Friendship is Card Games: Tell Your Tale, Part 1 · 11:39am Apr 10th, 2022
Well, I didn’t see this coming. I was expecting one short a week for a while, but we got a solid twenty minutes of new pony on Thursday. Let’s see what we’re working with.
The new stuff comes in the form of four roughly five-minute shorts… and I’m already seeing a concerning parallel with Pony Life. Let’s hope it’s the only one.
I do like the stained glass entrance on the model lighthouse. Clear Old Equestrian influence along with nods to more contemporary concepts like the three crystals and three cities.
It does mildly bother me that McSnipsalot, Hitch’s little crab friend, has eyes on its main body and the eyestalks are just these weird, pointless antennae. But only mildly.
Zipp’s reaction to never getting another moment to herself is both understandable and very relatable. Of course, so is Izzy’s proposal. She didn’t exactly have a rich social life before wandering to Maretime Bay.
There’s also the question of why these five are living in the same house, but I’ll dig deeper into that later on.
I’m not sure how Hitch twirled that wrench with a hoof, and I may happier not knowing.
Huh. Izzy’s hornglow has a full rainbow effect around whatever she’s holding. Interesting.
… Okay, Sunny said “Wait up, roomies!” For one terrible moment, I thought she’d called her friends bronies.
I don’t see what they have left to do to make the new lighthouse. They’ve even got a lovely mosaic in place on the floor.
Uh oh. I sense a botched “fix stuff up” montage. Though I do appreciate Hitch making notes on the IKEA instructions with a pencil topped with his own head.
Yup, this is how Sunny learned that musical numbers are not the solution to all of life’s problems.
And then Zipp painted an inverted pentagram and accidentally summoned Sunset Shimmer from the nether realms where she’d been banished.
… Actually, going to remember that idea.
Do I even want to know how these ponies make glue? They’re just asking for a dark read on that one.
I suppose when you’ve grown up in a castle, anything less feels like “a tiny, little house.”
I’d expect Izzy to have a bit more sanity when it comes to home decor. I suppose she’s just not used to working with more than what she can scavenge.
Cloudpuff providing traffic control for the immense armchair is pretty funny.
“What about my automatic breakfast butler-bot?”
I have several questions there. I can only assume that letting Izzy near Canterlogic’s dumpsters was both a mistake and potentially the greatest thing to happen to pony engineering.
That photo of Sunny and Argyle just can’t catch a break.
It is lovely how the memory of Argyle still inspires Sunny.
That rainbow beacon raises a number of questions. Still, I can’t deny that it’s effective as a lighthouse.
I joked earlier, but this does mark a valuable lesson for Sunny. Bringing together the tribes doesn’t instantly, magically make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. Harmony takes guidance and direction, or all that energy is lost in chaos. It makes sense that the former pariah of Maretime Bay, who’s only studied harmony in theory, would need the practical reality to slap her in the face. Meanwhile, those with leadership experience are lost in tunnel vision and Izzy just doesn’t want to risk alienating her new friends. This is basic, but it definitely works. (Though the song’s nothing to write home about.)
Looks like they took the giant pair of glasses off of the Canterlogic headquarters. I suppose Phyllis got some blowback after her son’s reign of terror.
Ah. We have “Zippsters” as a counterpart to Pippsqueaks… or we would if Pipp had her way. There’s also a lovely bit of irony in the crown princess of Zephyr Heights not wanting followers. Zipp, unless the city had a revolution while we weren’t looking, I have some bad news for you.
Huh. I figured Sunny was just the delivery mare for the smoothie cart, especially since we’ve seen somepony else operating it. If anything, it’s surprising to see Sunny still has her day job after the whole “ascendance to quasigodhood” thing, but it’s not like Twilight ever stopped being the town librarian until Celestia abdicated. (I remain convinced that Namepending Castle was declared the new library for various bureaucratic reasons.)
A delivery pegasus crashing into the scenery. It’s like nothing’s changed. 
Fifi’s Flying Fruit Smoothie Smooth Fruit Delivery Service. That just feels like it was planned with malice aforethought for the poor pegasus who has to recite the motto.
Zipp refusing to help her fellow pegasi get more comfortable in the air feels wrong after all she id to try to get airborne without magic. Though it’s clear she’s not comfortabl with being responsible for her fellow pony. Of course, by the Adams Principle of Inverse Responsibility—executive power is best given to those who least want it—that only makes her more suited to lead.
“Wonderful Institute of No-Gravity Skywalking” is far from the worst backronym I’ve ever heard.
The fact that some of the palace guards are here in uniform says a lot. To say nothing about the disconnects on just how official this is. Pipp loves her sister and wants everypony to know how great she is. The problem is that they have very different attitudes towards notoriety.
Hitch’s nervous laughter until Izzy has to tell him to rein it in is honestly delightful.
“What? Where did that come from!?”
Don’t worry, Zipp. Soon you’ll learn not to question the poofy-maned one.
Well, we have confirmation that pegasi can still manipulate clouds.
Ah, the plight of the prodigy trying to teach. It’s easy and obvious to you, so it should be that simple for everyone else. And yet, for some reason you can’t understand, it isn’t.
I have several questions regarding the daisy with a face. I suppose magical wildlife is making a return.
The pegasus ability to ignore center of gravity when hauling something in midair also appears to be intact… provided the pegasus doesn’t get disoriented.
I do love the flashback with Zipp and Haven… though given the foal I’m seeing with cutie marks, I have to wonder if the rules there have changed in the intervening years.
Izzy providing superliminal messaging is a nice touch.
I’m going to assume Izzy built those bellows.
Oh dear. The therapy puppets. Based on my experience with Skin Horse, this rarely if ever ends well.
Every graduation speech should end with “You may now throw your hats.”
Reestablishing the Wonderbolts has to start somewhere. But Zipp needs to settle down first. And there is still the whole “heir to the throne” issue.
Pipp failing to pack light is the most persuasive argument I’ve seen for her being Rarity’s successor.
Who puts their dog in their luggage?
It’s nice to see unicorns in the Zephyr Heights crowd. It’s less nice to see that they’ve copy-pasted Izzy’s horn onto all of them. It’s interesting that they’re so enthusiastic about the royal family after the big reveal. The sisters helping to restore magic probbly won back some goodwill, but I also have to wonder how much Haven’s own political skill played a part. Pipp got her people skills from somewhere, after all.
Apparently there have been a lot of impacts as hovering pegasi haven’t been looking where they’ve been drifting. Entirely believable, and a nice, gentle bit of reality ensuing. “Progress over perfection” is a healthy way of looking at it.
Huh. It seems that Haven commissioned a replacement for the Pegasus Crystal. Makes sense; the crown’s kind of built around it.
Poor Zipp. She wants absolutely nothing to do with the royal lifestyle. No wonder she’s moving to Maretime Bay. Pipp’s presumably just following her sister. And sees the earth pony town as a gold mine of novel content.
It’s… kind of sad that Izzy got much less of a momentous sendoff, but also kind of understandable. She didn’t exactly do much to endear herself to the rest of Bridlewood. Plus, Alphabittle may still be sore about the incident at the teahouse.
Oh no. Haven’s showing foal pictures before a national audience. This will not end well.
Huh. I didn’t expect it to end poorly because of air traffic accidents. Could’ve gone worse… but somepony should definitely check on the stallion snared by the Pipp balloon before he hits the stratosphere.
I hadn’t commented on it before—wasn’t sure if it was a one-off effect—but it seems that reaffirming the bonds of friendship provokes a reaction from the reaffirming ponies’ cutie marks. I’ll have to keep an eye on that.
Nightmare Roomate (sic)
Bit hard to take the “menacing” figure seriously when we’ve already seen Izzy’s magic. Though, in the ponies’ defense, with magic reentering the world, who’s to say the ghosts of old might not be coming back to the lands of the living?
Also, I do like Pipp’s streaming setup.
“Count pegasheep.” Pegasheep? Pegasheep. Goodness knows we’ve seen that most of the wildlife around Zephyr Heights has wings.
And this is why sharing a bedroom with three other people almost never works out.
The string of roommate fouls makes a lot of sense. She’s never had to consider the consequences of her actions for everyone else in the house because for most of her life, there’s never been someone else in the house. Though this does raise concerning questions about her parents…
Oh dear. I hope Sunny being unwilling to put her hoof down doesn’t become a recurring theme. Filly’s got to learn that being able to say “No” is an important part of being the first among equals.
Ah. Hitch doesn’t appear to be living in the lighthouse. Wise stallion.
Also, that is definitely a wanted poster for Sprout. Looks like somepony isn’t willing to go through his reformation arc.
I see Hitch is taking on Applejack’s role of stating the obviously correct solution that will be ignored until the climax of the episode. Along with Fluttershy’s uncanny ability to charm pretty much anything and everything.
Huh. The open communication plan worked out well, if not in the expected way. I honestly hadn’t thought Izzy was trying to use her friends as models of how to behave in a multiperson household… though that still doesn’t excuse using a friend’s toothbrush to scrub her ears. 
These are definitely more coherent and grounded than Pony Life. Low bar to clear, I know, but it’s a relief to see them do so. It’s also doing a good amount to flesh out the characters beyond what we saw in the movie, especially Pipp. In all, good stuff. Not outstanding, but definitely better than I feared it could be. Let’s see what I can do with it. Bear in mind that, with preview season underway, Streets of New Capenna mechanics are on the table.
Cloudwool Pegasheep 2W
Creature — Pegasus Sheep
Mutate 1WW (If you cast this spell for its mutate cost, put it over or under target non-Human creature you own. They mutate into the creature on top plus all abilities from under it.)
Flying
Whenever this creature mutates, put a shield counter on it. (If it would be dealt damage or destroyed, remove a shield counter from it instead.)
2/2
Unsteady Aerialist 2W
Creature — Pegasus Citizen
Alliance — Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, Unsteady Aerialist gains flying until end of turn.
“Friendship or flight, having magic doesn’t automatically solve your problems.”
—Sunny Starscout
3/2
Exposure Therapy 3W
Enchantment
Hideaway 5 (When this enchantment enters the battlefield, look at the top five cards of your library, exile one face down, then put the rest on the bottom in a random order.)
Whenever you attack, you gain 1 life for each attacking creature you control. Then if you have at least 10 life more than your starting life total, you may play the exiled card without paying its mana cost.
Glitter-Mad Unicorn 5W
Creature — Unicorn Wizard
This spell costs 1 less to cast for each kind of counter among permanents you control.
When Glitter-Mad Unicorn enters the battlefield, proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.)
3/3
Camera Shy U
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets -3/-0.
Whenever enchanted creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, return it and Camera Shy to their owners’ hands.
Being raised in the public eye can leave you longing for anywhere else.
Dreamscape Wanderer 2U
Creature — Unicorn Wizard
1U, Q: Dreamscape Wanderer connives. (Draw a card, then discard a card. If you discarded a nonland card, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature. Q is the untap symbol.)
She has no idea what she does each night, only that it leaves her inspired each day.
2/2
Deafening Snore 3U
Sorcery
Tap all creatures target player controls. That player chooses one of those creatures. The rest don’t untap during that player’s next untap step.
If Izzy’s getting a good night’s sleep, nopony else is.
Treasury Haulers 3U
Creature — Pegasus Soldier
Flying
When Treasury Haulers enters the battlefield, you become the monarch.
You have no maximum hand size.
“A princess shouldn’t have to pack lightly. She has ponies for that.”
—Princess Pipp Petals
2/4
Horseshoe Bay Cancrix 3UU
Creature — Crab
When Horseshoe Bay Cancrix enters the battlefield, mill three cards.
Horseshoe Bay Cancrix gets +1/+1 for each different mana value among cards in your graveyard.
The old bay hides many relics of the Twilit Era. Some resent being found.
1/1
Good Riddance 1B
Sorcery
Casualty 1 (As you cast this spell, you may sacrifice a creature with power 1 or greater. When you do, copy this spell and you may choose a new target for the copy.)
Target player sacrifices a creature.
“Huh. Did it get quieter lately?”
—Alphabittle, teahouse owner
“Work Work Work” 1B
Enchantment — Song
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a verse counter on “Work Work Work”.
B, Sacrifice “Work Work Work”: You may sacrifice up to X permanents, where X is the number of verse counters on “Work Work Work”. Draw a card for each permanent sacrificed this way.
Shimmering Shade 2B
Creature — Shade
Menace
Converge — 3B: Shimmering Shade gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of colors of mana spent to activate this ability.
On the other side of darkness lies a rainbow beyond mortal comprehension.
1/1
Amateur Landing 1RR
Instant
Kicker 4 (You may pay an additional 4 as you cast this spell.)
Target creature deals damage equal to its power to itself. If this spell was kicked, that creature deals that much damage to each other creature its controller controls.
Thunder’s confidence also cratered.
Well-Treated Prisoner 2R
Creature — Pony Rogue
Defender
Alliance — Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, Well-Treated Prisoner can attack as though it didn’t have defender this turn.
Even after Twilight’s fall, pony prisons focus more on rehabilitation than punishment.
3/4
Hoarder’s Lament 4R
Instant
Hoarder’s Lament deals damage to target player equal to the number of artifacts that player controls plus the amount of unspent mana they have.
Greed can be all-consuming. Greed and gravity can be all-flattening.
Separatist Fugitive 4R
Creature — Pony Rogue
When Separatist Fugitive enters the battlefield, it deals 4 damage to up to one target non-Pony creature.
Blitz 3R (If you cast this spell for its blitz cost, it gains haste and “When this creature dies, draw a card.” Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step.)
3/3
Air Traffic Accident 1GG
Sorcery
Air Traffic Accident deals X damage to each creature with flying, where X is the number of creatures with flying on the battlefield.
Pegasi soon learned that flying while focusing on a phone never ended well.
Vegetable Magnetism 3G
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature you control
Enchanted creature gets +2/+2.
Whenever enchanted creature is dealt damage, add that much mana of any one color. Until end of turn, you don’t lose this mana as steps and phases end.
Hitch attracts all life without meaning to.
Automatic Butler-Bot 3
Artifact Creature — Construct Rigger
When Automatic Butler-Bot enters the battlefield, you gain 2 life.
When Automatic Butler-Bot dies, it assembles a Contraption. (Put the top card of your Contraption deck face up onto one of your sprockets.)
“More whatzahoozits, ma’am?”
2/2
Monument of Lords 3
Artifact
As Monument of Lords enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.
Spells you cast of the chosen type cost 1 less to cast.
4: Until end of turn, Monument of Lords becomes a 3/3 artifact creature that’s the chosen type and gains “Other creatures you control of the chosen type get +1/+1.”
Pneumatic Booster Bellows
Artifact — Contraption
Whenever you crank Pneumatic Booster Bellows, roll a six-sided die. Creatures you control with power less than or equal to the result gain flying until end of turn.
Build a Following 3(gw)
Instant
Create a 2/2 green Pony creature token, then choose a creature you control. That creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each creature you control.
“Pipp means well, but some ponies just don’t want a horde of screaming fans.”
—Princess Zipp Storm
Supernatural Resurgence 6WBG
Sorcery
Return all non-Aura cards from your graveyard to the battlefield, then do the same for Aura cards. Exile Supernatural Resurgence.
With the return of magic, long-lost wonders and horrors quickly revived from dormancy.
Like 1W//Subscribe 3U
Instant//Instant
Like: Untap target creature. Put a +1/+1 counter on it.
Subscribe: Draw a card for each spell target player has cast this turn.
Crystal Brighthouse
Land
When Crystal Brighthouse enters the battlefield, sacrifice it. When you do, search your library for a basic Forest, Island, or Mountain card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle and you gain 1 life.
Like the tribes’ unity, it is new, fragile, and full of potential.
The dog was probably carrying it. Rarity's successor, remember? (This is only a dig at Spike insofar as every canon scene he shares with Rarity is a dig at Spike.)
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: Most players won't ordinarily have unspent mana while another spell is resolving, which is why mana burn went away. The purpose of Hoarder's Lament is to punish Treasure spam, though, so the clause is important to prevent the foe from creating an offshore tax haven.
Inside Baseball Alert: "Lord" is fan jargon for creatures that boost their tribe, typically including +1/+1. Monument of Lords, naturally, becomes one.
Y'know, when four episodes dropped, I wondered "Hm, wonder how long before FoME will do a 'Friendship Is Card Games' on these. I'll bet they'll jump up the schedule." Wouldn't have expected them to get fast-tracked like this! Though your timing is on point, my friend.
Yeah, Pony Life gave these a very low bar to clear, but they did clear it, and not by a marginal difference either. I still find the writing bears far too many signs of being written too fast – episodes are either longer stories squashed down ("A Home to Share"), don't come up with a proper structural story and just faff about with a vague conflict not tied to the theme ("Sisters Take Flight"), or are simplified to the extent of lacking much of any nuance or character ("Zipp's Flight School", "Nightmare Roomate"). But the characters feels mostly true to themselves, the flanderisation of Izzy excepted (though I hope they don't stick with Hitch being a butt-monkey, though it wouldn't surprise me). And there's a disconnect between the writing and animation, with many jokes fumbling due to the direction and comic timing just not being there. But it's inoffensive, and apart from the character designs, there isn't anything here to actively dislike.
And isn't it something that Zipp and Pipp, the two worst characters in the film, get the best treatment by far here? On top of having the best replacement voice actresses, both in matching the feel of A New Generation's performers, feeling right for them here, and doing proper acting (well, as much as you can in a series like this). Granted, they didn't have a high bar with their film counterparts, but still! Understandably, Hitch and Izzy show the strain more given they had the best vocal performances in the film, with Izzy especially just coming across as "zany squeaky voice in the Pinkie Pie mold". But I'm withholding full judgment until we get the special and series there.
I know this animation style is the zeitgeist now, but the jerkiness of the movement and the manicness of the line delivery just… doesn't really work for me. Also, is it just me, or does everypony (other than Hitch) deliver their lines in almost the exact same way with the exact same voice? Eh' even if it ain't my cup of tea…
It was kinda up in the air after the first episode, but yeah he does own his own house.
These shorts aren't brilliant, but they're still pretty fun!
And infinitely more sane than the psychedelic weirdness of Pony Life.
The movie never did make clear what would happen after a unicorn was caught in the entrapment device...
I'm hoping that was just psychosis stemming from Windy's phobia.
"I'm actually pretty hoovesy." I recognize that it wouldn't make sense for Hitch to say that he's handy, but when I hear that line, I interpret it as him saying he's pretty handsy. Which, I wouldn't want a friend who brags about that.
I enjoyed the juxtaposition of a generic, cheesy "everybody get along together" song playing while the lighthouse renovations grew increasingly chaotic. It would have been better if they had resisted the temptation to play the song again during the "now we're successfully working together" montage.
I take issue with the flashback of Queen Haven encouraging Zipp to fly. As I understood the movie, flight magic had left the pegasi long before Zipp was born -- the royal family was always faking their ability to fly. Queen Haven would only be teaching Zipp how to pretend to fly using wires.
Sunny galloping along while towing a pegasus like a kite was a fun visual.
The cutie marks on the royal guard are the two chess pieces that fit the setting (depictions of a horse and a castle tower). Clever.
If anything, it looks like Zipp should stay in Zephyr Heights and establish that flight school.
For continuity and canon purposes, I intend to ignore these shorts until I see what the actual Netflix series does with the characters. I question whether it's a good idea to release supplementary material before the audience has gotten familiar with the official characterizations, but I guess Hasbro needs to keep the brand in people's minds somehow.
I did like that the main characters all had different body models. I guess it was also a little bit present in the movie, but exaggerated in two dimensions, it makes each character feel unique.
I agree with the consensus that these are better than Pony Life (although I wonder whether that's partially because there's less precedent and goodwill to violate). The stories themselves weren't anything great, but they weren't terrible, either. Pretty much what you'd expect from a lower-budget online-only supplement. I watched them once; I doubt I'll be motivated to watch them again.
5649848
And either nobody did a full turn on the character heads, or they just don't care about horrors like this:
i.ibb.co/TPZKkwN/Hitch-Derp.png
I actually think the "bean-mouth" style is fine, and I like a lot of shows that use it, but it's designed for flat-faced characters. On ponies it's ugly and creepy.
Zipp is best new pony
5649898
Its odd, because there's another "bean mouth" style that I can watch no problem: the Aardman Animations claymation / stop motion stuff like Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, Chicken Run, etc.
I think where I have such a hard time with the "bean mouth" cartoons is that unlike the claymation, the combination of the faces, the jerky, sudden movements, and the general manicness of the style puts it mostly into the uncanny valley for me. That, and I think on an instinctive level, that sort of grin makes me feel like the character is about to go for someone's throat, because in a lot of animals, exposing their teeth like that is a threat display.
5649917
Yeah, it's definitely a "depends-on-the-execution" style. I liked Owl House, Star vs., Gumball, and Gravity Falls. At times, Steven Universe was a hair over the uncanny line for me. It's a shame MLP:TYT has stepped so far into the Valley, because otherwise, I like it so far.
This was shockingly good. Not groundbreaking, but the bar was cleared with room to spare and it was a highly enjoyable 20 minutes of my life.
Some of my own mad takes:
-Three minutes in: "Yep, this is about what I'd expect for five-minute episodes in a straight-to-youtube series."
-Minute 3:18: "HEY REMEMBER THAT SUNNY'S DAD IS HELLA DEAD DON'T FORGET"
-Go figure, because Zipp is a nerd she's the only pegasi with even the intellectual knowledge of how to fly. Everyone else is
winging it.
I'm not apologizing.
-Haven is my G5 wife and seeing her being both an absolute dictator and weird embarrassing mom is a treat. Seeing her encourage Zipp's passion as a tyke is also incredible.
The minor worldbuilding was really neat, these are less phoned-in than I expected. Two episodes heavily involve "the pegasi suddenly being able to fly causes problems" which 1000% follows and is frankly more sense of consequence then we ever saw in FiM, ever. Izzy's kinda holding the idiot stick but the explanation and resolution there really made sense (and between her awol sendoff, her utter social naivety, and what we know from before, she's low-key the most tragic character in the show).
Ep 1 was serviceable stage-setting, and the others were... really, really enjoyable. Fun little slice-of-life antics that don't feel the need to get hyper to tell a joke, often with neat worldbuilding or morals behind them.
Surprisingly, I greatly look forward to more. This gives me that happy new Pony content feeling I have not had for a long time.
EDIT: But yes, the animation is butt-ugly and the voice acting feels really phoned in.
5649895
I'm inclined to view that scene as a loving mother encouraging her daughter's passion. Not necessarily to fly, but the athletic stunt leaping/running that looks kinda like flying. Maybe she was talking about that, or just humoring the kid ("of course you'll be a wizard if you study VERY hard"). Maybe she was feeling less cynical at the moment (an easy thing when you're playing with your adorable kid) and really believed - if just for a moment - that her child would one day fly.
5649917
5649920
Not much to add on the “bean mouth” debate that iisaw, our all-knowing saviour, hasn’t already said; I haven’t watched The Owl House yet, but agree that it’s a well-chosen stylistic fit for Gravity Falls, Gumball and Star Vs.. And while I drifted off Steven Universe pretty quick (it just wasn’t for me), I did feel it wasn’t as good a fit there (though that’s the least of it’s stylistic problems, just look up artstyle and size discrepancies between episodes…).
But on similar styles in other animation mediums, I’m reminded of something I saw generating a bit of discussion a month or so back – when Turning Red came out, people pointed out that what they were clearly going for wasn’t the current bean mouth aesthetic, but the wide, open, expressive mouths of Ghibli characters. That’s pretty undeniable, given Pixar adored Ghibli, especially if one looks at any image from My Neighbor Totoro with the characters’ mouths stretched wide open as they’re yelling and compare them to Turning Red’s characters. Whether they succeeded at translating this 2D design choice into 3D CGI animation… well, it’s defiantly a step forward from Luca, anyway, and fits the material. Sill unsure how I feel about it there, but it’s not a bad fit.
Certainly, though, between the wide mouths of Aardman characters and Ghibli protagonists, it’s not a new notion. The issue here is a mixture of it becoming too common to many cartoons, and a rigid sameness to its depiction. Reusing animation design principles happens all the time, it’s a given, and the trick is just slight modification to fit the material. Virtually every protagonist in a 90’s Disney film has Ariel’s eyes, after all, but never in a distracting way. TV animation, of course, thrives on sticking with something that works, but even there, I detect some executive clingyness to it (it’s a bit like how every “adult” animated sitcom gets pushed into using the Family Guy aesthetic).
To bring it back to here, though, the point about it coming off as creepy “I’m going to throttle you” vibes is interesting, and I get what you mean; I feel a certain cynicism from most modern American cartoons, and thinks kind of accentuates it. For what it’s worth, though, the style has been dropping off in the last two years (partly why it’s use here feels so wrong; that, and it being designed for flat, humanoid faces).
5649925
I may not share your enjoyment to that level (the artstyle, lack of actual acting, hastily written scripts and lack of technical finesse to make the dialogue, jokes and moments sing, they all combine to not make them fun to watch for me), but I can see it, and I do feel happy for you. Especially regards the “new Pony content regularly, yay!” feel. It has been two-and-a-half years since FiM ended (Pony Life doesn’t count as the fandom stopped paying attention quick, plus it was crap), and speaking as someone who only experienced the last two seasons of FiM live, I get it. I’m looking very forward myself to experience all of Gen 5 will fellow fans, and revelling in the enjoyment.
For what it’s worth… I strongly suspect that the Make Your Mark special in 6.5 weeks time actually takes place before this, and it’ll take us from the state at the film’s end to the start of this, with the new lighthouse built and the Mane 5 (sans Hitch? It’s still not 100% clear if he’s not there) staying there, plus tribes starting to mingle between the cities more freely, among other things. I think many of the worldbuilding things we’re seeing here are just remaining true to something in that, and thus not fully to this one’s credit. Certainly, the longer lead times for CG shows as opposed to this cheap webseries leaves no doubt as to which scripts would have been done first, and which series had to adapt its homework to match the other. It does seem like Hasbro pushed up the airing of this series to keep the brand more active, shorten the hiatus, and appease the board.
And, well… among other small hints, that poster outside the police station does point to something else having happened between the film and this webseries. Something we’re meant to know about, having seen firsthand.
Plus, it’s MLP. With the all the stuff that’s leaked or aired early over the years, would it be that surpassing they’d flip-flop the airing order?
5649929
Well no, but functionally this has come first and it's what we have. >_>
5649929
You mean, besides
Mitt Romneypretty much every airline ever?