Alex Catches Up - Part 1 · 5:12am Oct 16th, 2019
Friends, Fimfic-ians, Countrymen... lend me your ear.
Because Alex is back and finally catching up with this damn show. I know it's been a long time since you've heard from me, and I doubt more than like 3 people even care, but I figured it'd be fun to catch up with the show now that it's come to an end. I feel like I need to get some closure here. Who knows, it might even reignite that spark and get me back into the fandom (but probably not).
So, where's our baseline? I stopped really watching pony right around season five. I know for sure I saw the episodes up to Appleoosa's Most Wanted, and I saw Slice of Life and (the at the time leaked) Scare Master, so I have minimal experience with anything past season four. As such, starting with where I left off on S5 seems to be the best plan.
I think the best way to do this is to just watch the show in chunks, then write up some thoughts on the episodes and post them here. I want at least 3 episodes per post, because any less than that feels like a waste of time for you.
Now then, we've got our method and our starting point. All that's left now is to just jump on in, huh?
S5E7: Make New Friends but Keep DiscordWait I already saw this one. This is the one with Tree Hugger. FACK.
Verdict: I already saw this/10
S5E8: The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone
Alright, one scene into this and I'm already remembering why I liked this show. That little smooch Pinkie gives Gummy before she leaves? Adorable. It cracked the first smile out of my cold, dead soul. Then we have the intro, which has... more characters than I remember. I'm sure it'll all come back to me.
Overall, not too bad. Even though Gilda sucked the first time she was introduced, they made her better after bringing her back. The little flashback was cute, seeing tiny Gilda and Dash meeting in their... flight academy thing. It was neat that they made Griffonstone into a dump instead of a proper kingdom, which makes sense based on how cold they are to each other and only focused on money. Anti-capitalist? Probably not intentionally.
It had some moments I felt myself about to cringe (because let's be honest, MLP will do that to you sometimes), but they usually had Gilda or Dash chime in with whatever I was thinking, especially Dash's comment about Pinkie's sappy speech at the end. I love self-awareness like that.
Also, I don't know where else to put it in, but Dash with Twilight's hairstyle was weird and I hope they don't do that again.
Verdict: You'll need to give me some bits for a verdict.
S5E9: Slice of Life
Absolutely fucking not. You'd need to give me at least $20 to get me to watch this again. I don't remember much of season five, but I do remember this.
Verdict: No.
S5E10: Princess Spike
Looks like we've got our first Spike-focused episode on this long journey. Let's see how it stacks up compared to the rest of them!
So this one is about Spike uh... interrupting public service workers and potentially creating safety hazards around town. I can only imagine the trees and broken water pipe are going to bite him by the end of this. You couldn't write "Chekov's Gun" in brighter letters on these if you tried. Ten minutes later and...
Oh hey what do you know, Spike was a complete dumbass and messed everything up. We haven't seen that one before. Another story that could've been solved by just saying the truth and not going to ridiculous lengths for a simple problem. Thankfully Spike has the special talent of not actually having any repercussions for his actions besides just saying he's sorry, so he has that going for him. This is MLP, though, so it's the logical conclusion.
At least I got to see my girl Cadance again. Also, the guy with the Brooklyn accent was the best character, hands down. This episode was... frustrating.
Verdict: Just fucking TALK/10
S5E11: Party Pooped
I didn't read the Netflix summary for this, but the opening scene shows this is the introduction of the Yaks. I'm not sure how prominent they'll be in the future, but the first impression is... interesting. Easily angered, barbarian-esque traits, which I guess fits! It'll be neat to see how the mane six try to adapt to their mannerisms.
It seems like they're going to try to over-accommodate them, or nothing they do will be good enough, so some sort of compromise is going to happen... somehow. I honestly have no idea how this is going to go, which is refreshing.
And now at the end of the episode, we got a positive conclusion expecting, but the journey was certainly something. Pinkie almost died, briefly became one of the Beatles, almost died again, then had an unfortunate sledding incident which sent her right back home, in a fashion only Pinkie Pie could accomplish. I honestly thought the sled from Yak-Yakistan would've played into the conclusion somehow, but it ended up not.
Also, she has a party dungeon under Sugarcube Corner, which I can only imagine what grimdark fanfic authors did with. Those monsters. Twilight's new lore about being scared of quesadillas was some top tier character development, which I can only hope the rest of the season keeps up with. Not bad at all.
Verdict: 7/10.
I think that's a pretty good spot to stop for this installment. Stay tuned for the next episode of... Alex Catches Up!
oh gosh, it's good to see you back!!
In Slice of Life's defense, I've always thought of that episode as in the category of 'that one time a show staff decides to cut loose and open the fan-service box full tilt'. Sort of like Star Trek's tribble episodes. They have absolutely 0 impact on the main story progressions, but they do setup all sorts of fan service interactions and gags.
Whaaaaaat Alex is alive???
Yeah, I haven't seen anything since season 6. I should get back in touch haha. I thought Slice of Life was pretty cute though.
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Reports of my death have been... mildly exaggerated.
As far as Slice of Life goes, yeah I get that it's supposed to be a fun fanservicey episode, but it was just too much for me.
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Understood! Personal taste and all, after all. :)
Glad you're doing well though!
Welcome back. I hope you find your love for the show again.
Comment #4
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Perhaps! Ponk has been good so far.
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133% higher than expected!
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Good to see you again Alex. Always good to see people come back.
Welcome back.
Was a nice surprise to see a blogpost from you zombie shuffle it's way across my feed, dude. Looking forward to more in the future!
Griffonstone I really liked, though like with a lot of the outer worldbuilding in the show I feel like it was set up for more than ended up being used, which I suppose given the constraints that television production has and the actual focus audience for the show makes sense, but still feeds my hunger for more things outside Equestria.
As always, have a Cage:
i.imgur.com/1ectVVX.jpg
Hey! I was really surprised to see this! I'm interested to see how my favorite eps measure up.
First Titanium Dragon, now Alexstrasza! :O It's a red letter day!
...oh, sweet summer child, what horrors await...
And now Alex's 11 is complete! We'll be waiting on standby for the plan...
This blogpost was quiet the surprise, a good one.
Good to see you back, hope you can finish all the episodes.
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Thank you sir, good to see some old faces.
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I thought I was out BUT THEY JUST KEEP PULLING ME BACK IN!
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Oh god please no
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Good. Wait for further instruction.
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More are on the way!
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I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw, so I don't think it'll be too hard to get through. Maybe even... enjoyable?
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It's okay, that's what fanfic is for.
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Also! Just a friendly reminder that this exists. :p
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I can't even imagine how much more this has been linked around the site since I left.
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So, you gonna finish Iron Mare? :V
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Let's not get too crazy now. I don't even know where to begin with finishing that story. It's such a mess.
*le Poke