spotto

So on my Sims game I have a whole bunch of OTPs living together. Been doing this for a while just to keep my favourite girls in one place. Recently I've set aside basement space for specific types of OTPs... the ones that no longer can function in canon. As in, they have been super sunk and no reality or dream can make life better for these ships. However, the criteria for them is a lot more nuanced than simply a ship that cannot go on. I thought to define these sets of criteria, to truly express my despair at how far down these ships fell.

Initially half the OTPs were in this unfortunate club, but I began thinking about how the two characters were treated in canon and how they interacted, and one definitely has a lot more going for them than the other two. There are six OTPs in total living in the household. This is the order I put them in from absolutely canon, no doubts about it all the way to these two characters have canon ships with someone else.

1. YuuTouko from Bloom Into You
Bloom Into You is literally a romance story about these two as a couple, or blooming into a couple I should say. It does NOT get more canon than them!

2. KyouSaya from Puella Magi Magica Madoka
Though the status of their mortality is complicated, and I have yet to see the sequel, Magia Record if these two are even in them, as of Rebellion they're not explicitly canon, but as canon as one can get. Sayaka's little subplot with her dude crush is lightyears away at this point.

3. AyaSanae from Touhou Project
A rarepair! Not at all canon, but the nature of Touhou where romance doesn't exist and no one ever dies means literally zero ships will ever be canon or sunk, so these two can be a forever dream, never to come true, but never to be quashed either. Unless something in the status quo has changed, it is firmly on this tier.

4. Tenmiko from Danganronpa V3, Killing Harmony
And this is the ship I mentioned earlier, where I have firmly decided they do not belong in the basement of tears. Yes, one character is canonly dead so it's not as if this ship can ever sail, but they had lots of interaction in canon, and their development as characters depended on each other the most of any other. Plus it is canon in a one-sided sense, as Tenko had chased Himiko until her death. ):

5. Monochrome from RWBY
How are these guys not dead last!? I blame the MLP finale. Yes, Blake is with Yang, but as of season 6 as I have not seen 7 yet, Weiss is still a suitable bachelorette! The series is not over, and technically anything can happen. Also neither of them are dead or anything. I will elaborate on their status later on.

6. PinkieShy from My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic
Sigh.

Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy had the least amount of potential anyway, but it's still gives me a bit of a sad twang what happened to them. Not so much that they are in official relationships with other ponies/creatures even though they are, but rather that throughout the entire nine seasons of MLP, several movies and specials of EQG, and throughout all the comics as far as I'm aware, we never got a single episode focused especially on these two. No conflict of friendship they needed to get through, no obstacle from a third party the two of them had to get over, absolutely nothing. The closest I got was Buckball Season, where the two started their professional sports careers. No I did not see that coming whatsoever, but while it was a lovely episode, they shared it with RD and AJ, and the conflict was between the four of them. In subsequent episodes featuring Buckball, the two of them were always in the backdrop of a different plot, usually involving Rainbow Dash. Why bother putting them in this situation if every future Buckball episode just focuses on the already-an-athletic-member-of-the-cast anyway!? Gah.

There was one EQG short that focused on them, which was ironically a cheerleading short... whereas in Ponyland the two ARE the athletes and that one Buckball episode was Rainbow Dash coaching the cheerleaders... let's just say the EQG short was charming and cute but rather generic in execution. It got to the point that I was simply hoping anytime any of the ponies were paired together it would be them, just once. And not in a lazy, boring way either. Rainbow Roadtrip had the two of them sharing an activity and thus befriending the same villagers, but their subplot was by far the least interesting of them all in an already dull and slow-paced special. You COULDN'T EVEN MAKE MY TWO FAVOURITE PONIES INTERESTING, HOW, WHY. The two of them didn't really interact with one another, so yea. Plus every other member of the main six each had an individual subplot in the story so it felt like Ponks and Floots were like the leftovers they weren't sure what to do with.

But stuff like the Best Gift Ever special, where I was hoping the Secret Santa would yield interesting pairs instead of the same ones over and over again---NOPE! It's the same ones over and over again. They even did it in EQG too. Why is Rainbow Dash always getting Fluttershy? Yes we have had numerous episodes focusing on the two and they were childhood friends as well, so why do we need even MORE interaction for them? Especially this late in the series when the show is ending soon, you could explore OTHER pairs and other interactions but EVEN STILL you just go back to your usual? WHY?!?! You could have done Rainbow with Twilight or something, or Dash with Rarity, or even Dash with Pinkie. We also got Pinkie and Twilight as the pair (it was even MORE disappointing when most everyone just got each other, instead of everyone having to give presents to another pony, like what are the chances of that?) and Rarity got AJ as always. AJ only got Spike so we could have more Spike and Rarity interaction. The song in the end was cute and to be fair, Spike sought out Rarity because of his crush so that one is understandable, but the rest is aggravating.

They probably would have been rock bottom in the list anyway, but I was hoping for at least one episode involving them before the whole series ended. Their dynamic started out strong in Season One, which was a season that was a lot softer and wholesome than the following seasons. See, after season one they ditched their educational rating, so the episodes had more freedom to do whatever and wasn't so strict in terms of their target demographic. However what season one did and what I'm sure Lauren Faust emphasized, since she stepped down after this season and wasn't involved whatsoever beyond the second season, is to keep Pinkie grounded. What I mean is that, it seems like she knew that Pinkie had that potential to devolve into that LOLRANDOM type of character who would become more and more controversial and annoying over time, and in season one it seemed like the writers made sure not to let Pinkie fall into that territory. But without her influence and that child-friendly rating they were free to write Pinkie as they saw fit, and moulded her into the type of comedy they wanted to write as opposed to writing the comedy around Pinkie.

This leads to discrepancies, from Pinkie understanding Fluttershy's sensitivity in episode five all the way in season one, to becoming a one-dimensional gag in episode fourteen of season four, all to worsen Fluttershy's anxiety with her innocently insensitive remarks. We are supposed to laugh at Pinkie because she doesn't know better, but SHE DID KNOW BETTER. She did. I know I've ranted about Filli Vanilli to death at this point, and the episode's reputation is moreso the fans' complaints over the actual content, but as someone who loves both these characters I can't let go of it. Especially when the two of them lack much interaction at all, having one of them to be so negative (as well as the Putting Your Hoof Down incident in season two) leaves a lot to be desired. Who would actually ship them after those negative interactions? Nobody. A lot of the ship's popularity came early, when Pinkie sang and jumped across the gorge to encourage Fluttershy, when Fluttershy jump-hugged her out of worry in Appleloosa. There are however isolated scenes in the later seasons where their interactions have been largely positive. The most notable is the scene in The Mean Six, of season eight. Fluttershy is upset due to a misunderstanding with the animals through an anti-version of her running around, and Pinkie's first impulse is to hug and comfort her, and stop all gags and progress in the camping trip to console her. It's great and I love it, but alas it is just one scene in one season, when their last notable interaction was back in season six in Buckball Season.

Plus a lot of the more recent Pinkie episodes have had her largely separated from the rest of the group. The conflict isn't Pinkie vs. another pony of the main six, but Pinkie is causing the conflict and the rest of them have to fix it, or she goes off to Yakyakistan like always to solve her problem somehow. She doesn't do anything special or specific with any other character. The only reason we got some of that in the theatrical movie was because that movie was written by the earlier writers of the series, who stopped working on the show specifically to focus on the movie. Though Pinkie was still doing some odd and annoying things (We get that she loves to have fun, but she shouldn't be having fun and being goofy to the detriment of others or her own life, like when she leaped happily on the rope and almost fell to her death, but wasn't even phased when Twilight was rightfully angry with her after saving her) she was still in the right when it came down to the climax, but because of her actions previously we completely understand Twilight's frustrations and fury.

I suppose the last time it was Pinkie versus another specific pony from the Mane Six, it was the Pinkie vs. Rainbow Dash one about pies. Of course I can complain again that PinkieDash eps aren't new or interesting, but even so this episode wasn't like, overdone at this point. I did not mind another Pinkie and Rainbow Dash episode, but in the context of Pinkie episodes as a whole, where she doesn't seem to have many episodes later on with another specifically it's a little disappointing. Secrets and Pies was kind of an iffy episode anyway. At this point with its running theme I get that Pinkie is sensitive herself (which makes her insensitivity all the more annoying) but it still bothers me how often that flaw of hers comes up, and how often everyone else tries to avoid it. Maybe if they told her the truth more often she would not have this complex? I don't know.

As someone whose favourite pony is Pinkie Pie I sure do have a lot to criticize! Well why couldn't she have gone WITH someone to fix Cheese Sandwich in her final episode? And why did they paint Pinkie so dumb in the trivia episode? Yeah she may not have knowledge of everything, but I would imagine with Pinkie's ridiculous organization skills and photographic memory she'd know SOME things. Often these types of characters are wiser than they seem, as a sort of comedic contrast to their personality. I've seen that kind of wisdom come from Pinkie before, but nope! She dumb. Hurr. Especially when the other contestants were largely other ponies of average minds. Like Rainbow Dash is there, and she isn't notable in terms of her study habits, so what gives? I'm not even gonna start with Yakity-Sax.

It's sad when the later Pinkie episodes aren't that great when compared to her champion marathon through season four. Seriously ALL of her episodes in season four were absolute top-tier. Season five was okay, but it all died when the Yaks were introduced. I dunno if they're a symptom necessarily, or a causation, but the episodes did drop in quality when her episodes only involved Yaks or Maud. Yeah I liked the Maud episodes but those were because of Maud, not Pinkie.

But ANYWAY, about the other ships. I've already given my two cents on the Monos. Well, not necessarily. The reason they're also low isn't because Bumblebee is a thing, even if it is, it's because as the series went on with the White Fang conflict, it seemed like a no-brainer that the Schnee Dust Company and thus Weiss would enter the subplot one way or another, considering the White Fang and the SDC are opposites and enemies. But unfortunately, any nuance or subtlety that plot had was thrown out the window when Adam's character was reduced to that of a psychotic ex-boyfriend. It was like any passion he had in his movement, even if he was extreme, was thrown on the wayside for his absolute pursuit of Blake and everyone Blake loves, specifically Yang. It was a political story about discrimination and oppression, but instead of going for everything they set up for as early as the trailers themselves, it just became like a twisted love-triangle thing to advance romance. Like I wasn't expecting Blake or Weiss to get together, but I knew from their backstories they had this thematic conflict brewing and it would reach a climax one day, with great payoff, but instead we the audience are shocked to see Adam branded with the SDC logo, and then killed off, and Weiss not being a part of any of this. She never even met him! Even if what I expected to happen DID happen and Bumblebee sailed anyway, I'd be less upset. Maybe I'd be upset in the "but they had such great dynamic through their shared pasts!" argument, but at least the story I thought would come to fruition actually did, and if Bumblebee happens it happens.

And somehow these two ships are lower than the one where one is DEAD. Even if Himiko has in canon only ever shown interest in men, and even if she'd never see Tenko beyond a potential friend, when their friendship was finally turning a new leaf and then DEATH, they are still higher than those two. Y'know why? BECAUSE THEIR STORIES DID HAPPEN. THEY CAME TO A CONCLUSION AND WENT SOMEWHERE. Whereas Pinkie and Fluttershy never had an episode despite being TWO of the main characters in a show called FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC in the span of over TWO HUNDRED EPISODES, and where Blake and Weiss had massive foreshadowing for some sort of racial and political plot from as EARLY AS THEIR TRAILERS which started in the first two seasons but then never went ANYWHERE, at least Tenko and Himiko's stories HAPPENED!!

And I love their tragic story. Their subplot and characters may be underappreciated by fans, but the writer did not shy away from their progress. Tenko was written to advance Himiko's character. This is true, because Tenko's story ended before the halfway mark, and Himiko went on to survive. But even so, what we did get of Tenko is someone who was genuinely in love with, and cared for the person that is Himiko. She started off with a very shallow and superficial crush that evolved over time to something beautiful. When she saw that Himiko was not the perfect mage girl she had dreamed of, she did her utmost to protect her and guide her along the right path, to help mould Himiko to that ideal. Himiko was suffering and needed someone to be there for her, and for most of the first two chapters it could not be Tenko, because Tenko still only saw Himiko as a shallow crush, but when it came time to defend Himiko when she became a suspect, and when Himiko fell into the cult at her weakest hour, Tenko was there to defend, to go undercover, to protect and assist. Himiko's escapism was met with Tenko's grounded philosophy, so even if the ship could never come true, even if Tenko lived, their stories were intertwined together. They could not exist without the other in the plot! Himiko would be dead if not for Tenko, and Tenko may have had no one to latch on as a morality pet without Himiko what with her overdone and one-note hatred of men.

I don't think I really need to bother with the other three, but I will say my current favourite OTPs are... the ones in the bottom 3. Alas! This is not unique to this ship either. I recall being similarly upset with KazuSayo from Negima. Every character in the class would have their pactio chapter one-day, where they enter a contract with the main character. It was something that always happened and usually did after some character discovered magic's existence, but not necessarily right after. Kazumi discovered it way long ago but only entered the contract in the final arc, but what I was waiting for was for Sayo's. Usually anyone with even an inkling of a crush on the main character got lots of spotlight and panel time for their pactio, and Sayo did have a minor one. I was waiting with eager anticipation for Sayo's chapter, so I'd see more Sayo and therefore Kazumi since they were best friends. They even teased it in like the first page or the front page of the magazine the manga was published in, but it NEVER HAPPENED because Negima suddenly ended. THE SALT I HAD was unfathomable. It's not as if it ended without a conclusion because it got cancelled somehow. The mangaka ended it himself as a protest for some law. A story he had been illustrating for like eight years suddenly over. He simply rushed out a conclusion and epilogue despite many story beats only starting or in the process of, and ended it.

I waited many years for that pactio. Sayo's knowledge of magic came quite shortly after her first appearance, what with magic being required for her to be seen, so I was not a happy camper to say the least. My investment on the actual plot and the more important characters was waning, especially since it had become a full-blown shounen manga, and the main character's power level had advanced so far that all of his students, even the most powerful ones with like one exception could not possibly catch up and could only play support. Only the male characters he meets or already knows with great passion for fighting could rival him, which made the story all the more boring and annoying. A story with such a varied cast of females reduced to that of support in a shounen manga was just not something I felt inclined to follow. My only reason for reading on was for the supposedly-inevitable and even teased Sayo pactio. But it never happened.

I am sad that that scenario happened not once, but twice again.

Current Mood: sore

"What are you gonna do, erase the PinkieShy rant so you can write a PinkieShy rant?"

Evidently that is exactly what I am doing. Hello readers. If that quote did not reveal what had been written here before, I'll just flat-out tell you here! Yes indeedy, I am typing up a PinkieShy rant on-top of the one I started some weeks ago and never finished. Because I am THAT bitter about them that instead of finishing the rant from before, I'll just write a whole new one hopefully including some points from beforehand, should I remember, BECAUSE I AM THAT MOTHERFUCKING SALTY.

I mean gosh, if that hasn't been obvious considering the NUMEROUS RANTS I'VE HAD ON FILLI VANILLI ON THIS BLOG ALREADY. Like, I have ranted on that over and over again, repeating points, bringing up new points, and forever puking out my displeasure of that ONE. SINGLE. EPISODE.

How. Why.

I guess the gist of it all is...PinkieShy is the ship I've always wanted. It's the ship I've always dreamed of. They have literally all of the aesthetics, personality, and interaction that I could possibly want in a ship, and that's what they are.

...except they aren't.

THAT'S WHY I'M SALTY.

Now you're probably wondering what the flying fuck I'm talking about. You see Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy are my two favourite ponies. They are best ponies, so-to-speak. Well occasionally Rarity usurps Fluttershy, but y'know that's usually regarding the quality of Rarity episodes to Fluttershy episodes. I don't tend to like Fluttershy episodes while I tend to like almost every Rarity one... it's just a thing because Rarity is written so-very-well so often. But anyway, while they are my two favourite ponies individually, the two of them talking, or being friends or whatever together, is like a pony dream I've always had. And it's that very fact that all of this is so sad, that I have to dream two main characters in a show about friendship, having some sort of friendship. You think entering season six we would have some of this so-called friendship the show claims to have that is part of a giant mind-bending rainbow beam of death that torments the likes of villainy everywhere. Now obviously they are not the only two who have been neglected by the show that would rather waste its time introducing brand new characters our infallible mane six have to convert to the religion of friendship and save them from their misguided ways. I thought Rarity in particular wasn't given much screen-time among many others aside from really just Applejack. She's had an episode with Fluttershy (which was really fucking good, mind you) and since Twilight has been the audience-surrogate for a while there was bound to be some Rarity-Twilight moments, though no episode off the top-of-my-head that focused on the two of them in particular. However recently we had some marvelous episodes like Rarity Investigates and The Gift of Maud Pie, that delve into Rarity with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie, a dynamic we've seen rather little of unfortunately.

That leaves us with very few duos left. I'm wracking my brain for them, since I want to believe my views on Pinkie and Fluttershy having little screen-time together is justified beyond just "THEY'RE MY TWO FAVOURITES DURR" so I thought of such duos like...like...

Hm.

Let me go through them all just to make sure I've not been missing anyone. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie's friendship were featured first in Griffon the Brush Off. Rainbow then gets an episode with Applejack showcasing their rivalry in Fall Weather Friends. She has a small amount of interaction with Rarity in Sonic Rainboom, but most of it comes from Rarity Investigates. The best Rainbow and Twilight episode in my opinion is Testing, Testing, One, Two, Three, and Rainbow and Fluttershy have had countless interactions together for whatever reason. They're both pegasi? They're childhood friends? Regardless Hurricane Fluttershy which is a grand-as-fuck entry in the MLP series is a wondrous illustration of their developing friendship. So that's Rainbow done with, since she's the easiest being shipped with absolutely everyone and every single one of those ships having a sizable following.

Twilight, second easiest can be pinpointed as well, aside from Rainbow she's had several episodes with Pinkie Pie, the controversial Feeling Pinkie Keen as well as It's About Time. She's had A Bird in the Hoof and that really boring Hooffields and the McColts episode with Fluttershy. The closest thing I can think of is Applebuck Season for AJ, but the two of them have appeared in the most episodes in the series of them all, so they're usually interlapping as strong supporting characters in one another's episodes. I can't think of anything for Twilight and Rarity in particular unless it's a Spike episode or something.

So there's one and maybe two, Twilight with AJ or Rarity.

Then there's AJ and Rarity, who have featured in many episodes with one another. Rarity's got the aforementioned Gift of Maud Pie for Pinkie and Green Isn't Your Colour for Fluttershy, where AJ has Bats! with Fluttershy and the greatest episode in the entire series, Pinkie Apple Pie, with quite obviously Pinkie.

So we are left with Pinkie...and Fluttershy. I'm gonna suggest the unfairness further, by any of Twilight's neglected relationships being not quite neglected, since she was the main star for all of season one. Pinkie and Fluttershy are never top-billing. They do not cause or solve the problems in those big giant two-parters. They are merely there to be support for Twilight. The closest these two have had an episode with one another are... Putting Your Hoof Down and Filli Vanilli.

Ah yes, Putting Your Hoof Down, where Fluttershy insulted Pinkie's very reason for being (and Rarity), called her an idiot, and made her run away crying. Ah yes, Filli Vanilli, where Pinkie terrorized Fluttershy and amplified her phobia tenfold, driving her to tears through her reckless insensitivity masked as good intentions. YES, THESE TWO EPISODES. I AM QUITE PLEASED BY THESE TWO EPISODES AS YOU CAN SEE, WITH THEIR WONDROUS POSITIVE INTERACTIONS WHERE THEY ARE THE BEST OF FRIENDS, THE GREATEST OF ROLE MODELS TO ALL THE CHILDREN WHO NEED TO LEARN HOW TO ACT AMONGST THEIR PEERS.

Listen. It's very obvious why I am salty. It's very obvious. It's giant letters in your face, in black bold font, of a highly simplified and readable typeface like Helvetica or whatever. I DO NOT NEED TO EXPLAIN IT ANY FURTHER.

Now see, the difference between Filli Vanilli and Putting Your Hoof Down, is that I only rant incessantly about the former. The latter, as poorly-written as the episode was (Suddenly everyone in Ponyville is a jerk, and two characters our little children girls are looking up to as guidance are manipulating and conning other ponies in an example of "assertiveness" for some reason) that Fluttershy's explosive tirade was immediately given a negative light and taken very seriously. Fluttershy becomes withdrawn, almost a hermit in her deep shame and guilt for what she had done. Pinkie Pie and Rarity meanwhile seem to instantly forgive her (pacing-wise at least, in a matter of two seconds apparently a lot of time had passed, but we are never given any scenes with the two to see them dwelling over their conflict with Fluttershy) as if they were good enough friends to not let such a momentously vicious and toxic fight ruin their friendship.

In Filli Vanilli, Pinkie's antics are funny. And she never apologizes. And no one takes it seriously. And when the show makes me, whose favourite character BAR-NONE is PINKAMENA DIANE PIE, want to MIDDLE-FINGER AND SWEAR at my OWN FAVOURITE CHARACTER, something is SERIOUSLY WRONG.

I truly will never understand why some of the most adorable, innocent little ponies like Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, would if you put them in a room together, would probably have a rather unhealthy friendship from all evidence you can pluck from canon in a series called Friendship is Magic. They are friends because the Mane Six are friends. They are friends by virtue of, if they weren't, Equestria would be doomed. They're like mutual friends. "But Spotto!" You ask. "There was that time in It's About Time (hurr) where Fluttershy was helping Pinkie Pie carry party supplies!" Yes, my imaginary child reader named Billy, you are correct! Except it was Fluttershy helping Pinkie Pie carry ALL of the party supplies, and Pinkie Pie seemingly not aware that Fluttershy should not be doing all of the work. Or "Spotto! How about that moment when Fluttershy gave Pinkie a butterfly massage-therapy thing!" And I agree! That is a great scene denoting their wondrous friendship. That very singular one scene of the entire series, that took place in the span of a minute.

I mean obviously there must be a reason I started to like this ship. It's as if I just wrote a manifesto of why PinkieShy sucks and would never work. That is untrue! They are my OTP after all. These points just highlight how very frustrated their "friendship" is, because the kind of friendship I like seeing the most is a happy positive character helping out a shy withdrawn character. All MLP has taught me is that if you're too extroverted you'll tire out an introvert, and if you're too introverted you'll bore an extrovert. Such friendship is IMPOSSIBLE. Do not attempt.

Season one was the beginning of hope, hope that never developed into anything, that was retconned into oblivion, but hope it did provide. You see, in an episode called "Griffon Your Brush-Off" it was established that Pinkie Pie understood Fluttershy's sensitivity and thus, respected it. She did not want to prank her because she knew it would hurt Fluttershy's feelings. That was the beginning of that hope, that yes, this extroverted character who can be too loud at times and do things without thinking so many other times, can still stop and for once, take into account the difference of another character. A pony who is shy, withdrawn, who does not enjoy what Pinkie enjoys. She respects that. When Gilda comes in and makes Fluttershy cry, Pinkie becomes incensed. She is determined to right what was wrong, that no one should bully and intimidate her friend like that. Pinkie Pie was not only understanding, but protective.

Of course in that very same episode, we had the Fluttershy "I'm a year older-than-you" comment. There were still small things that Pinkie did that crossed the line and annoyed Fluttershy, which is in-line with Pinkie's flaws, but the BIG ONE was there and the BIG ONE mattered. That making Fluttershy cry was no joking matter. Later on, in Dragonshy while everyone else was impatient and demanding of Fluttershy to get over her fears, that she was holding everypony back, Pinkie Pie once again takes the time to understand and sings her a song. She isn't negative and demeaning like Rainbow Dash, she is positive and supportive, trying to give Fluttershy a boost with her encouraging song. The best part is that it works. Fluttershy is no longer scared. She smiles. She accepts Pinkie's help. It's a lovely and wonderful scene.

Finally we have the scene that probably cemented this ship for many of the shippers and that was Fluttershy out-of-nowhere, downright glomping Pinkie Pie in Over A Barrel. Before this happened, Fluttershy was the most concerned of them all that Pinkie had gone missing as well after the train-scene where the buffalo stole Bloomberg. Everyone else was concerned for Spike, who was in the carriage that was taken away, but Fluttershy for whatever reason was especially concerned about Pinkie. This surmounted when they went to rescue Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, and Spike from the buffalo. When Fluttershy sees Pinkie, she dives for her. This is inherently out-of-character for Fluttershy. When has she ever expressed herself in such an outwardly way? Pinkie Pie glomping Fluttershy is what we expect, yet it is Fluttershy who tackle-hugs Pinkie.

If we take all these scenes into consideration, we can perhaps assume that maybe over time Fluttershy has learned to appreciate that while Pinkie is so very different from her, she still understands and respects her for who she is and for that, Fluttershy is grateful. Fluttershy is glad she has such an empathetic and kind friend like Pinkie, who allows her to remain in her boundaries. It is this potential, this type of friendship I was looking so forward to. As I relate to both Pinkie and Fluttershy deeply, a friendship that worked so well among such starkly different ponies was heartwarming simply to think about.

...and then the writers promptly forgot about season one.

After those scenes? We had Putting Your Hoof Down. But that's okay. Fluttershy tore Pinkie apart, but that's okay. It's okay because they forgave her, and remained best friends. We had that scene in Too Many Pinkie Pies with the butterflies, which is nice. I'm annoyed it took so long for a small scene to display their friendship that wasn't really related to the plot, but whatever. Then. Then we had Filli Vanilli.

Filli Vanilli, that took Griffon-Your-Brush-Off, chewed it up, and spit the incomprehensible wad into the depths of the ocean, never to be seen again. Once again, let me reiterate. The BIG ONE was what mattered. Pinkie knew making Fluttershy cry was no joking matter. Yet in this entire episode, all of her jokes were making Fluttershy cry...making her run away, have a nervous breakdown, basically an emotional assault of the most obscene manner, and that entire thing was written because it was meant to be comedy. That whole idea that was implied from those season one episodes, that even though Pinkie could be annoying and obnoxious, she still had the heart to see and realize Fluttershy's boundaries. They were shattered. They were disintegrated, as if that very idea never existed at all. As if Pinkie had been replaced by one of her Mirror Clones, as if this whole friendship I assumed, wanted, had evidence that they had, was never like that at all!

YES, I WAS SALTY. OF COURSE I WAS SALTY.

And now that many duos within the Mane Six have been visited in some way, I'm still eagerly awaiting that Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy episode. Maybe it'll be a mundane episode that never brings up these worryingly problematic portions of their friendship, and assumes they've been the best of friends this whole time. Maybe it does bring it up, and it ends up being a friendship lesson for the one or two of them. Maybe it'll never happen at all, just like that Sayo backstory I assumed would happen in Negima. That backstory, that singular chapter, that day in the limelight most other characters had, but Sayo's was foreshadowed, as there were ideas and notes scribbled upon around the mangaka's concept art. That pactio that every character was supposed to get that would expand on Sayo that had been teased in a previous chapter, and that she'd be something more than a cute ghost and Asakura's sidekick. THE CHAPTER THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A LEGITIMATE REASON TO EXPLORE SOME MORE KAZUMI AND SAYO THAT NEVER. FUCKING. HAPPENED.

It is here again. I am waiting again. An episode that may or may not come, that seems obvious they SHOULD focus on, that seems obvious they'd have an episode on before the series ends. That the series is SO VERY LONG OVERDUE ON, just like what I waited for before and never came.

If MLP ends without the Pinkie and Fluttershy episode, I cannot feasibly predict my levels of salt. I can assure you it'd be beyond any levels you've seen before, and all those Filli Vanilli rants would be nothing in comparison.

And so I wait.

And so I hope.

Current Mood: hot
Crossposts: http://spotstar.livejournal.com/284576.html

I'm starting to post here a lot especially about ponies and I can give you a few concrete reasons as to why.

I got into MLP initially way back in 2011 not only because it was recommended to me and I found the ponified Touhou characters to be interesting, but I knew it to be a very happy uplifting show. The moment my hockey team fell to another in game seven during the Stanley Cup finals I went and marathon'd all of MLP at the time, that being the entire first season. Almost three years later and that same hockey team has had one of the most disastrous seasons I've ever witnessed so what better to do than to distract myself with more ponies? Season four hasn't been bad at all even though I've found the earlier seasons to be better, but nowadays I've been watching the show with someone at the same time and that usually means the experience is far more enjoyable. :D

So what is this post about? Why, MORE PONIES OF COURSE. But I want to bring up a point I may have several times before, but not elaborated. My favourites of the Mane Six as everyone who reads this blog knows, is Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. To the point that I sometimes ship the two, but contrary to the nature of this blog which is very pro-shipping, I don't really consider myself that much of a shipper anymore. (or at the very least, quite the hardcore shipper I was back in my adolescence) And ironically enough (I've no clue if that is proper use of the word) it was RWBY that made me realise this. The Tumblr community for RWBY is extremely pro-shipping. Rarely there will be shipping wars as everyone is very open to literally every ship imaginable. But RWBY in its essence isn't especially developed or deep, only two hours of footage having been released so far so it actually makes sense that shipping is very rampant. We don't know much about the lore or world beyond the bits we're told and so we're really just left with the characters and the songs that explain these characters.

When all you have are characters, shipping is going to follow. Yang for example isn't much of a character so far. We know she takes no shits from other people and is pretty damn strong. She also seems to be quite casual and easily sociable, so we have that. Yang is also very close to her sister. Since we have little to glean off of Yang's character, exploring her potential chemistry with others is our best option at fleshing Yang out. Until season two comes about and reveals more about Yang, shipping is one of the few mediums we have to expand on what we know about her. Blake is one of the most developed characters so far (which isn't saying too much) because we know more about her backstory than anyone else and know of her motives and conflicts throughout season one (particularly the last two episodes) where her existence gives us more info about human-faunus relations. That plus Blake is cool and is a very relatable character allows her to be the perfect anchor to expand upon all the other characters. This is why Blake is at the moment the fandom bicycle. Thus results Bumblebee, the most popular ship of RWBY. Of course personally I have little investment in Blake and prefer the juicy interactions that results with Weiss as the harem lead. P:

The whole point here is that while I enjoy the shipping in RWBY, I ship because it's a method to flesh out characters. But because pretty much every character needs to be given more depth, you can ship any character with any other character and it doesn't seem odd. This is a little too all-over-the place tor me to the point that I can't pinpoint an OTP. So far it's just enjoying how Weiss is portrayed in literally all her ships, but nothing that is clear-cut "the best pairing" for me, and so I'm not as into the shipping culture as I usually would be. MLP does not have this problem. The series has existed for over three years now and so far there's over 80 episodes out as well as numerous comics, movies, and a gigantic fandom. In fact I hardly ever ship in MLP at all.

But occasionally I'll read a PinkieShy, why? The pairing isn't very popular at all and its greatest appeal to most audiences is probably the utter innocence and heart-stopping cuteness of it all, but that's a rather shallow reason to like a pairing. That's why the couple is usually a side-pairing people prefer while they're shipping some other pair that compliments them, like TwiDash or AppleDash. (I would name the rest but they aren't nearly as popular >_>) And y'know my reason could be simply "they're my two favourites" or "I like the potential chemistry between them" but the first is weak and the second, while makes sense, very rarely occurs in the series itself. Despite that, those two are my primary reasons of shipping them.

Still, even if interactions between the two are rare or, if they do occur, surprisingly negative, I do want to point out what potential there is of the two. And to do so I must tear down the ship itself. There is one fact that repeats in my head all the damn time whenever I think about these two: They're the only characters who have directly made each other cry. I've probably repeated that several times during my non-stop enraged rants about Filli Vanilli, but it's true! On the other hand, in a way it makes sense. As the series progresses Pinkie has been increasingly portrayed as being terribly insensitive and socially inept, while Fluttershy has consistently been hinted at as a someone who is just waiting to blow up because she has blown up several times. The two of them are also the most frequent crybabies of the cast, but at first glance you wouldn't expect these two over others to have done such a feat.

Before Twilight showed up, what was the status of everyone's friendships? Were they even friends at the time or merely acquaintances? Equestria Girls leads us to believe, since their human counterparts were supposedly friends before Twilight showed up, that it might be the case in the pony world. But it's a questionable source because the movie states the five were friends as kids while the comic establishes the five of them became friends the moment they hit high school. While I can see why they wouldn't be friends until Twilight shows up so that she can show them that friendship is magic, there's really no reason they had to have been friends at some point before she arrived. Frankly this aspect of the movie was very poorly thought-out, and it's only even more evident when the comic and movie don't even have consistent continuity in that regard. So it's safe to say at least in Equestria, the five were not friends before Twilight came about.

Or at least, not all of them. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy knew each other (and may have been friends, though not especially close ones) due to flight camp. Rainbow Dash was very noble to defend Fluttershy during the events of the first Sonic Rainboom, but aside from that they do have little in common and it doesn't seem like they're very close at the start of the series. Rarity and Applejack are the only two who seem to have been in Ponyville their whole lives, but again they have little in common and thanks to Look Before You Sleep, weren't even very close of friends until that episode. Pinkie is supposedly friends with the entire town, but before Twilight arrived I doubt she had any close friends. Now we don't know if Rarity and Fluttershy became good friends because and after of the events of Nightmare Moon's return or were friends beforehand, but there may have been a bit of a hint when the cliff fell out under them in the second episode. Fluttershy immediately went to save Rarity, while Rainbow Dash saved Pinkie. Obviously this had to be like so, so that Applejack could demonstrate her amazing honesty when saving Twilight, but that scene was a pretty terrible method of showing off her honesty, honestly. But if we look far too deep into this scene, while the four are falling Pinkie seems to be the one closest to being splat, so Rainbow saving her first makes sense. Rarity is a bit behind, so perhaps Fluttershy wanted to make sure her friend wasn't dead over two ponies she barely knows.

Twilight she barely knows? Sure, but Applejack? Well considering how often they interact (even less than Pinkie and Fluttershy!) until they finally had that Bats episode (and they were arguing in that one, so uh) I'm pretty confident they barely knew one another. Anyway it's a very small and inconsequential scene, but it's enough to suggest the two were friends, perhaps not especially close until the Elements of Harmony showed up, but close enough. After all they do have interests in common. Maybe they both are often at the spa and thus see one another, and thus socialize? If any of them were friends these two make the most sense.

Of course what the hell does that have to do with Pinkie and Fluttershy? Well, I'm going to argue that maybe Fluttershy had the most friends out of all of them before the series began! What a twist! A potential 2/4 is already more than anyone else, but what if she also knew Pinkie too and beyond just Pinkie being friends with the whole town? Seems unlikely? Well, that's why I have evidence. We can't even use the falling example to debunk this because Pinkie was already saved by Rainbow! Speaking of the two, in episode five it seems to suggest at the very least Pinkie knows a lot about Fluttershy's mannerisms. How even the most harmless of pranks can hurt her feelings? Perhaps she knows this due to prior experience! You can always chalk that up to, since Pinkie is friends with EVERYONE the first time she tried to befriend Fluttershy may not have been a particularly smooth befriending. Then Gilda roars at Fluttershy and Pinkie takes it personally. It may imply they know each other a little more than others. Of course using only episode five as evidence is a bit too little, so...in Dragonshy, it is Pinkie's song that finally encourages Fluttershy to leap over to the other side of the mountain. Rainbow Dash may be a shitty motivator, but Pinkie can get Fluttershy to move over her childhood friend? Well, it's either that or Pinkie being the sole pony responsible for Ponyville's continued happiness, knows exactly how to cheer her up just like with anybody else. (This is very debunked especially in season two)

Then there's Bridle Gossip, where Pinkie cannot speak but somehow Fluttershy understands what she wants to do. Rarity and Twilight have no clue what Pinkie's trying to say or do (well somehow they know she claims Zecora stole her song), but Fluttershy manages to decipher her motives and even goes with it. Again, this is for the sake of comedy so Fluttershy can sing in her lovely new baritone voice, but it also unwittingly implies just like the two or three previous scenes in the earlier episodes they may have been friends before Twilight arrived. I could point out more small scenes that may imply things/I'm looking far too into this, such as the very next episode where Fluttershy immediately heads off to Sugarcube Corner to show off the parasprite she found. Again, it's for the matter of convenience, the Princess is visiting and Twilight is inspecting the food, but why would Fluttershy go to Twilight first? She just met her nine episodes ago, and if she did want to see her she'd have to really want to see her, that is ask around where Twilight is (unless she knows Twilight's schedule and that she'd be there instead of checking on the flowers or the banners or something) instead of say, showing Rarity first or Rainbow who are both people she's supposedly known longer than the rest. The most likely explanation is that she wanted to show Pinkie first. ;)

And even if every single one of those pieces of evidence is completely asinine or far too mundane of examples to really clearly reveal anything, it's the only explanation I have for the scene in Over a Barrel, where Fluttershy of all people was most concerned about Pinkie's safety, to the point she jump-tackles her when she finally sees her. JUMP-TACKLE, that is very out-of-character for the normally demure and soft-spoken Fluttershy! I found it utterly adorable and cute, but it also came out of complete-fucking-nowhere! And them being friends before the show began is the best explanation I can think of. It's not like Pinkie is super-close friends with Rarity at this point, so I don't know why else she's hanging around Fluttershy, Rarity, and Twilight in Green Isn't Your Colour (at this point she's probably closer to Twilight now so maybe that too), and Fluttershy's season two episode where she explodes has both Rarity (we already know they're close) and Pinkie as the supporting cast.

Basically I feel the two were meant to be friends, or closer initially but at some point throughout all the positions being bounced around (Faust leaving, new editors/directors, new writers, etc.) this subtle but apparent fact about the two was lost, and so we end up with an episode like Filli Vanilli, where it seems Pinkie knows nothing about Fluttershy at all and just makes everything worse. Even though Pinkie's very rough handling of Rainbow Dash seems insensitive and mean, we at least know she's always been like that towards Rainbow Dash since the beginning of season one, but it's not so for Fluttershy. While Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash's friendship improved over the course of the series, Fluttershy and Pinkie's seems to have disappeared entirely. (Beyond that crucial episode five, Griffon the Brush-Off, it doesn't seem like Pinkie and Rainbow's friendship has really gone anywhere either) The best way for this is for the two of them to have an episode devoted to just their friendship. Either an inevitable fight because again, Pinkie's insensitivity and Fluttershy's bottled-up emotions, or just anything to imply that they actually are friends and understand each other because holy crap like I just said last rant, I can complain about Filli Vanilli FOREVER.

Besides I watch MLP for the friendships. Twilight Sparkle is my least favourite of the Mane Six because her episodes, especially the two-parters, are all about her ascension to a princess, which means more lore about Equestria. While that's interesting that really isn't the reason I watch the show, so I'm usually not fond of any of the two-parters unless they feature the rest of the Mane Six very prominently. The last two premières do not. In fact I watched Ponies the Anthology III, and it had a Paper Mario 2 parody-opening, with Twilight facing each villain. The first two she had all her friends, then Chrysalis appeared, which her friends had no part in defeating. After that? Sombra, which was just Twilight and Spike. The final scene was Magical Mystery Cure, where it was all about Twilight becoming an alicorn princess. I actually really do love that episode. The songs were all great and the cutie-mark switch was super interesting, but they only have one episode to cover it as well as turn Twilight into a princess, so it became a rather wasted plot more than anything. Now we have season four's opening and it was all about Twilight AGAIN (and the lore) but nothing about her friends. As far as I can tell the finale will continue this pattern and I can't give less of a fuck about it. I prefer Twilight in Testing, Testing, 1, 2 ,3 where she's arguing with Rainbow Dash. That's interesting! Twilight becoming a princess and having princess duties? I don't care. I miss the big adventure episodes where her friends all played a part. Okay granted, the pilot episodes weren't very good, but Discord's episodes being our only good and proper episode involving all the Mane Six is kind of sad. Especially since the other big episode with their prominence ALSO has the other five being fucked up (Magical Mystery Cure). Why not just a normal two-parter with the five of them being themselves playing off one another while they go save Equestria? Why does Twilight always have to make sure her friends aren't corrupted or messed up?? Why not a way better version of the pilot??

But well, at the very least the meat of the season is the slice-of-life friendship stuff I've come to adore. This has been Spotto and you've read yet another rant that is no different from others besides the wording. Hohoho.

Current Mood: sore
Crossposts: http://spotstar.livejournal.com/275008.html

So even though no one reads this blog as it's really just a personal blog for me to vent about meaningless things in the grand scheme of things, one thought likes to pop up in my head all the time. What if this blog did have many readers!? Instead of saying anything I wanted I had to be careful of potentially controversial opinions! Then I wondered if there were topics people would be tired of if I had an audience here, and I already know. People would tell me to shut up about Negima because holy crap, I can continue ranting on it forever. It really is less about analysing and me just spewing out senseless anger at how the ending was handled.

Filli Vanilli is starting to go down that path as well. But lately I've realized while the episode itself was alright (the Ponytones song is super catchy and Fluttershy/guy singing/Big Mac with a larger role is super cool, among some minor grievances I had with the episode) only like two minutes of the episode consisted of that damnable beast that considered itself Pinkie Pie! And suddenly my rage flares out and I wish to decimate and assault this episode with hateful word missiles and nukes! Oh look, I did it again.

It's just...no matter how good or decent the episode was, if it fucks up my favourite character I simply cannot overlook it. Others might be able to but I can't, really I can't. Of course that episode leads me into a huge rant about Pinkie Pie herself as you may have seen in an earlier post. Then my ideas begin being rehashed because I've pretty much touched upon all her episodes multiple times in multiple ways! Why am I fine with The Last Roundup but have a problem with A Friend In Deed? That episode had a great aesop and an amazing song, but how it led up to the aesop was dumb, but at the same time the comedic value was off-the-charts! Then Pinkie ends up having rather divisive episodes and if it weren't for season four's amazing Pinkie episodes I'd be sitting here complaining even further about all this!

I mean Pinkie's episodes are usually good, but a lot of the times either Pinkie is off or her friends are. MMMMystery on the Friendship Express was both! Oh, it is very admirable that Pinkie never suspects her friends at first because they are her friends! But her friends did eat the cake and tried to get away with it...why? Because they suck that's why. No self-control, no admitting to their crimes until they're caught, no guilt. I can see why Pinkie would be so angry but to pounce and attack them, perhaps over-the-top reactions are in-character for our prancing pink pony, but whenever I see her cause physical pain to Rainbow Dash I cringe. The poor mare, what did she deserve to have her hair pulled? Okay sure she bit off a part of the cake, but for Pinkie to assume she had pink hair hidden away on her head made her very very stupid.

So basically everyone was dumb. Unless you're Twilight. Twilight is always right! Until she isn't. But that usually isn't too often. Then you go "well it's a kids show, so this type of aesop is necessary for the kids" and then I go "but these ponies are adults! It'd make more sense for a CMC episode to have this type of moral!" Even then Scootaloo probably has more self-restraint than her fellow pegasi and Rarity. Maybe such a moral would work better if the execution of such an episode wasn't so juvenile. On the other hand Scootaloo has such excellent episodes like Sleepless in Ponyville and Flight to the Finish, so if a little filly has better, more mature episodes than you something is wrong. Again AND luckily, Pinkie has the power of amazing showtunes (A Friend in Deed), popular guest-stars (Pinkie Pride) and infamy itself (Party of One) to chug her characterization along.

Fuck, I'm doing it AGAIN. Goddamnit. Well, to fix this problem let's talk about a topic I HAVE done so before, but not to death yet. That's right, the horse lives on!

More Reasons why Weekenders is superior to Recess

Why am I still talking about this? I dunno.

But Recess was the one that got the movie. Recess got the better timeslot in comparison to Weekenders. Recess.

Recess is fifteen fucking minutes. Lunch was way more preferable because you had like half-an-hour to do anything. Sure it takes up some time eating, but you're still hanging out with friends and doing no work at the same time. Plus who doesn't like eating!? I LOVE EATING! Food is great! Recess is fifteen minutes of attempting the jungle gym or the monkey bars and skinning your knee in the process. I still remember that fateful day I went to the nurse's office. Lunch? I'D BE EATING FOOD, ENJOYING MY NUTELLA SANDWICH instead of injuring my poreclain kneecaps!

Recess? Pft. I recall crying under the oversized rather dangerous slide after hitting my head. I recall the teachers segregating the big kids from the small kids, and basically this area of the schoolgrounds was where the older kids were allowed to go, but no little kids could come. THE ADULTS did this. It wasn't some hangout only the super awesome children could be at simply because the super awesome children were always there and denying entrance to anyone beneath them, themselves, the adults did it!

So there's this Disney show on TV glorifying all that is recess. The playround monitor was this evil old woman who hated children. Our main characters were all these kids representing each stereotype. You have our hero, wearing his hat backwards because he's the super cool rebellious leader. His almost as equally awesome jock friend and their other friends the nerd, the tomboy, the dweeb, and the sensitive poet guy. I liked sensitive poet guy. He was the only decent character.

But even if the main characters had some sort of depth, the side characters were all cardboard-cutout caricatures. There's the upside-down girl on the bars. Every recess she is always there, being upside-down. Then you have the diggers with actual shovels and hard-hats. Now unless they were constantly playing in the sandbox like toddlers there was no reason for digging people to actually exist. If I brought a shovel to my elementary school and started digging holes like nobody's business I'd be dragged to the principal's office faster than I can unearth a shovel of dirt! Then you had an actual king and your stereotypical asshole prep girls.

These stereotypical asshole prep girls were so similar and had no distinction whatsoever that they all shared the same name. This is probably what infuriated me the most about this show because I ALSO share this name. Not only do I despise my name because of how common it is, a popular kids show spells out how completely common it really is and then assigns the name to a bunch of complete douchebags! Then, to drive the point further the tomboy girl secretly also shares the name but hates it so much she uses her last name!

What does that teach the impressionable children, Disney!? MY NAME IS EVIL!!!

And it is this show that gets the movie, this show that gets the better timeslot over the intelligent show, the Weekenders.

And I know why the Weekenders wasn't as successful despite its clever and witty writing. The character design isn't one to be fancied about. Everyone has big large weirdly shaped heads and their eyes are tiny and far apart. They even lampshade it multiple times in the show itself. It's too bad they couldn't have perfect facial and head proportions so they'd look like absolutely everyone else like that one movie Disney released recently about some snow queen princess person and her sister or whatever. The adults in this show weren't useless at all and the children often confided in them for advice.

But that is very uncool to kids. TALKING TO ADULTS!? Why would we do that!? Instead the kids should always be the ones who solve the problems themselves and adults are actually useless as hell and somehow function in society despite all that! Kids should become horribly rebellious because not listening to authority is the coolest thing to do! In reference to the caricatures of Recess, a particular (and very good episode) brings this up. Tish, the resident smart girl gets a B. Now usually if some really smart kid ends up getting a lower-than-average grade, they usually freak out when in reality there is no reason to really freak out. It's okay to get a B. It's a B! That's still above average! And it only happened once! However Tish didn't care, but EVERYONE else cared because they were like "IF YOU GET A B, You can't be the BRAIN! You have to be some other stereotype!!" And then they try getting her to adopt some other personality and character.

The aesop? People are three-dimensional and cannot be defined by one aspect of their selves! THIS IS GOOD! The main character isn't some super-cool rebellious leader kid! He's paranoid, neurotic, sarcastic, intelligent and hilarious! I love Tino and wish more main characters in kids media were like him. All these male characters these days have to be badass and perfect and super hot-blooded and stupid or dumb or something else stereotypical. Also all of their names are pretty uncommon so I don't run into that horrific problem Recess had. Plus they all had a great amount of diversity. Only one of them celebrates Christmas! You have ambiguious Eastern European heritage and a fucking pagan! Like holy crap!

And you know maybe a reason I liked this show so much was because it didn't deal with school at all. Oh sure there are a few plots that might bring up or directly deal with school projects or what have you, but it just deals with their freetime which is A LOT LONGER than fifteen minutes, during the weekend! The kids sense of entertainment is playing pool and games as the arcade, or sampling foreign food at the museum. This is the same stuff I would find rather fun to do because I played pool a lot as a kid and enjoyed video games. Sampling food and going to museums (assuming I am interested in the exhibits) is also something I am not privy to doing. The kids were also very normal in social status. They ran into bullying occasionally but they weren't on the bottom of the social ladder or anything; they were usually just left alone. It's not like their portrayal of the "cool kids" was particularly impressive. (usually there are more than two cool kids and that one episode where one was struck down, usually there isn't a loner cool kid...I'm just saying)

Though I did like how they portrayed the "popular" kids, where the one girl they interacted with was a complete douchebag, but the episode implied she was really the only douchebag of her clique. "They didn't get me a present for Flag Day!" Well of course they didn't you ungrateful bitch, it's just Flag Day. Her friends seemed very down-to-earth and normal from what we were shown of them even though they had like zero lines. What does this mean? That just because people are popular doesn't mean they must be complete utter assholes.

But not only did they not have to deal with stereotypical school/high-school problems, the show really focused a lot on friendship...like literally every episode. It wasn't the whole lot of them trying to overcome the evil adults or fight against some horrible bully, or defeat a tyrannical teacher, no the kids were trying to deal with their own issues within the group. Sometimes there were other plots at play, like say the career aptitude test episode or something like that, but a lot of it was friendship. The standard jealousy episode, or the two having a fight, or Jennifer Love Hewitt appearing out of nowhere. It was great!

I think the characters too, were fully fleshed out and very believable. One episode Tish was speaking like an old TV's detective because she had marathoned the show the night before or something. THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE DO! Or at least nerds do! No show portrays nerds properly at all! They just go "ha ha ha he said something smart or something specific to some really obscure hobby so we laugh!" (I'm looking at you Big Bang Theory! D<) The joke isn't Tish loves detective cop movies or whatever and it's a big part of a character, it was just written in for an episode because they could. Because people do that. They might, and it would be a one time thing, do something for that day because they were influenced by something. Like how we all talk like pirates on Talk Like a Pirate Day because it's a day about pirates. YA DIG!?

I'm sorry. The Weekenders is just so underrated in comparison to a show that really peeved me off. I heard the teacher character in Recess was really hilariously progresive though. (Like she was passing out history textbooks, but remarked that history is written by winners, so minorities get very little representation and the textbooks are likely inaccurate in some fashion or another in the process) Such a remark would fly over all the children's heads. So inevitably something about Recess must be smart or interesting, but all the things I pointed out pissed me off too much to really find the show all that entertaining.

Now both these shows no longer air. In the context of modern children's shows, I really only know of MLP. I know there are plenty of wonderful kids show existing today like Adventure Time and Gravity Falls, but I think one reason (besides the cute ponies themselves) that draws me so much to MLP is in its title "Friendship is Magic". No kids show since Weekenders has really touched upon friendship all that much that I have watched anyway. So whenever MLP touches upon friendship as a theme it is extra special to me. I don't mean in episode one and two where friendship is a rainbow beam of death that can reform or turn ponies to stone, but episodes that deal with the issue in a realistic context. Ticket Master is a largely forgettable episode; hell, I usually forget it, but runs with the age-old formula of not having enough tickets to invite all your friends, so you have to choose a few out of your group and suddenly all your friends do favours for you so they can be chosen to go to wherever it is you have tickets to.

The Weekenders also had this concept. A large reason I cared little for the episode in MLP was because it reminded me very much of that one episode in The Weekenders. In hindsight I think how both shows handled that conflict had good and bad points. Tino got so frustrated by his friends and people outside of his group giving favours he just flung the tickets at them instead and didn't take any for himself. But his friends were like "oh shit we're being inconsiderable pricks" and bring the tickets back to him. I especially liked how Tino ended up actually choosing, just by seeing who had a poster of the band of the concert they were going to. Instead of choosing someone because "hurr I like you better than my other friends" he had a pretty smart of way of deciding.

What I liked about the episode in MLP? Well, it was the start of season one's prevailing arc and is still, even if the keys in season four or the Equestria Games episodes have yet to be concluded, the best prevailing arc they'e done. So they couldn't simply just bring one or two ponies, all of them had to go for a few other episodes to even work. In the Weekenders, the concert was wrapped up in its own episode. I suppose this gives MLP the excuse so that they did all get to go, but I think that all whole is a cop out.

Tino ends up taking all his friends to the concert because his tickets were passes and not tickets, so it was all a misunderstanding. Twilight and co. went because the hostess of the party is the goddess princess of the land and can do whatever the hell she wants including purposely sending fewer tickets than needed to force a friendship lesson on Twilight--er I mean, can allow as many people as Twilight wants to go to the Gala. Either way solving the conflict by allowing everyone to go anyway seems far too optimistic for my liking, but optimistic outcomes are to be expected in children's shows so I'm just nitpicking.

Unfortunately even a show called Friendship is Magic is not always themed around friendship. Let's see, 3 was friendship, 4 was stubbornness, 5 was friendship, 6 was showboating, 7 was fears, 8 was friendship, 9 was racism, 10 was...Pinkie, 11 was organization, 12 was self-identity, 13 was sportsmanship, 14 was shitty clients, 15 was creationism, 16 was confidence, 17 was biting more than you can chew, 18 was self-identity, 19 was underestimation, 20 was secrets/jealousy...well a few of those can also be considered friendship but a majority of the first 20 simply aren't. So...hmmm. Not that the Weekenders touched on friendship all the time either, but I love that theme and always want to see more of it!

Anyway this rant is not in any way properly organized at all, so here's an impromptu MLP song ranking list!

1. Apples to the Core

2. Apples to the Core

3. APPLES TO THE MOTHERFUCKING CORE!

4. Apples to the Core

5. Apples to the Core (reprise)

6. So Many Wonders

7. Smile Smile Smile

8. A True, True Friend

9. This Day Aria

10. What My Cutie Mark is Telling Me

11. Becoming Popular

12. Bats

13. The only good song in Equestria Girls, you know the one

14. Find the Music in You (Ponytones)

15. Any other song Fluttershy sings

16. The rest

ok the music in this show isn't so clear-cut that I can rank them all properly so yeh

..........

97. every other season four song

98. Raise this Barn

99. Generosity

And here are my favourite singers in order!

1. Pinkie Pie

2. Pinkie Pie

3. More Pinkie songs please, I don't care if she already sings most of them

4. Rarity

5. Pinkie Pie

6. Apple Bloom

7. Applejack

8. Rainbow Dash, but it depends on the song (At the Gala RD solo is really good, everything else RD is meh)

9. Fluttershy lol

10. Twilight

Ideally some sort of duet with Pinkie and Rarity, with Apple Bloom on harmonic vocals and then RD getting a tiny solo somewhere. I have no idea what context this song would come about.

Wait one more thing about The Weekenders. I never understood why that show never aired on the weekends and only aired before Recess...like, the weekend is usually anticipated at the end of the week, so its timeslot was very, very nonsensical. I do not understand Disney. I hate you Disney.

Yeah that's it bye. 'been Spotto or something.

Current Mood: listless
Crossposts: http://spotstar.livejournal.com/274747.html

It is well-known around these parts that my favourite pony is Pinkie Pie. There's a plethora of reasons why someone may choose Pinkie over the others or perhaps one of the others instead and every reason is perfectly acceptable. But in a way you can say it's also very easy to dislike this pink rocket of happiness despite her best intentions to give smiles to everyone she knows. And I don't mean in the sense of how much you can tolerate an extremely extroverted individual or how well your eardrums can withstand the sheer shrieks of such a high-pitched unrelenting voice. Frankly, Pinkie Pie is quite possibly one of the most inconsistently written characters of the entire series. If there is criticism that Rainbow Dash may be too harsh, Rarity too selfish, Applejack too unremarkable, Fluttershy too static, or Twilight too condescending, then outcries of Pinkie's sometimes questionable behaviour must be called out as well.

Why I like Pinkie may not be strong a reason enough for others to like Pinkie. In fact, why I like Pinkie may be a reason that saves Pinkie for others and she is simply an adequate pony in their eyes. Her highs are so high in my mind that I can overlook her flaws and confidently say that no other pony is even close to such a pony who makes the show all that much entertaining for me. What is Pinkie Pie? Why do I, in my own opinion, rarely discuss her among other grievances I may have on this ongoing likely-long-lasting show?

Well...

Season 3 was quite a long time ago. Being a shortened season each pony most likely would only receive one episode to put them in the spotlight, so whatever episode Pinkie would get would hopefully be good otherwise we'd have to look forward to some episode eons down the road and whatever the result may be would linger in our minds until such a day arrives. Before this season, Pinkie's episodes were overall quite solid. The most infamous episode in the entire series, Party of One, is right up there. A Friend In Deed spawned one of the catchiest and recognizable tunes of the cartoon, but otherwise the rest of them were...there. Still most of the rest that likely isn't called out as the best featured some of the greatest Pinkie Pies as well. We learn in her very first episode, Griffon the Brush-Off that Pinkie was initially believed to be an undesirable pony to be around. A pony who would best be consumed in small doses, but soon we discover that Pinkie is not the near-parasite some ponies such a Rainbow Dash and arguably Twilight believed. Her sense of humour and quality of fun is quite high, as otherwise why would she be the Element of Laughter? Not only that, but she takes in account other people's feelings to make sure everyone's having the grandest of times, this being Fluttershy's well-known sensitivity that even her oldest friend almost overlooked for the sake of entertainment. Pinkie Pie was quite awesome. From her own words "I can take it, but no one treats Fluttershy like that. No One." sadly, Gilda did not seem to understand this.

Unfortunately this episode could have also given us a second Aesop, that perhaps Pinkie was overbearing or bothering two friends who just wanted to catch up. Even though Rainbow Dash didn't mind, had Gilda not been a colossal bitch, perhaps this lesson may have come to fruition. Instead the Aesop went to Rainbow Dash and how she had to figure out what type of people to lie her loyalties with. We leave the episode knowing that Pinkie is a better and less annoying pony than one would think, but she does have the capability to be clingy. This is brilliantly brought back up twenty episodes later in Party of One.

Of course before we can reach that pinnacle of an episode, there are a few that are arguably also Pinkie episodes along the way. Swarm of the Century could simply be the other ponies attempting to deal with Pinkie, but similarly to Griffon the Brush-Off, their expectations were off and Pinkie was actually a better pony than they had realized. (with again capability to cause misunderstandings due to poor communication which is brought up once again, brilliantly mind you, in Luna Eclipsed) Then there is Feeling Pinkie Keen which is more of an episode painting Twilight to be a terrible pony than actually pointing out how much better than expected Pinkie was and in my opinion not that strong of an episode. I don't really think it brought to the table anything new about Pinkie either and all it did was vilify Twilight and make her look really stupid. So...yeah.

Pinkie obviously appears in episodes where she is not the main character and most of the time she's usually contained. By that I mean she doesn't steal the spotlight from whoever the focus is in the episode and her contribution to the episode would be minor scenes, lasting a few seconds or so, or sometimes longer of comic relief. Her presence could perhaps lighten the mood of a dire situation and usually doesn't ruin that situation. Pinkie is basically used efficiently and properly in these instances. One of the best showings of Pinkie as a secondary yet necessary character in an episode is Green Isn't Your Colour, which while doesn't blow anyone's minds is an episode that utilizes every character so well and is written so satisfying that it's definitely one of if not the most, solidly written episodes of the series.

What we learn of this pink pony this time around is that she may have lingering trust issues. Pinkie is very rarely serious, but when she is serious she is definitely ding-dong diddily serious. We do not know why keeping secrets is such a big deal to her, but it is an interesting new aspect to her character. Usually the loud, cheery ditsy character is terrible at keeping secrets because they are so eager to gossip or to reveal such juicy details to others due to it being fun to discuss or something or another. But we know by now (or at least soon) that friendship and smiles are a very big deal to Pinkie and something like misplacing or betraying a friend's trust is definitely something that would take time or even ruin the friendship in the first place, thus losing those smiles and the happy times forever. It suddenly makes sense that Pinkie finds keeping secrets to be such a big deal. Her place in this episode does not overwhelm the stars, that being Fluttershy and Rarity, but is necessary to keep the conflict going and adds an interesting dynamic to Pinkie. Also it's entertaining which Pinkie as a side character should be a shining example of such.

Finally we reach the great episode that is Party of One...and everything makes sense. If Pinkie can understand Fluttershy's sensitivity, it's not too much of a stretch that Pinkie herself can be sensitive, in this case insecurities about her friendship with the others. Not only that, but as demonstrated in Swarm of the Century, Pinkie can get carried away by things and has a poor sense of communication that could clear up any misunderstandings from not only her behaviour, but from others. Finally, her trust issues that came about in Green Isn't Your Colour explains why Pinkie would be so upset that other ponies are keeping a secret from her. This episode makes SO MUCH SENSE! It's not just "OH MY GOD PINKIE WENT CRAZY AND THAT VALIDATES OUR HEADCANONS THAT SHE'S BATSHIT INSANE!" because while that scene is indeed very memorable, that's not the only reason and not even the main reason this episode was so well done!

Pinkie's mental breakdown however does spell one thing out that becomes a reoccurring theme of the series, that being whenever your cutie-mark and thus your identity is threatened, your mental state deteriorates. For Pinkie this is even more emphasized by her deflating mane. Now the fandom decided to run with this and exaggerated this reaction beyond all measure, but this state of Pinkie so affectionately referred to as "Pinkamena" only appeared once since then, Magical Mystery Cure. I'm very very glad the writers have not drilled that form of Pinkie into our heads like fans have done so because that kept the integrity of Pinkamena perfect, and only in the most dire of situations does Pinkie ever fall into such despair.

In conclusion, season one Pinkie is the greatest.

But that's not all I'm here to discuss, we now move on to season two. Here Pinkie has about two episodes all to herself and a few episodes where she acts as a very important side character. I want to point out Pinkie's role in Lesson Zero. This is the second instance in which a pony went batshit insane and I'm very glad Pinkie had the smallest role of the Mane Six in this episode. She likely wasn't included with the others in scenarios where Twilight may have had to help them due to time constraints, but it's also unnecessary to force a scenario when three examples is enough. (That being the "RULE OF THREE") Since it was unnecessary for Pinkie to be involved she was suitably written off-to-the-side, with her most notable scene having let a balloon of baskets fly high into the air. It's very subtle, but that is probably one of my favourite Pinkie scenes ever. This scene illustrates that Pinkie does not need to be domineering or an attention whore to be herself. She can even be subtle.

Well, it probably helps that it spawned one of my most favourite fanmade songs ever, but hey. (I'm well-aware I've discussed this before, but since this is my giant Pinkie manifesto, it must be included!)

Of course that brings us to Luna Eclipsed, where Pinkie's role in the story is necessary for the conflict to continue. While some people found Pinkie to be unnecessarily "mean" in this episode, this is yet again a pattern where Pinkie demonstrates poor communication skills that end up with a misunderstanding as opposed to Pinkie actively being terrible for the sake of fun. She had no idea she was making Princess Luna upset because every year for her whole life since she's been in Ponyville, the tradition was to be scared of Nightmare Moon. That was all she was doing. Rainbow Dash was also only pranking people which is a thing she kind of does, as established such forever ago in season one episode five. This is a case of intentions vs. actions, how the consequences of people's seemingly harmless actions could result in something undesirable.

Luckily Twilight was around to resolve this misunderstanding and though Pinkie once again caused an incident with her lack of hindsight, this wasn't the episode where Pinkie would learn a lesson involved in this, what with not being the main character.

We then get a break from the more zany Pinkie in Baby Cakes, which while is a fine episode in itself, was not one of my favourites as I'm not a fan of baby humour and babysitting and the whole concept of "responsibility" which sometimes feels like a forced lesson in children's shows. Still, this episode does give us a glimpse into Pinkie and how she is not merely just a fun-loving laughter-inducing machine, she's still her own person (pony?) and should be treated like so. And yet...the VERY next episode...

I really really really love The Last Roundup. Truly I do, sometimes I do in fact enjoy this type of humour Pinkie sometimes utilizes, but it does have potential to affect her character negatively. I'm going to start bringing up a particular writer named Amy Keating Rogers here as well. She's a writer well-known for writing a majority of the Pinkie episodes and her Pinkie is actually a bit different from the "normal" Pinkie we are all used to. In this episode, Pinkie's status as a side-character starts looming a bit too much. By that I mean instead of being at her corner being Pinkie like in Lesson Zero, Pinkie starts being overwhelming and obnoxious, stealing spotlight from an episode meant for Applejack (and it doesn't help that this is the episode Derpy speaks in, but I digress) which is fine actually, so long as Pinkie continues the conflict and basically keeps the episode running.

She does, but...not in the fashion that I find to be her character, after all these other episodes. Remember, just one episode ago we learn that Pinkie is actually a pony who isn't a fun-loving laughter-inducing machine. She is her own person. But in this episode, suddenly her gags start treading into territory where the humour is more important than the character. It starts off small, Pinkie surprises and scares Fluttershy which Pinkie apologizes for when Fluttershy explains. We know from a past episode Pinkie treats Fluttershy differently because of her sensitivity, so we could forgive Pinkie for this, since she did apologize. But then moments later she does it again. Why? Well because it was funny. That's literally the only reason I can think of her doing it again otherwise Pinkie is a dick. She just apologized for what she did and then just DOES IT AGAIN. What the fuck.

Later on, Rainbow Dash refers to Pinkie as a heavy-machine gun weapon type of pony, in order to coax Applejack into telling the truth. The question here is this, is Pinkie being purposely annoying towards Applejack? Or did her friends, knowing Pinkie is annoying, just tell Pinkie to talk to Applejack? You would think it would be the former, but at the end of the episode where Pinkie continues her discussion about chimicherrychangas, she suddenly keeps repeating the question like a broken record, being obviously annoying. What reason does she have to be annoying to Rarity at this point? They're both stranded in the desert and have cactus stuck in their fur. Rarity is already quite irritated, so why would Pinkie do this? The only reasonable explanation is that Pinkie ISN'T aware that she is annoying and perhaps her incessant talking is her attempt to make Rarity smile. That kind of makes Pinkie out to be really stupid to be honest because if you can't tell your own repetition of a question for likely hours on-end isn't irritating at all, you're not very bright. Once again, it implies something about Pinkie thus sacrificing character for comedy.

The reason I still love this episode however is that every other moment of Pinkie is pretty damn good. She's firing on all cylinders every other time. Her anger at Applejack is in-character because again, the whole Pinkie Promise trust issue is a thing with her, and jumping off the wagon to be captured by Rarity is one of the finest shining examples of comedy in the entire series. Not only that but the episode was filled with action with the crazy chase scene and the I Love Lucy reference. It's otherwise a fine episode with tons of content. The humour is hit and miss, but when it hits it hits with a cold hard diamond knuckle of laughter. The misses are however, legitimate concerns.

AKR returns with another episode, this time with an actual Pinkie episode. (I know The Last Roundup seems like a Pinkie one, but it's an Applejack episode I swear) A Friend In Deed...this episode could have been perfect. This could be the episode where Pinkie learns her behaviour could cause misunderstandings and ruin things, or perhaps Pinkie learns that not everyone enjoys pies in their faces or maybe she can't be friends with absolutely everyone. Not everyone is compatible with everyone. Instead Pinkie learns that some people prefer being left alone and aren't as high-octane insane as she is.

...wait, let's dial back a bit. She specifically said in Griffon the Brush-Off not to prank Fluttershy because she's sensitive. We later learn two seasons later she has a sister named Maud who is definitely nothing like her. She also was raised on a rock farm. As far as I'm concerned Pinkie was raised in an environment of Crankys. They may not have been well, as Cranky as Cranky, but they definitely weren't high-octane insane. Pinkie already knows people who would rather be left alone and don't enjoy her type of extroverted craziness. Even Twilight would rather be reading a book inside instead of having cake blasted into her face. Shouldn't Pinkie already know this?

But no, instead we waste this perfectly fine character on this lesson of all lessons and we are back to a theme often repeated in Pinkie episodes of season one. Pinkie is a pony better than we expected. This doesn't work this time around because Pinkie is TREMENDOUSLY ANNOYING. You can't have her act so negatively and then have all the ponies affected by her this episode learn that Pinkie is better than expected. That doesn't excuse her behaviour! What we learn instead is that if you want to be friends with your idol, simply stalk and hound them for three weeks but then justify it by finding their missing dog. Sure they're super relieved their dog is fine, but that doesn't mean you should stalk and hound them!

But this episode's flaws aren't magnified because it has so many songs. Smile Smile Smile is one of the best songs in the whole franchise, and it makes you feel super good. You're then conflicted at the end because Pinkie has this ability to make you happy, but then has this ability to give you a horrible, aching headache. Instead of the nice balanced lovely Pinkie of season one, we now have the very polarizing Pinkie. I had no idea how to react to this episode initially because as a hardcore Pinkie fan, I was trying to find ways to justify her actions so people would not hate her. In fact I actually don't like Smile Smile Smile as much as a lot of other people do, but thought that I might not be a very good fan of hers if I didn't like the song, so I ended up singing it a whole bunch and memorizing some of the lyrics. I still don't like the song as much, but hey at least I can sing it now!

Instead of being positive about the songs and criticizing how Pinkie was written, I was focused on how much I didn't enjoy the song. So my opinion of the episode was weird. I had it very high because holy crap, tons of Pinkie shenanigans, but at the same time she was written very differently than per usual. Cranky is a great character but I wish he was used for a way better lesson than what the Aesop ended up being. Pinkie already has a bunch of friends she shouldn't act like a rocket of sugar towards, while a brand new character would be an example of someone you don't have to be friends with, or maybe a lesson of not hounding new people in town and letting them set in first. You're not supposed to play with hamsters the moment they come home because they can die from stress. I'm glad Pinkie's pet is an absurd baby alligator and not a hamster.

Before we jump to Pinkie's next episode also written by AKR, she has again more appearances as an important side-character in some episodes. The most prominent is Putting Your Hoof Down. Considering my opinion of the awful Fluttershy episodes in season four, I've actually found this episode far better in comparison. However in terms of Pinkie herself as this is not the post for me to rant about Fluttershy, Pinkie's definiton of "assertiveness" bothers me. I may have discussed this in the post dedicated to the episode itself, but Pinkie's and Rarity's examples of assertiveness are terrible. I can see why the writer went about doing this, so it exemplifies what Fluttershy does at the end as the proper method of being assertive, but it's not like Rarity has only or even often used "manipulation" to be assertive in past episodes. Rarity is perfectly fine just being assertive by being well, assertive. She can just command ponies to do things and they will. (A Dog and Pony Show? I've never heard of it. But you know what I mean!) Likewise, when has Pinkie ever conned other ponies out of things and that is indeed an example of Pinkie's assertiveness?

No, it was another case of comedy over character, where Pinkie's an absurd eccentric offbeat character, so clearly she's Bugs Bunny, so clearly this joke makes sense and is funny. Hahaha hohoho. But otherwise the episode was quite good if you ignore suddenly everyone, not just these two as being much worse jerks as per usual. Fluttershy tearing down Pinkie and Rarity was great. It truly shocked me, so much that I rated this low because "OH MY GOD SHE MADE PINKIE CRY D<" but really, it was a very powerful scene.

Anyway, MMMMMystery on the Friendship Express.

Ugh, do I have to cover this episode? Fine.

I can simply say comedy over character and be done with it, but to elaborate, Pinkie's an idiot and this episode was bad.

Oh, I need to actually elaborate. Aghghmghmghmgh. I don't know if it's truly canon that Pinkie is a smart character, but I like to think she is, and while I know this is a kids show so sometimes Aesop are going to be super asinine (oh come on, kids aren't this stupid damnit) it just...THIS EPISODE WAS BAD OKAY.

Okay it's funny that Pinkie has that type of imagination, but it isn't unexpected at all, sort of predictable. Pinkie apparently jumps to conclusions very easily, and I guess she sort of does considering Party of One. The idea that her friends would take a huge bite out of the cake because it was SO DELICIOUS-looking means these other three have zero self-control. And Pinkie, someone who normally just eats everything (she ate the food meant for the Princess that one time!!!) never does. That is very hard to believe. When Twilight helps her discover that her friends are horrible, Pinkie's first reaction is to attack them.

Alright. Okay.

Let's just move on.

So the next Pinkie episode because I really have nothing to say about her role in premieres and finales thus far is Too Many Pinkie Pies. Pinkie is actually fine in this episode. I have no problem with her beyond maybe she's portrayed more stupid than I am comfortable with. But thanks to some new track record this might become a reoccurring theme, so there is nothing to do but to accept this unfortunate new side to Pinkie's character and just hope she'll be consistent from here on out. Anyway I didn't like this episode.

It gave me a headache. It literally did when I first watched it. There were TOO MANY PINKIE PIES and I had a sensory overload. My ears did not want the pummeling that was the FUN FUN FUN FUNS! that littered this episode. Yes, Pinkie was fine, but I just could not like the episode because I physically did not enjoy it. I can't even re-watch it. I tried doing so once while watching a reaction and I got another headache from it. I CAN'T WATCH THIS EPISODE AGAIN IT HURTS ME.

I AM PINKIE FAN. I LOVE PINKIE. YOU GIVE ME TOO MUCH PINKIE. IT HURTS.

The saying is there can be too much of a good thing, but this wasn't a good thing. These clones were obviously not Pinkie because Pinkie normally does not give me a horrible headache no matter how shrill she can be. Obviously my tolerance for Pinkie is quite high because when she is annoying instead of reacting immediately that Pinkie is annoying, my reaction is to justify all that being a Pinkie fan. I want to love Pinkie more and forever, and why would she be my favourite if she often annoys me? No, these clones are my WORST NIGHTMARE. They are caricatures of Pinkie. These clones are what Pinkie will become down the line if they continue to sacrifice character for comedy. Eventually she'll just be a husk of herself, a literal fun-loving machine that doesn't even make you laugh!

What is terribly sad about all this is that her friends also can't tell which is the real Pinkie. Sure you probably still want to do that whole paint-drying test thing because hey, maybe Pinkie isn't herself today for whatever reason. You obviously can't risk murdering the fuck out of Pinkie. Of course, that brings up the question of just asking Pinkie when everyone's birthdays are since she demonstrated just last season that she knows them all, and since all these other Pinkies can't even get names right I don't think figuring it out is that hard. And if the sheer state of being distracted can get you killed I think that is a very bad method of figuring out who is the real Pinkie. I watched an incredibly entertaining review of this episode that explains everything far better than I can by AntonyC. Click here. I highly recommend it.

It's probably significant to consider that my favourite episode in season three did not have Pinkie at all. In a majority of this season I don't believe she was characterized all that well, and don't mention Games Ponies Play. I'm not sure what happened to her in that episode. Maybe a clone escaped that day and Pinkie was back home baking cupcakes or coming up with a new song. I don't know.

At this point my interest in ponies was waning. Pinkie's only episode physically pains me and her presence in the rest of the season is either irrelevant or downright terrible. But there was one saving grace and that was the very controversial finale of Season 3, Magical Mystery Cure. As annoying as it may be that Hasbro is forcing a princess down our throats for the sake of marketing to little girls, (yeah I loved princesses so much as a kid omg!) I realize now that this was the best they could have done with what they had...and actually, it's really impressive.

I mean every song is AMAZING. They only had 22 minutes to turn Twilight into a princess and give us a finale, and using a musical to rush through instead of being a horrible mangled mess of pacing was quite clever. Even though it is a shame we didn't have more of the Cutie-Mark Confused ponies, what we did have was actually really, really good. The writer did a fantastic job. The only people we can blame for this episode are executives who wanted the whole thing in the first place and only gave them one episode to set everything up. After thinking through of how Pinkie has been characterized in season four, M.A Larson has become my favourite writer and also why I find season four lacking because he's written zero of the episodes. Where is he? Did he leave!? Where is that great magnificent writer!?!?

But anyway Pinkie was done very admirably in this episode. At first I was disappointed that she had the smallest singing role of them all because I am very adamant about Pinkie's role as the bard in this ensemble. Singing is part of her character damnit! But what she had was impressive and I really cannot complain about A True True Friend (except maybe the repetitive lyrics) because how it sets up Pinkie returning to normal with the townsfolk shouting her name as the climax is wondrous. The sheer feeling of euphoria and just "YES!" when they shout her name is a bask of jubilation for every Pinkie fan and then some! Yes baby! PINKIE PIE IS BACK! ALRIGHT! Tell yo' friends!!! SUMMON PARADE! YEAH! I LOVE PINKIE PIE!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Ahem. But before that happened, the return of Pinkamena also made sense. If Pinkie isn't bounding around being happy and providing smiles, she has no reason to have that big fluffy mane powered by ponies' happiness. Also seeing Pinkie vulnerable and sad gives us a sense that yes, Pinkie is a pony and not again, a fun-loving laughter inducing machine. She's a true character. She has feelings and emotion and values and goals and all that stuff. So very happy Pinkie was like so in this episode and while I will happily bash season three, the finale did do her justice for once, and well, at least that's all I usually ask for in episodes. A really well-done Pinkie Pie.

This leads us to this season. I haven't mentioned every single episode Pinkie has a role in, be it major or minor. It would take far too long and she's usually rather inconsistent episode-to-episode depending on the writer, so I have no comment on that. Apparently before Pinkie Apple Pie a lot of people had an outcry about Pinkie's behaviour to start this season. Admittedly for half the season I have been very sleep-deprived watching the episodes. I've either stayed up till 7:30am to watch the stream or woke up early at 7:30am to watch the stream, so largely I have been very lethargic watching these episodes. I'm pretty sure my opinion of episodes are lower thanks to my mental state at the time, but it's not the only reason. (I really do think Season Four is a dip in quality) But I haven't really found Pinkie too problematic to begin season four. It's partly due to how I am sadly fairly used to her inconsistency now, and my love for Pinkie Pie is me looking out for really good examples of her character that might result as her being a side-character, or an episode dedicated to her.

Pinkie Apple Pie. How I love thee. How many ways do I love thee? Let's count.

Since most of the cast isn't around, we don't have Pinkie being overwhelming and stealing attention from most of the cast. In fact you could argue this episode is more an Apple Family episode than anything else. Even if Pinkie's name wasn't in the episode title she'd still work in the episode because she doesn't actually take the spotlight from the family. She's there for comic relief yes, but her behaviour is necessary, so that at the end when Applejack and co. are ashamed of their own behaviour, we realize through that hilarious road trip that Pinkie doesn't care. They act like a family anyway and it's the best she's ever been in (I wonder what that says about her own family). They never conclusively tell us if Pinkie IS an Apple, but we do get hints that yes, they may be related. Both ponies learn a lesson from one another (even if Applejack's lesson to Pinkie is sort of rehashed, she should already know she's part of AJ's family since the cider episode, but she probably needed to be reminded of such to cheer to up due to the uncertainty of their kinship)

This is the Pinkie I and certainly most Pinkie fans love. She's not obtrusive and not obnoxious. She's Pinkie Pie. This is all we really ask from her character, but thanks to the sad progression that is comedy over character this Pinkie Pie may become rarer indeed. Once again Pinkie has an instance of vulnerability and I want to say humanity, but these are ponies so I can't use that term, when she actually feels sad that she'll never find out for sure if she's part of the Apples. Yes it is funny when Pinkie isn't affected by normal things, like going through the Scariest Cave of Equestria™, but at the same time that doesn't mean Pinkie Pie is affected by nothing. When we are reminded that Pinkie is not a fun-loving laughter-inducing machine, we are humbled as viewers and have the ability to empathize with her character. She's not just there to make us laugh believe it or not, but it is her role and she was written perfectly in this episode.

It's not since Party of One have we seen such a satisfying Pinkie Pie.

I always tell myself never to have high hopes, especially in media. YOUR EXPECTATIONS WILL BE DASHED SPOTTO, AND ALL FEELINGS ARE DOOMED TO NEVER RESULT. In Rainbow Falls Pinkie was the screechy Pinkie. In Three's a Crowd Pinkie is the stupid Pinkie so again Pinkie continues to be consistently inconsistent, oh well. So long as Pinkie isn't a major side character or the main character that type of Pinkie I can overlook, I suppose. It's a sad state of affairs, but just how it is.

Pinkie Pride is considered by many to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest of episodes in the series.

And that is where we will have to agree to disagree.

It's similar to Too Many Pinkie Pies in that yes, Pinkie Pie herself is fine. She's characterized admirably. I had no qualms about Pinkie herself. My only problem is how serious she takes party-planning. We've never seen this from her before because whenever she is seen planning a party she seems to have a lot of fun doing it and her talent at organizing these things seem to be well, a natural talent. Pinkie taking it super seriously seems to come out of nowhere. She then gets mad at Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy for not also taking parties seriously, when they were simply making harmless remarks or just didn't know. Also hello, the party is FOR Rainbow Dash it's not about you, Pinkie! There is no need to be crazy angry at her! Anyway, I've read many bad fanfics and probably written many more through my adolescence many a time. The OC who comes in and gets ALL the love while being a better version of that character is one of my most hated stereotypical plots.

But this time it's Weird Al, so all is forgiven.

Uh, okay. I'm sorry for not being as hyped about Weird Al as everyone else, but that doesn't really excuse the plot to me. Yes, it's probably really easy to explain this all away. Cheese Sandwich is the absolute perfect character for Weird Al. He fits completely! It's true! It's more like they wrote a character for Weird Al as opposed to writing a character for Weird Al to play and that's lazy to me. It's like Discord. He's Q. That's it. That's his charm. His charm is that he's a character from some other franchise. Cheese Sandwich's charm is that he is Weird Al. That's not good writing. That's like a really popular reference making everyone laugh.

Isn't it kind of like the Simpsons constantly having guest stars and people complaining that their show is depending on guest stars instead of having intelligent writing? Yes it's only happened a few times in pony, but I'm not going to praise them for it. Discord amuses me yes, but his episodes aren't the best to me and they never were. His episode in season four was pretty bad actually even if he saved (whatever I can still remember of anyway) the season four premiere for me.

But you know what? Pinkie was written really well this episode even if I don't like her friends abandoning her for better Pinkie, even if I don't like how better Pinkie somehow has the money to buy Rainbow Dash a roller-coaster or how better Pinkie has a much more enormous cannon. It probably stems from the fact that I am a very very biased Pinkie fan and I don't like it when Pinkie isn't as unique as she once was (there's this other dude with a CHEESIE Sense!? What is this madness!?) and again it has A Friend In Deed syndrome for me...I'm trying to force myself to like the songs.

And I just don't. What kind of Pinkie fan am I!?!? I don't like Smile Smile Smile! I don't like her musical episode! I AM TERRIBLE! I should change my affiliation to Applejack and go hide in a hole! But really, if people love this episode and see it as one of the greatest ever, I get why they do. But I just cannot get over my own feelings for this and why I don't like it, so sadly it is not top tier for me. On the bright side, Pinkie is written well, so it's not like we have stupid Pinkie or screechy Pinkie this time around.

Nah, that's AKR's next episode.

Which doesn't exist.

Nope. It doesn't. My mind has blocked out all existence of it.

God damnit I have to discuss it again don't I? Fah.

FILLI VANILLI. In this episode Pinkie Pie falls off a cliff, is crushed by the boulders and is never seen again. All rejoice. HOORAY!

No?

Son of a bitch.

Let's just get it out of the way, I really really like PinkieShy. I don't really ship that often in ponies mind you. Season one Pinkie was the best. She was the friend you'd want, who would make you laugh but understood your sensitivities and gave you your space when you needed it. It explains why Fluttershy jumped Pinkie in Over a Barrel! They had reason to be friends. I don't care for the romance in this ship at all either. I don't want to read them making out or god forbid beyond, I just REALLY like the friendship potential of the two and when you cannot find friendship fics, adorable shipping fics will have to do.

So this episode basically threw that all away. And invalidated everything that was Pinkie in season one. The only way I can see this episode being saved is if in a future episode, Pinkie once again damages Fluttershy severely, but learns her lesson so she NEVER DOES THIS EVER AGAIN HOLY FUCK. If this was the very first episode of MLP I was ever shown, Pinkie never would have been my favourite character. Ever. Pinkie's characterization is not just her being stupid or screechy or anything of the sort. She's actively malicious for the purposes of COMEDY. BECAUSE TRAUMATIZING POOR FLUTTERSHY AND MAKING HER CRY MULTIPLE TIMES IS SO FUNNY. HA HA HA.

I fucking hate this episode. I thought Daring Don't was bad. I thought Games Ponies Play was bad. I thought Too Many Pinkie Pies, which physically hurts me, was bad. No, this episode is the worst episode in the entire series. As far as I'm concerned it never happened. Even if we remove Pinkie from this episode it would be bad. Why would Fluttershy have stage fright!? She's been a supermodel! She's sang in front of an audience in the Hearth's Warming Eve pageant! Why does no one notice she's singing from a barrel or out the window!? Why is Big Mac staring at her butt!? HOW DID THAT GET PAST CENSORS!? WHY IS FLUTTERSHY NOT REALIZING SHE IS SHAKING HER BUTT!? IS THE MUSIC THAT FUCKING GOOD!?!?

Hold on let me breathe.

So as a person whose favourite character is Pinkie Pie, whose second favourite is Fluttershy, and whose favourite friendship is between the two of them, you ruined all three!! HOW!? HOOOOW!??!?!

I remember how happy I was when this writer was coming back for season four. They wrote some of my favourite Pinkie episodes. Now I'm just...sad. Just disappointed beyond all measure. I can't believe this episode exists. I can't even read PinkieShy stories anymore. I just can't. It's gone. It's ruined. My initial reaction was my usual reaction for anything with controversial Pinkie Pie, try to justify her behaviour. But I can't. I can't do it. Pinkie Pie was so bad in this episode. And from my analysis of her episodes and appearances up to this one, I should have expected it. That's what season four has been so far, Pinkie Apple Pie, quite possibly the best episode of the series, and Filli Vanilli, a piece of garbage that never should have existed.

I'd rather mediocrity than a roller-coaster like this. (and Fluttershy's other episode did NOT HELP. I pray for Fluttershy's episodes. Hopefully one day she gets a good one.)

Welp, let's move on because there is an episode that actually spurred this rant in the first place. Pinkie's potential and actual family episodes have been so good this season and this next one is not an exception. Her sister is RAAAAAAAAAAD! Maud Pie ladies and gentlemen!

She seems to remind people of multiple people, like goths or Daria or Raven from Teen Titans, or basically a character who gives no fucks. It's not so much the dry humour that made me enjoy the episode (because if it was just the dry humour the episode would be kind of uh, dry) but Pinkie's reaction to all of them as well. So Maud tells Twilight a poem and Pinkie's grinning and sliding around on the library ladder like it was the greatest poem in existence, but it's just...grey rocks. The sheer absurd contrast between the two and the reactions of the rest of the Mane Six is fucking hilarious. Sisterly relationships is definitely one thing My Little Pony has hit the nail on. Almost every episode themed around sibling relationships has been spot-on, brilliant and always always heartwarming. Maud is teetering the border of being a complete douchebag or just someone who doesn't care to being really amazing.

For example she shows up and doesn't hit it off with the rest of them at all. This can be insensitive, indirectly insulting Rarity's fashion sense by choosing a dish rag, undermining the importance of fauna to Fluttershy by staring at rocks over fascinating spiders, somehow not being competitive and thus shocking Rainbow Dash, etc. but in the end even though her interests are so different from the rest, including Pinkie Pie she is still a very devoted and loving older sister to Pinkie. She keeps the rock candy necklaces despite disliking candy. The ending was brilliant! The character is brilliant! The fact that Pinkie is loved even by a pony who by all means shouldn't really like this type of pony at all, says something. It's super heartwarming.

While the Aesop of the episode can be many things, having Pinkie Pie sorta fail (and kind of not really, I dunno) to get her friends to adopt her sister as one of them may teach the children that if people don't click, they don't click, so forcing people to be friends is stupid. On the other hand, it also teaches the children that just because someone is different doesn't mean they're being a douchebag or mean to you because they show no interest in your interests, they're just different. It's a refreshing take on the usual "what we learned about friendship" kind of thing at the end of the episode because it can be many things, and thus has depth.

There's still a few "comedy over character" instances, like Maud being able to toss a rock and cause a huge atomic explosion bringing about a significant shockwave and indirectly getting everyone soaked. Still, she's not showing up Rainbow Dash if she isn't faster than her. Yes the rest of the Mane Six (well like two of them) are capable of saving Pinkie from her insanely hazardous obstacle course near the end there, and they were about to run to go save her, but they stopped short when they noticed that Maud reacted even faster than they did thanks to familial instinct to protect stupid little siblings, and her ability to drill into rocks could be her cutie-mark talent kind of thing. Pies are weird like that I say. Earth ponies are also known to be stronger than their other pony counterparts, so there's that.

Basically Maud Pie was so good I wanted to watch some reviews of it and such and went through a pony phase a bit again thanks to the quality of this episode (Pinkie episodes have been real good this season. She's overtaken Rarity for the "quality-episode" department, which she had a monopoly on during both seasons one and two. Too bad her latest episodes aren't as deep and interesting as they used to be, even if they aren't too bad and are adequately entertaining. [Rarity Takes Manehatten was a bit too obvious trying to force the generosity over me @_@ and I don't generally like the key episodes so I really hope the finale isn't a massive disappointment, unless Flutterbat returns then all is forgiven...I mean what?] ) and due to that, churned up this humongous rant you see here. Which I'd call the Pinkie Manifesto, but season four isn't even over yet so it's just me wanting to type an absurd amount of text and hopefully you are not overwhelmed with the sheer amount of paragraphs.

I had a lot to say okay?

Anyway there was a quote going around Tumblr for a bit where you can like something but still realize it has problems. So basically if someone criticizes very often, it doesn't mean they hate the show and should stop watching because they do not enjoy it. They like the show, but they see problems and complain so that maybe the problems will improve and the show itself will improve. This has given me a better understanding of those who criticize, and the argument of "if you don't like it stop watching" has been dropped from my normal line of defenses. (Unless their criticism is baseless or is blind hate, then they can go fuck themselves) I love Pinkie Pie a lot. You can tell because I wrote all this, but I realize her character has tons of problems and I want her to improve as a character so she doesn't become universally hated or cause MLP to be cancelled or something. In this way, I can indeed understand if people do not like Pinkie at all, but hey, it ain't stopping me from liking her.

Even if she made poor Fluttershy cry multiple times. ;___;

RIP in peace headcanon. ;__; RIP in peace my OTP. I will miss you.

This has been Spotto, over and out.

Current Mood: exhausted
Crossposts: http://spotstar.livejournal.com/274481.html

Okay I just need to vent.

I disliked Pinkie's behaviour this episode. But there is ongoing debate on whether or not she was in-character or what have you doing this. Yeah, Pinkie can be insensitive and misses social cues often. People also point out examples of her behaving in such ways before and I'd be all fine with this. Pinkie isn't some perfect super best friend with zero flaws after all.

The problem is...as insensitive and oblivious she can be, it just seems far too overboard to act that way more than once in a single episode to a friend Pinkie herself pointed out was super sensitive a million episodes ago, who was visibly upset with tears bubbling down her face. The first time when Rarity twapped her on the head? Sure, why not. But Pinkie doing this more than once on Fluttershy who was actually trying to RUN AWAY from her friends just seems like way more than just "innocent insensitivity". She tried to fix it by repeating that she was great, but it was like Pinkie was replaced by one of her clones today. THIS is the same Pinkie who defended her in Griffon the Brush Off? THIS is the same Pinkie who sang a song to encourage Fluttershy over the chasm when others like Rainbow Dash were vocally frustrated and impatient with her? THIS is the same Pinkie from Too Many Pinkie Pies who grew upset when her clones were making her friends miserable? THIS is the same Pinkie from Pinkie Pride, only two episodes ago who realized Rainbow Dash wasn't having fun at her own birthday party!? If she can tell her friends were unhappy in those situations how did she not tell that a sobbing wreck of a mess that is FLUTTERSHY, was unhappy!? That her behaviour was only making everything worse!?

I can see Pinkie being insufferable and unsympathetic in situations like Luna Eclipsed, when she was merely having fun and wasn't there to witness Luna's discontent (or even if she did, that Luna's emotions weren't obvious and outward like flowing tears and so she didn't know how to read that Luna was upset with her behaviour) or in A Friend In Deed, when Cranky is also running off from her but he only ever yells at her and responds in dry, sarcastic wit which Pinkie can't even understand anyway. (Though I still thought Pinkie in that episode was a bit much, I can accept it) But when your friend you yourself point out is extra sensitive is bawling her eyes off right under/in front of/staring straight at you, PERHAPS YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING WRONG.

Pinkie isn't THAT obtuse, Jesus.

But I think it isn't so much they overlooked Pinkie's character or what have you this episode. Even if they exaggerated Pinkie's behaviour for comedic effect, the problem wasn't so much Pinkie being exaggerated but FACES and REACTIONS being exaggerated. The animators are having tons of fun with extra-goofy faces this season, so they probably thought giving Fluttershy the most crushed and despairing of all expressions would be HIRARIOUS and make their cartoon more appealing for a wider audience, like that large periphery demographic they have. Unfortunately they sacrificed a bit of character/realism/continuity/idk with their attempt at producing more comedy. If Fluttershy just reacted uneasily then Pinkie not understanding what she was doing was hurting her would've made so much more sense. This entire thing is just a rehash of a joke from Green Isn't Your Colour anyway, when Photo Finish also described the judging, seething eyes of the audience as Fluttershy stepped out on stage.

Also one more thing, even though Fluttershy has stage fright and you can whisk the obvious discontinuity away by claiming all the musical segments are just musicals, and the few times she did perform as having friends with her there (in the Hearth's Warming Eve play she did display anxiety beforehand), how do you even explain that time Fluttershy was a model!?! She was known by EVERYONE and was walking on stages constantly, marketing drinks and being stuck on covers. I guess she isn't technically singing but that is a LOT of attention in front of many crowds, and she isn't even next to her friends while doing this! Fluttershy must really care about Rarity's opinions and feelings to do all that shit, like holy crap.

I hope at the very least, since apparently we are getting more ponies for a while there will be a Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy episode, where Pinkie acts like herself as always but hurts Fluttershy's feelings in the process. Then Pinkie will learn a lesson about being insensitive and no one will ever have an excuse to write Pinkie in this fashion again. And no, it would be far too bloody obvious to make this a Rainbow Dash episode. It MUST be Pinkie. She shouldn't be allowed to get away with her behaviour scott-free all the time. It also MUST be Fluttershy. The Mane Six improving their own friendship is always a plus, and while Cranky is cool I thought they missed an opportunity by using him and not any of Pinkie's existing friends, then perhaps using Cranky in a "you can't be friends with everyone" lesson. Sometimes I feel certain writers treat Pinkie like an entity who can do no wrong no matter how annoying she can get. It doesn't work that way either.

But she's still my favourite. Otherwise this episode was kind of weird and structured oddly. I don't have much opinion about stuff like Flutterguy and such, so there you go.

This has been Spotto!

Current Mood: annoyed
Crossposts: http://spotstar.livejournal.com/273934.html

Boulevard of Broken Dreams

such cute ponies, such frustrating ponies

can't shut up, won't shut up

i'm too tired to think of a title

The Ultimate Pinkie Rant: there is no pie, only crust

Filli Vanilli

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July 2024

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