I finally finished Friendship is Magic! · 7:30pm Jan 27th, 2022
...and I am exhausted.
Don't get me wrong, I largely enjoyed the show. Even with a lot of episodes falling into the trap of "this conflict gets needlessly dragged out so we can make the lesson of the day more clear for kids", it's still funny, character-driven and likable. Even the later seasons didn't bug me as much as they seem to bug a lot of other people on this site.
But it was a lot. Because Netflix initially announced in December that they were taking seasons 1-8 down January 31, I burned through the series at a very fast clip and, for the past 1.75 months, I've watched very little aside from FiM -- and, to get the full experience, I also watched The Movie, Best Gift Ever, Rainbow Roadtrip and the shorts, and even threw a rewatch of the Equestria Girls series into the mix (wanting to see how EqG played out in the context of FiM; I initially planned to just rewatch the first two movies for Princess Twilight, but ended up adding in the rest of the series as well). And just when it looked like I might be able to relax the rate of my series binge when Netflix cancelled the series' removal, Hulu announced they would be taking down Season 9 for real on January 31, so I had to speed things right back up.
The result? A whole lot of pony tunnel vision. And I need a bit of a break. Aside from some movies (Matrix, Spider-Man, Scream, Nightmare Alley) and a few shows I watched with family (Cobra Kai, The Book of Boba Fett), I am way behind on most everything I was excited for in late 2021-early 2022. And it's gotten to the point where watching media-for-adults can be a little bit disorienting after spending so much time immersed in this one kids' show (why can't these kids just talk things out with Ghostface? I'm sure he'd be reasonable once you hit him with a rainbow laser).
So, basically, I need a breather. I'm still gonna work on stories (though I'll probably pause "Pinkie Pie Takes Disneyland" for a few weeks after I hit 15 chapters to avoid burnout), but I definitely don't need to be this deeply immersed in MLP ever again. I'm glad I'm caught up and everything, but woof.
Speaking of "Pinkie Pie Takes Disneyland", that fic is now up to 10 chapters, with another publishing today (it's written, but needs editing). Hope you're enjoying it! It's currently one thumb away from the ratings thermometer being visible, so if you're liking it, I really hope you can leave an upvote!
[Unpublished stories cannot be embedded]
Thanks for reading! I'm looking forward to doing more with MLP in the future -- just in a bit more relaxed way than I have been lately.
Well, congratulations on finishing up the series. I hope that the shipping hints shown in the final episode don't affect your perspective (unless of course, you decide to say that's just with the ponies and not the Rainbooms). After you find your way out of your 'tunnel', I can hardly wait to see what you'll be inspired to right.
On a final note, you're saying that even after fifteen chapters, 'PPtD' still won't be finished? I admit I've never gone to Disneyland (hoping to one day), but just how many rides are there, old and new?
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Even using the strictest definition of "ride", there's over 50 between Disneyland and its sister park Disney California Adventure (of the ones I've done so far, Soarin', W.E.B. Slingers, Jumpin' Jellyfish and Grizzly River Run are at DCA while the rest are at Disneyland). I'm trying to spread out the biggies, which is why there'll definitely be a lot of kinda "filler" items. If you haven't been, you may want to watch a YouTube video of the rides before reading, cause otherwise some of it might be hard to visualize (especially music-based ones where I'm not allowed to post the lyrics).
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You're going to need a lot of combinations. Any two of the Rainbooms will give you twenty-one, but you'll still have over half to go.
Over fifty?
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The only pre-planning I did for PPTD was to select who's riding what, and yes, there'll be at least two of each combination. Plus there's more guest riders on the way; I've been holding back on them since I put so many in the initial batch. And I also have ideas for some non-ride locations, like the Cantina in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge and the mysterious, highly exclusive Club 33.