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THE TRUE STEREOTYPE IS THAT ALL BLONDES ARE GAY!
Wow why am I even bothering to post on here... ? This place is long abandoned.
BUT ALAS, MY LITTLE PONY ENDED!! And a ton of my rants are on here, so... I guess to properly conclude those rants this would be the place, just to keep everything neatly organized.
Actually shortly after my latest posts here I stopped watching MLP, not because there was some horrible episode that put me off the show forever or anything. I simply lost interest. The later episodes of season seven just weren't giving me the minimum amount of entertainment required to pique my interest and continue my investment in the series. It was a simple "Oh I should watch last's week episode.... " but not ever doing so because I figured I could do it later, and some other interest was taking up my time. Then eventually I forgot.
BUT HERE I AM TWO AND A HALF YEARS LATER... apparently MLP ended in October of 2019, almost exactly 9 years from when in started back in 10/10/10 (October 10th, 2010). That is like, almost all of my twenties. MLP took up a large chunk of my young adulthood. As someone who had a rather rough adolescence, the lessons and positivity were exactly what I needed at the time. I remember in the early days when I started watching around the beginning of season 2, I was in college. I was rather unenthused at what I was doing at the time, but I did really like these multicoloured tiny horse things. They were great! In fact, the reason I started watching was because my lifetime hometown sports team lost horribly in the championships in the most final of final of games, game 7, which just made everything all the more depressing. Ponies were there to heal my broken spirit.
Regardless, the history of how I got into MLP is well-documented here. Rather! I'd want to talk about my feelings about MLP as a whole. Over the years my favourites (aside from the very beginning) never changed, nor did a favourite ship, or favourite type of episode, etc. Though I have oodles of MLP merchandise a vast majority is put away, not for any particular negative reason. Simply that I lacked room to display them all and had figures/plushies of other interests I wanted around as well. Pinkie's plush and movie figure remain. Speaking of Pinkie Pie, her episodes in the latest seasons were... well, let's just say my favourite Ponk episodes are still the same to this day! And one of my least favourite episodes of the series is a Ponk episode. So that's not really a great outlook there.
In general, the episodes that absolutely blew me away were scarce. I think a lot of it came down to the ambitious new stories the writers wanted to tell in the later seasons. At some point they ran out of ideas for whatever they could do with so and so member of the Mane Six (even though my Pinkie and Fluttershy episode never happened. C'MON GUYS YOU HAD ONE JOB) and thus introduced many more. There was the Pillars of Equestria arc which explored lore that I was terribly uninterested in, which culminated into my least favourite finale of the series. This wasn't just because I had no interest in the arc, the rushed redemption of the villain who never appeared again except to cameo was rather disappointing. I word it like so because someone like say, Sunset Shimmer was also both a poor villain with a bad redemption, but she was a core character of the Equestria Girls series and thus, evolved over time to become more interesting. This is not so for Stygian, who seemed to exist only as a really edgy shadowy villain OC with the least creative name ever, and as a plot device to drive conflict between Star Swirl and Twilight.
Speaking of which, bringing to life historical figures (or previously thought to be fictional figures ala Daring Doo) has always bothered me. There should be historical and fictional characters that we know little about, and can comfortably look up to as if they were almost flawless, or at least with an air of mystery surrounding any flaws they did have. It's always good to have these characters in the past, as they are part of the structure that makes worldbuilding so strong. When they are brought to life, or brought to the present that sense of mystery is destroyed. It's even more mundane when the historical figure needs to learn some sort of friendship lesson Twilight has already gone through many times, making it as if our main character is wiser than the old wizardy pony from thousands of years ago in a more uncertain time. I'm not sure how to describe why this bothers me? I kind of did, but also did not. It's just, now we lack any background historical figure with great acclaim. Now we know Star Swirl as the jerk who has a one-track, one dimensional mind that Twilight needed to fix, who falls for scams from common con-ponies. Then, since our main cast are the heroes, the historical figure we once thought as mighty is thrown aside like nothing whenever a villain appears. It really undermines all the hero-worship and idolization Twilight had for him, and who he was as a legendary historical figure.
Anyway Shadow Play was bad. In fact the second half of season seven, where I dropped the show from boredom, and the first half of season eight were the longest stretch of episodes to watch. I had really little enjoyment out of any of those episodes. After the underwhelming finale of season seven which only could have happened due to the introduction of tons of brand new characters, the season eight premiere starts off by.... introducing a whole bunch of new characters again. And it's always in this format, six new main-ish characters, who are important and good, and a villain to go along with them. That is already far too many characters to try to get invested in. The one thing they did better this time around was introduce a few episodes specifically focusing on one or two of the student six, whereas we only got like... one for the pillars (or two if you count Star Swirl) which weren't the most interesting of stories anyway. A story about Rockhoof only tells us more about Rockhoof himself, which is fine, but a story about Smolder will introduce more dragon lore and culture, more of Ember, a previously introduced character most fans liked, of other older dragon characters even if they're all bully stereotypes, and is also another avenue in which we can explore Spike. Smolder is a good new character! So many other things we can learn through her! Rockhoof we can't really learn anything new with... He's not a different race we can explore, he has no unique connection with an already established character, and his home is dead history. No one will know who he is!
If you can't tell Smolder ended up being my favourite of the new student characters. I actually like Gallus' personality more, but his branch of character exploration was cut off by not having an actual family (and never exploring WHY he has no family) and that Griffon culture is downright depressing so we never really learn anything new about them except that it sucks, soooo... My only other beef with Smolder is WHY is there yet another character with Scootaloo's colour scheme!?!? SCOOTALOO SHOULD BE UNIQUE, SHE IS SCOOTALOO. STOP RIPPING OFF SCOOTALOO! The other characters are okay. Yona was most interesting personality-wise but I have the least amount of interest in yaks, and am still salty that so many of the newer Pinkie episodes have to do with Yaks. Ocellus could have been interesting, maybe with identity issues being a changeling or something, but she just kinda ended up being a timid nerd, and not even the self-conscious, bullied, relatable timid nerd who turns into a ragiing dimension-hopper monster like Sci-Twi was. Silverstream is a clone of the princess hippogriff from the movie, and we never go into any further depth with her. (The hippogriff species all feel very samey to me, even. They are so unique in their transforming hopping but their personalities are ALL THE SAME WHY) and Sandbar.... Sandbar is boring! Hooray.
Also the initial villain of season eight, Chancellor Neighsay is a great waste of Brain's voice actor! YOU COULD HAVE DONE ANYTHING WITH THAT VOICE ACTOR, and you gave him such a LAME ROLE??? WHY. I guess only former Star Trek actors are allowed to have cool or heartwarming roles. Season eight really did not start off strong, and actually this season ended up revamping my bottom five least favourite episodes. THREE of my least favourite episodes in the whole series is from season eight! Usually I don't like episodes because they are dreadfully slow or boring or what have you, but my most hated episodes from season eight were episodes where so-and-so character acted like an ass. And the episode itself does not fix that. They just allow them to be an ass. WHY?
Case in point, Fake It 'Till you Make It was not a great episode. The premise was already absurd. As someone who actually works in retail I was horrified that Rarity was making Fluttershy run her boutique with zero experience, ALONE. IN MANEHATTEN, the region with the the most snobby and stuck up Karens possible, with NO experience, ALONE. HELLO?!?!? This isn't a case of Fluttershy having no self-esteem, and needing to BELIEVE in herself to do it! SHE LITERALLY CANNOT DO THIS. WTF. I thought the moral would be super relatable, how Rarity will learn not to leave her supposed friend to be eaten alive by wolves in retail. But instead the aesop is turned upside-down and it is Fluttershy who will end up learning the lesson because she becomes insufferable and stuck-up and horrible instead just to survive this job. IS SHE GETTING PAID??? Also while Fluttershy's alter-egos are probably being set-up as the fanservice to draw viewers in, they're just so... idk. It legitimately feels like Fluttershy had a random case of schizophrenia in this episode. After Fluttershy learns her lesson near the end, the final "joke" before the credits has her being a stuck-up prick to the host of whatever event Rarity had to attend for... no reason? I DO NOT UNDERSTAND? Did she not learn her lesson then? HUH? How dare she host an event that made Rarity leave her store and take her employees with her? She didn't do anything wrong? WHY
I also don't like Non-Compete Clause like everyone else. I don't have much to say about it because I actually fell asleep during it, and when I did try to finish watching it, it was so boring and blah I couldn't bother. It's just AJ and RD being ultra-competitive to the point of obnoxiousness (and endangerment of children!) I think Discord has a dumb episode like this here too, but Discord isn't a Mane Six character who I expect better of. Like if Discord is being a dick, whatever that's who he is, he's never gonna improve and I ain't gonna like him any better, but I EXPECT better of the characters who represent friendship to be not be idiots or dicks.
And then there's Yakity-Sax.
I actually like 90% of Yakity-Sax. The visuals, the humour, the dialogue and interactions... all great! It's just while these pieces of the episode were done really well, the core aspect of the episode is what makes it fall apart. Like when someone writes an episode, I assume there is an end-goal with the episode, some sort of message they are trying to send or convey and uh, the primary goal of the episode failed. It failed hard, so while I was entertained by the episode itself, what it was trying to do did not go well. Not at all. Anyway this is another Pinkie episode about yaks, so that already docked points. I can't believe we get Rainbow Dash and Rarity achieving their dreams and then Pinkie gets dumb Yak episodes instead. These episodes are always so juvenile in its humour, and for some reason Pinkie is obsessed with their culture. I dunno if I'm just prejudiced to yaks... they're like the buffalo from season one but like, the dumb versions. About the only good thing to come from these characters is Yona. Luckily a majority of the episode takes place in Ponyville, and the only Yak part of it is the instrument Pinkie attempts to play.
Okay well first of all, isn't this the pony who can play ten instruments at the same time with NO MOUTH? Simply because she is Pinkie Pie? I suppose we can handwave that with the instrument being one from a faraway land and thus a much more difficult instrument to learn. The second is... how dare you bring my hopes up with that Pinkie and Fluttershy cold open. FOR NINE YEARS I HAVE WAITED FOR A PINKIESHY EPISODE... and the thumbnail is Pinkamena, and the cold open only has her and Fluttershy. HOW DARE. So the meat of the plot itself is that Pinkie sucks at playing this instrument, and everyone needs to tell her she sucks and to stop because she is obnoxiously playing the damn thing everywhere and ruining people's lives. This goes into another overdone territory regarding Pinkie episodes. Everyone trying to find a way to tell her some hard truth and also not hurting Pinkie's feelings because she is sensitive.
I remember back in Pinkie Pride where everyone abandoned her to attend Cheese's party planning and she became ultra sad. Then she had a solo where she cheered herself back up and pumped herself back up with enough confidence to challenge Cheese. And this was when her entire purpose was being questioned! Pinkie, the party pony, whose life GOAL is to bring smiles through parties and whatever other means necessary was suddenly being rendered redundant! Here she is told she cannot play an instrument, and that might hurt her feelings. Alright, well we established a bit earlier when she made a ludicrous amount of pie for Rainbow Dash, who never liked pie but lied about it that these smaller offenses may hurt Pinkie deeply anyway. Alright, fine, carry on.
No, don't carry on.
WHAT THE HAY
Okay let me list three known times where Pinkie either went full straight-mane or deflated a bit. 1.) Party of One when she thought all her friends were abandoning her. 2. Magical Mystery Cure when her cutie-mark was apples instead of parties so her life goal was never realised and she was miserable as a result. and 3. Maud Pie when everyone told her they could not be friends with her best sister friend forever, despite her efforts. That third one she did not go all the way. THESE are big, major issues affecting Pinkie's identity, or sense of friendship that would affect her to such a great degree she'd fall into that state.
This is... PINKIE CANNOT PLAY AN INSTRUMENT.
Alright fine, fine. I mean I missed Pinkamena and always hoped she'd show up again one day. Not for this reason but hey, at least she's here! And I did like these scenes of her a lot, where her friends attempted to cheer her up. They were in good fun and also depressing, very fitting. However, when Pinkie went straight hair in Party of One, she barricaded herself in her house and talked to inanimate objects. I don't really see her wandering about being sad, and having flowers die in her presence. She seemed more like someone who preferred to become a hermit and shy away from society, like the absolute opposite of her personality when her happiness was shattered. If she is wandering about in public, it kind of makes me assume, or implies that she wants someone to help her. That she's not quite a lost cause.
Anyway she randomly moves to Yakyakistan... because everything else she's ever done and everything she has accomplished doesn't matter when it comes to playing this one instrument, and everyone tries to get her to come back or at least say goodbye properly. I do like this part of the episode where they respect her decision. (Even if the decision makes absolutely no sense) but when they ask her to move back she kind of just goes "Sure." And this moment in the episode really hit me. It really struck a deep chord with my heart. I'm sure it does for others, but as someone who as seen people firsthand, people very close to me suffer from depression, this was legitimately a very worrying line coming from Pinkie. Even before that moment she blatantly remarks how she feels nothing. This isn't the Pinkamena from Party of One who looked cartoonishly unsettling and crazy, this felt like almost a real depiction of depression.
But this is also why this episode isn't great. Pinkie reverts back to herself once she is allowed to play her instrument again. There are a lot of people who hate the moral, where she should continue playing if it makes her happy even if she isn't any good at it, mostly because she was an actual threat to society when she was playing it and thus, encouraging her to inconvenience and ruin people's lives just to remain happy is not a great lesson at all, but even if we take that as face value.... It's NOT a good sign that Pinkie is one step away from depression just because she was told she couldn't play this instrument. If it was a more exaggerated Pinkamena who was bawling her eyes out or a bitter, crazy cartoonish version similar to Party of One I wouldn't be as put off, but because it felt so real.... coming from the pony who is meant to represent happiness itself in MLP... Yeah.
When Pinkie said sure, I was having these thoughts that this could have been a really cool, mature episode about depression. You know, even though it's a kids show for toddlers ages 2 to 6 or something, and that wouldn't really be a thing they'd touch upon, but still it had the potential to do that. But everything else is so muddled. Pinkie not being able to play an instrument? Pinkie's feelings being crushed if told not to play the instrument? Pinkie reverting to Pinkamena because of the instrument? Pinkie uprooting her life to move to Yakyakistan because she can't play the instrument? Heck that last point is believable if she was truly suffering from depression. People do drastic things because they don't care. They quit their job. They leave behind their life. They go try something they think will improve their life, but it does nothing because there's a chemical imbalance with their brain and thus it is futile as well. But then Pinkie reverts back when she can play it. That part is not realistic. You can't depict her apathy so realistically and undo it in such a quick and easy way. It's almost insulting to people with actual depression! And then to never touch upon this again, because it's an episodic plot by its nature.
Like, I have to question EVERY STEP they took to get to Pinkamena, and then the step they took to go back to Pinkie. I like Pinkamena. I like the Mane Five interacting with Pinkamena. Those parts were great and entertaining, but the way they did it, the execution and the ideas they used to get to this end goal, with its strange and off-putting moral... It was almost like whoever wrote this episode wanted Pinkamena back but didn't really think through how to bring her back and how to get rid of her again. If we take the interpretation that none of this was depression at all, then Pinkie's a huge drama queen who must always get whatever she wants or she becomes sad. And nobody wants her sad. That is not a great reading of the episode at all either. I could sum up all three of these episodes as members of the Mane Six being obnoxious, or inconsiderate, or outright malicious, and not learning the proper lesson to not be these things. So nothing is achieved and all we did was watch 22 minutes of them being terrible to other people. Eh. I don't know about you but not my kinda thing.
But yeah, season eight... season eight huh. Season freakin' eight....
had the best finale of the series! OH yeah I said that. Oh kay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. It wasn't the best finale. A Canterlot Wedding exists after all, and I also love Magical Mystery Cure. But what this finale did have was a villain that I truly and greatly appreciated.
A small pegasus child.
I feel like Cozy Glow is the writer's response to several criticisms of the villains. 1) Always unicorns or magic-based. 2) Always instantly redeemed or eventually redeemed. 3) Always has some sappy backstory where they are bullied or some such. 4) Always an adult.
No? No one said anything about that fourth one? Well why else is she six-years-old? WHERE ARE HER PARENTS? While this is definitely a valid question, two things usually happen if parents are introduced. Either 1) the parents give her some sympathetic backstory and thus we end up HAVING to redeem her, which is not what people want. Or... 2) the parents do not cause her redemption but instead are of some tragic backstory instead. They don't even have to be dead. They could have disowned her or something. Or maybe Cozy Glow ran away and her parents are wondering where she is, but MLP would never do something THAT devastating to parents. They'd HAVE to redeem her in that case for the sake of those parents' hearts. Or redeem Cozy Glow for her own heart if her parents are awful people.
Basically what I'm saying is if they introduce ANY kind of backstory to Cozy Glow it feels like they'd be forced to redeem her. So it is wise to never make a mention of a potential family or why she has such motives. It is a shame because she has less depth that way, but the way that MLP works is that if there is even a drop of sympathy in a villain's backstory they must be redeemed. It already feels a little mean-spirited that they sent a child to hell/killed them off, but if there was some reason in her backstory she became this way MLP would be ripped apart from its seams. So for the sake of keeping a child in hell/stoned, she must never be explored. Oh well, who she is as is is always quite interesting. She's kinda like what Starlight could have been if we didn't given Starlight that incredibly juvenile and lame backstory, thus instantly redeeming her. An unrepentant child with no magical powers who only rises to power through wits and manipulation. She is so unique and I love how awful she is. I mean her backstory could be strife with horrible irredeemable acts too, like maybe she cast away or killed her parents and any friends or family simply for the reason that she could. Or she manipulated them, but I feel like MLP would never go into that kind of territory with a child character. I'm still flabbergasted she exists already!
Bonus that she starts off in the background and then shows up in a few episodic plots earlier in the season to properly foreshadow her villainy, excellent stuff. Then of course she returns in season nine and is the only one advocating for the League of Evil to all to become ~friends~ because friendship is POWER!!
As for season nine, it was a fine season. Certainly better than eight, but I have no major qualms about episodes like the three I just mentioned from season eight, nor anything particular to praise. It was a good, decent season. I guess the only problem I have is that it's a shame certain episodes were the last of those particular characters' episodes. Like, I understand the Rarity and Spike episode being the last Spike episode, but it really doesn't work as the last Rarity episode. I guess Rarity's arc is done, but I wish she had one more episode with more fanfare. The CMC episode being the last CMC one also didn't work. It took away the surprise of their adult designs away from the epilogue, and was just your typical "we shouldn't grow up too fast" morals from kids shows. Even the one with Scootaloo's parents wasn't the greatest send-off for Scootaloo. Sure, we saw her parents but I was bothered by their weird, strange designs. They were so different from everyone in Ponyville, which I guess makes sense if they live super far away. It was still rather off-putting. Second while it was cool that Scootaloo has Australian, crocodile-wrestling parents their unique designs and similar job to Daring Doo kinda makes Daring Doo worse in comparison. Then of course their tone-deaf decision to move Scootaloo away. If Scootaloo actually moved away as a solemn lesson for kids who have friends that moved away that could have worked, and would have been super powerful. But also it would have been a bit of a damper for the last Scootaloo or CMC episode. Idk, wanted something better.
The last Pinkie episode ever. ... is a set up for her canon ship in the epilogue yay woo whatever. Well, the lesson is good. Wanting to find some large purpose in life to achieve like Rarity and RD has done but realising you're already where you want to be for Pinkie is a great lesson actually, but for a Weird Al episode I would have preferred idk, MORE SONGS? MORE WEIRD AL? You have WEIRD AL MAKE HIM SING MORE. And him being sad for 90% of the episode isn't fun. It was a fine regular episode, but as the final Pinkie episode and having Weird Al again it was disappointing. Plus she was by herself so no fun Pinkie shenanigans to bounce off of the other Mane Five (or at least ONE of them) with! Sadness! I want my interaction!
The last Rainbow Dash episode.... oh.
Well I'll stop complaining about Rarity's or Pinkie's lol. That is unfortunate. (I don't count the Daring Doo one) The last non-adventure Twilight one isn't the greatest either but she is the main character in the adventure ones so it's not too big of a deal. The last Fluttershy episode was okay, wish she interacted with her friends as Angel more, but alas. But yeah those are the only real disappointments. Applejack had a good final episode. Her parents showed up in the flashback, she was cute with Apple Bloom, and Big Mac needs a hoof, truly.
The finale was great, my favourite being the Pinkie gag with the cupcake and the chaos magic. I also liked Rarity being able to participate in intense action scenes now with her magic. Major props to Rarity! It was all well and good, but the real meat of the story is the EPILOGUE.
OH BOY THAT EPILOGUE!!
It was a very predictable epilogue. I always thought Twilight having the Celestia model was kinda stereotypical since EVERYONE was writing fics and making theories that would happen. Spike's design is eh, like what even are those concave shoulders?? I like him being muscular and a total Chad, I just wish he looked better being muscular and a Chad. Like he's imagined himself looking better than this, it's like whoever designed the bully dragons designed him. Pinkie being with Cheese was the safest ship option possible and I was actually expecting it to be the only ship if ANY to actually be confirmed. My own prediction was no ships being confirmed because uh, this is FRIENDSHIP is MAGIC? What relevance does romance have in this series? NONE I SAY!! I just figured safe hetero ships getting married and background Bonbon and Lyra would be all we could get.
KLFMSDFDSFDGFh ?? ?? ?G J HHU HUHGL? ? WHAT
Okay well first off, it's only heavily hinted. Like, on purpose. Not on accident, but HEAVILY HINTED that they got married. They're only the only pair walking into the room together, they're only talking like an old married couple, and RD is only putting her hoof on AJ's head in the final end card for no reason. They're just REALLY GOOD FRIENDS. The BEST of gal pals I say. The writers took a copout on Twitter and was like "It is hinted! BUT YOU CAN INTERPRET IT DIFFERENTLY IF YOU LIKE" because shipping is all in good fun am I right, and no one should get angry--- of course people who don't ship that will get angry regardless! It's still a pretty heavy hint!
And I love it.
Sure it kinda came out of nowhere unless you interpret their competitiveness as sexual tension or something idk, you do you, but like I said before this show is FRIENDSHIP is Magic, so romance really has no place here. There's nothing wrong with a flash to the far future where romance has already come to fruition though. And especially involving a ship in the Mane Six it's about the only way I can see it ever happening and--
????????? WHO ARE THESE NEW WRITERS AND WHY DO THEY SHIP THINGS !!!??!
... did you know the most popular ships in MLP are Rarijack and AppleDash? Because I sure didn't. Why BACK IN MY DAY, Rainbow Dash was shipped with EVERYONE AND THE KITCHEN SINK, and Rarijack was merely the most popular NOT Rainbow Dash ship. In fact, I remember TwiDash and FlutterDash being the most popular ships. PinkieDash was the champion in seasons one and two, but then it was all about that Twi and FlutterDash. RariDash is rather underrated but quite good too. AppleDash was always quite a strong contender as well, but it was always like, a dark horse. Or two dark horses I guess, idk. It, like PinkieDash had more popularity in the season one and two days. The point is I DID NOT see any of that coming or it being given like, stupidly blatant shipping fuel in canon media.
And maybe I'm being incredibly shallow and vapid or whatever synonym works for this instance, but like after all this I went and looked at tons of Applejack artwork.
Like no specific ship, just Applejack. Just the apple horse. Just AJ.
Applejack has always been my middle of the pack pony. She was usually either third best or fourth best pony, usually fourth these days because I love Rarity lots, but y'know. I just couldn't relate to her as much as, I am not a farmer, nor do I work extremely hard to keep my family afloat or else we die (I mean I do work, but not like, the kind of own your own business hard labour, this job has been in the family for generations kind of thing and traditions and southern speak etc. blah blah blah all that stuff) I mean apples aren't even my favourite fruit! And Applejack episodes are usually boring, I say this as 3 of my top 5 favourite episodes are Applejack episodes, but you know episodes SPECIFICALLY and ONLY about Applejack tend to be boring, You know I painted apple horse with a broad stroke of the brush. She'd be tradition pony. She'd be down-to-earth straight-man pony. She has this huge family and everything about her will be family and she'll make a family too because y'know-- and THEN
MLP
HAS THE BALLS
THE AUDACITY
TO MAKE HER
GAY
WELL.
THANKS FOR DESTROYING STEREOTYPES. THANK YOU FOR MAKING ME SEE THE ERROR OF MY WAYS. I HAVE LEARNED MY LESSON, I WHO DESPERATELY SEARCH FOR REPRESENTATION IN MEDIA AM ALSO DISMISSING CHARACTERS FOR OBVIOUSLY BEING STRAIGHT OR OBVIOUSLY NOT GOING TO BE THE RELATABLE ONE BECAUSE I TOO AM PREJUDICED.
There are people who are all angry that they hinted a ship between the Mane Six and chose the tomboys.
NO. YOU ARE WRONG. THEY DID NOT CHOOSE THE STEREOTYPES. THEY DEFIED THE STEREOTYPES.
And then people being like WelL DaSH is sO sterEOtyPICAL i MEan LoOK aT heR HAIr and JACKeT-- ok well, first of her all her new hairstyle is just the one all the Wonderbolts had. She clearly just flew so fast for so long her hair became permanently like that, like the rest of the Wonderbolts. SEcond the leather jacket is a good way of showing that she is older but still cool. It doesn't even look like a leather jacket, just like a Wonderbolt jacket. Sports teams have those jackets with their logo on em all the time. And the orange turtleneck just screams something Applejack gave her-- so I have zero qualms about her design. It being RD and AJ doesn't really bother me either. The worst thing for RD shippers at least for me since I ship zero Rainbow Dash ships, was Zephyr Breeze. Because why on earth would a good wholesome children's show introduce one of THOSE characters into the show? GAH! No I don't want to watch a skeevy guy constantly hit on and make a female character uncomfortable! I don't care if it's Rainbow Dash it still and will never be funny to me! They even put him in Equestria Girls solely to make RD uncomfortable with that cringe humour. Like I think he has more lines and is in more scenes with RD than with his own SISTER!
Also the context in EQD is the writers actually did ship them and wrote them in that special like they were a couple so uhm yeah, blatantly blatant. The most blatant of blatant. Look how blatant my gays are in MLP. Did you know Scootaloo lives with her cool aunts and Lyra and Bonbon got married in canon? It's like MLP just screamed gay rights in their final season and final few EQD shorts. WELL WHATEVER WE'RE ENDING ANYWAY and they leapt off the slide and screamed gay rights and NO ONE, NOT EVEN HASBRO CAN CATCH THEM AND TELL THEM TO STOP. TOO BAD SO SAD.
But yeah I am talking about a very small part of the finale, rather disproportionately I must say. It was a beautiful finale and all the ships are inconsequential to my enjoyment of the ending of a very nostalgic and warm show I watched for years. It's just I was so shocked AT the ships I can't just not talk about them. I too am a shipper who enjoys shipping. I too am in the LGBT spectrum (somewhere, don't ask where) and this is super relevant to my interests and identity! I guess my only qualms is that whenever I do ship something it never comes true because I typically ship some character the writers then have marry or find interest in a dude, and while that doesn't negate their ability to be shipped or like a person of their own gender, the lack of bi-representation doesn't give me high hopes. Or maybe a show I am currently watching will pull another APPLEJACK on me! Who knows!
I mean Fluttershy got with Discord (maybe) it is implied similarly like AppleDash, so.... I can't just be like WELL THIS ONE IS OBVIOUS and this one is FRIENDSHIP. I mean I could, the writers' tweets say so, but it's kind of hypocritical for me to dismiss one and support another when they were both equally hinted, so if I want AppleDash to be canon as it so obviously is.... Fluttercord is too...? Egh. This is like that stupid Danganronpa quandary with the Love Hotels. Apparently the argument there is that, if Tenko is bi, so is everyone else if we're using the Love Hotels as canon proof. That is the only point in time Tenko has attraction to men, but it is also the only point in time several male characters have attraction to men. So you can't call Tenko bi but not like a majority of the guys. That's the logic there. I mean we don't need to go by this rule and decide whoever can be whatever sexuality we want and Tenko is lesbian as fuck, but if we are GOING BY THAT LOGIC, then the logic must come to its reasonable conclusion after all!
Anyway I do not like Fluttercord whatsoever. Like if CheesePie is boring, Fluttercord is toxic and gross. It's the OPPOSITE. Discord is just, idk doesn't it undermine the friendship he gained to redeem himself if ultimately that friendship is love? Certainly it would explain his great possessiveness of Fluttershy, but I'd be more okay with it if he actually evolved through the show and became nicer over-time, but most of his episodes have him being a dick for some reason, and not really learning a lesson to stop doing so. Perhaps they thought if he were nicer he'd be less entertaining because he can't be up to his hi-jinks as much, but idk there could have been a middle-ground there. I would have also been okay with it if Discord made more friends, like maybe he becomes friends with Pinkie because they both have such chaotic energy, or he finds some other accosted friend like Starlight did with Trixie. Then it would feel less like Discord is ONLY friends with Fluttershy and is a garbage person to everyone else, and they are in LOVE and he ONLY associates with Fluttershy, idk.
And no, it has nothing to do with the fact that somehow RWBY and MLP are the two fandoms of all things to sink the fuck out of my ships. I had no expectations from PinkieShy from the get-go, I literally just wanted one episode where they were friends or had conflict, and didn't even get that. I only expected zero ships or hetero ones in the finale so I don't know how to really feel about those two being the only ones in het ships. I am amazed Rarity is the single one. Who woulda thunk it, that's almost as shocking as Applejack. Nothing happened like I hoped, but that was a pipe-dream, but nothing happened like I expected either. Like only Twilight and Spike ended up being obvious.... why did I call the finale predictable again?
BUT YES THE SONG WAS BEAUTIFUL THE BOOK CLOSING WAS WONDERFUL AND I WILL MISS THIS GENERATION THAT SLAMMED MY FACE WITH SHIPS BEFORE IT LEFT, LIKE WHAT THE HECK MAN WASN'T THIS ABOUT FRIENDSHIP??? I AM SUPPOSED TO GET THE GOOD FRIENDSHIP VIBES NOT THE MIXED SHIPPING MESS THAT I ONLY SUMMON IN THE MOST CHAOTIC OF FANDOMS !!
As for Applejack.... WHY IS IT ALWAYS THE BLONDES!! I RARELY SHIP BLONDES!! THAT'S THE PROBLEM . I NEED TO SHIP MORE BLONDES!!! THE TRUE STEREOTYPE IS THAT ALL BLONDES ARE GAY!
BUT ALAS, MY LITTLE PONY ENDED!! And a ton of my rants are on here, so... I guess to properly conclude those rants this would be the place, just to keep everything neatly organized.
Actually shortly after my latest posts here I stopped watching MLP, not because there was some horrible episode that put me off the show forever or anything. I simply lost interest. The later episodes of season seven just weren't giving me the minimum amount of entertainment required to pique my interest and continue my investment in the series. It was a simple "Oh I should watch last's week episode.... " but not ever doing so because I figured I could do it later, and some other interest was taking up my time. Then eventually I forgot.
BUT HERE I AM TWO AND A HALF YEARS LATER... apparently MLP ended in October of 2019, almost exactly 9 years from when in started back in 10/10/10 (October 10th, 2010). That is like, almost all of my twenties. MLP took up a large chunk of my young adulthood. As someone who had a rather rough adolescence, the lessons and positivity were exactly what I needed at the time. I remember in the early days when I started watching around the beginning of season 2, I was in college. I was rather unenthused at what I was doing at the time, but I did really like these multicoloured tiny horse things. They were great! In fact, the reason I started watching was because my lifetime hometown sports team lost horribly in the championships in the most final of final of games, game 7, which just made everything all the more depressing. Ponies were there to heal my broken spirit.
Regardless, the history of how I got into MLP is well-documented here. Rather! I'd want to talk about my feelings about MLP as a whole. Over the years my favourites (aside from the very beginning) never changed, nor did a favourite ship, or favourite type of episode, etc. Though I have oodles of MLP merchandise a vast majority is put away, not for any particular negative reason. Simply that I lacked room to display them all and had figures/plushies of other interests I wanted around as well. Pinkie's plush and movie figure remain. Speaking of Pinkie Pie, her episodes in the latest seasons were... well, let's just say my favourite Ponk episodes are still the same to this day! And one of my least favourite episodes of the series is a Ponk episode. So that's not really a great outlook there.
In general, the episodes that absolutely blew me away were scarce. I think a lot of it came down to the ambitious new stories the writers wanted to tell in the later seasons. At some point they ran out of ideas for whatever they could do with so and so member of the Mane Six (even though my Pinkie and Fluttershy episode never happened. C'MON GUYS YOU HAD ONE JOB) and thus introduced many more. There was the Pillars of Equestria arc which explored lore that I was terribly uninterested in, which culminated into my least favourite finale of the series. This wasn't just because I had no interest in the arc, the rushed redemption of the villain who never appeared again except to cameo was rather disappointing. I word it like so because someone like say, Sunset Shimmer was also both a poor villain with a bad redemption, but she was a core character of the Equestria Girls series and thus, evolved over time to become more interesting. This is not so for Stygian, who seemed to exist only as a really edgy shadowy villain OC with the least creative name ever, and as a plot device to drive conflict between Star Swirl and Twilight.
Speaking of which, bringing to life historical figures (or previously thought to be fictional figures ala Daring Doo) has always bothered me. There should be historical and fictional characters that we know little about, and can comfortably look up to as if they were almost flawless, or at least with an air of mystery surrounding any flaws they did have. It's always good to have these characters in the past, as they are part of the structure that makes worldbuilding so strong. When they are brought to life, or brought to the present that sense of mystery is destroyed. It's even more mundane when the historical figure needs to learn some sort of friendship lesson Twilight has already gone through many times, making it as if our main character is wiser than the old wizardy pony from thousands of years ago in a more uncertain time. I'm not sure how to describe why this bothers me? I kind of did, but also did not. It's just, now we lack any background historical figure with great acclaim. Now we know Star Swirl as the jerk who has a one-track, one dimensional mind that Twilight needed to fix, who falls for scams from common con-ponies. Then, since our main cast are the heroes, the historical figure we once thought as mighty is thrown aside like nothing whenever a villain appears. It really undermines all the hero-worship and idolization Twilight had for him, and who he was as a legendary historical figure.
Anyway Shadow Play was bad. In fact the second half of season seven, where I dropped the show from boredom, and the first half of season eight were the longest stretch of episodes to watch. I had really little enjoyment out of any of those episodes. After the underwhelming finale of season seven which only could have happened due to the introduction of tons of brand new characters, the season eight premiere starts off by.... introducing a whole bunch of new characters again. And it's always in this format, six new main-ish characters, who are important and good, and a villain to go along with them. That is already far too many characters to try to get invested in. The one thing they did better this time around was introduce a few episodes specifically focusing on one or two of the student six, whereas we only got like... one for the pillars (or two if you count Star Swirl) which weren't the most interesting of stories anyway. A story about Rockhoof only tells us more about Rockhoof himself, which is fine, but a story about Smolder will introduce more dragon lore and culture, more of Ember, a previously introduced character most fans liked, of other older dragon characters even if they're all bully stereotypes, and is also another avenue in which we can explore Spike. Smolder is a good new character! So many other things we can learn through her! Rockhoof we can't really learn anything new with... He's not a different race we can explore, he has no unique connection with an already established character, and his home is dead history. No one will know who he is!
If you can't tell Smolder ended up being my favourite of the new student characters. I actually like Gallus' personality more, but his branch of character exploration was cut off by not having an actual family (and never exploring WHY he has no family) and that Griffon culture is downright depressing so we never really learn anything new about them except that it sucks, soooo... My only other beef with Smolder is WHY is there yet another character with Scootaloo's colour scheme!?!? SCOOTALOO SHOULD BE UNIQUE, SHE IS SCOOTALOO. STOP RIPPING OFF SCOOTALOO! The other characters are okay. Yona was most interesting personality-wise but I have the least amount of interest in yaks, and am still salty that so many of the newer Pinkie episodes have to do with Yaks. Ocellus could have been interesting, maybe with identity issues being a changeling or something, but she just kinda ended up being a timid nerd, and not even the self-conscious, bullied, relatable timid nerd who turns into a ragiing dimension-hopper monster like Sci-Twi was. Silverstream is a clone of the princess hippogriff from the movie, and we never go into any further depth with her. (The hippogriff species all feel very samey to me, even. They are so unique in their transforming hopping but their personalities are ALL THE SAME WHY) and Sandbar.... Sandbar is boring! Hooray.
Also the initial villain of season eight, Chancellor Neighsay is a great waste of Brain's voice actor! YOU COULD HAVE DONE ANYTHING WITH THAT VOICE ACTOR, and you gave him such a LAME ROLE??? WHY. I guess only former Star Trek actors are allowed to have cool or heartwarming roles. Season eight really did not start off strong, and actually this season ended up revamping my bottom five least favourite episodes. THREE of my least favourite episodes in the whole series is from season eight! Usually I don't like episodes because they are dreadfully slow or boring or what have you, but my most hated episodes from season eight were episodes where so-and-so character acted like an ass. And the episode itself does not fix that. They just allow them to be an ass. WHY?
Case in point, Fake It 'Till you Make It was not a great episode. The premise was already absurd. As someone who actually works in retail I was horrified that Rarity was making Fluttershy run her boutique with zero experience, ALONE. IN MANEHATTEN, the region with the the most snobby and stuck up Karens possible, with NO experience, ALONE. HELLO?!?!? This isn't a case of Fluttershy having no self-esteem, and needing to BELIEVE in herself to do it! SHE LITERALLY CANNOT DO THIS. WTF. I thought the moral would be super relatable, how Rarity will learn not to leave her supposed friend to be eaten alive by wolves in retail. But instead the aesop is turned upside-down and it is Fluttershy who will end up learning the lesson because she becomes insufferable and stuck-up and horrible instead just to survive this job. IS SHE GETTING PAID??? Also while Fluttershy's alter-egos are probably being set-up as the fanservice to draw viewers in, they're just so... idk. It legitimately feels like Fluttershy had a random case of schizophrenia in this episode. After Fluttershy learns her lesson near the end, the final "joke" before the credits has her being a stuck-up prick to the host of whatever event Rarity had to attend for... no reason? I DO NOT UNDERSTAND? Did she not learn her lesson then? HUH? How dare she host an event that made Rarity leave her store and take her employees with her? She didn't do anything wrong? WHY
I also don't like Non-Compete Clause like everyone else. I don't have much to say about it because I actually fell asleep during it, and when I did try to finish watching it, it was so boring and blah I couldn't bother. It's just AJ and RD being ultra-competitive to the point of obnoxiousness (and endangerment of children!) I think Discord has a dumb episode like this here too, but Discord isn't a Mane Six character who I expect better of. Like if Discord is being a dick, whatever that's who he is, he's never gonna improve and I ain't gonna like him any better, but I EXPECT better of the characters who represent friendship to be not be idiots or dicks.
And then there's Yakity-Sax.
I actually like 90% of Yakity-Sax. The visuals, the humour, the dialogue and interactions... all great! It's just while these pieces of the episode were done really well, the core aspect of the episode is what makes it fall apart. Like when someone writes an episode, I assume there is an end-goal with the episode, some sort of message they are trying to send or convey and uh, the primary goal of the episode failed. It failed hard, so while I was entertained by the episode itself, what it was trying to do did not go well. Not at all. Anyway this is another Pinkie episode about yaks, so that already docked points. I can't believe we get Rainbow Dash and Rarity achieving their dreams and then Pinkie gets dumb Yak episodes instead. These episodes are always so juvenile in its humour, and for some reason Pinkie is obsessed with their culture. I dunno if I'm just prejudiced to yaks... they're like the buffalo from season one but like, the dumb versions. About the only good thing to come from these characters is Yona. Luckily a majority of the episode takes place in Ponyville, and the only Yak part of it is the instrument Pinkie attempts to play.
Okay well first of all, isn't this the pony who can play ten instruments at the same time with NO MOUTH? Simply because she is Pinkie Pie? I suppose we can handwave that with the instrument being one from a faraway land and thus a much more difficult instrument to learn. The second is... how dare you bring my hopes up with that Pinkie and Fluttershy cold open. FOR NINE YEARS I HAVE WAITED FOR A PINKIESHY EPISODE... and the thumbnail is Pinkamena, and the cold open only has her and Fluttershy. HOW DARE. So the meat of the plot itself is that Pinkie sucks at playing this instrument, and everyone needs to tell her she sucks and to stop because she is obnoxiously playing the damn thing everywhere and ruining people's lives. This goes into another overdone territory regarding Pinkie episodes. Everyone trying to find a way to tell her some hard truth and also not hurting Pinkie's feelings because she is sensitive.
I remember back in Pinkie Pride where everyone abandoned her to attend Cheese's party planning and she became ultra sad. Then she had a solo where she cheered herself back up and pumped herself back up with enough confidence to challenge Cheese. And this was when her entire purpose was being questioned! Pinkie, the party pony, whose life GOAL is to bring smiles through parties and whatever other means necessary was suddenly being rendered redundant! Here she is told she cannot play an instrument, and that might hurt her feelings. Alright, well we established a bit earlier when she made a ludicrous amount of pie for Rainbow Dash, who never liked pie but lied about it that these smaller offenses may hurt Pinkie deeply anyway. Alright, fine, carry on.
No, don't carry on.
WHAT THE HAY
Okay let me list three known times where Pinkie either went full straight-mane or deflated a bit. 1.) Party of One when she thought all her friends were abandoning her. 2. Magical Mystery Cure when her cutie-mark was apples instead of parties so her life goal was never realised and she was miserable as a result. and 3. Maud Pie when everyone told her they could not be friends with her best sister friend forever, despite her efforts. That third one she did not go all the way. THESE are big, major issues affecting Pinkie's identity, or sense of friendship that would affect her to such a great degree she'd fall into that state.
This is... PINKIE CANNOT PLAY AN INSTRUMENT.
Alright fine, fine. I mean I missed Pinkamena and always hoped she'd show up again one day. Not for this reason but hey, at least she's here! And I did like these scenes of her a lot, where her friends attempted to cheer her up. They were in good fun and also depressing, very fitting. However, when Pinkie went straight hair in Party of One, she barricaded herself in her house and talked to inanimate objects. I don't really see her wandering about being sad, and having flowers die in her presence. She seemed more like someone who preferred to become a hermit and shy away from society, like the absolute opposite of her personality when her happiness was shattered. If she is wandering about in public, it kind of makes me assume, or implies that she wants someone to help her. That she's not quite a lost cause.
Anyway she randomly moves to Yakyakistan... because everything else she's ever done and everything she has accomplished doesn't matter when it comes to playing this one instrument, and everyone tries to get her to come back or at least say goodbye properly. I do like this part of the episode where they respect her decision. (Even if the decision makes absolutely no sense) but when they ask her to move back she kind of just goes "Sure." And this moment in the episode really hit me. It really struck a deep chord with my heart. I'm sure it does for others, but as someone who as seen people firsthand, people very close to me suffer from depression, this was legitimately a very worrying line coming from Pinkie. Even before that moment she blatantly remarks how she feels nothing. This isn't the Pinkamena from Party of One who looked cartoonishly unsettling and crazy, this felt like almost a real depiction of depression.
But this is also why this episode isn't great. Pinkie reverts back to herself once she is allowed to play her instrument again. There are a lot of people who hate the moral, where she should continue playing if it makes her happy even if she isn't any good at it, mostly because she was an actual threat to society when she was playing it and thus, encouraging her to inconvenience and ruin people's lives just to remain happy is not a great lesson at all, but even if we take that as face value.... It's NOT a good sign that Pinkie is one step away from depression just because she was told she couldn't play this instrument. If it was a more exaggerated Pinkamena who was bawling her eyes out or a bitter, crazy cartoonish version similar to Party of One I wouldn't be as put off, but because it felt so real.... coming from the pony who is meant to represent happiness itself in MLP... Yeah.
When Pinkie said sure, I was having these thoughts that this could have been a really cool, mature episode about depression. You know, even though it's a kids show for toddlers ages 2 to 6 or something, and that wouldn't really be a thing they'd touch upon, but still it had the potential to do that. But everything else is so muddled. Pinkie not being able to play an instrument? Pinkie's feelings being crushed if told not to play the instrument? Pinkie reverting to Pinkamena because of the instrument? Pinkie uprooting her life to move to Yakyakistan because she can't play the instrument? Heck that last point is believable if she was truly suffering from depression. People do drastic things because they don't care. They quit their job. They leave behind their life. They go try something they think will improve their life, but it does nothing because there's a chemical imbalance with their brain and thus it is futile as well. But then Pinkie reverts back when she can play it. That part is not realistic. You can't depict her apathy so realistically and undo it in such a quick and easy way. It's almost insulting to people with actual depression! And then to never touch upon this again, because it's an episodic plot by its nature.
Like, I have to question EVERY STEP they took to get to Pinkamena, and then the step they took to go back to Pinkie. I like Pinkamena. I like the Mane Five interacting with Pinkamena. Those parts were great and entertaining, but the way they did it, the execution and the ideas they used to get to this end goal, with its strange and off-putting moral... It was almost like whoever wrote this episode wanted Pinkamena back but didn't really think through how to bring her back and how to get rid of her again. If we take the interpretation that none of this was depression at all, then Pinkie's a huge drama queen who must always get whatever she wants or she becomes sad. And nobody wants her sad. That is not a great reading of the episode at all either. I could sum up all three of these episodes as members of the Mane Six being obnoxious, or inconsiderate, or outright malicious, and not learning the proper lesson to not be these things. So nothing is achieved and all we did was watch 22 minutes of them being terrible to other people. Eh. I don't know about you but not my kinda thing.
But yeah, season eight... season eight huh. Season freakin' eight....
had the best finale of the series! OH yeah I said that. Oh kay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. It wasn't the best finale. A Canterlot Wedding exists after all, and I also love Magical Mystery Cure. But what this finale did have was a villain that I truly and greatly appreciated.
A small pegasus child.
I feel like Cozy Glow is the writer's response to several criticisms of the villains. 1) Always unicorns or magic-based. 2) Always instantly redeemed or eventually redeemed. 3) Always has some sappy backstory where they are bullied or some such. 4) Always an adult.
No? No one said anything about that fourth one? Well why else is she six-years-old? WHERE ARE HER PARENTS? While this is definitely a valid question, two things usually happen if parents are introduced. Either 1) the parents give her some sympathetic backstory and thus we end up HAVING to redeem her, which is not what people want. Or... 2) the parents do not cause her redemption but instead are of some tragic backstory instead. They don't even have to be dead. They could have disowned her or something. Or maybe Cozy Glow ran away and her parents are wondering where she is, but MLP would never do something THAT devastating to parents. They'd HAVE to redeem her in that case for the sake of those parents' hearts. Or redeem Cozy Glow for her own heart if her parents are awful people.
Basically what I'm saying is if they introduce ANY kind of backstory to Cozy Glow it feels like they'd be forced to redeem her. So it is wise to never make a mention of a potential family or why she has such motives. It is a shame because she has less depth that way, but the way that MLP works is that if there is even a drop of sympathy in a villain's backstory they must be redeemed. It already feels a little mean-spirited that they sent a child to hell/killed them off, but if there was some reason in her backstory she became this way MLP would be ripped apart from its seams. So for the sake of keeping a child in hell/stoned, she must never be explored. Oh well, who she is as is is always quite interesting. She's kinda like what Starlight could have been if we didn't given Starlight that incredibly juvenile and lame backstory, thus instantly redeeming her. An unrepentant child with no magical powers who only rises to power through wits and manipulation. She is so unique and I love how awful she is. I mean her backstory could be strife with horrible irredeemable acts too, like maybe she cast away or killed her parents and any friends or family simply for the reason that she could. Or she manipulated them, but I feel like MLP would never go into that kind of territory with a child character. I'm still flabbergasted she exists already!
Bonus that she starts off in the background and then shows up in a few episodic plots earlier in the season to properly foreshadow her villainy, excellent stuff. Then of course she returns in season nine and is the only one advocating for the League of Evil to all to become ~friends~ because friendship is POWER!!
As for season nine, it was a fine season. Certainly better than eight, but I have no major qualms about episodes like the three I just mentioned from season eight, nor anything particular to praise. It was a good, decent season. I guess the only problem I have is that it's a shame certain episodes were the last of those particular characters' episodes. Like, I understand the Rarity and Spike episode being the last Spike episode, but it really doesn't work as the last Rarity episode. I guess Rarity's arc is done, but I wish she had one more episode with more fanfare. The CMC episode being the last CMC one also didn't work. It took away the surprise of their adult designs away from the epilogue, and was just your typical "we shouldn't grow up too fast" morals from kids shows. Even the one with Scootaloo's parents wasn't the greatest send-off for Scootaloo. Sure, we saw her parents but I was bothered by their weird, strange designs. They were so different from everyone in Ponyville, which I guess makes sense if they live super far away. It was still rather off-putting. Second while it was cool that Scootaloo has Australian, crocodile-wrestling parents their unique designs and similar job to Daring Doo kinda makes Daring Doo worse in comparison. Then of course their tone-deaf decision to move Scootaloo away. If Scootaloo actually moved away as a solemn lesson for kids who have friends that moved away that could have worked, and would have been super powerful. But also it would have been a bit of a damper for the last Scootaloo or CMC episode. Idk, wanted something better.
The last Pinkie episode ever. ... is a set up for her canon ship in the epilogue yay woo whatever. Well, the lesson is good. Wanting to find some large purpose in life to achieve like Rarity and RD has done but realising you're already where you want to be for Pinkie is a great lesson actually, but for a Weird Al episode I would have preferred idk, MORE SONGS? MORE WEIRD AL? You have WEIRD AL MAKE HIM SING MORE. And him being sad for 90% of the episode isn't fun. It was a fine regular episode, but as the final Pinkie episode and having Weird Al again it was disappointing. Plus she was by herself so no fun Pinkie shenanigans to bounce off of the other Mane Five (or at least ONE of them) with! Sadness! I want my interaction!
The last Rainbow Dash episode.... oh.
Well I'll stop complaining about Rarity's or Pinkie's lol. That is unfortunate. (I don't count the Daring Doo one) The last non-adventure Twilight one isn't the greatest either but she is the main character in the adventure ones so it's not too big of a deal. The last Fluttershy episode was okay, wish she interacted with her friends as Angel more, but alas. But yeah those are the only real disappointments. Applejack had a good final episode. Her parents showed up in the flashback, she was cute with Apple Bloom, and Big Mac needs a hoof, truly.
The finale was great, my favourite being the Pinkie gag with the cupcake and the chaos magic. I also liked Rarity being able to participate in intense action scenes now with her magic. Major props to Rarity! It was all well and good, but the real meat of the story is the EPILOGUE.
OH BOY THAT EPILOGUE!!
It was a very predictable epilogue. I always thought Twilight having the Celestia model was kinda stereotypical since EVERYONE was writing fics and making theories that would happen. Spike's design is eh, like what even are those concave shoulders?? I like him being muscular and a total Chad, I just wish he looked better being muscular and a Chad. Like he's imagined himself looking better than this, it's like whoever designed the bully dragons designed him. Pinkie being with Cheese was the safest ship option possible and I was actually expecting it to be the only ship if ANY to actually be confirmed. My own prediction was no ships being confirmed because uh, this is FRIENDSHIP is MAGIC? What relevance does romance have in this series? NONE I SAY!! I just figured safe hetero ships getting married and background Bonbon and Lyra would be all we could get.
KLFMSDFDSFDGFh ?? ?? ?G J HHU HUHGL? ? WHAT
Okay well first off, it's only heavily hinted. Like, on purpose. Not on accident, but HEAVILY HINTED that they got married. They're only the only pair walking into the room together, they're only talking like an old married couple, and RD is only putting her hoof on AJ's head in the final end card for no reason. They're just REALLY GOOD FRIENDS. The BEST of gal pals I say. The writers took a copout on Twitter and was like "It is hinted! BUT YOU CAN INTERPRET IT DIFFERENTLY IF YOU LIKE" because shipping is all in good fun am I right, and no one should get angry--- of course people who don't ship that will get angry regardless! It's still a pretty heavy hint!
And I love it.
Sure it kinda came out of nowhere unless you interpret their competitiveness as sexual tension or something idk, you do you, but like I said before this show is FRIENDSHIP is Magic, so romance really has no place here. There's nothing wrong with a flash to the far future where romance has already come to fruition though. And especially involving a ship in the Mane Six it's about the only way I can see it ever happening and--
????????? WHO ARE THESE NEW WRITERS AND WHY DO THEY SHIP THINGS !!!??!
... did you know the most popular ships in MLP are Rarijack and AppleDash? Because I sure didn't. Why BACK IN MY DAY, Rainbow Dash was shipped with EVERYONE AND THE KITCHEN SINK, and Rarijack was merely the most popular NOT Rainbow Dash ship. In fact, I remember TwiDash and FlutterDash being the most popular ships. PinkieDash was the champion in seasons one and two, but then it was all about that Twi and FlutterDash. RariDash is rather underrated but quite good too. AppleDash was always quite a strong contender as well, but it was always like, a dark horse. Or two dark horses I guess, idk. It, like PinkieDash had more popularity in the season one and two days. The point is I DID NOT see any of that coming or it being given like, stupidly blatant shipping fuel in canon media.
And maybe I'm being incredibly shallow and vapid or whatever synonym works for this instance, but like after all this I went and looked at tons of Applejack artwork.
Like no specific ship, just Applejack. Just the apple horse. Just AJ.
Applejack has always been my middle of the pack pony. She was usually either third best or fourth best pony, usually fourth these days because I love Rarity lots, but y'know. I just couldn't relate to her as much as, I am not a farmer, nor do I work extremely hard to keep my family afloat or else we die (I mean I do work, but not like, the kind of own your own business hard labour, this job has been in the family for generations kind of thing and traditions and southern speak etc. blah blah blah all that stuff) I mean apples aren't even my favourite fruit! And Applejack episodes are usually boring, I say this as 3 of my top 5 favourite episodes are Applejack episodes, but you know episodes SPECIFICALLY and ONLY about Applejack tend to be boring, You know I painted apple horse with a broad stroke of the brush. She'd be tradition pony. She'd be down-to-earth straight-man pony. She has this huge family and everything about her will be family and she'll make a family too because y'know-- and THEN
MLP
HAS THE BALLS
THE AUDACITY
TO MAKE HER
GAY
WELL.
THANKS FOR DESTROYING STEREOTYPES. THANK YOU FOR MAKING ME SEE THE ERROR OF MY WAYS. I HAVE LEARNED MY LESSON, I WHO DESPERATELY SEARCH FOR REPRESENTATION IN MEDIA AM ALSO DISMISSING CHARACTERS FOR OBVIOUSLY BEING STRAIGHT OR OBVIOUSLY NOT GOING TO BE THE RELATABLE ONE BECAUSE I TOO AM PREJUDICED.
There are people who are all angry that they hinted a ship between the Mane Six and chose the tomboys.
NO. YOU ARE WRONG. THEY DID NOT CHOOSE THE STEREOTYPES. THEY DEFIED THE STEREOTYPES.
And then people being like WelL DaSH is sO sterEOtyPICAL i MEan LoOK aT heR HAIr and JACKeT-- ok well, first of her all her new hairstyle is just the one all the Wonderbolts had. She clearly just flew so fast for so long her hair became permanently like that, like the rest of the Wonderbolts. SEcond the leather jacket is a good way of showing that she is older but still cool. It doesn't even look like a leather jacket, just like a Wonderbolt jacket. Sports teams have those jackets with their logo on em all the time. And the orange turtleneck just screams something Applejack gave her-- so I have zero qualms about her design. It being RD and AJ doesn't really bother me either. The worst thing for RD shippers at least for me since I ship zero Rainbow Dash ships, was Zephyr Breeze. Because why on earth would a good wholesome children's show introduce one of THOSE characters into the show? GAH! No I don't want to watch a skeevy guy constantly hit on and make a female character uncomfortable! I don't care if it's Rainbow Dash it still and will never be funny to me! They even put him in Equestria Girls solely to make RD uncomfortable with that cringe humour. Like I think he has more lines and is in more scenes with RD than with his own SISTER!
Also the context in EQD is the writers actually did ship them and wrote them in that special like they were a couple so uhm yeah, blatantly blatant. The most blatant of blatant. Look how blatant my gays are in MLP. Did you know Scootaloo lives with her cool aunts and Lyra and Bonbon got married in canon? It's like MLP just screamed gay rights in their final season and final few EQD shorts. WELL WHATEVER WE'RE ENDING ANYWAY and they leapt off the slide and screamed gay rights and NO ONE, NOT EVEN HASBRO CAN CATCH THEM AND TELL THEM TO STOP. TOO BAD SO SAD.
But yeah I am talking about a very small part of the finale, rather disproportionately I must say. It was a beautiful finale and all the ships are inconsequential to my enjoyment of the ending of a very nostalgic and warm show I watched for years. It's just I was so shocked AT the ships I can't just not talk about them. I too am a shipper who enjoys shipping. I too am in the LGBT spectrum (somewhere, don't ask where) and this is super relevant to my interests and identity! I guess my only qualms is that whenever I do ship something it never comes true because I typically ship some character the writers then have marry or find interest in a dude, and while that doesn't negate their ability to be shipped or like a person of their own gender, the lack of bi-representation doesn't give me high hopes. Or maybe a show I am currently watching will pull another APPLEJACK on me! Who knows!
I mean Fluttershy got with Discord (maybe) it is implied similarly like AppleDash, so.... I can't just be like WELL THIS ONE IS OBVIOUS and this one is FRIENDSHIP. I mean I could, the writers' tweets say so, but it's kind of hypocritical for me to dismiss one and support another when they were both equally hinted, so if I want AppleDash to be canon as it so obviously is.... Fluttercord is too...? Egh. This is like that stupid Danganronpa quandary with the Love Hotels. Apparently the argument there is that, if Tenko is bi, so is everyone else if we're using the Love Hotels as canon proof. That is the only point in time Tenko has attraction to men, but it is also the only point in time several male characters have attraction to men. So you can't call Tenko bi but not like a majority of the guys. That's the logic there. I mean we don't need to go by this rule and decide whoever can be whatever sexuality we want and Tenko is lesbian as fuck, but if we are GOING BY THAT LOGIC, then the logic must come to its reasonable conclusion after all!
Anyway I do not like Fluttercord whatsoever. Like if CheesePie is boring, Fluttercord is toxic and gross. It's the OPPOSITE. Discord is just, idk doesn't it undermine the friendship he gained to redeem himself if ultimately that friendship is love? Certainly it would explain his great possessiveness of Fluttershy, but I'd be more okay with it if he actually evolved through the show and became nicer over-time, but most of his episodes have him being a dick for some reason, and not really learning a lesson to stop doing so. Perhaps they thought if he were nicer he'd be less entertaining because he can't be up to his hi-jinks as much, but idk there could have been a middle-ground there. I would have also been okay with it if Discord made more friends, like maybe he becomes friends with Pinkie because they both have such chaotic energy, or he finds some other accosted friend like Starlight did with Trixie. Then it would feel less like Discord is ONLY friends with Fluttershy and is a garbage person to everyone else, and they are in LOVE and he ONLY associates with Fluttershy, idk.
And no, it has nothing to do with the fact that somehow RWBY and MLP are the two fandoms of all things to sink the fuck out of my ships. I had no expectations from PinkieShy from the get-go, I literally just wanted one episode where they were friends or had conflict, and didn't even get that. I only expected zero ships or hetero ones in the finale so I don't know how to really feel about those two being the only ones in het ships. I am amazed Rarity is the single one. Who woulda thunk it, that's almost as shocking as Applejack. Nothing happened like I hoped, but that was a pipe-dream, but nothing happened like I expected either. Like only Twilight and Spike ended up being obvious.... why did I call the finale predictable again?
BUT YES THE SONG WAS BEAUTIFUL THE BOOK CLOSING WAS WONDERFUL AND I WILL MISS THIS GENERATION THAT SLAMMED MY FACE WITH SHIPS BEFORE IT LEFT, LIKE WHAT THE HECK MAN WASN'T THIS ABOUT FRIENDSHIP??? I AM SUPPOSED TO GET THE GOOD FRIENDSHIP VIBES NOT THE MIXED SHIPPING MESS THAT I ONLY SUMMON IN THE MOST CHAOTIC OF FANDOMS !!
As for Applejack.... WHY IS IT ALWAYS THE BLONDES!! I RARELY SHIP BLONDES!! THAT'S THE PROBLEM . I NEED TO SHIP MORE BLONDES!!! THE TRUE STEREOTYPE IS THAT ALL BLONDES ARE GAY!