Rainbledon: My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic Thread

[Lord Dominator]

Huh. Well that'll be something. Looks like the Sisters finally get involved in whatever crisis for once.

[Western Vale Confederacy]

>MFW Equestria turns into a fucking junta

[Ceffyltir]

[Ameriganastan]

(Image)

Yeah, the guys are pretty much all gone. This thread has been dead for like 3 seasons now.

[Frenequesta]

(Image)

Yeah, the guys are pretty much all gone. This thread has been dead for like 3 seasons now.

Even I have largely moved on to Equestria Daily.

But hay, just two more weeks until new episode, right?

[Holy Marsh]

'Twas a good premiere!

[Frenequesta]

'Twas a good premiere!

Somepony remembered.

So this one managed to pull off a few surprises and was overall enjoyable, but I still have my qualms.
Maybe I had expected too much hoping for a proper explanation of Celestia and Luna’s retirement. Just saying that Twilight and Co. have brought about a great era of peace and prosperity doesn’t quite cut it, when (1) we don’t really know how many problems were there the first thousand years, and (2) if anything, the problems had multiplied since Nightmare Moon came back. On top of that, I still want to know whether their retirement means the gang are going to have to raise the sun and moon or not. That is the basis of their power, yet they pass it to someponies who don’t have those talents on their butts. As the first half went on, I began to think that they were somehow “persuaded” by Grogar or some unknown entity to retire as part of his plan to get rid of Twilight and Co., but that of course did not turn out to be. Hopefully further episodes will flesh out this sudden and still mysterious decision. I’m also somewhat troubled about Rainbow Dash’s theory that the Regal Sisters had been useless <i>precisely because</i> they wanted Twilight to succeed them. If true, then there probably is something going on in Equestrian politics that we do not yet know about that’s really driving their decision. If the ultimate villain is the whole network of bureaucracies alluded to in S8 who opposes Twilight’s ascension because it would threaten their power, I would not be surprised.
Twilight correctly acknowledges that running a country is on a different order than organizing an ideology, defeating a few villains here and there, and running a school, so her stress is understandable. But she quickly devolves into the worst of her insecurities, making the challenge less serious than it should have been and her reaction graver than it needed to be. She even regresses: the last time Sombra came around she had to learn how to get other ponies’ help (and mind you, in a context that was also supposed to prepare Twilight for leadership!), so what is the point of her insistence that she act alone (or at least with her friends)? She appears to remember this by the time Sombra had destroyed the Tree, but the episode kept on beating the dead horse until Celestia delivers that moral. (This also makes the secondary moral—about learning how to admit one was wrong and doing something about it—unevenly developed, as the episode treated both as if Twilight only realized it when Discord “sacrificed” himself—even though asking for Discord’s help was precisely one of the ways she admitted she was wrong.)
Before I go out of my negativity, I’ll also throw in that the dialogue seemed a bit cliché even for this show, and the lampshading of the Regal Sisters’ uselessness and the tired Twilynanas did get quite tedious in the first half. At least Twilight’s speech toward Starlight on running the school was a witty stroke of hypocritical humor that largely put an end to what we didn’t need to be reminded over and over again and make the other lampshades bearable.
My qualms do put a damper on what was otherwise an exciting and even surprising premiere. I had feared the villain scenes would overwhelm everything else, but fortunately they didn’t. It was an especially good choice to focus on one of the four in Grogar’s Team of Evil. Having them go all out would have been a too easy way to emphasize how hard Twilight’s rule would be, and frankly more unrealistic—planning does take time. I do find it interesting that Sombra was the one to insist on going out on his own, since I had thought that with his experience in running a country, he would easily see the value in collective action. In retrospect, though, his flaws parallels Twilight’s insistence on going into ruling alone. (The parallelism does make Twilight’s stresses and flaws more significant than the same were in “The Crystal Empire,” which does blunt the force of the apparent regression somewhat.) And if Grogar does not bring Sombra back (though why he wouldn’t escapes me), his ultimate defeat is a contrast in not learning the right lessons in his mistake (though I can’t blame him for not thinking that destroying the Elements wouldn’t destroy the friendship).
And Discord was quite a surprise, though mostly a mixed bag. He unfortunately contributed a lot to the tedious lampshading in the first half, but, like the Princesses, he actually did something important in the second half. The whole sequence of Discord’s “sacrifice,” besides the sheer surprise of it, managed to make both a serious imitation of those operatic scenes where a dying hero manages to belt out a soaring, poignant air, with Discord’s absolutely sincere tributes to the Mane Six, and parodies it, which becomes much clearer in the subversion. I’m not sure why Discord would want Twilight to be ruler so badly other than just because, but hay, that’s how Discord works, and if it helps, it helps.
I’ll just leave it at that for now because I just want to enjoy this beginning of the end, and not dwell too much on what could have been done, and would just end up parroting nearly everyone else.

[Giovenith]

New episode was meh. Enjoyable enough, but typical latter season problems, including, once again, the carelessness of the new writers: Oh no, the elements are smashed! D: Except they were smashed in the very first episode too, by Nightmare Moon, and able to repair themselves with the power of friendship. Now somehow they can't do it? Because, why? Because they're in colored form instead of stony...?

I'm just really tired at this point of the latter season staff always valuing what seems cool in the moment over what makes sense in the bigger picture. Part of MLP's appeal was its worldbuilding, and it's kind of been damaged by all this slapping on of "epic" things without thinking through the implications or consequences for the canon. They've pretty much entirely junked Lauren's "no human poses unless absolutely necessary" rule out, for example, even at points where it seems like it would have been easier to go with the horsey option (You couldn't have just made the desk shorter and had the shop pony model stand on all fours?). Probably nitpicky complaints on my part, but it is disappointing.

[Frenequesta]

New episode was meh. Enjoyable enough, but typical latter season problems, including, once again, the carelessness of the new writers: Oh no, the elements are smashed! D: Except they were smashed in the very first episode too, by Nightmare Moon, and able to repair themselves with the power of friendship. Now somehow they can't do it? Because, why? Because they're in colored form instead of stony...?

I'm just really tired at this point of the latter season staff always valuing what seems cool in the moment over what makes sense in the bigger picture. Part of MLP's appeal was its worldbuilding, and it's kind of been damaged by all this slapping on of "epic" things without thinking through the implications or consequences for the canon. They've pretty much entirely junked Lauren's "no human poses unless absolutely necessary" rule out, for example, even at points where it seems like it would have been easier to go with the horsey option (You couldn't have just made the desk shorter and had the shop pony model stand on all fours?). Probably nitpicky complaints on my part, but it is disappointing.

I don’t blame the Mane Six for not remembering how the Elements worked the first time, and Twilight was still sort of in the mental funk of having to “do it alone.” (For the record, I do agree that Twilight’s character was inexplicably regressed here for sake of drama, but that’s a different argument than inconsistency of magical mechanics in itself.) It’s likely that if Discord have given his speech when they were at the Tree, the Elements might have repaired themselves.

[Holy Marsh]

The show has almost always been a bit daft if you applied too much thought to it. I've always just taken it for what it is.

[Saiwania]

Sombra was too cliche but at least he got dialogue now. His reign looked pretty good. Using fear to rule over all, I like that a lot. Fantastic what he's done, if he did a better job of keeping his opposition separated, I can see him remaining in control.

[Ameriganastan]

I've been trying to find this guy who voices Grogar, but he is beyond obscure. Not even an IMBD page.

[Holy Marsh]

I've been trying to find this guy who voices Grogar, but he is beyond obscure. Not even an IMBD page.

Here he is.

I enjoyed S9E3: Uprooted.

[Ameriganastan]

I've been trying to find this guy who voices Grogar, but he is beyond obscure. Not even an IMBD page.

Here he is.

I enjoyed S9E3: Uprooted.

Well no wonder I couldn't effing find him. The end credits said his last name was "Marris".

[Blargoblarg]

The show has almost always been a bit daft if you applied too much thought to it. I've always just taken it for what it is.

Same here, and so far I'm enjoying season 9.

[Ameriganastan]

So...

after all that drama, the Tree is just back?

Seems like a waste of a plotline.

[Druulis]

Sombra was too cliche but at least he got dialogue now. His reign looked pretty good. Using fear to rule over all, I like that a lot. Fantastic what he's done, if he did a better job of keeping his opposition separated, I can see him remaining in control.

Don't post here.

[Druulis]

So...

after all that drama, the Tree is just back?

Seems like a waste of a plotline.

Is it back? I thought the magic clubhouse grew out of the ground a la the Friendship Castle.

[Lord Dominator]

Sombra was too cliche but at least he got dialogue now. His reign looked pretty good. Using fear to rule over all, I like that a lot. Fantastic what he's done, if he did a better job of keeping his opposition separated, I can see him remaining in control.

Don't post here.

I'm fairly sure you have no authority to tell someone they can't post here

[The Derpy Democratic Republic Of Herp]

(Image)

Ceffy? It's been years!

[Blargoblarg]

I thought episode 4 was pretty fun. I liked it.

[Druulis]

Don't post here.

I'm fairly sure you have no authority to tell someone they can't post here

I'd rather not have Nazis in my pony thread.

[Lord Dominator]

I'm fairly sure you have no authority to tell someone they can't post here

I'd rather not have Nazis in my pony thread.

And you still have no authority to say they can't post here, nor is there any reason for them to listen.

[Holy Marsh]

I'm fairly sure you have no authority to tell someone they can't post here

I'd rather not have Nazis in my pony thread.

Use the ignore function.

[Druulis]

I'd rather not have Nazis in my pony thread.

And you still have no authority to say they can't post here, nor is there any reason for them to listen.

You're comfortable with Nazis?