A message from management

When I commissioned Ash to start this blog more than a year ago, I did so partially with the hope of making him a fan of this series but primarily it was to give him experience with writing on a consistent basis and develop a style.  I knew he wanted to be a writer but lacked experience in actually having to write something for clients with their own criteria and guidelines for what they wanted.  I'm happy with the articles he's written and podcasts we've recorded for this blog but the undeniable elephant in the room was that this show (MLP) simply doesn't suit his tastes.  To paraphrase his own words: he agrees that it is a very well made show, promotes good messages and can certainly understand the show's appeal and why so many people like it, it just isn't for him.  As a huge fan of the series, I can totally respect that and agree that it wouldn't be fun to force him to talk about something he's not really getting anything out of.  He has agreed to finish reviewing the remaining 2-part episodes since those are really the only ones with major series plot development. On a much more positive note, I am delighted that working on this blog has motivated him to branch out into freelance writing and reviewing.  You can continue to read his articles and support him at his brand new site at <www.ashfreeman.net>

S02 E03: "Lesson Zero" and S02 E04: "Luna Eclipsed"

Yes, this blog is still a thing! I know it's been a while, but I've been swamped with many, many other projects. Fortunately, things will be continuing, just in a new form: podcasts!

Instead of having to sift through walls and walls of text, you can find out how I feel about the rest of Season 2 and 3 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic by listening to Adam and I watch the episode and provide blind commentary for each one. To kick things off, we have not one, but two episodes for your listening pleasure:

S02 E03 "Lesson Zero"

Click here to listen!

S02 E04 "Luna Eclipsed"

Click here to listen!

See you next week for S02 E05 "Sisterhooves Social"!

- Apathy Pony

S02 E02: "The Return of Harmony - Part 2"

S02 E02: "The Return of Harmony - Part 2"

Still a thing, these blogs! Life has been, fittingly enough, chaotic. The rollercoaster that has been the last week or so for me finally stopped long enough for me to watch the finale of the second season's 2-part opening episode. How was it?

It was a'ight.

 

Story goes about how you'd expect. The not-Twilight Sparkle  ponies who are also not Rainbow Dash fight amongst themselves, and Twilight finds the Elements of Harmony while trying to reign them in.  Twilight gets her own personality edit from Discord, and her Soul Gem turns into a Grief Seed-- I mean she turns gray in despair and abandons her friends and her Element as she prepares to leave Ponyville FOREVER TEARS AND TEARS AND TEARS YOU GUYS, SO SAD

Just as she's about to leave, Spike announces that Princess Celestia has spammed her inbox to the point of indigestion-- Celestia has been forwarding Twilight every letter about friendship she ever wrote, and reading them turns her back to normal. Twilight undoes her friends' brainwashing with MOTHERFUCKING FRIENDSHIP, They gather before Discord's throne in the center of  Ponyville brandishing their Elements and declare their intent to leave a crater where he once stood because they all enjoy each other's company that much.

Q as chimera-dragon scoffs at this and tells them to take their best shot.

 

RAINBOWS

And then Discord is a statue again. Star Wars reference because holy shit we have a periphery demographic, and roll credits.

Life changing? No.
Hilarious? No.
Amusing? Once or twice.

 

Over all pretty solid. The animation at the end where they go Captain Planet on Discord was good in particular, but based on other episodes, they could have done more with it. Rarity's reaction to having lugged a giant boulder around like a fool caused the sole chuckles. As a conclusion it works well, and the story as a whole was a good way to open. The characters are certainly more likeable than in the Season 1 opener, that's for sure.

S'about it! See you next time for, like, a few episodes all at once.

-Apathy Pony

S02 E01 : "The Return of Harmony" Part 1

   

Oops, I accidentally took a break! No, seriously, it was accidental. I was planning to do this one last week, but I ended up having to postpone it because of work-related exhaustion. But I'm back now, and ready to watch MLP until my eyes bleed (not really)!

The title indicates that we might actually see, and get this, THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY! You know, the things that saved the day in the pilot and were never seen again for no particular reason? I vaguely remember these two episodes because Adam was watching the premier at the time while I was probably playing a video game or something, I dunno.

The only thing that I clearly recall is that John De Lancie had a role as the villain Discord, which was basically Q as a tiny lil' dragon-thing. I love me some John De Lancie as Q...but how did he fare as Discord? We shall see...

S02 E01: "The Return of Harmony - Part 1"

As if the CMC weren't generally annoying enough, their "antics" went and awakened an ancient evil! Lovely. Discord is implied to have been freed by their negativity, and after the credits we see Ponyville assaulted by chocolate milk storms from candy cotton clouds, Applejack's trees wither and her corn pops into popcorn,  while Fluttershy's animals mutate and go all Biblical plague on Applejack's crops. The six ponies cooperate to stop the chaos, and are immediately summoned by Princess Celestia to Canterlot. 

Once there, she explains who Discord is and how he was stopped last time with The Elements of Harmony by Celestia and Luna. Turns out they were sealed away in the castle after the pilot episode, and that would have been great to know earlier so I wouldn't have spent time bitching about it. Celestia assigns the main 6 to track down Discord and seal him away again since they're the ones currently linked to the Elements...or she would have if they hadn't been stolen. 

Turns out, surprise, Discord took them. He demonstrates that he knows who the main 6 are, and he's decided to have a little fun with them by making them find the Elements. He gives a cryptic clue that Twilight Sparkle deciphers to mean that the Elements are hidden in Canterlot's hedge maze. The six take off, and just before they enter the maze, Discord takes their wings and horns to make sure that none of them use their natural abilities to cheat.

They enter the maze anyway, and Discord seperates them by summoning new walls into the maze. Twilight tells the others to regroup in the center, which everyone agrees to sans Fluttershy, who is too busy freaking the fuck out. Applejack is lead down her path by some apples which turn into living piles of apples. They taunt AJ by showing her a vision of the six ending their friendship, breaking her spirit. This gives Discord the opening he needs to brainwash her. When she is reunited with Twilight, she lies about what happened.

 Pinkie Pie is up next, and Discord convinces her that her friends laugh at her, not with her. Once she's distraught, Discord takes the opportunity to force her under his thrall, just before she's found by Twilight and AJ. This continues with the remaining ponies; Discord appeals to Rarity's greed by making her think she's found a giant diamond, Fluttershy is so good natured and resistant that he just cuts the shit and straight up brainwashes her out of frustration, and Rainbow Dash is tricked into flying away from the maze after being shown the destruction of Cloudsdale.

With that, the game is over-- Dash technically broke the rules by flying away. Discord declares victory and says that a new age of chaos will reign throughout Equestria!

OMG THEY'RE FUCKED

 

So what did you think?

Um...wow...this one was good! Like, legit entertaining! I haven't liked an episode this much since A Dog and Pony Show. I actually laughed more than once, out loud. Them's is LOLs, fuckers! 

There were quite a few humorous moments stemming from character interaction, and while that isn't doing much to make me give a shit about the non-Rarity ponies, they are at least entertaining to watch in this episode. Discord himself I was indifferent to, but that's because John De Lancie's performance was about what I was expecting. They have reached the lowest of bars once again, which is to say that I wasn't bored. I sincerely hope that bar is raised at some point.

"Hold on a second! Eternal chaos comes with chocolate rain!"

  Worth it. 

The animation was good, and there was one moment in particular where Discord reveals himself in a stained-glass window that was very well done. Backgrounds, facial expressions, all as good as usual. Say what you will about the show (I sure fucking do), but it ain't ugly, and this premier episode was a reminder of that.

Overall, it's a great start to the season, and I'm going into the next episode A LOT less apprehensive than I've been since The Episode That Shall Not Be Named. Don't fuck it up, show!

- Apathy Pony

Season 1 Wrap-Up

  

Season 1 Wrap-Up

Man, it has taken so long to get here. Partially my fault, but...eh. Anyway, I finished the entire first season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Over the course of season one, my opinion was mostly consistent, then a later...episode...kinda crushed my lil' reviewer's spirit. It wasn't easy to get back on the horse, so to speak, but I powered through and finished it. So where does that leave my feelings about the show now? Well, that's below the break. 

S01 E26: "The Best Night Ever"

S01 E26: "The Best Night Ever"

FUCKING FINALLY

Oh my God, it's been a whole fucking year as of this writing [ED Note: April 4th], but I've finally, finally finished the first season. It's been a long road getting here, and that's mostly due to procrastination, so I hope you weren't expecting something inspirational or some shit.

 

As for "The Best Night Ever?" It was good! Good. Even the intro teaser was jam-packed with sight gags, mostly related to the fact that the entire main cast and most people in Equestria are, in fact, goddamn horses. At one point I was wondering if this episode was actually produced earlier in the season and the producers realized that they kinda blew their cleverness wad early, thus choosing to move "The Best Night Ever" to serve as a season finale instead of after "The Ticket Master". Probably just me, but that would have made more sense thematically. 

 

Speaking of continuity, there is a metric fuck-ton of it in this episode. There was a musical number that irritated me, but even that was basically an extended screed about the main cast's primary motivations that were established throughout the series. And to top it off, they were wearing their gowns that Rarity designed way back in "Suited for Success"

FOR THE LOVE OF THE DIETY OF YOUR CHOICE, KEEP FUCKING DOING THAT

 

The entire premise of the episode centers around the Hexa-ponies going to the Grand Galloping Gala. Each of them have expectations of how exactly the night will be awesome for them personally while Spike tries and fails to encourage them to spend their time in Canterlot with them. Of course, they don't get what they want, quite the opposite in fact. The episode goes through the usual montage thing of each ponies whatever is going on in the episode, but Fluttershy's attempts at trying to charm the animals and Pinkie Pie's annoying attempts to spice up the festivities were the only sequences that are actually remotely funny. 

All of this culminates in the Gala being ruined by their trying-too-hard. Twilight is mortified about it and worried that Princess Celestia will have them drawn and quartered (not really, but HA! if she would have), and of course Celestia is all amused and shit. Barely anything phases her and i'm starting to wonder if her horn is made out of magic Prozac.

 

Final Thoughts

Overall, as I said earlier, a GOOD episode. Not great, not life changing, but genuinely entertaining at times, though not consistently. All I can really say that is this is any indication of what the show will be like next season,  with continued improvement, it's looking good for it's chances of me finding it to be legitimately entertaining instead of anywhere between watchable and eye-gougingly terrible. 

See you next time for the Season 1 Wrap-Up!

- Apathy Pony

S01 E25: Party of One

S01 E25: Party of One

Well...here we are: the game changer. Ever since I started doing this series, Party of One has been the episode that a lot of people say is the turning point for the whole franchise, in regards to quality anyway. Does it live up to the hype?

Not really.

Long story short-- Pinkie Pie throws an afterparty for Gummy the Alligator, and none of the other main ponies wanna go, what with having attended the actual birthday party for Gummy the previous day. Understandable? Yep, but Pinkie Pie tries to figure out what's so important that one of her signature parties is being ignored; once she accepts that nobody is coming she descends into madness and throws a party for a bunch of inanimate objects.

Rainbow Dash tries to get her to come see something in Applejack's barn, but Pinkie Pie is insanely (GET IT?!) resistant, at least until she gives in. Turns out the others were throwing her a surprise party for her birthday. Insert moral here.

The scene with Pinkie Pie snapping and throwing a party for a bunch of inanimate objects is genuinely creepy in an amusing way, but the rest of the episode contains all the standard interactions necessary to give everyone their screen time and push the contrived plot forward.

Personally, I'd have started the episode with nobody wanting to come to Gummy's party in the first place, then had Pinkie Pie show up to see that even the guest of honor had abandoned her. The twist that she had forgotten her own birthday at the end of the story and Pinkie's insanity would have made more sense if she was busy trying to throw a justified party instead of just wanting to throw another one for shiggles like what happened in the actual episode. Of course, an addition to the twist would be that Gummy was helping the others with Pinkie's surprise party, which was actually for both of them.

But that's just me.

Final Thoughts

So after all that bitching and moaning was it even good? Well...yeah. I mean, the episode wasn't bad, and well above the worst the series has to offer so far, but outside of the Pinkie goes bug-fuck crazy sequence? Nada. There wasn't anything to the plot, animation, or characterization that stuck out to me compared to anything that's come before. That being said, the episode's sole highlight was pretty well done. I particularly liked how they depicted Pinkie's madness with warped facial expressions, jump-cut edits, and Pinkie's hair going from bouncy and curly to straight and limp.

That...that's about it really.

Oh well! See you next time for The Best Night Ever!

- Apathy Pony

S01 E24 Owl's Well That Ends Well

S01 E24 Owl's Well That Ends Well

And a fifth blog appears! After this one I've only got two left in the season. The next one is supposed to be a game changer according to the people I've talked to about it, but I'll reserve judgement. As for Owl's Well That Ends Well? It was mostly boring.

Although the episode looked fine and the chase sequence near the end with the dragon was well done, there wasn't much else to praise in this episode. Most of the humor came from bad puns and telegraphed slapstick gags you can see coming from a mile away if you're older than 8. No surprises here, and that's what hurt this episode in my eyes. Oh well! 24 down and 2 to go...

Choice Moments

03:19 I think this is the exact moment that I started to notice just how overblown all the Spike-praising was. I mean, it was obvious before in the teaser, but this is when I started to become actively annoyed by it. I actually kinda liked Spike, don't make him annoying!

04:55 "And the punch has been...'Spiked'!"

* * * 

05:53 So Twilight's parchment gets blown away by the wind and she just watches it float away before saying "Oh, this is a job for Spike! If only he were awake!"

IF ONLY YOU HAD MAGI-KINESIS AND YOU COULD HAVE GRABBED IT IN MID-AIR WITH YOUR FUCKING THOUGHTS

07:31 "I'm gon' steal yo' mothafuckin' job."

08:58 Owloicious got Spike salty as fuck, tho

10:52 YOU HAD ONE (of two) JOBS!

11:58 So are dragons pyrokinetics, or...

13:27 literally twirling his moustache 

WE GET IT, HE'S BEING A DICK

15:25 "Toooooooollld yaaaaaaaaa..."

17:13 "How was I supposed to know a cave full of precious stones would be a dragon's lair, I've never heard of a situation like that before in my life!"

* * *

18:02 This chase sequence is admittedly well animated, though they go a little overboard with the speed lines.

19:55 [insert logical conclusion here]

In Conclusion

See you next time for Party of One!

- Apathy Pony

S01 E23: "The Cutie Mark Chronicles"

S01 E23: "The Cutie Mark Chronicles"

Ugh...finally got back on the wagon. It was really, really difficult to work up the energy to review this episode. Over A Barrel left me with a strong aversion to watching any more of this, but I am a professional-- the show must go on.

The other reason I was dreading this was due to the CMC being heavily involved, but the episode ended up being more of an origins episode for the main six ponies. I feel like this was a story that should have been told immediately after the pilot, but it's good to know that they got around to it eventually.

The episode started off slow, but it got progressively funnier throughout it's run-time. It never caused any belly laughs like A Dog and Pony Show did for me, but it was certainly amusing enough to raise it above the mediocrity of earlier episodes by far.

Even though the CMC are featured prominently, they weren't egregiously annoying this time around. This is probably the point where I should give up any hope of them realizing that every cutie mark is related to someone's meaningful name, so I'll just have to accept this as a running gag.

Choice moments from the episode are detailed in the section below

Spay and Geld Your Ponies

00:12 The episode opens with the CMC ziplining. There's a tasteless reference i could make about which one of them has herpes, but i won't-- aww crap, too late.

00:40 They went ziplining to get a cutie mark? They hadn't even heard of it until Spike told them about it! For their trouble they ended up falling through a ton of pine trees and getting slathered with sap and pine needles, but no broken bones. It must be awesome to live in a world where all the horrifying shit is merely implied.

00:57 Holy crap, Scootaloo is ready to throw in the towel! They had to reach a breaking point eventually, although i kind of hoped it would be sooner so they could start getting more likable.

01:44 One of the CMC finally get the brainwave to ask how the other ponies got their cutie marks, but conveniently decide to ask my least favorite of the main cast for advice. This episode better get good reeeeeeeeeeeal quick.

05:30 Applejack's backstory about how she tried living in the city adds  some interesting depth to her character. Also, the fact that her aunt and uncle have the surname "Orange" is a well executed, yet subtle joke--

DO THAT MORE

"Manehattan", however, was not.

STOP IT

05:53 Watching this episode is really making me question if it's the entire CMC that gets on my nerves or just Scootaloo. She totally shat all over AJ's tale for being "boring", even though it clearly displayed a way of getting a Cutie Mark by trying a new way of life and not whatever whim happens to come along.

08:01 I like Fluttershy's cutie mark origin story so far, especially since it shows Rainbow Dash acting out of character, i.e. not being a cu-IS THAT A FUCKING SONG OH GOD

09:28 The song was not terrible, though gratuitous, but Fluttershy's story was 20% cooler than expected.

REFERENCE

Oh, and of course Scootaloo completely ignores the shit out of what Fluttershy has to say to focus on Rainbow Dash. I hope her story is fucking lame out of spite.

11:41 So we got to Rarity's story, and it was chuckle-worthy all throughout. I halfway expected her to scream "I'M FUCKING RICH!" when that rock cracked open. Related note, Scootaloo's insistent bitchiness has done a 180 into funny, but they better not push it.

15:22 TWILIGHT SPARKLE IS AN X-MAN and kind of a spaz.

15:37 "Look at this frolickin' bitch right here..."

THEY WERE ALL THINKING IT

20:27 So we get Rainbow Dash's story, and apparently she's the one who created the Wave Existence of whatever that triggered everyone else's cutie mark origins. So I guess that makes Dash the Jar Jar Binks of this story, seeing as she is responsible for incredibly important shit while also being the most annoying.

Also, HOLD THE FUCK UP

If Rainbow Dash caused a Sonic Rainboom in FULL FUCKING VIEW OF AN OCCUPIED STADIUM, shouldn't it have been a proven fact before the titular episode where it was also considered a myth?

This fucking show...

21:05 They took the last few seconds to make me relate to Scootaloo's aversion to more singing.

...those assholes

TL;DR

Closing Thoughts

this episode was not terrible! Okay, it was decent. not great though! The important thing is that it was good enough to shatter any ennui from watching Over A Barrel, so continuing with the series should be a lot easier.

See you next time for Owl's Well That Ends Well!

- Apathy Pony