Don't get involved or I'll drown you too!

He pulled a sword on me first.

And I'll drown the both of you! Want to go first?

Ladies please,there is no need for violence!

I'm a ghost. I can't drown, you fool; I'm immortal!

This is not violence! This is pest control!

edited 21st Sep '17 4:53:08 PM by fredhot16

for butchering the quote (shame!) you are henceforth banished to magic kindergarten

Uh... -points to next troper- he did it.

O.K, I tap four White mana and two Black mana to play "Descend Upon the Sinful", which allows me to, ahem, "exile all creatures".

BEGONE FROM THIS THREAD, YE PANCAKES!

edited 2nd Feb '18 4:37:23 PM by fredhot16

Or else it's just reverted back to usual silliness.

edited 21st Sep '17 5:05:18 PM by Rainbow

Wait a minute, I thought mana was blue. :S

XD

edited 21st Sep '17 5:03:23 PM by Demetrios

It usually is, but MTG has 5 colors of mana (plus colorless).

Although in its original usage Mana would have either been black or white, depending on which of two facts I think I know are wrong.

Well, the closest to a physical representation of mana, at least.

So, on a lark, here's the current rankings of who's been in focus for each episode this season thus far.

• Rarity: 5 episodes - Forever Filly, Honest Apple, Fame and Misfortune, Campfire Tales, It Isn't the Mane Thing About You.
• Starlight Glimmer: 5 episodes - All Bottled Up, Rock Solid Friendship, A Royal Problem, Fame and Misfortune, To Change a Changeling
• Applejack: 4 episodes - Honest Apple, The Perfect Pear, Fame and Misfortune, Campfire Tales
• Rainbow Dash: 4 episodes - Parental Glideance, Fame and Misfortune, Campfire Tales, Daring Done
• Pinkie Pie: 4 episodes - Rock Solid Friendship, Not Asking for Trouble, Fame and Misfortune, Daring Done
• Twilight Sparkle: 3 episodes - Celestial Advice, A Flurry of Emotions, Fame and Misfortune
• Fluttershy: 3 episodes - Fluttershy Leans In, Discordant Harmony, Fame and Misfortune

edited 21st Sep '17 7:55:35 PM by TobiasDrake

You miscounted with Starlight.

Yeah, that was because I forgot to count Fame and Misfortune as her episode too. She was originally at four, then I realized she was in focus for that one as well and bumped her up by Rarity. But I forgot to change the number.

Based on the episode synopses for the rest of the season, everyone but AJ and Rarity have one more episode in focus coming, with a universal +2 coming from the two-parter at end of season. As such, I estimate the season will end at

• Rainbow Dash: 7
• Rarity: 7
• Pinkie: 7
• Twilight: 6
• Applejack: 6
• Fluttershy: 6

And then Starlight will be at either 6 or 8, depending on if she's included in the two-parter. I don't want to assume either way.

This really highlights the issue I've been having with the season. In the last three seasons' episode counts, each character generally had between 8 and 12 focus episodes. The only time the count's ever fallen to 7 were Fluttershy and Starlight in season six, and 6 is positively unheard of.

EDIT: Also, if these estimations pan out, Rainbow Dash will unofficially be the new Main Character. As of the end of season six, she's tied with AJ for most episodes.

Well, for the seasons counted. I really need to go back and add 1-3 into the mix sometime.

edited 21st Sep '17 8:03:24 PM by TobiasDrake

• shrugs*

I don't really have a problem with it. The show started pivoting to them being in more of a teaching position in season 4, so it only makes sense to give secondary characters more focus. Just seems like a natural progression to me.

'Sides, common for a show to expand focus after a while. Like, Steven Universe had a four-parter centering on fucking Lars earlier this year. You know. Lars. That fucking guy.

edited 21st Sep '17 10:35:18 PM by Pannic

Oh yes. Lars.

What an asshole.

On the one hand, I'd agree with that in theory and this season has had some good episodes focusing on some side characters. Maud got a really good episode, the one with Flurry Heart was adorable, I suppose the one with Thorax was alright (I didn't like it as much as everyone else for some reason), Discord finally got an episode where he wasn't an asshole the whole time, and the princesses episode was pretty damn good (even though the fucking Map was bullshit as usual).

But then on the other hand the show is still supposed to be about the Mane 6 and, well...it's not working as well this time around. There's less character interaction going around this time between them as Tobias has pointed out, and for me personally there's a general feeling of things being played out a bit between them. I've half-jokingly said the best episodes of this season have been the Starlight ones, but there's a reason it's half jokingly, there's a bit more they can do with her (and I'm all for Tobias's suggestion that they do a spinoff with her, nine more seasons of Starlight, a hundred years of Starlight, Starlight forever and ever, Starlight and Trixie Adventures Dot Com, forever and ever). Now of course I can also volley that there's a fucking hell of a lot of potential combos of characters they could use but for whatever reason haven't used as much. How often has there been a Rarity and Pinkie episode, for example? Or, like, maybe actually develop Starlight among anybody in the Mane 6 who isn't Twilight. I guess they sorta did that with the episode with Maud but that one was mostly focused on Pinkie.

I personally don’t mind that season 7 has given more focus episodes to side characters, in fact, I’ve enjoyed those a lot. I think I’ve enjoyed it for two main reasons, both of which have to do with my own interests and tastes, both of which I can understand if other people don’t share them. The first is that my own personal stories tend to involve an Ensemble Cast with Loads And Loads Of Characters, so the idea of both new and previous side characters being promoted to “Mane Cast” status is something I enjoy. Yes, it started out as the Mane 6’s story, but I never felt like they needed to stay in the spotlight for the entire run of the show (I assumed that it would naturally branch out to bring more characters into “main character” status), although there are still a few types of stories I’d like to see done with them before the show ends (ex. a Pinkie/Fluttershy focus episode and a Mane 6 bodyswap or role reversal episode that DOESN’T involve switching Rarity and Applejack, because that’s too obvious and was already done in “Simple Ways”). In fact, I had hoped (and predicted) that once Twilight became an alicorn, maybe she would get her own student or group of students to teach, so I’ve really liked that dynamic with Starlight Glimmer. As a bonus, Starlight Glimmer’s friendship with Trixie ended up putting Trixie in the Rescued from the Scrappy Heap category for me, since before the season 6 finale, Trixie was my least favorite character in the entire show (I couldn’t find her even enjoyable as a villain because she was too pitiful to Love to Hate, and the hype she got from the fandom annoyed me). The second reason is simply that as a former sociology major, I’ve enjoyed the worldbuilding added by things like the Cutie Map and learning about in-universe fiction (Daring Do), folktales and history. The premise of the season 7 finale sounds great to me, since I love the idea of figures from historical Equestria coming back to life. I didn’t even know those characters were from or going to be in the comics, same with Somnabula (who I assumed was a G1 reference) and the folktale heroes, since I’ve only read some of the earlier comics, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy their appearances in the show for their own sake.

Am I the only one amused by how many people/tropers still call Celestia and Luna goddesses since they keep getting Worfed in battle, other winged unicorns have appeared since, and they're shown to be as rounded and fallible as anyone?

Who still calls them goddesses?

No, I also find that funny.

Celestia and Luna are certainly formidable by ordinary pony standards but have never demonstrated any kind of ability to write home about. Shit, they were both anticlimactically punked out offscreen by a Changeling horde in "To Where and Back Again".

They're assumed to be significantly more powerful than they regularly show themselves to be mainly because of the sun/moon feats. I'm comfortable just calling those outliers, personally. I think it's far more likely that they're simply working the ends of a pre-existing "Move This Specific Celestial Body" magic effect than actually using their immense galaxy-bursting magical power to push them by force.

The difference between operating a tank by driving its controls versus getting out of the tank and pushing it with your muscles. Nothing Celestia and Luna have ever done suggests that they could actually push the sun/moon with their muscles. They're just driving them.

edited 22nd Sep '17 8:12:45 AM by TobiasDrake

@Tobias: I like that "Celestia and Luna are driving the sun and moon" analogy! I think it also fits with what was shown when Twilight tried to move them when she got the extra alicorn powers in "Twilight's Kingdom". It looked like she was moving them around in the manner of someone who Drives Like Crazy!

My guess is that the fandom assumed Celestia and Luna to be in-universe goddesses because in many cultures that have mythological explanations for night and day, there are often specific Moon and Sun deities. Thus, the assumption was that any being that could move the sun and/or moon would have a deity-like status and powers. However, there are also mythologies where deities are not invincible and can be killed or captured, so far as I know, so saying that Celestia and Luna have goddess-like power doesn't necessarily mean that they are invincible.

edited 22nd Sep '17 8:45:22 AM by Rainbow

Post of the Day #1947