instant turnaround! Dare I even hope for the return of Chrysalis herself?

"Not on my show!"-Modern Entertainment probably.

But no. Chrysalis is gone until next season, and the rebel cell and all the ideological conflict and interesting story possibilities they brought with them were dealt with off-screen between episodes. It was just a total tease, and by the time we get to this episode, all that's left is Thorax's brother, Pharynx.

Seriously how many times did this show tease and screw with its audience by promising interesting concepts only to bring it to naught? It's not the worst show ever, but it's definitely the one I've seen so far with the most wasted potential.

Excluding ESG IP mining, because frankly that just doesn't have any to start with.

I've seen things on this site that would drive English majors to tears that were more engaging than that drivel, because they actually wanted to tell a story, vs rattle off Marxist fantasies.

As bad as MLP gets it's still primarily concerned with telling a story, even if it's laughably bad.

And don't get me wrong, I like Pharynx a lot, but if he's reluctantly working for the new regime too, then he's not really a rebel anymore, is he?

Nope.

The only thing that's rebellious about him is that he still has his old attitude and the black changeling design. Which is apparently a massive fucking problem for this brave new society of frightened children.

He's just too based for them. That's the problem.

camo.fimfiction.net/Ly3nM64xp13CYZsvy8RayWH5mA7PsSi-Wce9S7j7Psw?url=https%3A%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2FWo3b_qUPvKBQmW9Y4NyOkqg_JdyrUgJN0FApKNOuNUstCLuHaWLCNyEmMb-BYoYz7PFADHApnXLh36mY1C9q5UR08ykGc-oXmZN2jFKIFDtGneZ6GBpnavGmgTShDOyWHvThq9Mq

Based Pharynx is the last of the resistance.

Accurate.

Making the changelings good guys was never something I was in favour of,

Well that's another part of why I hate Discord's "reformation".

If you can "ally" with the uber powered sadist, in the span of an episode after less than a season, what is off limits?

And the way they did it was more him cowered into submission than turning over a new leaf anyway. At least I bought Luna's remorse. There's nothing compelling about Discord's surrender to me.

outside of lone examples like Thorax,

Yeah, I figured this transformation was coming the moment Thorax winged his way on screen. Some writers are just that predictable.

This is why the ending made me sad. As the last living representation of the edge that the changelings used to have, Pharynx becoming a colourful bug-deer as well was disappointing.

I understand that. Of course, this is the issue of Chrysalis outright stating that the Changeling feeding process was unsustainable in To Where And Back Again. From that episode on, the writing was on the wall, whether you liked it or not. The alternative was to make him a villainous nuisance or to have him starve.

Granted, I appreciate that his new design isn't quite as horrible as the others, and that he kept enough of his old personality to not become a total pussy like everybody else, but I still think he shouldn't have transformed at all.

I thought he was actually kind of cool. I get real "Mouth of Sauron" vibes from his design, and that's about as cool and dark as you can get for a legitimately good bug horse.

If the ending was supposed to be a compromise of him trying to fit into the new hive while holding onto that part of himself, then him transforming too kind of flies in the face of that.

Well again, it's either that, have him feed on other changelings, or starve. I knew which choice the writers were going to make before they made it.

The joke being that the changelings becoming a hippie commune is a humorous and ridiculous exaggeration of Discord's situation, but then it actually fucking happened, because this show has zero self-awareness anymore.

Did it ever? I mean we had one joke about singing in the premier and by Season 2 at the least the show was leaning into it hard. Self-awareness was one of the first things this show lost.

In fairness, I've never seen someone who ripped off ideas from fans have any nuance or self-awareness of their own, but that's an argument for another time.

First you have questions of logic. Why does Dr. Caballeron loudly explain his plan in public when he's caught, thus completely undoing it?

Because villains are stupid? Seriously the number of antagonists that make the mistake of gloating about their plans is staggering. Still makes me want to face palm though.

How did three ground-bound earth ponies capture and tie up a pegasus, Rainbow Dash no less, when she could've just flown away? Even if she didn't fly, how were they able to restrain her, tie her up, and blindfold her in public while Daring Do and Pinkie were literally within shouting distance? They didn't even knock her out. Why didn't she call out for help while they went through that presumably lengthy binding process?

Yess! It makes no sense that Rainbow Dash was taken out as easily as she was. She's literally an action hero. Let her do action stuff! The writer's laziness speaks for itself here.

What's up with this temple? Why are the steam vents still operating after centuries of neglect? Why is the Sphinx's magic still in effect?

Magic! It's a crapshoot.

How did Dr. Caballeron get on the roof?

Yes! He's not a pegasus. How is he even getting around in this one?!

So rather than changing the set piece, or even just using the one non-flying protagonist for this part (you know, the one who's actually connected to Somnambula?),

That would have made much more sense than what we got.

Seriously, if anti-flight spells are a thing in this universe, then we really should've seen one before now, because that would probably be the single most useful spell for any antagonist to have.

Yeah, the only way this makes any sense at all is if we assume the Sphinx is on a power level somewhat comparable to Discord himself.

Starlight Glimmer, too. If she had an anti-flight spell over Cloudsdale during her time-travel adventure, not only would it have been a major hindrance to Twilight herself, but there would've been no possible way for the Rainboom to ever happen. It's an instant win.

I mean, it also would have killed foals probably. There's that to consider.

So all that potential goes out the window. We're teased with nuance, and then it's undercut in favour of bad guys being bad. It's lame.

Now you know why I don't like Discord's debut. Or Starlight Glimmer's. Actually, most of MLP's villains had this problem now that I think about it.

So the message is, hope you can do something, and then you can? Do I even need to explain why this is stupid?

Nope!

You all see this, right? Hello?

You Are Not Alone.

This might possibly be the worst episode of the season. And I hope you realize the sheer magnitude of that accomplishment.

So what you're saying is that you award the writers no points?

Some people find it unbelievable to think that seasons 1-3 take place over a single year.

Depends on what you consider a year. But that's another argument entirely.

This episode wants us to believe that seasons 1-7 all took place over less than three years, assuming generously that it took the Cake twins over a year to sneeze for the first time.

For the record, I agree on how stupid that line is. And MLP's chronology in general, even if I can kind of make head cannon for some of it.

And yes, it has to be all seven seasons, because Grand Pear is also in this episode.

Huh. I forgot about that.

The writer conceived of a plot that should've been trivially easy to solve, realized that they'd written themselves into a corner, missed the simple and obvious solution (Twilight and Starlight are out of town for the next few days for [INSERT LITERALLY ANY REASON HERE]),

Ouch. Yeah, this should have been an easy fix now that I think about it.

It would be one thing if mane-altering spells were difficult for the average unicorn and Rarity didn't have access to anybody else, but no, magic just outright can't do anything for manes.

It can bend space and time, change species and age, selectively invert gravity, and grow a moustache on a lizard, but regrowing lost hair on a pony is impossible. I call bullshit.

This is one of those episodes I choose to ignore wholesale just for that reason.

And yeah, that's another thing. Twilight had a moustache-growing spell that worked on Spike in season one. Remember that? From Boast Busters? This is what I'm talking about when I say that season seven has atrocious continuity.

Yeah there is nothing to excuse this error.

Did you catch my emphasis? Meadowbrook was first mentioned as an eastern unicorn. She's not explicitly called one, but there's very little room for interpretation in Twilight's line, which outright doesn't make sense otherwise. So of course, of course, when they actually use the name again for one of their Pillar characters, it's for the swamp-dwelling earth pony healer who lives in the south. And no mention of the eight magical artefacts either, just for good measure. Literally the only thing they got right was the name.

And all of this would be bad enough on its own, but what's even worse is that there is a Pillar character of clearly eastern origin, who is a unicorn, and who is educated on matters of magic. If she had been named Meadowbrook, there would be no problem here. But they called her Mistmane, apparently for the sole reason of pissing off autists like me who care about these sorts of things.

I feel your pain. I'll readily concede this as a point of screwy continuity.

I haven't even touched on the problems with the plot yet. The whole episode revolves around Zecora being sick with some disease that turns the victim into a tree, and for some reason, Fluttershy is the only pony in the world who cares about this or treats the situation with any sense of urgency. The doctor seems to pretty much write Zecora off for dead, and Twilight is weirdly casual about the whole thing. Fluttershy spends the whole night up studying in the library to save Zecora's life... and Twilight goes to bed. Later, when Fluttershy gets sick with the same disease herself, Twilight spends several days just sitting around doing nothing. I don't get it.

Yeah this episode is weirdly apathetic about its own characters.

I think I actually got emotional at one point over how bad it was.

My frustrations with this probably contributed towards my outrage towards the next episode too. Regardless I'm fairly sure this laid the groundwork for episodes in Season 8 being as morally and emotionally reprehensible as they were.

How has this random doctor heard of the swamp disease, but Zecora hasn't, when she actually lives in the place it comes from?

That bothered me too when I first watched it.

If the doctor got sick from his brief contact with Zecora in the check-up, then clearly this condition is extremely contagious, so wouldn't there be an epidemic now?

One would think that they would wouldn't they?

Why are the flash bees immune to both Twilight's magic and the Stare but are fooled by a mask?

Probably immune to magic but frightened by the face of a predator. It's stupid, but it makes as much sense as anything else.

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WHY HAS HALF OF PONYVILLE TIME-TRAVELLED?

In fairness, no one had their cutie marks on display, so this could just be incredibly limited genetics. We all know the writers aren't that smart of course.

By the time this episode came along, I had long given up on any hope of enjoying the season, but the last few episodes before the finale were actually pretty good. Marks and Recreation in particular really stood out for me.

I hated this episode. If "A Matter Of Principals" killed my interest in Discord, this episode killed my interest in the CMC's. It's sooooo stupid.

Let's bring it back to School Raze shall we? What is the single dumbest part of Cozy Glow's entire plot (ignoring head cannon about magic and that whole Tartarus scene)? Cozy Glow is a child taking control of a school. Okay. Does anyone take her seriously? No one apart from her students, who have been bribed to hell and back.

This isn't "Princess Spike" where you have to roll over and accept that ponies are dumb enough to let a child run major institutions, even though Cozy Glow at least has forged notes from her superior and a genuine crest of appreciation from a Princess, which is still more than Spike had in that episode. Not to mention, bigger and stronger ponies around her to aid her if she ever needed help during an emergency, which we will get back to.

You can assume that Cozy's an incredible mastermind who will climb the ranks in no time at all with the loss of her "beloved" mentor and all of her other potential successors, or that she's an idiot whose biggest threat comes from her magic drain. The writers aren't demanding that you take her seriously as a successful villain, only as an obstacle to the Student Six.

Early episodes by contrast force you to accept the narrative of a child boss. This is quite frankly one of the worst of them, with not so much as a single adult, or even an instructor on hand who can fly if one of those Pegasus students decides they're sick of being babied and takes off to do something else. All you needed was Twilight Sparkle in a lawn chair and that would have fixed half the problem right there but noooo!

The other reason is Rumble himself. I love Rumble but he makes me hate everyone around him.

Rumble breaks away from the camp because he doesn't want to be tied down by a cutie mark, and Sweetie frustratedly shouts out to him that cutie marks are what make a pony special.

Well here's the problem. He doesn't want to be tied down by a cutie mark that he doesn't like. Which has happened before in "Appleoosa's Most Wanted". It's a valid concern, which isn't properly addressed at all in the episode.

Apple Bloom had traumatic nightmares over this very scenario in "Bloom And Gloom". And naturally she doesn't pick up on the fact that this is Rumble's problem until the end of the episode and her big idea to solve it is to give him more time with his brother not let him pursue his mark like he wanted.

Rumble shouldn't even be here if this camp is really for discovering special talents, because Rumble already knows what he wants to do, so it's redundant to make him attend a camp to figure that out.

I liked Thunderlane a lot, as he proved to be a pretty cool older brother. It was also nice to see the show remember that he was in the Wonderbolts, and even show him having made progress in moving up the ranks.

Maybe if he had a valid reason for holding Rumble back. Maybe Rumble wasn't getting anywhere with trying to earn his cutie mark via flying, and Thunderlane recognized that Rumble needed to take a break because he was neglecting his health or something.

But nah, we get a preachy condescending speech about needing to try different things, never mind that said thing could wind up tattooed on his thighs forever, and a sappy open note ending which didn't solve anything about his current problems, and that's it.

And again, Thunderlane entrusts his brother's safety and wellbeing to three little girls who can't even follow him if he chooses to ditch them. This seems like a great choice!

Frankly it feels like Thunderlane just really wanted to get out of babysitting duty. I think Rainbow Dash said it best..."Lazy Thunderlane!"

And of course, because Rumble was the only character I liked in this episode, they never used him in a major role ever again!

He was just as entertaining as ever, and his move from motivational speeches to luxury cruise scams was both bizarre and hilarious, and also somehow really fitting for him.

Eh. I found it underwhelming. The whole point of Iron Will is that he's a grey area Mr. Macho Minotaur and I liked that. Reducing him to a cowardly scam artist when Flim and Flam exist, and Twilight's parents had no knowledge of them, felt unnecessarily dirtying to the character. If nothing else "A Matter Of Principals" at least utilized him properly even if most of the episode sucked.

The jokes and the family dynamics were probably okay, but I don't really remember being impressed by them. I remember the basic plot, but nothing stood out to me as being original, memorable, or funny from back when I first watched it.

Star Tracker being a celebrity chaser was interesting, but we never see him again. Watching Twilight be driven miserable is a good plot, but nothing really felt too different aside from her family's reaction (which is pretty sweet I'll admit. And explains why she's as sheltered as she is).

And then of course there's how they massacred my guy. Dang, I forgot how much I hated the middle part of Season 7.

...Ahem. Yeah. Good episode. 10/10.

Solid story, solid characterization, comedy is only utilized in service to the plot. I really like Secrets And Pies. It's an underrated episode.

Plus, all the side characters kept me entertained, and I was amused by Starlight's attempt to literally recreate her childhood. It was both sad and creepy in the best way. Really made me feel for how emotionally messed-up Starlight is.

Yeah, this is why I liked Starlight Glimmer. So much emotional dysfunction crammed into one little pony.

I do think she pulls off this dynamic in even early episodes though. I have seen the whole guilt apology tour behavior in actual people before, and I think it works for her character personally. Honestly, I think main character syndrome in general tends to be forced, whether it's a main character or a replacement like Starlight Glimmer, and I never felt like her inclusion relied on the character assassination of others, like some I could name. Of course, that could be just because the show degraded its characters on a regular basis anyways, but that's just a thought.

camo.fimfiction.net/-qOCKlfyo4tyjHJ37MMnzYp-kPk-ryhLl6ayL3NBsgQ?url=https%3A%2F%2Flh6.googleusercontent.com%2FsSxzGyozd-7o9m8UE-vbrc4Ai9ghhWRK1kZ1KMmul8vgrsGexglukwNnTu2j-l47oGHYJCWUUTtO3fRzRMdgCMZZi4gchgtC7NyLENIJ6o6xVN4Rntwm4D8M3MH4XgZpiFj7lr0q

Ah a Doctor Who reference! Mind if I ask you what runs you've seen?

Accompanying him are the Pillars, five new characters who were established over the Legends of Magic series and what can charitably be called the season-long arc (which began with episode sixteen and ended with episode twenty, I remind you).

Dang. Now you're really making me realized just how rushed this actually was.

But then in the episode's stinger, we saw that there really was a shadowy entity skulking around the castle, apparently the real Pony of Shadows. At the time, I figured it was the season four finale villain, but it never came back, and we never got any definitive answers as to what the hell it was.

Supposedly this was the pony of shadows and then they retconned it to be Tirek, because the original plot was too scary. I think you can make a case that it's either Tirek or Zecora, but that would require creative freedom which from what I understand the writers didn't really have at that point.

So along comes Shadow Play to complicate everything, suddenly confirming that the Pony of Shadows was real, but also was trapped in an alternate dimension over a thousand years ago. So he definitely can't be Nightmare Moon, or a remnant of her. How did his name end up associated with Nightmare Moon and the castle, then?

Headcannon time! The Darkness we see is the result of something Luna did, perhaps extract negativity from other people's hearts, the way Starlight Glimmer extracted anger from her own. Negativity in this case referring to any undesirable emotion. She then sealed the darkness underground in Hollow Shades.

That remnant gets associated with Luna and years latter Stygian becomes the first known case of a shadow pony, becoming a prototype of Nightmare Moon. "Pony of Shadows" becomes a catch all term for shadow beings, which is latter associated with Nightmare Moon, explaining its association with the castle of the two sisters.

And yes, we do know Luna was around at the time of Stygian, even if we don't know in what capacity.

It's not inaccurate to call him a discount Nightmare Moon, because that's what he is.

I appreciate that his powers center more around darkness as opposed to phantoms and the moon. It's the little distinctions that interest me.

He's less thematically interesting, being mono-maniacally focused on THE DARKNESS while Nightmare Moon had thematic motifs of dreams, fear, the moon, royalty, betrayal, and familial relations (and lest we forget, her name was also the subtlest horse pun this show ever managed).

Well there are many themes to Darkness. Sombra's also a pony of shadow in his own way, but he embodies blocks, both physical and mental, sight and movement, indestructability and unexpectedness.

I like The Pony Of Shadows because he embodies darkness with no form or substance. No mass, no weight, just pure absence. Especially the way he appears and disappears from the scene without any signs of his coming or going. I enjoy that especially given his character arc and motivation can basically be summed up as being a nobody, professionally or personally.

Nightmare Moon was Princess Luna, one of the most popular and enduring characters on this show, while the Pony of Shadows is just Stygian, basically the Spike of his day.

To be fair, people liked Luna because they didn't use her all that much. She was mysterious and not overused unlike a lot of characters. Plus, she was introduced at a time when the series was still new and anything was possible, so she captured our imaginations more readily.

I freely admit that I find her visual design and actor more interesting than Stygian, but a lot of that is surface level and me being a dude who likes a little bit of gaudiness every now and then (seriously her mane is overblown, can we at least admit that much?). Done right, he could have been every bit as deep as Luna. Maybe even deeper given how little Luna was actually developed over the course of the series.

Like I said before, I really liked his relationship with the Pillars and the way he was redeemed.

Well yeah, because that's what he was developed for the same way Luna was developed to be a damsel to be saved. If they had bothered to develop him as a reoccurring character, he probably could have been as compelling. But much like with the other characters of the mid to later seasons, they couldn't be bothered to develop their characters over whatever the plot needed for that moment.

But the funny thing is that aside from the Tree of Harmony stuff, which I'll get to in a minute, this story could've easily been told with just Star Swirl. And that's because all the Pillars aside from Star Swirl in this episode were completely superfluous and made no meaningful contributions of their own.

I don't disagree with most of your assessment, although I do think having a team gives Stygian his main success and splits Starswirl's attention, which gives him a greater excuse to unintentionally ignore Stygian. So, they do serve a purpose in this story, it's just an extremely limited one that is never relevant to the series ever again.

And that brings me to the mane six's adventures in finding the artefacts of the Pillars. They spent much of the first part of the story tracking down all these objects, some from places they'd been to before, and some from entirely new locales, but it was all rushed and crammed into this one episode.

No argument here.

Rather like how three of the Pillars themselves had their stories crammed into one episode with Campfire Tales. It's just unsatisfying, and I think it illustrates how badly handled the season-long arc was.

Agreed.

Here's a crazy idea. What if we'd had five episodes spread evenly throughout the season, where the characters are sent to these places on some kind of mission?

I would have been down for that.

I don't know who'd send them, but perhaps we could invent some kind of omniscient magical artefact that tells them where the plot is.

Or perhaps Starswirl's journal?

Then once they get there, they'd have to do something, like... I don't know... Solve friendship problems, maybe?

Well you could use the Cutie Map for that.

But on their missions, they'd come across or otherwise hear about these great legends, and find the artefacts associated with them, which they'd take back home as rewards or souvenirs or something. Then in the finale they realize the significance of the objects somehow, and Twilight has to find Star Swirl's artifact to complete the set.

Sounds good to me!

But... I don't know, I guess maybe that's a little too out there. It's just an idea, really. I couldn't see the show ever actually doing anything like that. Could you?

If they had good writers and solid planning maybe.

Or wait, come to think about it, why don't we just not have the Pillars at all? Since we could've easily told this story with Star Swirl alone, why not just do that?

Well like I said they do serve a role, it's just very much to justify the conflict between Stygian and Starswirl.

Ah, but of course, all this is forgetting the real reason that we had to have the Pillars, which was to provide an origin for the Tree of Harmony. Because we really needed that.

Nope!

For the record I want to agree that the Backstory of Tree of Harmony is underwhelming and didn't really need inclusion. Especially when the show still wouldn't explain where half of its magical mumbo jumbo came from. Now on with the show!

Starswirl being present for Tirek kind of makes sense, if he had time traveled forward in time to that specific point. It makes sense that it would be easier to travel forward in time as opposed to backwards but that's just my interpretation. It also retroactively explains why the other pillars aren't mentioned if only Starswirl became well known to the Princesses.

I haven't even mentioned all the problems with Hollow Shades.

Do tell.

This one episode probably de-canonised about half the entire expanded universe, but that's par for the course by now, and you're probably sick of hearing about it.

Ah yes. I remember when the Clone Wars Reboot came out. Horrible show really. Completely destroyed any respect I had for Lucas Film, and George Lucas, since he signed off on it.

Comics, books, movies, previous seasons, Shadow Play ignores them all equally as convenient, because the writer just did not care. And really, I think that's a perfect representation of what this season was. You almost couldn't ask for a more fitting finale.

Yep. I don't hate MLP. Personally, I feel indebted to it, since it forced me to start to recognize bad writing and how to tell if a show was worth getting invested in or not.

Still when I look back on it today, all I can think of is that it was such a waste of potential. I didn't even bother with Gen 5, that's how done I am with this franchise and Hasbro, and I highly doubt (given the art style and the run of the mill plots) that I'll ever get around to seeing Gen 1 either.

The world changes on a dime according to the whims of the writer, and pre-established rules and continuity are thrown out the window with no regard to the consequences for the world as a whole.

Yeah. That kind of became a common occurrence over the last few decades.

I think studios saw how nonsensical movies like Star Wars and Alien became popular and were like "Hey! We can make these people pay for shit and they'll defend us so that we can rake in their cash!" Given how popular Avatar 2 has become, I have no reason to think that will change anytime soon.

[DannyJ]

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But honestly, it's actually pretty funny that Sunset would go in for dude bros. Kind of makes sense given her relationship with Flash Sentry.

I always saw Flash as more of a pretty boy than a dudebro.

Not that they're mutually exclusive, I guess.

Seriously though, I know what it's like to watch hacks butcher something you liked. You have my sympathies.

I wouldn't necessarily say I liked Friends Forever. I liked some individual issues of it, but it's a series of high peaks and deep valleys. I merely regard what ultimately replaced it as an overall downgrade. Legends of Magic itself was a limited series which only lasted twelve issues, and then was replaced by another limited series, and as far as I can tell it's been nothing but various different limited series ever since then. Which isn't a bad thing necessarily, but it really only compounds the problem, because now instead of potentially having one bad issue of Friends Forever, there can be an entire bad six issue series.

It does at least have the advantage of allowing them to do more ambitious multi-issue story arcs instead of being limited to inconsequential character team-up oneshots like Friends Forever... but IDW already had the main series for big multi-issue arcs, so cutting your series of simple slice of life oneshots to make way for more of that seems short-sighted to me.

Your jokes are on point here, I cannot lie.

Thanks. I guess I'm doing something right.

Damn this whole review is making me laugh and I feel terrible for it, but I just can't stop.

No joke, that copy-pasted ball of animals was also one of that issue's front covers.

Incidentally the series final implies it's a magic unique to him, so I think you're safe on that front.

You mean the Tirek fight? Yeah, maybe. Honestly, though, that just raises even more questions, especially since spontaneously ageing up and down by magic is not unique to him in his introductory story; Mistmane and the enemy stand user do it too. What they do is different than Rockhoof's case, granted, but it muddies the water in a way I really don't like.

The Pillars annoy me so much it's unreal.

You haven't watched https://www.youtube.com/@disparutoo have you? Because his humor seems like it would be up your ally.

I don't recognise the name, but the guy's face looks familiar. I think I may have seen a couple of his videos here and there.

You would think that would have been an interesting characterization to explore with Ocellus, but that never materialized. Then again it could have backfired in a big way.

I don't think the show writers are capable of writing interesting changelings other than Chrysalis, and even her they severely mishandle.

Seriously how many times did this show tease and screw with its audience by promising interesting concepts only to bring it to naught?

Well... *vaguely gestures at the 150,000 fanfics on this site alone*

He's just too based for them. That's the problem.

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If you can "ally" with the basic stock uber powered villain sadist in the span of an episode after less than a season what is off limits?

Well, okay, clarity. I was never in favour of having the entire changeling race just flip and say, "We're good guys now!" It's implausible for so many horrible people to all switch their morality around at once. If Chrysalis, personally, had a change of heart, and the changelings in general just stopped being antagonistic because she ordered them to stand down, and then she began efforts to reform their society, I wouldn't have had as much of a problem with that. I still would be sad to lose a great villain(ous force), but to be honest, it's not like the show by this point was making nearly as much use of their A-list villains as they could've. And when they eventually did bring them all back I ended up hating it, so...

The alternative was to make him a villainous nuisance or to have him starve.

Well again, it's either that, have him feed on other changelings, or starve. I knew which choice the writers were going to make before they made it.

I just don't get why sharing love has to come with a skittlebug form, from a narrative perspective. I mean, they're changelings. They can look however they want, presumably, and Pharynx plainly preferred his old black design, so I'm just sad for him that he wasn't allowed to keep it.

Did it ever?

Like the show's quality, it waxes and wanes.

So what you're saying is that you award the writers no points?

And may God have mercy on their souls.

Depends on what you consider a year. But that's another argument entirely.

No, no, let's hear it. I'm always interested in some timeline talk.

This is one of those episodes I choose to ignore wholesale just for that reason.

I just ignore the entire last three seasons wholesale and selectively choose which elements not to, rather than the other way around. It saves so many headaches. It's great. I get to use Cozy without even once having to acknowledge the school.

I hated this episode. If "A Matter Of Principals" killed my interest in Discord, this episode killed my interest in the CMC's. It's sooooo stupid.

Interesting. I never considered it from the "lack of adult supervision" angle, because by this point in the series I consider the Crusaders relatively grown up (at least mid teens, compared to the tweens they were in the earlier seasons), and the camp is itself is relatively low danger and low skill to run, so it's the sort of thing I could see the adults potentially trusting them with. But it is a good point you raise, and the other stuff you mention is worth consideration too.

The writers aren't demanding that you take her seriously as a successful villain, only as an obstacle to the Student Six.

I object to this statement, but that's a conversation for the later reviews.

And of course, because Rumble was the only character I liked in this episode, they never used him in a major role ever again!

Rumble, too, was ultimately too based for this show.

The whole point of Iron Will is that he's a grey area Mr. Macho Minotaur and I liked that. Reducing him to a cowardly scam artist when Flim and Flam exist, and Twilight's parents had no knowledge of them felt unnecessarily dirtying to the character.

I can understand that perspective and agree to an extent. I just kind of learned to accept it since he'd already suffered worse character assassination previously (I mean, the comics had him team up with fucking Chrysalis as part of a plan to resurrect King Sombra; after seeing that, I have a hard time getting mad about him being portrayed as a con artist).

I really like Secrets And Pies. It's an underrated episode.

Imagine not liking Secrets and Pies.

This post made by Secrets and Pies gang.

I have seen the whole guilt apology tour behavior in actual people before, and I think it works for her character personally.

It made sense for her. It's just that I found it personally annoying, because every time it happened in season six it was also simultaneously an excuse to exposit her entire backstory for anyone who hadn't seen season five. That stuff annoys me.

I never felt like her inclusion relied on the character assassination of others, like some I could name. Of course, that could be just because the show degraded its characters on a regular basis anyways, but that's just a thought.

While every character had a bad moment at some point or another through the show's run, I feel like it's a problem that got noticeably worse in season six, and then dramatically worse in season eight, coinciding both times with the writers trying to push new main characters. Now, I don't necessarily think that this was a plan, or that everyone was written badly on purpose to make Starlight look good; I generally tend to assume incompetence over malice. But even if Haber and Vogel were writing the mane six badly by accident, I still don't think it's a coincidence that they never ruined Starlight the same way. It's obvious who their favourite was.

Ah a Doctor Who reference! Mind if I ask you what runs you've seen?

Like most people my age I got onboard with the revival, not the classic series, so I've only seen a little of older run. I tried to go through it in chronological order starting with the Hartnell era a decade ago, but life got in the way and I never got back to that, though I enjoyed what I saw. I've seen a few sporadic other stories here and there from reruns, but mostly individual episodes of larger serials, never the complete thing. I also went back and watched the 1996 movie.

Of the revival series, I've seen the majority of it. I started with the first series with Eccleston, and watched all the way through Tennant, Smith, and Capaldi's runs. Capaldi's final season was kind of losing me, and I was extremely skeptical of Chibnall and Whittaker, so I watched a tiny bit of Thirteen's first series and then immediately dropped it. Having said that, I have seen a few additional episodes of Whittaker's run, if only because I couldn't believe what I was hearing and had to see the trainwrecks for myself.

As for the upcoming series, I liked Russel T. Davies' first run, and I liked Tennant, so I'm giving it a chance, but I remain skeptical overall. I expect it will at least be an improvement on the Chibnall and late Moffat eras, but it's the Current Year, and we can't have nice things anymore, so whether it will actually be good is a whole other question.

Supposedly this was the pony of shadows and then they retconned it to be Tirek, because the original plot was too scary.

I've heard from many people that it's supposed to be Tirek, but Tirek never demonstrated the ability to making glowing eye shapes appear from his own shadow, nor do I understand why he would be randomly doing such a thing where nobody can see him, so if they were trying to retcon it into that, they retconned it badly.

Headcannon time!

It works, with the caveat that we have to ignore the Pillars' official backstory, which establishes that they and the Pony of Shadows all disappeared when the princesses were still children.

I do think having a team gives Stygian his main success and splits Starswirl's attention, which gives him a greater excuse to unintentionally ignore Stygian. So, they do serve a purpose in this story, it's just an extremely limited one that is never relevant to the series ever again.

Honestly, I don't believe they were even necessary for this much. They split Star Swirl's attention, yeah, but magic research or defeating villains or training apprentices like Clover the Clever or the princesses could have accomplished the same thing. Star Swirl the Bearded was a busy guy with a lot of achievements to his name, and he is explicitly said to have not understood friendship, so I don't think he ever needed an additional excuse to neglect Stygian.

Well you could use the Cutie Map for that.

Thatsthejoke.jpg

Starswirl being present for Tirek kind of makes sense, if he had time traveled forward in time to that specific point.

I accept this only on the basis that the alternatives make less sense.

Do tell.

Put simply, Hollow Shades should not be a ruin. It was previously established as a functioning town where people currently lived, because the Apple family had relatives there (and the official maps portrayed it accordingly). The episode itself even references this, as Applejack mentions the Hollow Shades Apples, but Sunburst just brushes it off by saying that they must be distant relatives, because Hollow Shades was abandoned eons ago. But that makes no sense, because Apple Bloom mentioned an RSVP from the Apples in Hollow Shades in Apple Family Reunion. That's how we even knew that Hollow Shades is a thing.

It's just like how they brought back Meadowbrook while forgetting that Meadowbrook is supposed to be an eastern unicorn, or how they brought back the Pony of Shadows while forgetting that the POS was already seen free and dwelling in the Everfree castle. It's the appearance of a call-back masking the reality of a continuity error, and it's another piece of evidence that Haber and Dubuc do not actually give a shit.

At a stretch, I suppose you could try to make sense of it by interpretting Sunburst's line to mean physical distance, as in the Hollow Shades Apples don't actually live in Hollow Shades, just near it. But even that doesn't make sense to me. That's like if I lived in Amesbury but gave my address as Stonehenge.

I didn't even bother with Gen 5, that's how done I am with this franchise and Hasbro,

I've checked out some of it. What I saw was okay, but nothing special. It's not as bad as the final seasons of FiM IMO, but it certainly never grabbed me.

Given how popular Avatar 2 has become, I have no reason to think that will change anytime soon.

Hell, Avatar 2 is almost benign in comparison to the flow of sludge coming out of most the major studios right now. 2022 was a really bad year for entertainment overall. It feels like pop culture is in freefall at the moment.

[Wild Stallion]

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I always saw Flash as more of a pretty boy than a dudebro.

Not that they're mutually exclusive, I guess.

I mean, I think he's probably both. Just the hair cut screams dude bro to me.

I liked some individual issues of it, but it's a series of high peaks and deep valleys.

Honestly, since I got into honest critique of fiction, I find that if I can tolerate something, that's almost as good as a win. I never realized how bad some of the stuff I used to love was, before I started really thinking about it.

Which isn't a bad thing necessarily, but it really only compounds the problem, because now instead of potentially having one bad issue of Friends Forever, there can be an entire bad six issue series.

Yeah, I know that feeling when you see entire character arcs based on the dumbest of episodes. I've seen that a little too much of that in tv series, and now I can't unsee it.

but IDW already had the main series for big multi-issue arcs, so cutting your series of simple slice of life oneshots to make way for more of that seems short-sighted to me.

It's redundant for sure.

Honestly, though, that just raises even more questions, especially since spontaneously ageing up and down by magic is not unique to him in his introductory story; Mistmane and the enemy stand user do it too. What they do is different than Rockhoof's case, granted, but it muddies the water in a way I really don't like.

I just see at as a Tirek thing. He bulks up on magic and Rockhoof does the same thing using his own manner of steroid magic. It makes Rockhoof look bad, but again, see Grevious or Rainbow Dash for comparison.

I grant you the idea of transferring or losing youth is weird, but it's not the only time it's been used in a fantasy setting, so I can wrap my head around it being its own unique spell driven thing fairly easily.

I think I may have seen a couple of his videos here and there.

He's got some good stuff. Some of his stuff his rather dry, but he employs similar snark in some of his videos.

I don't think the show writers are capable of writing interesting changelings other than Chrysalis, and even her they severely mishandle.

I mean they can, they just either didn't have the resources or the interest. We'll talk more about this latter, but there a few character moments I unequivocally love in the latter seasons, and which shows how far the characters have come. They just aren't nearly as common as I would like.

Well... *vaguely gestures at the 150,000 fanfics on this site alone*

Pretty much. We needed a whole site dedicated to its unfulfilled potential. And I bet we still haven't covered half of the possibilities that could have existed.

Well, okay, clarity. I was never in favour of having the entire changeling race just flip and say, "We're good guys now!"

Well specifically, I was referring to Discord. The main reason I hate "Return Of Harmony" aside from Discord being feed humble pie by Fluttershy (because comedy) is because he's not given any character nuances or depth.

Guy could do anything he likes with his powers, and he stages bland sitcom fights for his own amusement. Even Bill Cipher has this almost perverted roundabout way of honoring his deals with Mabel and Gideon during the final of Gravity Falls, that makes you wonder what is really up with him. And they do kill off Bill Cipher in that show.

Discord has none of that, and it's really frustrating, because after a cliche bad girl who turned out to be a tormented soul in the form of Nightmare Moon, I was really hoping for some greater reason behind his villainy, even if he couldn't be reformed. But nope! He's the family friendly Darth Sidious! Because we haven't seen that before!

My young apprentice... The time has come... Unleash the power of the grump side! Umm Discord? What are you doing? Good good. Let the confusion flow through you.

They reformed him anyway despite the fact he has no other personality in that two-part episode beyond being a childish sadist.

Now considering the likelihood that they wouldn't find a cure for a species which has to feed off of the life force of others? I'm legitimately shocked they showed as much restraint as they did in not reforming Chrysalis. Now I agree that the turnaround is annoying fast, but a large part of Discord's domestication happens offscreen and no one really complains about it.

It's one of those things where I get why people are upset, I just don't have the emotional investment to care. Especially given how often the show screwed things like this up, and how little Chrysalis and Changeling tactics and thought process made sense to me in the first place.

Chrysalis reforming before the rest of the Changelings does feel like something which could have believably worked, but believability stopped being a concern during season 3 at the least. And not all of that was due to Discord's reformation either.

They can look however they want, presumably, and Pharynx plainly preferred his old black design, so I'm just sad for him that he wasn't allowed to keep it.

I mean he's about as close as you can get. That shade of green pretty much verges on being black anyway. It's actually close to cameo green now that I think about it. Plus, he's way bigger now.

Put it this way, if I was a pony and Pharynx was charging at me I would be afraid for my wellbeing. And knowing Pharynx, he'd probably appreciate that fact more than any other gripes he may have about his current form.

And may God have mercy on their souls.

I figured you'd catch that.

No, no, let's hear it. I'm always interested in some timeline talk.

More of an observation really. The Sisters control the rising and the setting of the sun and moon and we don't know how consistent it is. In "Lesson Zero" Celestia's movement of the sun is quite jerky at one point. So, we don't actually know what constitutes a day or a night or a year in this universe. Ponies have fixed timetables, but we don't know how rigorously they observe them. Watches aren't exactly common, even if clocks are slightly more so.

Even then, we don't know that the words translate the same. One minute for ponies may be a fourth of the time it takes for us, because we don't have anything consistent to measure by. And we don't know for sure if ponies measure a year of growth in ponies the same way they measure a year of growth in the environment, since ponies age so much more slowly.

All of this is just theory of course, but given how screwy the show is in general, none of these factors can be ruled out.

I just ignore the entire last three seasons wholesale and selectively choose which elements not to, rather than the other way around. It saves so many headaches. It's great.

Fair enough. Maybe I should try that? I've wanted to do something with the Power Pony comics villains for ages but the PP themselves are just a royal mess, so I'm not crazy about having to deal with the comic's versions of them.

I get to use Cozy without even once having to acknowledge the school.

So you do use her? Or is that another joke? Because I'm usually up for most Cozy literature if you have any.

I never considered it from the "lack of adult supervision" angle, because by this point in the series I consider the Crusaders relatively grown up (at least mid teens, compared to the tweens they were in the earlier seasons)

Still too small. We see teenagers later on in the series and they look nothing like the CMC's. And even if we didn't, I still wouldn't buy them as being older than 14 at the latest.

and the camp is itself is relatively low danger and low skill to run, so it's the sort of thing I could see the adults potentially trusting them with.

I mean I'd have to go back and watch the episode again to be sure, but I'm pretty sure I remember one or two obstacle courses and while their fairly banal, I wouldn't classify stuff like that as being low danger. That doesn't even account for the possibility of a student running off and crashing or getting lost in the woods. To say nothing of the relatively stupid things that can kill you, like choaking on food.

As I've recently been made aware this past year, death is really dumb and comes to you when you least anticipate it. The very least they should have done is have an adult on hand trained or experienced in this stuff, so the camp has some safeguards to protect its attendants.

I can understand the CMC's being consultants given the fact they are frequently depicted as being more emotionally astute than their grownup counterparts (apart from Sweetie Belle). I just don't think they should be running the thing by themselves with no back up around.

But it is a good point you raise, and the other stuff you mention is worth consideration too.

Thank you.

I object to this statement, but that's a conversation for the later reviews.

I mean, I can see it both ways. My point is that I can interpret School Raze in such a way that doesn't make her potential conquest of the globe a major threat, especially since her ambitions are functionally ruined the moment Twilight finds a way to escape Tartarus.

Rumble, too, was ultimately too based for this show.

Indeed.

I can understand that perspective and agree to an extent.

Glad to hear!

I just kind of learned to accept it since he'd already suffered worse character assassination previously (I mean, the comics had him team up with fucking Chrysalis as part of a plan to resurrect King Sombra; after seeing that, I have a hard time getting mad about him being portrayed as a con artist).

Fair enough. But like I said, I didn't bother with the comics mostly because of stuff like that. And Twilight viewing rules as more important than the livelihood of an entire town, but that's another character misstep in an ocean full of them in regard to her character.

It's just that I found it personally annoying, because every time it happened in season six it was also simultaneously an excuse to exposit her entire backstory for anyone who hadn't seen season five.

Fair enough. I'm not bothered by that stuff usually, but I get why it breaks immersion for some people.

While every character had a bad moment at some point or another through the show's run, I feel like it's a problem that got noticeably worse in season six, and then dramatically worse in season eight, coinciding both times with the writers trying to push new main characters.

I'll give you Season 8, because there's no arguing that season was terrible.

But as I recall, the bulk of the Mane Six's character assassination (outside of season 8) happens before Starlight Glimmer joins the cast. Other than "Non-Compete Clause" my least favorite Rainbow Dash episodes all take place before Starlight Glimmer was reformed.

Now I'll freely acknowledged that it's possible they sunk those characters as a prelude to bringing in Starlight, but that would have been a behind the scenes thing, which I don't really know enough about to consider in this instance.

Now, I don't necessarily think that this was a plan, or that everyone was written badly on purpose to make Starlight look good; I generally tend to assume incompetence over malice.

I tend to be more likely to assume malice over incompetence, but I'm very careful when I apply that standard to people. In this case, granted what I said above, they would have to have known in advance not only what they were doing with Starlight, but also that they wanted the Main Six to be mostly gone when they brought her in.

It's certainly possible, but I don't know enough about their thought process behind the scenes to be sure. I am convinced they wanted her to be reformed, just from how chill Twilight was about her enslaving a town in her debut, but I don't know how much that played into Season 5's creation.

But even if Haber and Vogel were writing the mane six badly by accident, I still don't think it's a coincidence that they never ruined Starlight the same way. It's obvious who their favorite was.

It's possible. I certainly won't begrudge you your hate of a Mary Sue character. I tend to be more forgiving of that stuff than others, but I can think off two characters right off the bat who I'm less than forgiving of (one of which tanked my love of Star Wars), and a third who barely turned it around enough to be likeable again, so I certainly won't begrudge you this.

Like most people my age I got onboard with the revival, not the classic series, so I've only seen a little of older run.

Same. I've seen some of Eccleston (after the fact on the internet), most of David's latter run, all of Smith's, and a fair bit of Capaldi's. The reality is that I started losing interest under Tennent's latter episodes, stuck it out until the end, loved Matt for most of his run, and slogged through Capaldi, missed several out of disgust until I finally just stopped watching at what I think was his final. I briefly picked up Whitaker to see if they could take the show in a new direction, which I eventually realized that they weren't going to, and cut it loose.

I have zero faith in Russel since I started hating the show under his tenure, so the way things are going with modern entertainment, I'm probably never going to watch Doctor Who again. I don't have any desire to put myself through that.

Having said that, I have seen a few additional episodes of Whittaker's run, if only because I couldn't believe what I was hearing and had to see the trainwrecks for myself.

I can't get into hatewatching. I watched MLP to the end because after Season 8 there was only one more season to go, but if there had been more I would have straight up walked away.

Doctor Who ironically was the show that taught me that it never gets any better, no matter how much you wish it did.

As for the upcoming series, I liked Russel T. Davies' first run, and I liked Tennant, so I'm giving it a chance, but I remain skeptical overall.

Fair enough. I got into Doctor Who on Tennant, so I know why people love that era, but having revaluated it, I just can't enjoy it the way I used to.

I expect it will at least be an improvement on the Chibnall and late Moffat eras, but it's the Current Year, and we can't have nice things anymore, so whether it will actually be good is a whole other question.

Well yeah. Trends have convinced me it won't be but hope springs eternal. Hopefully someone can find enjoyment in the revival. We will see, I guess.

I've heard from many people that it's supposed to be Tirek, but Tirek never demonstrated the ability to making glowing eye shapes appear from his own shadow, nor do I understand why he would be randomly doing such a thing where nobody can see him, so if they were trying to retcon it into that, they retconned it badly.

Light reflecting of the walls maybe? Tirek does have glowing yellow eyes, so that much is cannon at least. Like I said, I think the resemblance is closer to Zecora's eyes than Tirek's but I can't rule it out.

It works, with the caveat that we have to ignore the Pillars' official backstory, which establishes that they and the Pony of Shadows all disappeared when the princesses were still children.

Well we don't know what they mean by children. Are they teenagers? Are they the CMC's age? Because I can see Luna as a Starlight Glimmer esq pony learning how to do this at that age. Rainbow Dash was literally breaking the sound barrier and Fluttershy was inadvertently commanding butterflies to save her, so this is hardly the most outrageous thing a child has ever done in this series. Hell, if we want to get crazy Pumpkin is phasing through nets as an infant, and Flurry Heart can teleport, so realistically speaking, who knows when Luna could have done this?

They split Star Swirl's attention, yeah, but magic research or defeating villains or training apprentices like Clover the Clever or the princesses could have accomplished the same thing.

Well yeah, but then what's Stygian's role? The only reason they know each other is because he recruited the pillars to save his village. What's his relationship to Starswirl if not in that context?

He's not magically inclined, so Starswirl has no reason to associate with him otherwise. And unless their lacking in magic, a pony would have no reason to go looking for more power, which is what led Stygian to the darkness. I suppose you could have had the Pony Of Shadows be a jilted lover or apprentice instead, but that just makes them more like Luna. Now I don't think there's anything wrong with that, but I doubt it works as well for you.

Star Swirl the Bearded was a busy guy with a lot of achievements to his name, and he is explicitly said to have not understood friendship, so I don't think he ever needed an additional excuse to neglect Stygian.

I mean, I don't disagree with that. But like I said, it's not the only requirement the narrative has to fill.

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Ahh. Fair enough.

Put simply, Hollow Shades should not be a ruin. It was previously established as a functioning town where people currently lived, because the Apple family had relatives there (and the official maps portrayed it accordingly).

Fair enough. I do agree that's a problem if it was depicted as a regular town in the past. I just don't think enough people buy into the extended continuity to be properly bothered by it sadly.

It's just like how they brought back Meadowbrook while forgetting that Meadowbrook is supposed to be an eastern unicorn, or how they brought back the Pony of Shadows while forgetting that the POS was already seen free and dwelling in the Everfree castle. It's the appearance of a call-back masking the reality of a continuity error, and it's another piece of evidence that Haber and Dubuc do not actually give a shit.

Admittedly I'm extending the lore past the point where I doubt the writers ever even considered it, which is a damn shame. But trying to fit impossible pieces together fascinates me and allows me to get some enjoyment out of the series past its prime, not to mention improve my critical thinking skills by having to figure out how I would get around these plot holes if I was writing the series.

At a stretch, I suppose you could try to make sense of it by interpreting Sunburst's line to mean physical distance, as in the Hollow Shades Apples don't actually live in Hollow Shades, just near it.

Or I suppose it could be a difference between districts. Like how Manhattan is actually only a part of New York City, but is frequently associated with the whole island.

Incidentally, Sunburst may just be wrong. How many times in fiction do nerds say "it's deserted!" only to run into a small segment of people eking out an existence in the shadows of once great ruins? Yes, the city proper appears to be deserted, but we have no idea if the Apples might be living on the outskirts somewhere or not.

Heck, for all we know there are inhabitants and they're all just hiding at the appearance of strangers. It's not a given that they would recognize Applejack and even if they did, they might not be comfortable approaching her with so many other people they don't know around. The group certainly isn't lingering or doing any exploring, so it makes sense that they wouldn't run into anyone if they're all hiding and know their way around the city better than Applejack does.

I've checked out some of it. What I saw was okay, but nothing special. It's not as bad as the final seasons of FiM IMO, but it certainly never grabbed me.

I just don't have the emotional energy to invest anymore. I'm sure someone could make something I enjoy. I like My Hero Academia well enough, even if it's been showing its flaws for a while now. I've enjoyed a few anime series out of Japan like Prima Doll or Delicious PartyPretty Cure. So, I can still get excited for stuff, it's just much harder after all the abuse my interests have taken over the years.

Hell, Avatar 2 is almost benign in comparison to the flow of sludge coming out of most the major studios right now.

Well yeah. But Avatar 2 from what I've heard from critics telling me to go see it, still sacrifices good story telling for okay visuals and contrived messaging. Admittedly I didn't see either movie apart from trailers, so maybe the visuals are stunning but that still wouldn't be enough to overcome bad writing for me at this point.

2022 was a really bad year for entertainment overall. It feels like pop culture is in freefall at the moment.

Oh yeah. It's been in freefall for a while. And with as many stories as we've got in our culture, it's a long way down.

[DannyJ]

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Honestly, since I got into honest critique of fiction, I find that if I can tolerate something, that's almost as good as a win. I never realized how bad some of the stuff I used to love was, before I started really thinking about it.

I know that feel, bro.

I just see at as a Tirek thing. He bulks up on magic and Rockhoof does the same thing using his own manner of steroid magic. It makes Rockhoof look bad, but again, see Grevious or Rainbow Dash for comparison.

Mm. Makes some sense, I guess.

He's got some good stuff. Some of his stuff his rather dry, but he employs similar snark in some of his videos.

I'll check him out sometime.

Well specifically, I was referring to Discord.

lh4.googleusercontent.com/4uUIggBrDpUifHjn8DSil73Hw_zde-tuGLPpq34hjxb51rqyOjXMLt1Jw5u6UksnTZ1GOPp22SN5IHAt7uhAPnRpp87OIytk-0YY9p4WejgjrFLI0npyo9fMRZI4ke0rd-EdfHKqPZiitIwbaezNY0bHc6jKPrLyVna03PCEVn9hfKdtYBcrn1kfCZ-RKg

More of an observation really. The Sisters control the rising and the setting of the sun and moon and we don't know how consistent it is. In "Lesson Zero" Celestia's movement of the sun is quite jerky at one point. So, we don't actually know what constitutes a day or a night or a year in this universe. Ponies have fixed timetables, but we don't know how rigorously they observe them. Watches aren't exactly common, even if clocks are slightly more so.

All very true, and worth considering.

Maybe I should try that? I've wanted to do something with the Power Pony comics villains for ages but the PP themselves are just a royal mess, so I'm not crazy about having to deal with the comic's versions of them.

Go for it.

So you do use her? Or is that another joke? Because I'm usually up for most Cozy literature if you have any.

I haven't used her in anything yet, but it's not a joke. The Borderworld (I'm gonna stop pretending like my stories' shared universe doesn't have a name) doesn't acknowledge season eight as canon at all, but a version of Cozy does exist in it. She's the daughter of Svengallop and Suri Polomare, lives in Manehattan, was one of the foals bullying Babs Seed before she met the Crusaders, and has ambitions to do some evil stuff one day, but doesn't yet actually have the means or opportunity to do so. I've got two stories planned out in which she may potentially appear. One's in progress but way off from release, and the other's still in the planning stages.

I mean I'd have to go back and watch the episode again to be sure, but I'm pretty sure I remember one or two obstacle courses and while their fairly banal, I wouldn't classify stuff like that as being low danger.

Yeah, that's a point. Didn't remember that.

Being totally honest with you, I've only ever watched the episode once. The season seven review is shorter than my season eight or nine reviews in part because I didn't actually rewatch the episodes before I reviewed them for this one, and just went by memory and previous comments I made, many of which would've been first impressions. So my reviews of these episodes probably don't hold up quite as well as my later ones.

As I've recently been made aware this past year, death is really dumb and comes to you when you least anticipate it.

Whatever circumstances brought you to learn this, you have my sympathies.

I can understand the CMC's being consultants given the fact they are frequently depicted as being more emotionally astute than their grownup counterparts (apart from Sweetie Belle). I just don't think they should be running the thing by themselves with no back up around.

I can agree with that.

But as I recall, the bulk of the Mane Six's character assassination (outside of season 8) happens before Starlight Glimmer joins the cast.

I was less referring to character assassination and more character degradation in general, but maybe I'm just splitting hairs.

In this case, granted what I said above, they would have to have known in advance not only what they were doing with Starlight, but also that they wanted the Main Six to be mostly gone when they brought her in.

There was indeed an actual push behind the scenes from Josh Haber and Michael Vogel to retire the mane six and establish a new core friend group centred around Starlight. I talk about this a little in the season nine review. Doesn't necessarily follow that they were writing the mane six badly on purpose, but again, it shows where their priorities were.

The reality is that I started losing interest under Tennent's latter episodes, stuck it out until the end, loved Matt for most of his run, and slogged through Capaldi, missed several out of disgust until I finally just stopped watching at what I think was his final.

Where did Tennant and Capaldi respectively start losing you, out of curiosity?

I have zero faith in Russel since I started hating the show under his tenure

He had his ups and downs as a writer. In retrospect, I think he was less imaginative than Moffat, and more inclined to deus ex machina endings and stupid goofy shit like the Slitheen and the blowjob-dispensing paving stone. But on the other hand, after years of watching Moffat's Doctor Who, I came to realise that Davies was much better at developing coherent settings and stories, and writing characters who actually felt human.

I kind of learned to miss how humans on present day Earth in the Davies era became gradually more aware of aliens, and would frequently reference recent events and react realistically to them, like how in one of the Christmas specials the Doctor finds London deserted because there's always some horrible alien attack in London at Christmas. And then you skip ahead to the Moffat era, and they have an episode where the entire planet is suddenly overtaken by trees overnight, but then by the end of the episode when they're dealt with, humanity just casually forgets about it, and it never comes up again. And then the same thing happens again when Earth is occupied by the monks. It's such a waste.

I can't get into hatewatching.

More like confused incredulity watching in my case.

Light reflecting of the walls maybe?

If there was light coming from his eyes and reflecting off the walls, he wouldn't be casting a shadow there.

Well we don't know what they mean by children. Are they teenagers? Are they the CMC's age?

They look like teenagers in Legends of Magic.

realistically speaking, who knows when Luna could have done this?

True enough.

Well yeah, but then what's Stygian's role? The only reason they know each other is because he recruited the pillars to save his village. What's his relationship to Starswirl if not in that context?

Legends of Magic draws a lot of parallels between him and Sunburst. I could easily see him filling that sort of role. Not Star Swirl's apprentice, but an assistant of some kind. Maybe a librarian or secretary. Book smart, but not magically talented enough to actually follow in Star Swirl's footsteps, until he begins looking for an easier path.

But trying to fit impossible pieces together fascinates me and allows me to get some enjoyment out of the series past its prime, not to mention improve my critical thinking skills by having to figure out how I would get around these plot holes if I was writing the series.

I enjoy that too. Thing is, I spent all my brainpower on fitting together the impossible pieces of the first six seasons and the comics and books. And I mostly succeeded. And I built a world out of it which I wrote a lot of stories in. And then along came season seven, which unambiguously invalidated the comics utterly. So at that point I kind of gave up on trying to make everything fit, and just began selecting my favourite pieces.

Incidentally, Sunburst may just be wrong.

I dunno. I think if that were the case, Applejack would've challenged him more.

And with as many stories as we've got in our culture, it's a long way down.

Indiana Jones 5, here we come.

[Wild Stallion]

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I'll check him out sometime.

There's definitely other guys I like more, but their presentations tend to be a bit iffy. Besides I tend to agree with Disparu on more things than not. If you like DWK you might enjoy Critical Drinker more, but I don't always agree with him on stuff.

Whatever circumstances brought you to learn this, you have my sympathies.

Thanks. I won't burden you with the details but suffice it to say it's been a long year.

camo.fimfiction.net/xn9aFN7T7bic3F4Y1qK8cu0Rjh4yWrM-yuI9FzMNmX4?url=https%3A%2F%2Flh4.googleusercontent.com%2F4uUIggBrDpUifHjn8DSil73Hw_zde-tuGLPpq34hjxb51rqyOjXMLt1Jw5u6UksnTZ1GOPp22SN5IHAt7uhAPnRpp87OIytk-0YY9p4WejgjrFLI0npyo9fMRZI4ke0rd-EdfHKqPZiitIwbaezNY0bHc6jKPrLyVna03PCEVn9hfKdtYBcrn1kfCZ-RKg

In all honestly, I was simply explaining my position on why the Changeling reformation doesn't affect me from a personal perspective. I could go into more detail on why I don't like the way the Changelings or Chrysalis were implemented from day one, but unless you specifically ask, I'm not going to.

All very true, and worth considering.

Thank you!

Go for it.

I might. I still need to figure out my plot though. I want a shared universe, in the comics and in the main universe, but I have to think how I build it up very carefully.

She's the daughter of Svengallop and Suri Polomare, lives in Manehattan, was one of the foals bullying Babs Seed before she met the Crusaders, and has ambitions to do some evil stuff one day, but doesn't yet actually have the means or opportunity to do so.

Sounds interesting. I don't tend to characterize Cozy Glow as a stereotypical bully the way DT is, because I like her Machiavellian tendencies most of all, but I definitely see how someone might get that from her character.

Yeah, that's a point. Didn't remember that.

Fair enough. I forget stuff all the time.

Being totally honest with you, I've only ever watched the episode once.

Fair enough.

The season seven review is shorter than my season eight or nine reviews in part because I didn't actually rewatch the episodes before I reviewed them for this one, and just went by memory and previous comments I made, many of which would've been first impressions.

Understandable.

So my reviews of these episodes probably don't hold up quite as well as my later ones.

All totally fair. I got into an argument on some guy on DeviantArt where I forgot a few details where he mercilessly harangued me over specifics and then blocked me, even though a quick rewatch reveled me as mostly in the right.

So, I don't blame you for forgetting minor details. The encounter did give me some ideas for Cozy Glow's origins though, so there's that.

I can agree with that.

Somehow I thought we would wind up aligning on this.

I was less referring to character assassination and more character degradation in general, but maybe I'm just splitting hairs.

Maybe. But I used to do that too, so I understand it.

There was indeed an actual push behind the scenes from Josh Haber and Michael Vogel to retire the mane six and establish a new core friend group centered around Starlight. I talk about this a little in the season nine review. Doesn't necessarily follow that they were writing the mane six badly on purpose, but again, it shows where their priorities were.

Yeah I read that, and it is fair. I wonder what might have happened had the show been handled differently, but it is what it is.

Where did Tennant and Capaldi respectively start losing you, out of curiosity?

So, I believe in the right of self-defense.

I believe a man can and should be allowed to own weapons to defend himself against aggressors. I believe that lone people acting to defend themselves as a group are far less dangerous for a society than a group of people given unrestrained license to do whatever they want, on top of being the only ones possessing weapons.

Now when a character like Bruce Wayne is used as a mouthpiece for an anti-gun agenda, I roll my eyes and wait for the writer to stop talking, but it doesn't kill my investment in Bruce Wayne, because I know for the most part that he actually believes and lives by those principals at great personal risk to himself.

Bruce Wayne earns my respect through example. I wouldn't trust or agree with the character unequivocally, because the reality is, I doubt few if anyone could realistically be Bruce Wayne, but I do respect him.

Now when a guy like the Doctor who can revive himself from the dead and whip up a weapon of doom to kill thousands or millions out of stuff he finds lying around preaches against guns, I take him for an arrogant, cowardly narcissistic who doesn't want the competition. Especially when taken with his negative views against humans.

'I created a weapon to kill thousands of people, but I assure you I would never take up a gun in self-defense.' Seriously, just shut your face, Russel.

Now maybe this wouldn't bother me as much in a mostly peaceful world like MLP, but in the Who Universe, aliens have been gunning for earth for years now, to say nothing of the real-world violent crimes that happen with or without guns since the Who Universe is based around our own.

"Human Nature" and "Family of Blood" highlights this better than I ever could. The only reason the family kills so many as they do (their hosts included) is because the doctor refuses to fight them. And it's implied by the ending scene that he could have won that conflict if he so chose. Heck even the Humans could probably have beaten the family if they played their cards right.

The family needs bodies to survive. Son Of Mine straight up says they "go through so many shapes" implying they have to possess people to survive and have killed far more people than we've seen between the doctor fleeing from them and the conclusion of the episode.

You blow the family's brains out and there's no indication they could survive that. There's a scene at the dance where the family rather arrogantly shows their faces. Martha wind up acquiring a disintegration ray and instead of using it on the four people running this army she bolts and runs because killing "isn't something the doctor would do".

This prolongs the events of the episode, allows the family to murder two more people, not to mention bomb the surrounding farm area, killing who knows how many more.

There's a scene before the bombing where both Daughter Of Mine and Son Of Mine (the leader of the group) is in range and no one takes the shot, either because they're too gentlemanly to listen to advice from eyewitnesses, or in the case of the Doctor's human alter ego, because he loses his nerve. It's stupid, dumb, pointless, and it pisses me off to no end.

The family ratches up an insane body count onscreen to say nothing of what they were doing in the intermedium that we never got to see and were allowed to do it because the Doctor had to have his "morality" even though on any other day he might have just as easily killed them when they first met and saved us the trouble.

And then the episode tries to sweep it under the rug by making the issue be about his choice of location. I mean what?! How can you completely miss the point of your own story so badly?! And it's another adapted fan work because of course it is!

Peter Capaldi's run started out okay if a bit low energy and depressing, but it gradually degraded into the same sorts of ideological shenanigans. Like Clara cheating death in Face The Raven even though that's literally never been a possibility for anyone in the series before.

Or like the Doctor dunking on white people even though he has specifically chosen to regenerate as a white guy his entire life and would go onto regenerate as a white woman for the next one.

Or Clarie becoming homosexual and spending her time raving about the sex even though she had a boyfriend which the writers conveniently pretend does not exist. Or her constantly insulting the Doctor's motivations and methods because he's not doing enough for people in history.

Or Bill grooming a girl into fatting herself up to a point of morbid obesity and then deserting her for what appears to be shits and giggles since she's certainly not sexually attracted to fat people, and never hangs out with any for the rest of the series.

Or the final, in which John Simm's Master who spends an entire episode helping the doctor in an effort to survive, then kills his future self in an effort to prevent her from helping him, even though he had spent an entire episode doing exactly that.

To say nothing of how deliberately stupid and impotent they made him look, when even in "The End Of Time" he was still a credible threat as a lone bastard who might lash out violently at any moment.

There's a really pointless scene in the final where he is flailing around with his Lazer screwdriver trying to point and shoot it, even though he built the damn thing and was always quick on the draw before.

He had his ups and downs as a writer.

No doubt.

In retrospect, I think he was less imaginative than Moffat, and more inclined to deus ex machina endings and stupid goofy shit like the Slitheen and the blowjob-dispensing paving stone.

Somehow I'm glad I have no idea what paving stone you're talking about. And since I'm off Doctor Who, I might just keep it that way.

I didn't hate the Slitheen, but I freely admit that when it comes to horror concepts, I have low standards. They still honestly give me the creeps at times, as dumb as they are.

But on the other hand, after years of watching Moffat's Doctor Who, I came to realize that Davies was much better at developing coherent settings and stories, and writing characters who actually felt human.

Fair enough. Moffat's writing feels bland and sterile at times, and I freely admit it.

I think I just like the Matt Smith era because it sees the Doctor pull back on some of his most annoying tendencies. He's still not a fan of guns, but he's not running around demanding everyone be like him in that regard.

I liked his relationship with Amy and Rory and his efforts to salvage their marriage, and even if Clarie didn't turn out well in the end with Capaldi, I liked his gentlemanly relationship with her and Amy.

The Cyber Planner banter is highly entertaining, and the episode with the star whale still makes me cry on a rewatch. The episodes in Matt Smith's era may not be very deep or thought provoking, but they were fun and that's all I wanted at the time.

Matt Smith is a likable actor who brings all the charisma, dramatic depth and youthful energy to the Doctor that I've come to expect from new who, something which neither Capaldi nor Whitaker accomplished. Capaldi was too old to match the energy of the others, and Whitaker is either an atrocious actor or not taking her role seriously, because the Doctor has so much more depth than what she portrayed.

I kind of learned to miss how humans on present day Earth in the Davies era became gradually more aware of aliens, and would frequently reference recent events and react realistically to them, like how in one of the Christmas specials the Doctor finds London deserted because there's always some horrible alien attack in London at Christmas.

Fair enough. The world building up until the Matt Smith era was brilliant, I cannot lie.

And then you skip ahead to the Moffat era, and they have an episode where the entire planet is suddenly overtaken by trees overnight, but then by the end of the episode when they're dealt with, humanity just casually forgets about it, and it never comes up again. And then the same thing happens again when Earth is occupied by the monks. It's such a waste.

Yeah, I don't know why he kept doing things that way. I don't know if he was trying to insinuate that this was our world somehow or if he was just lazy. Initially he did have kind of an explanation in the form of the cracks erasing memories and what not, but then that arc ended and (as far as I can tell) they never got around to replacing it with a plot gimmick of the same scope.

There were the Silents and then that weird episode where the earth is under totalitarian rule, and it's implied that something like that has messed with human perception, so I think he was trying to explain it away, but I'm not sure if it really comes across to be as constant as it was probably meant to be implied.

More like confused incredulity watching in my case.

I'm not really into that either to be honest.

If there was light coming from his eyes and reflecting off the walls, he wouldn't be casting a shadow there.

Fair enough. It always did feel like kind of a stretch to me. I'm just trying to figure out ways to make it fit since physics isn't exactly the most consistent thing in MLP.

They look like teenagers in Legends of Magic.

Huh. Good to know. That gives me some ideas. Sorry, I was just picturing Cadence as a teenager and it's fairly easy.

Honestly if Cadence wasn't implied to be a modern addition to the royal family, I'd probably consider her in my stories more often, since out of all the Princesses I think she's probably the most caring in a lot of ways, even if she has really bad delegation skills. I think she'd be easier and more pleasant to write than any of the others.

True enough.

Thank you.

Not Star Swirl's apprentice, but an assistant of some kind. Maybe a librarian or secretary. Book smart, but not magically talented enough to actually follow in Star Swirl's footsteps, until he begins looking for an easier path.

That kind of works, but I don't think he's half as sympathetic a character then. It's like Wallflower Blush. I relate to Wallflower, I get why she does what she does, but I also understand the hate that she gets, even if I don't feel the same way.

Thing is, I spent all my brainpower on fitting together the impossible pieces of the first six seasons and the comics and books. And I mostly succeeded. And I built a world out of it which I wrote a lot of stories in. And then along came season seven, which unambiguously invalidated the comics utterly. So, at that point I kind of gave up on trying to make everything fit, and just began selecting my favorite pieces.

Ouch! Yeah I get it. I used to love Star Wars before the reboot clone wars came along.

I grew up on the prequel trilogy and its related sagas like Xanatos and Granta Omega, and it appealed to me because Sidious as the Star Wars villain that everyone ascribed to be didn't exist yet, so body armor and black robes weren't the only things villains could wear, the Sith weren't the hottest new fad, and not everyone ran around trying to be the next empire.

So, it's retconning by the Second Clone Wars show was a real blow to me personally. If I ever returned to the franchise, that whole mess would have to be completely removed first, because it messes up so much character and lore wise.

Now in retrospect, I can see why for some people nostalgia is a powerful drug, but I firmly maintain that the Clone Wars reboot cannot fit within the scope of the prequels. At best they're an else world story. So yeah, I do get why you walked away from trying to make things fit after Season 7.

I dunno. I think if that were the case, Applejack would've challenged him more.

I mean, Applejack is kind of weird about the stuff she chooses to get stubborn about. I don't know, maybe your right, I just feel like there's room there to assume she wasn't up for debating this issue in the midst of a national emergency.

Indiana Jones 5, here we come.

Ugh. I'm not watching that. I read the book series and it was good enough for me.

[DannyJ]

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If you like DWK you might enjoy Critical Drinker more, but I don't always agree with him on stuff.

I too am an enjoyer of drunk Scotsmen.

Thanks. I won't burden you with the details but suffice it to say it's been a long year.

Life is hard. Death, moreso. I know what it's like.

I want a shared universe, in the comics and in the main universe, but I have to think how I build it up very carefully.

Do you mean a shared Power Ponies universe, or a shared show/comics universe in general?

I don't tend to characterize Cozy Glow as a stereotypical bully the way DT is, because I like her Machiavellian tendencies most of all, but I definitely see how someone might get that from her character.

I see her as more of an "Anon-a-Miss" type of bully than a Diamond Tiara type. The kind that would smile to your face and then spread rumours about you to other people, or subtly undermine your confidence, the way she did to the student six. Though, she might well turn into more of a Diamond Tiara to anyone who knows what she's really about.

I got into an argument on some guy on DeviantArt where I forgot a few details where he mercilessly harangued me over specifics and then blocked me, even though a quick rewatch reveled me as mostly in the right.

Sounds like a sensible and well-adjusted individual who would be enjoyable company.

Somehow I thought we would wind up aligning on this.

Incidentally, the Crusaders' cutie mark camp is another one of those late-series concepts like Cozy Glow that I cherrypicked and adjusted to my satisfaction. So in the Borderworld, the Crusaders did still eventually open that camp... but it was when they were in their twenties.

So, I believe in the right of self-defense. I believe a man can and should be allowed to own weapons to defend himself against aggressors.

Bruce Wayne earns my respect through example. I wouldn't trust or agree with the character unequivocally, because the reality is, I doubt few if anyone could realistically be Bruce Wayne, but I do respect him.

I respect Batman's personal stance on the issue, because he has extremely personal reasons to dislike guns. He has childhood trauma to deal with, and he's mentally unstable and doesn't trust himself to not become the Punisher if he ever crossed that line. When he lectures other people about it, I may be less sympathetic.

Now when a guy like the Doctor who can revive himself from the dead and whip up a weapon of doom to kill thousands or millions out of stuff he finds lying around preaches against guns, I take him for a cowardly narcissistic who doesn't want the competition.

This is a perfectly valid interpretation of the Doctor, especially Ten.

"Human Nature" and "Family of Blood" highlights this better than I ever could.

Ah yes. I enjoy the episodes myself, and I think they're quite well-made, but the Doctor's personal morality in them is definitely a subject of controversy.

Peter Capaldi's run started out promising but it gradually degraded into the same sorts of ideological shenanigans.

Oh yeah. Capaldi's run was when the show fell down the same pit that all of pop culture has been falling down for the past eight years. I loved his first one and half seasons, but by the time Bill was introduced, the rot had fully set in.

Or Clarie becoming homosexual and spending her time raving about the sex even though she had a boyfriend. Or constantly insulting the Doctor's motivations and methods because he's not doing enough for people in history or some shit.

Or Bill grooming a girl into fatting herself up to a point of morbid obesity and then deserting her for what appears to be shits and giggles since she's certainly not sexually attracted to fat people, and never hangs out with any for the rest of the series.

...Huh. I'll be honest, I do not remember gay Clara or Bill's feeder fetish at all. I remember Bill constantly yammering on about being a lesbian, but not Clara. Clara only ever had straight relationships as far as I recall. Maybe a hint of bisexuality once or twice, but it wasn't a common thing. And I remember Bill briefly having a girlfriend who was some alien puddle or something, but not anything else. But then again, I don't remember much about Bill in general, since I never rewatched her season.

Or the final, in which John Simm's Master who spends an entire episode helping the doctor in an effort to survive then kills his future regeneration in an effort to prevent her from helping him, even though he had spent an entire episode doing exactly that.

Even as watered down as he was, John Simm was still the best part of that entire season to me. It just had nothing else going for it.

Somehow I'm glad I have no idea what paving stone you're talking about. And since I'm off Doctor Who, I might just keep it that way.

Blessed is he who does not remember Love and Monsters.

The episodes in Matt Smith's era may not be very deep or thought provoking, but they were fun and that's all I wanted at the time.

Matt Smith's era is pretty good. I complain about the Moffat mystery box storyline, but honestly, some of my favourite moments of the show came from him.

Capaldi was too old to match the energy of the others,

Maybe so, but I enjoyed his Doctor a lot, regardless. Capaldi may not have the energy of the younger Doctors, but he's a damn fine actor, and I think he had a pretty interesting take on the character. I just wish he'd had better writers.

Whitaker is either an atrocious actor or not taking her role seriously, because the Doctor has so much more depth than what she portrayed.

I haven't seen enough of Whitaker to feel comfortable voicing a definite opinion, but from what I did see of her, I find the sentiment agreeable. I've heard that she's a decent actress in other things, so it may have just been lackluster scripts holding her back, but personally, I'm inclined to say that she just doesn't care. From all the interviews I saw with her, it seems like she only even wanted the role in the first place so that she could say she was the first female Doctor. Playing a good Doctor was probably never her priority.

Yeah, I don't know why he kept doing things that way. I don't know if he was trying to insinuate that this was our world somehow or if he was just lazy.

Moffat is a bad writer who loses track of details and doesn't think through implications, creating plot holes in his stories. It's something he could compensate for and cover up when writing self-contained episodes, but it's painfully apparent in his ongoing continuous narratives like Sherlock or Doctor Who. Humanity forgetting about aliens is just another one of those things he overlooked.

I'm just trying to figure out ways to make it fit since physics isn't exactly the most consistent thing in MLP.

I mean, it fits fine if magic is involved. If it really is some shadow ghost, then there's nothing wrong with the shadow being its body rather than an actual shadow and its eyes casting light. The problem is explaining what this thing actually is, since it's probably not Tirek or Zecora, and definitely isn't Stygian. Occam's razor suggests that it's exactly what the episode implies – a lingering remnant of Nightmare Moon. If we're taking season seven into account, we have to explain the name confusion as well, but frankly, that's a problem that needs explaining regardless of what this thing actually is.

Honestly if Cadence wasn't implied to be a modern addition to the royal family, I'd probably consider her in my stories more often, since out of all the Princesses I think she's probably the most caring in a lot of ways, even if she has really bad delegation skills. I think she'd be easier and more pleasant to write than any of the others.

In my opinion, Cadance is the only princess who wasn't ruined by the final seasons.

[Wild Stallion]

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I too am an enjoyer of drunk Scotsmen.

He's a lot of fun. Granted I don't always agree with him on stuff, but I always enjoy his delivery.

Life is hard. Death, moreso. I know what it's like.

Thanks. I appreciate the sympathy.

Do you mean a shared Power Ponies universe, or a shared show/comics universe in general?

A shared cannon universe. Power Ponies is a bit tricker because I have ideas for roughly two different versions for comics universes. One is for Power Ponies and uses the comics characters or OC's. One is for an equestrian universe with elements borrowed from Marvel and DC. Those two I kind of want to be in a crossover, but I only have a few ideas for it and I'm not sure how to reconcile it with the lore.

And finally, I have several alternate universe stories centering around Cozy Glow in Gotham, because I think she'd fit rather nicely among the other Batman villains. It doesn't help that I like multiple Batman series and multiple versions of the same character, so I have to think really hard about how I develop all of it before I go to print.

The kind that would smile to your face and then spread rumors about you to other people, or subtly undermine your confidence, the way she did to the student six.

I don't know about spreading rumors but she's most definitely the type to twist the knife psychologically.

Though, she might well turn into more of a Diamond Tiara to anyone who knows what she's really about.

I think when she has to bully she will, but I think she tends to view it as a last resort.

I don't think she's above gathering blackmail, but I think she would have to be really determined to actually use it. She's more the type to reveal privately in the fact she knows your personal secrets. Which isn't something she can do if someone stands up and reports her.

Personally, I see Cozy Glow as being Babydoll. Not age wise, but psychologically.

She's desperately trying to live an idealized life where she is loved and adored. But she's like Babydoll in that she can't let anyone go and would sooner see you removed from her life than acknowledge she's a demanding little tyrant with issues because her own self-image is the only thing she still believes in.

In Cozy Glow's case she also tragically believes the love she receives is fake so she's constantly trying to get more and more and is never fully satisfied with what she receives. She equates power to love because in her mind power is the one thing that's dependable, and submission to it is an expression of love.

Sounds like a sensible and well-adjusted individual who would be enjoyable company.

Incidentally, the Crusaders' cutie mark camp is another one of those late-series concepts like Cozy Glow that I cherrypicked and adjusted to my satisfaction. So in the Borderworld, the Crusaders did still eventually open that camp... but it was when they were in their twenties.

I mean like I said, I didn't hate the idea of them being camp consultants or something, and if they ever had actually helped out at the school as assistants or something, I probably would have accepted it no problem. It's just that's not what we got.

I respect Batman's personal stance on the issue, because he has extremely personal reasons to dislike guns. He has childhood trauma to deal with, and he's mentally unstable and doesn't trust himself to not become the Punisher if he ever crossed that line.

Well yeah those are all great motivations but he also backs it up something very few fictional characters do anymore. There's other stuff he isn't as consistent on of course. Going after Bolton in "Lock Up" even though he does far worse to Dagget's goons in "Feet Of Clay" but the guns thing has remained fairly consistent throughout most adaptations, so I can give him the benefit of the doubt on that.

When he lectures other people about it, I may be less sympathetic.

In fairness the only two times I can remember him doing so is when other people are dressing like him specifically for the association. So, yeah, I get his reasoning there. I don't always like it, but he does have a right not to be lumped in with people like modern Batwoman.

Now there is a comic where he stops Punisher from killing the Joker, which I don't agree with, but he does live by his principals, so even though I don't agree and probably would fight him on it, I at least get where he's coming from.

This is a perfectly valid interpretation of the Doctor, especially Ten.

I'm honestly pleasantly surprised you agree. Thank you.

Ah yes. I enjoy the episodes myself, and I think they're quite well-made, but the Doctor's personal morality in them is definitely a subject of controversy.

Things get even more disturbing when we factor in the pick pocket and the fact that the Doctor told him to keep the watch hidden even when the family was attacking, and Martha could've used it. I won't deny it's visually and audibly appealing, but any interest I have is drowned out by the mess of a conflict.

Oh yeah. Capaldi's run was when the show fell down the same pit that all of pop culture has been falling down for the past eight years. I loved his first one and half seasons, but by the time Bill was introduced, the rot had fully set in.

Honestly i remember it as settling even before that. I don't even think I made it to the end of Claria's second term that's how feed up with the show I was. I only picked it up with the soft reboot and then Missy's return gave me a reason to stay, until they killed her off.

...Huh. I'll be honest, I do not remember gay Clara or Bill's feeder fetish at all.

The Bill stuff is a anecdote she explains to the Doctor in one of her early episodes. It might have been her debut which probably explains why it sticks in my mind.

Clara only ever had straight relationships as far as I recall. Maybe a hint of bisexuality once or twice, but it wasn't a common thing.

She makes a big point in one episode after she comes back about banging some historical figure. She has a few other lines where she's raving about her sex life. I think her girlfriend (whose even more critical) comes back at one point and she goes on and on about Clara at several points. Cara was nowhere as constant as Bill, but she also managed to squeeze in jabs at men and white people from time to time, so she had a lot to fit in.

Even as watered down as he was, John Simm was still the best part of that entire season to me. It just had nothing else going for it.

Doctor Falls Part 2 was a dumpster fire and I wish they had left Simm out of it.

I actually do like Missy despite my issues with her origins (even if I think you could have made it work to a extent) but they managed to kill off even her with no gravitas or emotional pathos, probably because they didn't want someone around who could act better than Jodie Whittaker.

I could fill the comments section up ranting on just how bad that episode is, that's how much I hate it.

Blessed is he who does not remember Love and Monsters.

Oh that. I remember that. It's creepy and in a cliche sci fy way it worked, but I was a kid when I watched it, so I don't know how it holds up today. The ridiculously long name of multiple syllables smashed together was obnoxious though (another annoying Russel tendency). Incidentally I'm pretty sure that was also a fan designed monster. It's almost like a pattern is developing or something.

Matt Smith's era is pretty good. I complain about the Moffat mystery box storyline, but honestly, some of my favorite moments of the show came from him.

Oh yeah. I don't pretend his era was flawless or anything but most of it was enjoyable. Never did like Cold Blood though.

Maybe so, but I enjoyed his Doctor a lot, regardless. Capaldi may not have the energy of the younger Doctors, but he's a damn fine actor, and I think he had a pretty interesting take on the character. I just wish he'd had better writers.

Oh yeah. He had the gravitas down cold. I can't fault his acting ability for how the show turned out. Personally, I think the mark of a good actor is your ability to make your audience feel something and he definitely did. It just wasn't always to his or the show's betterment.

Which incidentally is how I feel about David Tennett's run. The man was a great actor. The scripts that he was saddled with just didn't make his character out to be as good as he could have been.

Playing a good Doctor was probably never her priority.

Yeah. I knew she was bad when I found myself bored by her. I tend to be pretty forgiving of bad acting and yet Jodie Whitaker bores me. Something is going on there and it isn't the script because even at their worst David Tennant and Peter Capaldi never bored me.

It's something he could compensate for and cover up when writing self-contained episodes, but it's painfully apparent in his ongoing continuous narratives like Sherlock or Doctor Who.

Fair enough. I liked Sherlock until recently, but in retrospect I was probably making a lot of excuses for the writing at the time. I never went back to see how bad it actually was though.

Humanity forgetting about aliens is just another one of those things he overlooked.

Possibly.

I mean, it fits fine if magic is involved.

Well that's the problem with magic, as it can pop up anywhere. For all we know Tirek or Zecora's eyes are magic and then the sequence makes perfect sense.

Occam's razor suggests that it's exactly what the episode implies – a lingering remnant of Nightmare Moon.

I mean it's certainly possible. We can't rule anything out at this stage. It might be yet another inhabitant of the everfree though.

If we're taking season seven into account, we have to explain the name confusion as well, but frankly, that's a problem that needs explaining regardless of what this thing actually is.

Fair enough. I stand by my headcannon though, at least in regard to the confusion of where the name came from. Now whether or not there's something else skulking around the Everfree that's the thing we see, I'm comfortable leaving up to interpretation.

In my opinion, Cadance is the only princess who wasn't ruined by the final seasons.

It makes sense. The most based Princess was the one who's already a housewife and mother. Long live moms.

[DannyJ]

5709449

Thanks. I appreciate the sympathy.

You ever want to talk about it privately, I'm open to listening. I mean, I'm spending the better part of a day reading and replying to you every time anyway, so I might as well.

A shared cannon universe.

Yeah, tall order there. It does take work. And like I said, past a certain point, you have to pick and choose what you're keeping. But I think for the superhero crossovers you describe, you should theoretically have a lot more leeway to build the worlds however you want. Unless you're like me, of course, and feel the need to stick to some semblance of canon even when it's entirely unnecessary.

And finally, I have several alternate universe stories centering around Cozy Glow in Gotham, because I think she'd fit rather nicely among the other Batman villains. It doesn't help that I like multiple Batman series and multiple versions of the same character, so I have to think really hard about how I develop all of it before I go to print.

Out of curiosity, did you discover Doing Good or Doing Well? because it was marked as a Batman crossover?

Personally, I see Cozy Glow as being Babydoll. Not age wise, but psychologically.

It works.

Well yeah those are all great motivations but he also backs it up something very few fictional characters do anymore.

True enough.

I don't always like it, but he does have a right not to be lumped in with people like modern Batwoman.

I'm assuming from context that modern Batwoman is more Punisher than Batman?

I don't even think I made it to the end of Claria's second term that's how feed up with the show I was.

Clara's second season with Capaldi was one of tremendous highs and crushing lows in my opinion. Under the Lake/Before the Flood was probably one of my overall favourites of Capaldi's run, but then you have Sleep No More, which is a contender for one of the worst of it. And there was Face the Raven, which was impressive just for having the balls to kill Clara off, and Heaven Sent, an entirely solo adventure for Capaldi's Doctor which puts him through the fucking wringer and was a legitimate masterpiece... and then they follow it up with Hell Bent, an episode which brings back Gallifrey and Rassilon only to use them as set dressing for a story about resurrecting Clara and giving her and Arya Stark their own TARDIS.

Being a Capaldi fan is suffering.

The Bill stuff is a anecdote she explains to the Doctor in one of her early episodes. It might have been her debut which probably explains why it sticks in my mind.

I'm gonna have to go look for that, because it's too bizarre for me to let go. I refuse to believe that I forgot this.

I think her girlfriend (whose even more critical) comes back at one point and she goes on and on about Clara at several points.

You're not thinking of Ashildr, are you?

I actually do like Missy despite my issues with her origins (even if I think you could have made it work to a extent) but they managed to kill off even her with no gravitas or emotional pathos, probably because they didn't want someone around who could act better than Jodie Whittaker.

Missy's redemption arc was probably the only thing other than Simm I liked in Bill's season.

And then Whittaker's second season introduces a new incarnation of the Master, and it's all just completely forgotten...

I was a kid when I watched it, so I don't know how it holds up today.

What part of "blowjob-dispensing paving stone" do you not understand?

Incidentally I'm pretty sure that was also a fan designed monster. It's almost like a pattern is developing or something.

lh4.googleusercontent.com/jAxtjNLCq0qeHNK6YI9w-26gdkahIaD157vep97yv0pgsMfZXrPKa6-fv-V2EheToZpGrKG0Fs4q0V7krCuaaFitqgRxsYQeNeqmeTyrXlnm5duX9Pxq1Zzjsn46j4q4vtIFx35MqhE6EMnh6vZ7Qo2IjSF4NOHdEQ_G58i0s_8iLN5tWxdd7dKkvoz3cQ

Oh yeah. I don't pretend his era was flawless or anything but most of it was enjoyable. Never did like Cold Blood though.

Cold Blood was pretty mediocre, aside from the twist ending.

Incidentally, that was a fucking Chibnall episode.

I liked Sherlock until recently, but in retrospect I was probably making a lot of excuses for the writing at the time. I never went back to see how bad it actually was though.

It's bad. Trust me.

I mean it's certainly possible. We can't rule anything out at this stage.

Indeed we can't. And I don't like the Nightmare Moon remnant explanation myself, if only because it conflicts with Nightmare Rarity.

It makes sense. The most based Princess was the one who's already a housewife and mother. Long live moms.

lh6.googleusercontent.com/LIsNU_CKv0Ayy5HFKuZPTM1DhtDqaEJmsUrv5DYiZNINxm_vaaJ-WiVIFmwgEDld3aKjK5zItzU_xpuIKLM2mEnsi9LPzPjJkqQzc8193kax4fEB0jzf-zRDJwqOR3VcUuCSFelV7cvM7sGh24OThcSznCWaGnCzP5GtM0mB69AW2STQyp13JiseC-I_qQ

[Wild Stallion]

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Unless you're like me, of course, and feel the need to stick to some semblance of canon even when it's entirely unnecessary.

Yeah we probably have that in common. Not for my own sake, but the more I think about writing, the more I feel the need to make sure it's easy to understand.

I know people who complain about "Home On The Range" or "Princess And The Frog" being hard to understand, but those plots was always pretty self-explanatory to me.

So, I don't know how much hand holding I'd have to do for the audience to understand what I'm talking about.

Out of curiosity, did you discover Doing Good or Doing Well? because it was marked as a Batman crossover?

I don't think so. Unless you're talking about the darkly epic and mildly hilarious rift on Snyders Batman vs Superman, staring Discord as Superman, unnamed oc as Batmare, and Cheese Sandwich as Joker/Lex Luthor.

I'm assuming from context that modern Batwoman is more Punisher than Batman?

I've gotten that vibe from hearing about her. She's mostly woke though. Like unapologetically rich kid with issues woke. Of course, I've only seen "Bad Blood" and part of the CW adaptation, but that was enough for me.

The other instance was "The Sons of Batman" a gang of criminal extortionists who turned to Batman worship after he kicked their boss's ass. So, him reigning them in is kind of a public service.

Under the Lake/Before the Flood was probably one of my overall favourites of Capaldi's run, but then you have Sleep No More, which is a contender for one of the worst of it.

Honestly I was getting really tired by that point and it's probably colored my recollections. I can barely remember either of those.

I know Under The Lake/Before the Flood inspired me to look up the fisher king, but the episode itself totally escapes me. Something about locational genocide via flood or something?

I think he was trying to do the whole possessing human's thing with his species? I don't know it, it felt very Waters Of Mars for some reason. It was decent, I just don't remember it very well.

And there was Face the Raven, which was impressive just for having the balls to kill Clara off,

I really hated Face the Raven. At the time I still liked Clara, and as much as I give Capaldi praise, he was not doing wonders at holding my interest. There were a lot of generic episodes I was slogging through at the time, and his low energy didn't really help things.

The whole secret alien town felt really contrived, the mayor is an annoying psychotic prat who got off way too lightly, and up until now I was pretty sure that this was the episode where they confirmed Clara survived.

Through time travel no less, because apparently you can just pause life in between a suffering a mortal wound, jump in a time machine and extend your life by an additional several years or whatever, all reveled in an end credits scene.

I maintain that Face The Raven was when it all started going downhill as a franchise.

I'm gonna have to go look for that, because it's too bizarre for me to let go. I refuse to believe that I forgot this.

Eh. Assuming it wasn't censored where you are, you might have blocked it from your memory. When I say morbidly obese, I mean morbidly obese. She might give Chibnall a run for his money.

You're not thinking of Ashildr, are you?

Probably? That certainly sounds right. I can't keep track of names though and at some point, I generally lost interest. Like a lot after Face The Raven is a big blur because I wasn't paying attention to most of it.

I know about the Lost Child and the box and the thing chasing the Doctor, but I never got around to seeing how it ended. I think them replacing Rassilon did me in.

I watched a little of the intermedium with Claria's girlfriend and I think I got to the point where they killed her off to bring back Clara and there were some berserker aliens maybe?

But I don't even remember for sure, it's all a blur. The next episodes I remember is the one with the ghost hunters, and the one with the Martians trying to start a nuclear war.

Missy's redemption arc was probably the only thing other than Simm I liked in Bill's season.

Oh yeah. She had great chemistry with Peter. I get why people don't like her being a regeneration of the Master, and I can't say I entirely disagree, but taken on her own merits she's a fantastic character, whatever her origins.

And then Whittaker's second season introduces a new incarnation of the Master, and it's all just completely forgotten...

I never got that far.

I saw the trailers, realized they had hit the reset button, and even with the perfectly logical possibility that he was an earlier regeneration, asked myself one simple question.

Did I really wanted to give the time of day to a show which had already screwed up the version of the Master that I grew up with?

The answer was no.

What part of "blowjob-dispensing paving stone" do you not understand?

I mean I like Doctor Who's body horror. I still hold a soft spot for the Racnoss, despite age not having been kind to those visuals. I won't pretend that all of the horror holds up the same today, but I had good memories with it and that's enough for me.

camo.fimfiction.net/OlZHzBYHmoZIjydn-oqV5gmIx1Zi5mqIrJ0XEhBr_pQ?url=https%3A%2F%2Flh4.googleusercontent.com%2FjAxtjNLCq0qeHNK6YI9w-26gdkahIaD157vep97yv0pgsMfZXrPKa6-fv-V2EheToZpGrKG0Fs4q0V7krCuaaFitqgRxsYQeNeqmeTyrXlnm5duX9Pxq1Zzjsn46j4q4vtIFx35MqhE6EMnh6vZ7Qo2IjSF4NOHdEQ_G58i0s_8iLN5tWxdd7dKkvoz3cQ

Indeed.

Cold Blood was pretty mediocre, aside from the twist ending.

Incidentally, that was a fucking Chibnall episode.

Oh. Yeah. That explains a lot actually. Other than how he got a job.

It's bad. Trust me.

I mean I watched a review, and it convinced me, but I don't remember what specifically did. Maybe I was just mad at the state of modern writing or how they treated Morarity. It doesn't take much to convince me a show is bad these days.

Correction. I remember. It was me realizing Sherlock escaping the roof without being seen was impossible. That's what turned me against the show.

Indeed we can't. And I don't like the Nightmare Moon remnant explanation myself, if only because it conflicts with Nightmare Rarity.

Does it? I never read Nightmare Rarity all the way through, but I was under the impression from what I've seen of the screen shots that there were malignant forces behind Nightmare Moon, and that wouldn't preclude one of them skulking around the castle of the two sisters.

camo.fimfiction.net/r-uWUK5-sSBigir8aPp4PjzpHICW3kib8YwLq-hOXdk?url=https%3A%2F%2Flh6.googleusercontent.com%2FLIsNU_CKv0Ayy5HFKuZPTM1DhtDqaEJmsUrv5DYiZNINxm_vaaJ-WiVIFmwgEDld3aKjK5zItzU_xpuIKLM2mEnsi9LPzPjJkqQzc8193kax4fEB0jzf-zRDJwqOR3VcUuCSFelV7cvM7sGh24OThcSznCWaGnCzP5GtM0mB69AW2STQyp13JiseC-I_qQ

A based mom... Buys both and puts it on Shinning Armor's bill.

[DannyJ]

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Yeah we probably have that in common. Not for my own sake, but the more I think about writing, the more I feel the need to make sure it's easy to understand.

This is one of my constant concerns as well. My world is not always an intuitive thing to explain.

I don't think so. Unless you're talking about the darkly epic and mildly hilarious rift on Snyders Batman vs Superman, staring Discord as Superman, unnamed oc as Batmare, and Cheese Sandwich as Joker/Lex Luthor.

Yes, that was mine. Until now, I just assumed you knew me through Impossible Numbers, since I'm pretty sure I've seen you in his blogs before, and he was a frequent commenter on these reviews. But then I remembered your comment on Doing Good, and it made me wonder if you actually just discovered me because you're a Batman fan.

I've gotten that vibe from hearing about her. She's mostly woke though. Like unapologetically rich kid with issues woke. Of course, I've only seen "Bad Blood" and part of the CW adaptation, but that was enough for me.

Yeah, say no more...

I know Under The Lake/Before the Flood inspired me to look up the fisher king, but the episode itself totally escapes me. Something about locational genocide via flood or something?

The episode's main gimmick was ghosts in an underwater base. First part focused on that, and the second part was set in the past with the Doctor confronting the guy who made the ghosts.

I really hated Face the Raven. At the time I still liked Clara, and as much as I give Capaldi praise, he was not doing wonders at holding my interest. There were a lot of generic episodes I was slogging through at the time, and his low energy didn't really help things.

Fair enough.

Through time travel no less, because apparently you can just pause life in between a suffering a mortal wound, jump in a time machine and extend your life by an additional several years or whatever, all reveled in an end credits scene.

No, that was Hell Bent.

I maintain that Face The Raven was when it all started going downhill as a franchise.

I'd say it started way earlier than that. But if we're talking about the point where the series went off a cliff and never recovered, I'd say that was actually Hell Bent. Whatever your opinion on Face the Raven, the following episode, Heaven Sent, was great. Then Hell Bent happened, and then we arguably never got another good episode again.

Eh. Assuming it wasn't censored where you are, you might have blocked it from your memory.

I'm British, so I'd be very surprised if Doctor Who were censored in my country but not yours.

When I say morbidly obese, I mean morbidly obese. She might give Chibnall a run for his money.

Okay. I've rewatched the scene where Bill tells the fat girl story, and it's basically what you say, but I don't think we ever actually see the girl she's talking about. Where do you remember seeing the morbidly obese character?

But I don't even remember for sure, it's all a blur.

A lot of what you're saying does sound like a misremembered version of events. Not that I blame you, since a lot of it was hardly worth remembering.

The answer was no.

You made the right call there. I really hate Thirteen's Master.

Oh. Yeah. That explains a lot actually. Other than how he got a job.

More sexual favours for Davies and Moffat than any man could count.

It doesn't take much to convince me a show is bad these days.

Maybe if all the shows on TV stopped being so fucking bad, you wouldn't have that problem.

Does it? I never read Nightmare Rarity all the way through, but I was under the impression from what I've seen of the screen shots that there were malignant forces behind Nightmare Moon, and that wouldn't preclude one of them skulking around the castle of the two sisters.

Well, in Nightmare Rarity, I think the specific nightmare spirit that possessed Luna returned and then was seemingly dealt with for good, and considering that the arc was set before Twilight's ascension, that rather runs contrary to it still running around in Everfree in season four.

I mean, you could still make it work with some stretching, but it's messier than I'd like.

[Wild Stallion]

5709645

This is one of my constant concerns as well. My world is not always an intuitive thing to explain.

Especially when you're doing multiple stories about different versions of the same character.

But then I remembered your comment on Doing Good, and it made me wonder if you actually just discovered me because you're a Batman fan.

We've interacted a number of times. I think I found you this time through Impossible Numbers, but I originally picked you up through reading "Just Dodge" in Alara's back catalogue. I first found about your blogs through Oliver.

The episode's main gimmick was ghosts in an underwater base. First part focused on that, and the second part was set in the past with the Doctor confronting the guy who made the ghosts.

Well yeah I remember the ghosts and they were trying to protect themselves through a faraday cage, and there was a thing when their skin changed that let you know when they were possessed and it all took place in a underwater base. The Second Part has the Doctor go back in time to retroactively stop the fisher king from flooding somewhere. I think it was a valley small town, but I can't swear to it.

No, that was Hell Bent.

Maybe. My mind shut off when The General regenerated into a woman. It was so dumb.

Whatever your opinion on Face the Raven, the following episode, Heaven Sent, was great.

Eh. It was alright. I liked the mystery and horror aspect, but Doctor Who had done that before, so I can't exactly be hyped for it. Frankly I was still trying to figure out how he got to Gallifrey in the first place.

Okay. I've rewatched the scene where Bill tells the fat girl story, and it's basically what you say, but I don't think we ever actually see the girl she's talking about. Where do you remember seeing the morbidly obese character?

In the story from what I remember. They've probably cut it. I remember they were phasing it out a while back, so I'm not surprised you couldn't find it.

A lot of what you're saying does sound like a misremembered version of events. Not that I blame you, since a lot of it was hardly worth remembering.

I know some of it is accurate, but it's been years and I don't really care enough anymore to bother with the franchise. Even if people told me it was good I probably wouldn't bother at this point.

You made the right call there. I really hate Thirteen's Master.

Yeah after Doctor Falls I wasn't rolling those dice. I really hate that episode.

More sexual favors for Davies and Moffat than any man could count.

I struggle to imagine how his body could possibly be worth it though.

Maybe if all the shows on TV stopped being so fucking bad, you wouldn't have that problem.

Maybe. Large investment programs backed by numerous governments would have to knuckle under first though.

Well, in Nightmare Rarity, I think the specific nightmare spirit that possessed Luna returned and then was seemingly dealt with for good, and considering that the arc was set before Twilight's ascension, that rather runs contrary to it still running around in Everfree in season four.

I mean maybe? I don't know why they would have to be the same nightmare though. Or why there couldn't have been multiple. Like a legion scenario.

[DannyJ]

5709652

We've interacted a number of times. I think I found you this time through Impossible Numbers, but I originally picked you up through reading "Just Dodge" in Alara's back catalogue. I first found about your blogs through Oliver.

Huh. Small world.

Well yeah I remember the ghosts and they were trying to protect themselves through a faraday cage, and there was a thing when their skin changed that let you know when they were possessed and it all took place in a underwater base. The Second Part has the Doctor go back in time to retroactively stop the fisher king from flooding somewhere. I think it was a valley small town, but I can't swear to it.

Yeah. All correct.

My mind shut off when The General regenerated into a woman. It was so dumb.

It was.

Eh. It was alright. I liked the mystery and horror aspect, but Doctor Who had done that before, so I can't exactly be hyped for it. Frankly I was still trying to figure out how he got to Gallifrey in the first place.

I'm more there for Capaldi's acting in it. It's pretty unique in the series for being almost entirely a solo act.

In the story from what I remember. They've probably cut it. I remember they were phasing it out a while back, so I'm not surprised you couldn't find it.

The Doctor Who wiki mentions a scene cut before release where Bill met the puddle girl in a club, but she's not the fat girl from the chips story.

Maybe you're thinking of that other girl she went on a date with during the monks arc?

I know some of it is accurate, but it's been years and I don't really care enough anymore to bother with the franchise. Even if people told me it was good I probably wouldn't bother at this point.

Well, it's not good right now, and hasn't been for a while, and I don't have high hopes of that changing anytime soon.

Maybe. Large investment programs backed by numerous governments would have to knuckle under first though.

I live in hope.

I mean maybe? I don't know why they would have to be the same nightmare though. Or why there couldn't have been multiple. Like a legion scenario.

Like I said, there are ways around it. I just don't like it.

[Wild Stallion]

5709762

Huh. Small world.

Indeed.

Yeah. All correct.

It takes a while to jog my memory, but I can usually remember stuff if you give me a little context.

It was.

Such cringe. Even worse was the implication that this was his usual preference. Shut up show.

I'm more there for Capaldi's acting in it. It's pretty unique in the series for being almost entirely a solo act.

Fair enough. He was impressive. I just couldn't get into it.

A: It makes no sense to me how the Timelords got off of Gallifrey, as it rather undermines the entire point of The End Of Time. Day Of The Doctor had a similar issue, but at least that was the Doctor acting on the time war when presumably he was the one who locked it.

B: I knew that character assassination was coming for someone.

Ignoring New Who's abysmal record at portraying the Time Lords, going back to the Sound Of Drums (as much as I love that episode) there was no way that the Doctor destroyed Gallifrey after just saving it without either going batshit crazy, or discovering something so fundamentally heinous it ruined any dignity the Time Lords had.

And so of course "Timeless Child" became a thing which (even though I've never seen it) I've heard enough to know it was bad.

The Doctor Who wiki mentions a scene cut before release where Bill met the puddle girl in a club, but she's not the fat girl from the chips story.

Maybe you're thinking of that other girl she went on a date with during the monks arc?

Eh maybe it was a fan edit. It sure looked like Bill from what I remember though, and I'm fairly sure I watched it on television. Is she a blond white chick by any chance?

Well, it's not good right now, and hasn't been for a while, and I don't have high hopes of that changing anytime soon.

Well yeah, but even if it was, I'd be tempted to ignore it. Doctor Who is one of those properties that only works with a linear single continuity. It's spent years building up this timeline.

In theory you could walk back Jodie's seasons, but in practice it would seem pretty cheap, and at this point I view Capaldi's later seasons with almost as much disdain as hers, possibly more so (although to be fair, I have only seen her earlier ones).

There's literally nothing I could think of to recommended it to me at this point, full-fledged reversal be damned, and I already know Russel has no interest in doing that, so why bother?

I live in hope.

It's always good to have hope.

Like I said, there are ways around it. I just don't like it.

Fair enough. I understand that.

Although to be fair, I never liked the demon explanation for Nightmare Moon in the first place. It's a bit trite, and she doesn't really act enough like a separate entity for me to see it, even before Princess Twilight Sparkle and EQG comparisons basically all but confirmed for me that such was not the case.

[DannyJ]

5709783

Such cringe. Even worse was the implication that this was his usual preference. Shut up show.

The General's eleventh incarnation was so chill. Then he regenerated and immediately became a cunt. Time lords have it rough.

Ignoring New Who's abysmal record at portraying the Time Lords, going back to the Sound Of Drums (as much as I love that episode) there was no way that the Doctor destroyed Gallifrey after just saving it without either going batshit crazy, or discovering something so fundamentally heinous it ruined any dignity the Time Lords had.

Oh yeah. The Hybrid prophecy was dumb and unnecessary.

And so of course "Timeless Child" became a thing which (even though I've never seen it) I've heard enough to know it was bad.

I've seen it. Whatever you imagined, it's actually worse.

If you're into five hour video essays, this one's a more interesting watch than the episodes themselves.

Is she a blond white chick by any chance?

Puddle girl is a blonde white chick, but I remember her being pretty skinny. The girl she went on a date with in the monks trilogy was a black girl called Penny. I don't think she was morbidly obese, but I don't actually remember.

There's literally nothing I could think of to recommended it to me at this point, full-fledged reversal be damned, and I already know Russel has no interest in doing that, so why bother?

I don't see anyone doing that, no, but I feel pretty confident that some future showrunner is going to undo that Timeless Child nonsense at some point, even if Russell doesn't. The Eighth Doctor once claimed that he was half human, and nobody acknowledges that anymore.

Although to be fair, I never liked the demon explanation for Nightmare Moon in the first place. It's a bit trite, and she doesn't really act enough like a separate entity for me to see it, even before Princess Twilight Sparkle and EQG comparisons basically all but confirmed for me that such was not the case.

I prefer the demon theory myself, but I acknowledge that there's an argument for the alternative.

[Wild Stallion]

5709787

The General's eleventh incarnation was so chill. Then he regenerated and immediately became a cunt. Time lords have it rough.

Oh yeah. That character was so insufferable.

Oh yeah. The Hybrid prophecy was dumb and unnecessary.

And given it's the entire drive behind "Heaven Sent" I just couldn't enjoy the episode personally.

I've seen it. Whatever you imagined, it's actually worse.

Oh, I can imagine quite a lot.

If you're into five hour video essays, this one's a more interesting watch than the episodes themselves.

I actually am. Just not about Doctor Who. Thanks for the suggestion though. Might breeze through it if I have a off day.

Puddle girl is a blonde white chick, but I remember her being pretty skinny.

Hmm. I thought she was brunette. I would watch the episode again, but like I said, no real interest.

The girl she went on a date with in the monks trilogy was a black girl called Penny.

Yeah, I remember Penny. I think she was either skinny or middle of the road weight wise.

Didn't watch through her arc though. Wasn't really interested by that point. I think that's where I fell off and didn't come back until the final.

The Eighth Doctor once claimed that he was half human, and nobody acknowledges that anymore.

I guess you could claim that the Master was messing with him, but it wouldn't make a difference to me at this point.

The problem with falling out of love with a show is that you notice all the problems with it that you never noticed before.

Doctor Who had a lot of problems and while some of that was just modern politics, some of that is writing going back years.

Case in point, his wish washy stance on Daleks in "The Genesis Of The Daleks" that allowed them to spread across the universe.

For me, the interest in the show just isn't there anymore. It's pretty much ruined for me at this point.

I prefer the demon theory myself, but I acknowledge that there's an argument for the alternative.

I get why people like it. I just couldn't believe it given how she acts. Demons aren't usually concerned with the personal fantasies of their hosts, and nothing Nightmare Moon does is particularly enough out of character to warrant claims of possession.

Nor are her schemes grand or interesting enough for me to entertain the idea. If they had gone full blown end of the world with it, or had shadow beings popping up through out the series, that might have grabbed my attention. But as it is, nothing they did in show got me particularly excited about the idea of Luna and Nightmare being two different people.

Maybe if she had returned as a remnant of her subconscious and they did battle in the Dreamscape that would have been interesting, but they already explored a similar concept with the Tantabus and nothing really came of that.

[DannyJ]

5709832

And given it's the entire drive behind "Heaven Sent" I just couldn't enjoy the episode personally.

Fair enough.

Thanks for the suggestion though. Might breeze through it if I have a off day.

No problem.

Hmm. I thought she was brunette. I would watch the episode again, but like I said, no real interest.

Oh wait, yeah, she was. My bad.

Didn't watch through her arc though. Wasn't really interested by that point. I think that's where I fell off and didn't come back until the final.

The monks trilogy was even more garbage than the rest of the season, so I'm not surprised.

I guess you could claim that the Master was messing with him, but it wouldn't make a difference to me at this point.

Well, the Eighth Doctor says this before the Master does.

The problem with falling out of love with a show is that you notice all the problems with it that you never noticed before.

I feel for you. Really.

I just couldn't believe it given how she acts. Demons aren't usually concerned with the personal fantasies of their hosts, and nothing Nightmare Moon does is particularly enough out of character to warrant claims of possession.

Yeah, that's fair enough.

[Wild Stallion]

5709843

Oh wait, yeah, she was. My bad.

No problem. I liked the idea of a puddle that mimics you as a concept, so I was probably paying more attention at the time.

The monks trilogy was even more garbage than the rest of the season, so I'm not surprised.

I barely remembered it. Just with the Vatican episode earlier that mentioned the De Vinci Code, I wasn't really interested in any take the writers had on religion.

Well, the Eighth Doctor says this before the Master does.

Sorry, I was thinking of the Timeless Child. I imagine the half human thing could be put down to the Doctor lying to throw the Master off his game.

I feel for you. Really.

Yeah it's been a long few years for media. I don't think I've really intently followed any TV on my own initiative since May of last year.

Yeah, that's fair enough.

Given what I saw, it just doesn't make much sense personally.

[DannyJ]

5709868

Just with the Vatican episode earlier that mentioned the De Vinci Code, I wasn't really interested in any take the writers had on religion.

They didn't have any that I could recall. They were just kinda there.

Sorry, I was thinking of the Timeless Child. I imagine the half human thing could be put down to the Doctor lying to throw the Master off his game.

Ah. Okay.

Given what I saw, it just doesn't make much sense personally.

Canon gives a lot of contradictory information on the subject, so like a lot of things in MLP, the demon theory requires some creative headcanon to turn into something that makes sense.

[Wild Stallion]

5709936

They didn't have any that I could recall. They were just kinda there.

Fair, but the whole evil cult thing kind of feels overplayed to me by this point, even if I didn't know the writers' get their opinions of religion from trashy pulp novels.

Canon gives a lot of contradictory information on the subject, so like a lot of things in MLP, the demon theory requires some creative headcanon to turn into something that makes sense.

True, but I've always believed simpler is better. If I can make headcannon fit without twisting myself into a pretzel, I'd prefer to do that.

[DannyJ]

5709983

True, but I've always believed simpler is better. If I can make headcannon fit without twisting myself into a pretzel, I'd prefer to do that.

Simpler is better, all other things being equal, but the simplest explanation isn't always the most interesting or useful one, as I'm sure you're aware.

[Wild Stallion]

5710021

Simpler is better, all other things being equal, but the simplest explanation isn't always the most interesting or useful one, as I'm sure you're aware.

For sure. I just don't find Luna being possessed as being as interesting as Nightmare being a fragment of her personality. The latter gives me a much-needed look into her personality. The former implies the existence of a boogeyman that never shows up again. I just don't find it to be a compelling or useful explanation myself.

[DannyJ]

5710036

I just don't find it to be a compelling or useful explanation myself.

I was more talking about what I regarded as such. But the important part is that we agree on the principle.

The latter gives me a much-needed look into her personality. The former implies the existence of a boogeyman that never shows up again.

Well, they do show up again if we count the comics.

But I don't personally regard the demon theory as invalidating any character insight we get into Luna. The way I always interpreted it (and the way I write it in my own stories) is that the nightmare is like a slightly more independent Equestria Girls demon. It has a personality of its own, but that personality (when it's possessing a host, anyway) is simply an exaggeration of the host's existing personality, particularly the darker aspects of it. Nightmare Moon, to me, is still Luna. Just a Luna with fewer inhibitions and less ability to introspect.

[Wild Stallion]

5710611

Well, they do show up again if we count the comics.

Well, you already have some idea of how I feel about those. And apparently you weren't even the biggest fan of that issue, if I understand your issues with the multiple nightmares correctly.

The way I always interpreted it (and the way I write it in my own stories) is that the nightmare is like a slightly more independent Equestria Girls demon. It has a personality of its own, but that personality (when it's possessing a host, anyway) is simply an exaggeration of the host's existing personality, particularly the darker aspects of it.

I just don't see that as a demon myself. Demons clearly have their own identities, and what your describing sounds more like intoxication. Which incidentally is how I see magic when it gets powerful enough to overwhelm the caster. The reason it's so rare on the Equestrian side of the mirror is because ponies are constantly stepped in magic, so it takes significantly more to overwhelm their biology in that particular fashion.

Nightmare Moon, to me, is still Luna. Just a Luna with fewer inhibitions and less ability to introspect.

Fair enough. That's more or less how I see it, just with a bit more personal agency.

[DannyJ]

5710638

And apparently you weren't even the biggest fan of that issue, if I understand your issues with the multiple nightmares correctly.

I actually liked Nightmare Rarity quite a bit. It's not my favourite comic arc, and its FIENDship is Magic sequel was utter garbage, but it was serviceable on its own. It played with some fun ideas, and it has some good character arcs.

My problem isn't with multiple nightmares existing, or anything to do with the comic itself, really. I'm just annoyed that the show never really embraced the comics. Nightmare Rarity brought in the nightmares, gave them some lore, conclusively dealt with them, and gave Luna a satisfying character arc out of the deal. And instead of acknowledging and building upon that, the show chose to contradict it, first with the Pony of Shadows, and then by repeating Luna's character arc from the comic in season five, and then later comics even jettisoned the lore it established and had their own contradictory portrayals of Nightmare Moon.

Now don't get me wrong, I understand why it happened, and I understand that many people probably even prefer it this way. It's just a matter of personal disappointment to me. As I said in the season seven review (and my last comment to you on it), I'm a fan of continuity and larger, interconnected universes, and it just saddens me that FiM was never able to become that.

I just don't see that as a demon myself. Demons clearly have their own identities, and what your describing sounds more like intoxication.

Eh, "demon" is just a word for it. I'm not using it in the same sense as the actual religious or mythological entities.

In my stories, a "demon" is specifically a spiritual entity which takes over a host's body and brings about a physical change in them, and they can be either external forces, or they can be born from their host's own soul. The Equestria Girls demons are the latter kind (and are born from harmonic magic which the hosts couldn't handle), while the nightmares are the former (and are born from dark magic). And there are also chaos demons, of course (which don't appear in canon, but feature quite heavily in my Dark Souls crossover). But what they all have in common is that they all mirror aspects of their host. The demon changes the host, but the host, in turn, also changes the demon.

Naturally, demons born within the host like the ones we see in Equestria Girls are closest to their original personalities, so both demon and host are close to symbiotic there, practically the same entity (enough so that former possession victims like Sunset Shimmer may not even feel like they were possessed at all). But nightmares, following Nightmare Rarity lore, are somewhat more independent. Nightmare Moon the entity, while within Luna, took on aspects of her personality, but it was still an independent entity that Luna was aware of. Luna grew dark on her own, rebelled against her sister on her own, and voluntarily allied with the nightmares for a power boost, during which time she and Nightmare Moon were close enough to be considered practically the same. But sometime during their stay on the moon, Luna began feeling regret, no longer wished to be bonded to the nightmare, and the possession began to feel more like one. At that point, it was more like having a split personality, but with the darker personality in full control.

This is also, incidentally, the reason why the Elements of Harmony banished her to the moon the first time, but separated her from the nightmare and redeemed her the second.

[Wild Stallion]

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I'm just annoyed that the show never really embraced the comics.

Now don't get me wrong, I understand why it happened, and I understand that many people probably even prefer it this way. It's just a matter of personal disappointment to me. As I said in the season seven review (and my last comment to you on it), I'm a fan of continuity and larger, interconnected universes, and it just saddens me that FiM was never able to become that.

Fair enough. I've been on both sides of this debate. For what it's worth, I do understand why singular continuity is important, having come from Doctor Who and Star Wars with such a singular disappointment of how it butchered its own universe lore wise. There's a strength that comes from a shared universe that simply cannot be underestimated.

On the other hand, I have appreciated else world stories in the past, and I do think that if your continuity is already shot to bits (as in the case of say Batman) there's a valid business strategy in keeping various continuities separate, or allowing audience members to pick and choice which ones they'll abide by. I'm not sure how good it is for artistic merits, but I do understand why it happens.

Even MLP Gen 4 was ultimately a reboot, however well done it was.

Eh, "demon" is just a word for it. I'm not using it in the same sense as the actual religious or mythological entities.

I figured. There just has to be a better term for it. The Others. The Wild. The Dreaming. Something.

[DannyJ]

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On the other hand, I have appreciated else world stories in the past, and I do think that if your continuity is already shot to bits (as in the case of say Batman) there's a valid business strategy in keeping various continuities separate, or allowing audience members to pick and choice which ones they'll abide by.

Honestly, I'd be fine with this too, but that's not what they went with. If the comics were deliberately set in their own separate continuity, I could make my peace with that, but the comics were constantly trying to remain compatible with the show, even though the show constantly rebuffed their attempts, so the comics (even within the same series) ended up not even being compatible with themselves. And being compatible with the books as well? Forget about it.

I mean, I've made significant efforts to tie it all together in my own universe, but even I had to take a hacksaw to it eventually.

I figured. There just has to be a better term for it. The Others. The Wild. The Dreaming. Something.

Maybe. I use the term in my stories because it's what the entities in Equestria Girls are called, but I've seen other stories that went with names like those.