My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Live Reactions & Discussion)

Hey Tobias are you ever going to liveblog Legend of Everfree? You said you'd do it the day after the new season premiere but that plan clearly fell through so...

I am. I'm even looking forward to it, which is unusual for an EQG movie, because of how much I liked Friendship Games. I just need to find a weekend that isn't quite so busy.

As it is, I'm only even managing to get the new episode reviews up the following day.

Here's hoping Legend of Everfree ends with the protagonists and antagonists playing Yu-Gi-Oh with each other. Serious, fate of the world is in your hands, Yu-Gi-Oh!

Damn you, Rainbow Rocks! You don't summon the Winged Dragon of Ra and not follow up with a six against three children's card game duel. You just don't do that!

edited 27th Apr '17 2:11:27 PM by fredhot16

So change of plans. Immediately after I posted that, our network at work crashed and we all got sent home early. I stepped outside and it was raining. If this isn't a sign from the Egyptian flood god I am weirdly affiliated with THEN I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS.

Legend of the Everfree is happening now!

Guess that makes you...''Hapi''.

Because...you know...Hapi is the Egyptian god of floods and he sounds like "happy".

I still stick to the pun but execution could have been better.

edited 27th Apr '17 2:09:34 PM by fredhot16

The Legend of the Everfree, Part 1

So we're just jumping right into it with the girls heading off to camp. Moving right along.

"I can't believe I overslept!" Really? I can. You're an introverted nerd. Your type is usually up late into the night reading their books or playing their video games or whatever, greeting the rising of the sun with an angry hiss and then flopping back over. I'd be surprised if Pony Twilight is typically up before 10 too.

"Midnight Sparkle?!" Midnight Sparkle? We are not seriously calling her evil form that, are we?

Also, I liked that Twilight was haunted by "Midnight" - ugh - in the mirror but then she turned out to be real so that's, like...

Wait, is this a dream sequence? Because all of my criticisms are going to be totally invalid if this is a dream sequence.

She's vaporizing all the other girls. Yep. This is a dream sequence.

"Midnight Sparkle's a part of you!" Okay, I really cannot take that name seriously. I think it's the Sparkle. They changed the part of Twilight's name that's already kinda ominous but left the pretty pretty princess element intact. "Midnight Sparkle" just sounds like Twilight's bitchy older sister who likes rave parties and whining about how much attention Twilight gets.

This OP isn't bad. On it's own, it's pretty cool. Doesn't quite capture the majesty of some of the previous ones. If I had to rank them from best OP to worst, I'd say:

1. Friendship Games
2. Equestria Girls
3. Legend of the Everfree
4. Rainbow Rocks

F*ck your shitty recap songs, Rainbow Rocks. You got a lot of great music but your opening does not show it.

"Cathy Weseluck as Spike" Wait, what? How long has Spike been voiced by a woman? Have I seriously not noticed that for this entire show?

"Gloriousa Daisy". Wow, what a shitty name. Unless...wait, she's not a displaced hell-god, is she?

"Timber Spruce". That's, at least, not a terrible name. Timber Spruce, something something forest camp. It makes sense.

"Last year has all been a bit too much for my tastes." Wait, you're not saying that all three movies constituted only a single school year, are you? This f*cking timescale. It haunts us even in the human world.

Upon arrival at camp, Sunset Shimmer discovers a delightful new game: Awkwardly Touch the Introvert◊. I could ship that but the problem with Sunset Shimmer being a grown-ass horse woman doesn't go away just because the other person isn't Flash Sentry.

Judging by her face in that picture, Twilight's aware of this issue as well.

Flash awkwardly flirting with Twilight. ...I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I'd be totally cool with this Twilight hooking up with Flash. That'd be cool. Problem is, it's ruined by the baggage that is the original shitty Flashlight subplot. He's flirting with her because she's a convenient parallel version of the grown-ass horse woman he's actually interested in. The grim specter of Flashlight looms overhead, preventing his awkward fumbling from being sweet or endearing.

"I'm Gloriousa Daisy, your camp director!" ...so we'll put a "Maybe" under "Hell-God?"

"Think of me as that awesome guy who should always be invited to fun things." I like Timber Spruce. I think we're going to get along great.

"Arts and crafts! ...my mom needs new potholders." Even in the human world, Beefslab remains best background character.

"Anyone else picking up on a little tension between Gloriousa and her brother?" We're seriously going to call her Gloriousa for the entire movie, aren't we? Not Glory, not Daisy, not Dai-Glo. Gloriousa. God, that name is so pretentious that it makes The Great and Powerful Trixie be like, "Girl, you need to dial it back a couple notches."

"Even though some people thought it was a little impractical since the sundial can't be used at night." Luna, shut up. Just...just shut up. This kind of comment makes sense coming from Pony Luna because she's the Princess of the Night. You're an assistant principal. Getting pissy about night time being snubbed just makes you sound like an emo brat.

So tent assignments are Raripie, Appledash, ...uh...Sunlight?, and Fluttershy's with Vinyl. Does she count as one of the group? Because I feel like she should. She was super-important towards defeating the Dazzlings even though she couldn't actually sing in the band. I say Vinyl's an honorary member of the Humane Seven.

Timber is flirting with Twilight and that's awkward. Jesus, everyone wants into Twilight's pants today. She must be wearing some amazing perfume or something.

I think he's supposed to be around her age. His sister is a million-year-old evil risen from the depths of the abyss to torment the souls of the living so it's kind of hard to make out, but I believe the counselors are meant to be teenagers.

And he's not a pervy horse-woman, so that's a plus. And he's not interested in her because of her resemblance to a pervy horse-woman. There are no pervy horse-women involved. So that's good!

But he's also an authority figure over her and that isn't kosher. Still not as bad as being a grown-ass horse adult, but I'm sure there has to be some kind of rule about camp counselors not macking on their students.

So I suppose that makes Timber Spruce the least shitty option available to Twilight right now.

"I need something!" "Filthy Rich! So nice to see you!" ...is...is he her sugar daddy or something? Because that was really creepy just now.

"It's soooo...relaxin'." Yes. Yes, he is. Based on her reaction, it is probably not voluntary, but Filthy Rich is clearly extorting sexual favors from Glory. Man, this is—

TEN MINUTES?! We're only TEN MINUTES IN?! This movie has gone to a LOT of weird sexual places in ten minutes. Holy shit, we really ARE at camp.

"Just as long as you don't put ME in one of your fancy pants outfits. ...you're gonna, aren't you?" "Noooo. Yes! Don't worry, it will absolutely speak to your personal sense of fashion." In one simple dialogue exchange, Equestria Girls presents a more compelling Rarijack than their pony equivalents have managed in six seasons. Huh. Human Rarijack. I can get behind that.

"That was weird back there, right? That guy Filthy Rich?" "...huh? Oh, I guess so." Sorry, Sunset. Twilight's too busy worrying about all the weird advances she's received today, yours included, to talk about the weird and probably ill-advised advances made by a sleazy businessman towards the devourer of sins.

"That wasn't your fault." That was totally her fault. Principal Cinch might have pushed her but Twilight made the choice. Just like you did. Do not turn this into Oppression Olympics, Sunset. You'll win, but you'll leave Twilight feeling like you just don't get her and potentially wound your friendship in the process. Your problems being shittier don't make her problems less valid.

"You guys coming or what?" Is Rainbow seriously making rounds to make sure everyone in their social group is in attendance? I love this weird leadershippy version of Rainbow Dash. More and more, the human counterparts are taking on identities of their own and it's awesome.

Sunset, don't downplay "ponying up". You and the others polymorph into new forms, gaining the ability to fly and shoot rainbow lasers of friendly annihilation. Levitating some objects is downright trite compared to that.

"How did you do that?" "I don't know! Maybe I didn't! Maybe it's her." ~.~ Twilight's going to Neurotic herself into a split personality, isn't she?

Did Twilight seriously just Meet Cute into Timber? These movies are f*cking obsessed with the Meet Cute. It's not that cute.

...I don't understand what is happening as we zoom away from them. Timber yanks off Twilight's life vest and then Twilight punches him, but it's done playfully so I don't think he's sexually harassing her. What the hell am I looking at, writers?

"So you're saying I just need to get over her." "Kinda, yeah." Sunset, you are my goddamn hero. Thank you. Thank you so much. This might actually qualify you for Best Pony. You have slain the abysmal demon that is Flashlight and given Flash the kick in the ass he needs to stop wasting his life mourning those precious couple of hours, maybe, spread out over the last year in which he got to be in the presence of horse royalty.

Seriously, dude. It's weird. Move on.

Rainbow rallied the f*cking crowd to get support for AJ's dock idea. Leadership Rainbow is a leader and it blows my mind every time. Now I want Princess Twilight to come back and visit just so she can spend a weekend with her, learning what being in charge actually means.

"Purple and burgundy, darlings. The same color family!" Y'know, Rarity's personalized horror stories went over a lot better when it was Pony Rarity chilling with her friends. Kinda makes you appreciate in retrospect how good of friends the actual Mane Six are, that they can be scream and laugh at each other's poor attempts at storytelling.

"Uh...that was a terrifying story." "Yeah, I'm terrified she might try to tell it again!" AJ totally tries to save face for Rarity and Rainbow ruins it. Yeah. I can definitely back Human Rarijack.

"It's time I told you about the legend of Gaea Everfree." Ooo, that sounds important and plot-related. Which means this is probably a great place to take my first break, so I can come back on Gaea's legend.

Uh... I would forgive you for not knowing that if you'd only seen the show but... all of the previous EQG opening credits also said that.

._. I was busy noticing how six ponies are played by four women in the previous movies.

The same VA who does Mayor Mare, actually.

And also the voice of Cybersix. You know. In case you have any interest in obscure Canadian cartoons based on Argentinian comic books.

But he's also an authority figure over her and that isn't kosher. Still not as bad as being a grown-ass horse adult, but I'm sure there has to be some kind of rule about camp counselors not macking on their students.

Yay! Someone else on the same page as me about that!

I actually knew who Spike's voice actor was before I watched the show

In case you have any interest in obscure Canadian cartoons based on Argentinian comic books.

The important question is, which language is it in?

The cartoon is in English.

The comic is in... Spanish, I guess? That's the national language of Argentina. It was never officially translated into English, though there are some fan translations floating around.

From what I've seen, the cartoon is much... different than the comic. And considering how mature the cartoon is, that says a lot about the original comic.

edited 27th Apr '17 6:23:37 PM by kegisak

c'est dommage

Well, I'm reasonably positive that if you wanted to, you could find a french dub. There's veeeery little that aired in Canada that didn't have both. Heck, half the cartoons I grew up with were imported from France in the first place.

Legend of the Everfree, Part 2

This story about Gaea Everfree raises so many more questions than it answers. Timber's grandparents built the camp? So he's here because it's just hereditary to be running it? That erases any certainty about what age he could possibly be.

Where are his parents? If this is a family camp, then the rest of the family should be here? Did Glory devour their souls, being obviously Gaea Everfree the way she is?

Does Gaea know how shitty her name is? She's named for the primordial deity of the Earth, the lover of Uranus with whom she spent a great many eons mothering the Titans. Kind of a big deal. So that's cool. Except someone just glued "Everfree" to the end of her name and made her a small-time forest spirit in some patch of nowhere.

"Why? It can't be real." The f*ck it can't. You polymorph into a magic pony person and shoot friendship lasers because a parallel version of you happens to be important to a land of magic, pretty horses. You get to shut the f*ck up about what can and cannot be real.

"Gaea Everfree could be some creature that got booted from Equestria and ended up in this world!" Rainbow ain't wrong about that possibility. Life is hard when magic horses use your home as a cosmic jail for folks they just don't want to f*cking deal with. This probablyt ain't the last time these girls are going to be on the receiving end of Celestia's Someone Else's Problem policy.

Also, Rainbow Dash is allowing herself to be visibly afraid in front of her friends. She's not blustering. She's not trying to look cool. She's freaked out and she's comfortable admitting it. It is insane how much more mature she is than her pony counterpart.

"Here I am. ...over here. ... I'M ALWAYS HERE!!!" Okay, THAT was cool. I loved that.

Also, Sunset waking up in a karate pose raises so many questions. Just...so many. She reacts to being abruptly woken up like a shell-shocked veteran. Why does she have this reflex? Why did she spend the years training her body to wake up ready to defend herself against an assailant before she'd even opened her eyes? Who were you, Sunset Shimmer, before you were banished to Canterlot High?

I mean, we know Celestia has black ops squads. The possibilities are endless.

So the levitation magic is clearly being caused by Gaea Everfree. I don't know why Twilight and Sunset still think Twilight's doing it.

"You don't think it was the spirit, do you?" "No. It was me." No, it was the spirit. Nice to know the human Twilight's as egotistical as the pony version, though. Everything's always got to be about her.

"Spirit! Show yourself! The Great and Powerful Trixie commands it!" Trixie, the f*ck are you doing with your hands?◊ Because it looks like you're trying to bribe an eldritch spirit by offering to massage its taint.

"It used to be so simple. It was a world I understood." There is a clearly visible trail of magic goo in the water. You are not really about to sing a "Pity Me" song about something that is clearly not your fault, are you?

Okay, I respect that they're trying not to have Twilight undergo lightswitch development like Sunset did, but this is too far the other direction. She's beating herself up over shit that isn't her fault rather than being genuinely remorseful for the shit that was. She's become a self-sustaining pity singularity.

Like, I don't even get the impression that she actually understands what she did wrong. She's "othered" Midnight Sparkle. As though she's this sinister other person lurking in the shadows of Twilight's mind, yearning for release and not a consequence of Twilight's actual choices that she made out of her own interests and desires.

She's not actually trying to improve in the sense of recognizing her own personal flaws and seeking to overcome them. Instead, she's narcissisticly latched onto the narrative of being a repentant monster struggling to suppress its evil nature. Twilight was totally the villain of the last movie, but she isn't a fundamentally bad enough person to warrant this much self-hate.

Her struggle is neither noble nor tragic. It's just ego. I take it back. Sunset needs to Oppression Olympics the shit out of her. Girl needs some perspective so she can get over herself and start actually working on her flaws.

Also, I hate this song for being really good and having some amazing visual effects exploring the dichotomy of Twilight and "Midnight" - seriously, that f*cking name. I want to hate you, song. I hate everything you stand for. Why must you be so awesome?

"I've never told that to anyone. You must be special." What, you never told anyone that you wanted to live in a town when you were younger? That doesn't really seem like a deep, personal secret. Twilight, run. He's playing you.

"And not just because you have a tree branch in your hair!" And making physical advances. Twilight, run.

"I guess we could help Twilight deal with the magic stuff a little later." What. Sunset, do you really not find his, "You must be special," line to be even a little bit creepy? F*cking horses, man.

AJ has magic strength and Rarity shoots crystal projectiles from her hands now. This is getting really weird. It's clearly related to Gaea based on that streak of purple crystals, but now I'm starting to wonder if she's empowering the horse girls rather than simply lashing out randomly.

Pinkie gained the power of sprinkle grenades. It's no party cannon but it's something.

"Okay. Why don't you lay off touching stuff for a while." ...that's probably advisable, given that she might be possessed with the spirit of Twilight Sparkle's F*cker Explodes spell.

So it's clear at this point that everyone's gaining the superpowers their pony counterparts have. And also Rarity can make crystal projectiles for some reason. No idea what that's about. Pony Rarity has never done that in her entire life.

"I've got this!" Glory keeps saying that. Like this is her first time actually handling the camp. She is totally a hell-god, isn't she? She's Gaea Everfree. Being a camp counselor. For some f*cking reason.

"Sunset said something at camp is causing the other girls to get new magic. I think it's Midnight Sparkle." Oh for f*ck's sake, Twilight. You are seriously plunging new depths of willful event reinterpretation. Just...I can't even look at you anymore. I'm going to go stare at something for a few minutes.

Goddammit, not that!◊ Why is that still in my other tab?

Ahhh, JT's birthday commission reminds me of a happier time in a happier place where I don't want to strangle this character. All is well. Okay, movie. You may proceed.

"She's still part of me! I can feel it. And I think her magic is infecting my friends!" ...

It really is a lovely birthday commission. Very sweet and not at all rage-inducing. It's nice to be a part of a fandom that doesn't fill me with murderous desires against fictional characters.

"Oh well, now I get to eat it!" Don't eat the paper, Pinkie. Just the marshmallows.

"Twilight, there's no Midnight Sparkle. There's only you." Thank you again, Sunset Shimmer. You truly are my shining star in this movie. You deserve a goddamn medal.

"Timber? I'm so glad it's just you!" This face◊. Just, this face. This face is exactly how I feel about this subplot. I don't hate this the way I hate Flashlight, but it's still creepy.

I was worried Sunset would get sidelined with this movie's increased focus on Twilight, but she's managing to be best character despite it.

"Come on. I know a shortcut back to the tents. *takes Twilight's hand*" You know what, I should just let Sunset do this review.◊ She's already proving very talented at it.

I like that Sunset's not leaping into action just yet. I feel like there's more to this. She found magic pixie dust or some shit pouring out of Timber's pockets but, like, that doesn't actually explain anything. Sunset's theory is that he's sabotaging the camp, but how is he sabotaging it with magic pixie dust that gives everyone superpowers? You don't just buy that shit at the corner store.

I still think Glory is Gaea Everfree. He's trying to cover it up or something. She's probably judging him to see if the camp is still worthy of remaining in her forest.

With that, I feel it's a good place to take the second break. This feels like a transition point, moving into the third act, so this would be the place to do it.

You know, this reminds of a quote from Star Wars book by Matther Strover. Strover's not a Star Wars author but he's written some Star Wars books and I really like them. I would have read them anyway back in my "Star Wars Fanboy" stage (I've mellowed to "Star Wars Nerd") but now, I would recommend them as good books people should read, even if they're not Star Wars fans. They're not just good Star Wars books, they're good books in general. O.K, enough pumping him up, I'm just leaving the quotes down here because I believe it's apt for your complaints about Human Sparkles's here. This one's from the novelization of Revenge of the Sith.

"You remember the dragon that you brought Vader forth from your heart to slay. You remember the cold venom in Vader's blood. You remember the furnace of Vader's fury, and the black hatred of seizing her throat to silence her lying mouth—

And there is one blazing moment in which you finally understand that there was no dragon. That there was no Vader. That there was only you. Only Anakin Skywalker.

That it was all you. Is you.

Only you.

You did it.

You killed her.

You killed her because, finally, when you could have saved her, when you could have gone away with her, when you could have been thinking about her, you were thinking about yourself...

It is in this blazing moment that you finally understand the trap of the dark side, the final cruelty of the Sith—

Because now your self is all you will ever have."

Also, I think Trixie's plan is to defeat the spirit by getting it arrested. Trixie ain't of age, you know?

Edited by fredhot16 on Feb 27th 2022 at 9:58:29 AM

That is some damn fine writing, there.

Evil is not a monster that lurks in the hearts of men, waiting for a moment of weakness so that it can reach out and take control. It is a choice. The product of our flaws. The consequence of our actions. It is what we do, not because we were too weak to resist, but because we wanted it.

Evil is not a cause. It is not a motivation. It is not a driving force. It is an effect of choices made by people.

Well, I'm reasonably positive that if you wanted to, you could find a french dub.

Well if it's just a dub, where's the fun in that? Besides, I gave up on French and decided to learn Spanish instead.

You really liked my "Trixie as jailbait" joke, didn't you? What age IS she, anyway? 15? 16?

But in all seriousness, yeah, I have to agree. I thought Strover was a pretty good writer back when I was an idiot and now...well, I haven't reread any of his books but I still think they're good. Maybe I should review them?

Thankfully, I'm willing to spread the Strover gospel by pointing out that four of his Star Wars books, Shatterpoint, Traitor (the New Jedi Order), the book I got that quote from, and Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor, are all on the internet as free pdfs so if you want to read them, I highly insist you do. I'm just speaking from memory but all of these books are just great. You won't regret it, I promise.

I kinda recommend that last one because in one of the last scenes of the book, Stover shows the essence of what it truly means to be a Jedi. Well, if you're a Star Wars fanboy.

Wait, I know what this is. I understand Midnight Sparkle. I've seen it before.

There's a reason why police generally try to keep mystery cases away from the press until they actually have a culprit in hand. It's also one of the reasons why a confession of guilt is not considered suitable evidence to condemn a suspect. High-profile mystery criminals bring all sorts out of the woodwork. People show up volunteering false confessions. Some even believe them.

That's what Twilight's doing. She's traumatized by what she did that day and she's invented this character of Midnight Sparkle in her mind as a coping mechanism for her guilt. Kinda like the Tantabus, sort of. I mean, that much is self-evident. She's having schizophrenic hallucinations. That's not something that just happens to healthy, emotionally-stable people.

But just being haunted in her dreams isn't enough for her. So when the events at Camp Everfree start to happen and there's no clear source for why, her mind distorts the evidence to create a falsified narrative of how it's totally her fault 'cause she's the worst person in the world. Not because there's any actual reason to believe it, but because she wants to. She craves the responsibility. She's desperate to be the guilty party.

Because deep down, she wants to be punished for her crimes, and her subconscious is willing to invent new ones in order to get her to that point.

So we have someone wrestling with PTSD struggling to discern reality from fiction in a place where reality itself is actually unraveling. That's some deep shit right there. As long as the film stays that course and doesn't reveal that Midnight Sparkle is, like, a real thing that exists, I can actually be kinda proud of it for going there.

edited 27th Apr '17 8:11:38 PM by TobiasDrake

I haven't seen the film, but does that happen?

It's been a while but if I recall correctly, there's a Battle in the Center of the Mind to defeat Midnight Sparkle. Whether or not you want to take it literally or just as a metaphor for overcoming a mental block is up to you.

Seeing as how Sunset's power is some sort of empathy magic, I'm inclined to interpret it as the latter.

I did not walk away from that movie with the "Is Midnight Sparkle real?" definitively answered for me.