My Little Pony: The Movie (2017)

Well considering Griffonstone is essentially a failed state (economic collapse, no apparent central government, no one wants to maintain anything...), maybe it's some sort of Protectorate function.

"You think we're gonna fall for this again? I don't know what scam you're working with Capper and the rest of your friends." "…f…riends…?" I love how disdainfully Tempest says that. Like it's some terrible expletive and she's trying to weigh how offended she should be by its usage.

"Stop playing me. A Sonic Rainboom? That's not a real thing. …is that a real thing?" Well, that depends on whether you're watching the early seasons or the later ones.

"After all that you've done for us, consider it a thank you." What's interesting about the allies the team assembles is that while everypony helps with each one, there's one specific pony who kinda takes ownership of each new friendship they make. Capper is Rarity's. He enjoyed chilling with the others, but she's the one who makes him legitimately remorseful for the treachery he's presently engaging in.

"We don't need the Queen of the Hippos. We need the Queen of the Hippogriffs!" I feel like this confusion could have been avoided if Celestia had said "Queen Novo". She's supposed to be pals with Novo, so it's kinda awkward that she references Novo like she's some foreign dignitary who Celestia only knows by reputation.

What's even weirder is that nothing ever comes of the Hippo confusion. It never goes anywhere. The manes find out their mistake before anything occurs through which it might actually matter and then it never comes up again, save for a Brick Joke during the credits. The Queen of the Hippos mistake is narratively pointless. What makes this especially glaring is that it could have actually been useful, as I'll explain shortly.

"Heeere's Verko!" Here's another awkward Grandparental Bonus for you: the Johnny Carson Show, which aired from 1962 to early 1992. Talk shows from half a century ago are big with kids today.

Though I suppose that's not entirely fair. It's possible your six-year-old might get this reference if she's seen Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining", a nearly 40-year-old horror film based on a Stephen King novel.

"You were going to SELL US?!" "I knew it!" Nothing like that negative reinforcement to make a crisis of faith worse.

"What tricks do you know, my little pony-wony?" Yeah, while Capper seems like he's done this before, Verko does not. Verko is an idiot. I mean, it was just bad luck that he did this to a pony as powerful as Tempest but, like, even Rainbow Dash, AJ, or Rarity could probably have f*cked him up just as bad.

I love that the ponies thought the windmill outside would be a good plan. That mook is actually doing them a favor when he stops the blade. They could have made it onto the roof from where he stopped them and avoided the catastrophic chase scene that's about to ensue. Instead, Rainbow Dash and Twilight start pushing the windmill harder, deliberately causing the chaos that nearly kills everypony.

Also, I love that Spike rides Applejack through this action scene. AJ also bumps Rarity to keep her crossing once they get out on the tightrope, while Twilight goes down to catch Pinkie Pie - followed by AJ lassoing the two of them into cover. Of the six other members in this group besides her, Applejack assists four at some point during this escape. The only two she doesn't directly assist are Rainbow and Fluttershy, both of whom can fly and were never in any real danger.

Not sure why Spike teleports off of AJ, though. He remains firmly on her back throughout the escape, right up until Rainbow Dash pulls the tightrope, at which point he's suddenly trailing in the back of the group. Spike is briefly imperiled when Pinkie Pie tries to bounce on the tightrope, but manages to cling tightly to the rope while Pinkie plummets. However, there's no reason he should even be placed in momentary danger because he's supposed to be on AJ's back.

"No need for violence. They're headed…they're headed East to Black Skull Island!" This is where it's weird that the Queen of the Hippos thing amounts to nothing. Capper feels guilty about Rarity helping him and wants to pay her back, so he makes up some bullshit about Black Skull Island. I feel like this should have been where the Queen of the Hippos thing paid off; he tells Tempest they're after the Queen of the Hippos and sends her on a wild goose chase into hippo territory.

"What do you think, Twilight? Should we just ask them to take us?" "Last time we trusted somepony, he tried to sell us!" Once more, we see Twilight's crisis of faith emerging. I would say Capper broke her ability to trust, but she didn't trust Capper either. Once again, Twilight challenges the way her friends and she would normally handle a situation like this, and once again she is ultimately proven wrong in the end.

"I think we tie 'em up." "Nah, we clip their wings!" "Nah, we SCAR 'em! …emotionally…." You know, I've been thinking about this. These pirates? They're pirates. Rainbow Dash gives them the courage to step up and be pirates again. Are…are we sure that's a good thing? I mean, it's good for Equestria, but in the long run, is it a good thing that our heroes gave a band of murderous thieves the courage to go rape and pillage again?

Listen to them talk here. The Storm King's book just says to toss them off the ship. Presumably that would kill any stowaway that couldn't fly, but it's still just hucking them off and being done with it. The pirates, on the other hand, wanted to f*cking torture them. These guys? These are bad guys. They're bad guys who help retake Equestria, but they're still bad guys. Not reformed bad guys. Not bad guys who see the error of their ways. Just straight up bad guys.

The villains of another story, lending a hand to help the heroes of this one.

"Whoa whoa whoa! So you were about to toss us overboard and you stopped for a lunch break?!" Well, yeah. They're so desensitized to murder that they literally don't see anything unusual about it being one of their standard 9-5 job responsibilities.

"So you're delivery guys?" "And gals. These uniforms aren't exactly doing us any favors." I love how unapologetically feminine Captain Celaeno is. She's an amoral badass pirate captain, but she's also vain about her appearance. Her peg-leg is blinged out in emerald and she wears a dapper golden breastplate that highlights her curves. Once she breaks free of the Storm King's Patriarchal grip on her crew, she's aggressively feminine while still being aggressively badass.

"Rainbow Dash, this really isn't a good time for a…" "…song." This is absolutely a good time for a song. Rainbow Dash's song is literally the entire reason they don't wind up being tossed overboard. Captain Celaeno's crew makes up five of the seven helpers who show up to retake Equestria and it's all because Rainbow Dash, unlike Twilight, never lost the faith in music, fun, and friendship.

Like, Twilight seriously rolls her eyes and storms away in disgust as her friends are spreading the magic of friendship and changing lives. By this point, she has so thoroughly abandoned the Magic of Friendship that she can no longer even tolerate being in its presence. Her character has now completely regressed to the pony who first came to Ponyville on the day of the Summer Sun Celebration, whining about crazy ponies wanting to make friends all the time when she has Serious Business to take care of.

"We rescued our treasure and stored it away." "Saving those gemstones for a rainy day!" …rescued. Is that what you're calling it now?

I love the image of Captain Celaeno's airship unfurling its colors for the first time in ages. The bright rainbow of colors contrasts with the bland, generically dark stormclouds to serve as a visual metaphor for the way the manes have brought joy and color back into the pirates' lives. This whole sequence is easily one of the best parts of the film. It's perfect.

Of course, Rainbow Dash does get overly excited and Sonic Rainboom their location away. She messes up on the landing, but the philosophy she represents is still proven right over Twilight's "F*ck these people, f*ck musical numbers, and f*ck the Magic of Friendship" position.

"So cool!" "Yeah, of them to alert us." How does Tempest know what a Sonic Rainboom is? Or that Rainbow Dash can perform it?

So Tempest's ship fires a grappling hook that smashes through the ship's wall into the hold for boarding. Twilight and the others are in the hold. You know what would have been a hilarious play? For Twilight and the others to climb the chain and steal Tempest's ship while she was busy threatening the pirates.

Also, on the subject of Captain Celaeno's unapologetic femininity, why does she have boobs? Her breastplate has a pair of clearly visible boobs molded into the metal. It's not excessive like Boob Plate, but there's a distinct brassier-like structure on the chest.

Bird boobs aren't a thing.

"We have to get off this ship before they tell Tempest we're here!" "We helped them get their mojo back. They're not gonna give us up." What's interesting about this moment is that Twilight ultimately gets what she wants - Twilight usually does - but Rainbow Dash is actually proven to be right once again as we'll see shortly.

"Now I'm going to count to three and if you don't tell me where they are, your ship is going down." This, specifically. Tempest gives the pirates a clear ultimatum: surrender the ponies or I blow up your ship. Celaeno's response to this is to tighten her grip on her sword and prepare for a fight. Rainbow Dash has so completely inspired the crew that they are now ready to fight and die to protect the ponies.

But Twilight never sees this. With a mutter of, "I've got this," she ejects her group into the sky without so much as talking to them about it, utterly convinced that the pirates cannot, must not be trusted and that her friends have nothing of value to contribute. So far as Twilight's concerned, the only person whose input matters anymore is Twilight Sparkle. It's her friendship festival, she's the one Tempest wants, the responsibility to save Equestria is all on her shoulders and nopony else's. It's all about her.

It's kind of amusing that after all that, they wind up going overboard anyway. But this time, it's not because Captain Celaeno's crew threw them over on the Storm King's orders, but because Twilight threw them over on her own.

"Quick thinkin', Twilight!" Of course, Twilight's escape plan does wind up working out, sparing her from ever having to realize how fundamentally wrong her assumptions were. It's not a problem yet because it worked out for the best. No, it's the next time she decides to screw her friends and act on her own initiative that things really get bad.

"Now…about your betrayal…." This is a really weird scene, given that Captain Celaeno's crew and Capper all turn up just fine later. Like, Tempest blew up their ship and then I guess she gave them a lift down to the ground and was like, "There. Blew up the ship. Now we're even. Have a nice day!"

It's really weird that she only blasted the ship but let the crew and Capper go free. What the hell happened offscreen?

Also, while we're on the subject of how weird this scene is, remember Captain Celaeno's sword that she was gripping earlier? Yeah, it's gone now. Suddenly, all the pirates don't have any weapons so that they can be helpless for Tempest's attack. This is really glaring because of how the camera actually focused on Celaeno's sword like half a minute ago.

"I have nothing. The bad guys have won! I'm so sorry…." This is my problem with how the movie uses Rarity. It has her daintiness and drama queen tendencies down but it misses how strong she is. In this moment, Rarity gives up and accepts defeat because stairs are hard. What's even more insulting about this is that Fluttershy is ahead of her on the staircase. This scene is actually asserting that Rarity is physically more frail than Fluttershy.

This feels like a Fluttershy joke, not a Rarity joke. It'd even be funnier if she was the one giving up in defeat on the stairs because she can fly and didn't even need to be using the stairs in the first place.

But with Rarity, it just feels wrong. Rarity's not a delicate flower. She's a martial artist. She goes on prolonged business hikes in the mountains. She should have no problem with these stairs.

This isn't the only time Rarity's presented like this, either; just the most glaring. In general, the movie treats Rarity like she's sorely ill-equipped for adventuring, having her go into fitful panic attacks and needing the others to help her keep up. That she touched Capper's heart is basically the only thing keeping Rarity from being The Load, which just isn't right. In fact, one of the reasons Rarity's so great is because she comes from a character archetype that would normally behave like this and doesn't.

There are a lot of great things about this movie, but Rarity's depiction is abysmal.

"Something bad happened here." I know, right? Griffon society f*cked up so hard that the hippogriff city collapsed just from sharing a name with them. It's honestly quite a spectacular feat.

"G-g-g-g-ghost town?!" See, at least Scooby-Doo has reboots and shit so this is actually a reference kids would get.

"She's gone!" I love how just before the drain pulls the team underwater, Pinkie tries to blow bubbles just for the fun of it. Little details like that are what make Pinkie's character work.

"I didn't make these bubbles!" "Then who did?" That's actually a very good question. The movie implies that Princess Skystar did, but that raises more questions than it answers because she never again does anything to suggest she can cast magic spells and stuff. Is she a spellcaster? Do all hippofish have the ability to produce air bubbles? Is this some never-explained function of the bubblefish they later play with?

Also, if Skystar was fleeing in terror from them, thinking they were servants of the Storm King, why would she suddenly come back and give them all air bubbles?

"PRINCESS SKYSTAR!!! What have you done?!" I love Queen Novo's voice.

"We're looking for the hippogriffs. Do you know what happened to them?" "Well, of course I know. I'm the Queen; I know everything." As mad as Novo gets at Skystar for giving away their origin story, she kinda just slipped up contextually here. Twilight asked if she knew where the hippogriffs went and Novo replied by saying, "I'm the Queen." The context makes it sound like she's saying, "I'm the Queen [of the Hippogriffs you're asking about]." Which turns out to actually be a correct assumption, but probably wasn't what she was going for there given that she's trying to keep that under wraps.

"The hippogriffs did live on Mount Aeris." This is another fakeout that seems wholly unnecessary, like the "Queen of the Hippos" thing. The group gets to Mt. Aeris and the hippogriffs aren't there except two minutes later it turns out they totally are there. They didn't have to do anythign special, this wasn't some big mystery. The movie's just like, "Whoops, no hippogriffs, guess you'll have to figure something out OH WAIT HERE THEY ARE NEVER MIND."

Also, as an aside, Viking's wife Birdy was woefully disappointed with this development. She loves mermaids to death and was excited about the prospect of seaponies. Finding out that the seaponies are just hippogriffs temporarily disguised was a huge let-down for her. She disparagingly calls them "hippofish" now."

"Let me get this straight. When the Storm King came, you just abandoned your entire city and fled?" Much like the ponies of Equestria, the hippogriffs didn't even try to fight. They fled in terror from the paper tiger's noise-making capabilities. His mooks should have sabers so they can rattle them menacingly while slowly marching around.

"Hey Applejack, I'll race you to that coral!" This is something the show's been missing: AJ and Rainbow Dash being competitive with each other. They haven't done that in ages.

"With this, we could transform everypony at home into something powerful enough to face the Storm King's army!" It's funny to think of how one-sided that battle would have been if they did manage to, like, transmute all the ponies of Equestria into dragons and eat the Storm King's paper forces.

"You can't just hide down here trapped forever. There's so much you're missing!" Like what? Since you've gotten here, all you've seen is smog, malice, and destruction. Name one thing that they're missing out on down here that doesn't come from Equestria. Seriously, Novo's domain is the most fun, colorful, and likable place the group's seen since they left Equestria. Compared to Klugetown, Seaquestria is goddamn paradise on Earth.

"I mean, aside from my friends Shelley and Shelldon." I like how everyone else was already giving Skystar a WTF face but after this moment, something seems to click in AJ's mind. Her eyes open up wide, then her jaw slowly closes. I like to think she was like, "The hell is she on about?" but after seeing the shells she was like, "Wait, wha—oh. Oh! She's messed up in the head. Okay, that makes sense."

That said, it's another thing I love about this series that nopony actually makes fun of Skystar for her shell friends. She's not crazy or, like, a dangerous loon waiting to happen. She's lonely. It's not funny, it's sad, and that movie treats her through that lens. A lot of other shows would be making jokes about what a whackadoo Skystar is, but in My Little Pony, she gets nothing but sympathy.

And it's really appropriate that Pinkie Pie is the one who bonds with Skystar, because she's been in this same position. She understands how much that loneliness can hurt.

"Oh, no. No no! Pinkie's right." And there it is. Twilight manipulates her friends into creating a distraction so that she can straight-up rob the seaponies. As of this moment, she is worse than episode 1 Twilight. This is the path Twilight could have gone down but for the Magic of Friendship: ruthlessly pursuing whatever she thinks will win the day without an ounce of empathy.

"And if there's anypony who can cram a lifetime of fun into a blink of an eye, it's Pinkie Pie!" This is something Viking noticed the last time we watched the movie: Twilight rolls her eyes as she says this. She's actually making fun of Pinkie while foisting this fake Friendship Mission off on them. She doesn't believe a word she's telling them about what they should do here.

"One small thing is big, it's true; you did this all for us!" This song is super shippy. Skystar and Pinkie spend like half of it staring into each other's eyes, and on this line, Skystar nearly kisses Pinkie.

"Well, I guess there is one small thing we can do." And there it is. Twilight finally went too far. Once more, her friends were actually changing lives, getting through to others, and forming alliances as they do. But Twilight ruins everything.

"This is why we don't bring strangers into our home!" And what's worse, Twilight is now actively reinforcing paranoia and distrust. After all the work her friends put into getting through to the hippogriffs, Twilight's betrayal vindicates Novo's initial xenophobia. In this moment, Novo was right not to trust. She was right to be suspicious. She was right to reject their offer of friendship, because Twilight Sparkle is a lying, manipulative thief unworthy of trust.

"What were you thinkin'?! I mean, stealin' their pearl?!" Once more, I like that AJ's the one who leads the criticism against Twilight. For the second time, she puts herself in direct opposition to Twilight because she thinks Twilight's doing wrong, encouraging the others to follow suit. The difference between then and now, however, is that this time, AJ's right.

"It was the only way to save Equestria." "Except it wasn't. The queen was going to say yes!" And there's the rub. Twilight's been so busy trying to fix everything herself, she hasn't even noticed the effect they were having on the people they met. And now it's too late.

"WE stuck together. WE were going to get the help we needed. The only thing that stopped us was YOU." "Well, I'm doing the best I can! It's all on me. I'm the one Tempest wants. I'm the last Princess!" It all comes out in this scene. Here, Twilight's mindset is laid bare. This is all about her. Everyone around her is important only in how they impact her journey. The universe revolves around Twilight Sparkle.

"You're also the only one who doesn't trust her friends!" "Well, maybe I would have been better off without friends like YOU!" And there it is. The final line crossed. Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, no longer sees value in her own friends. I love that her horn actually sparks as she says this; it's a visual effect reminiscent of Tempest's broken magic. A visual representation for the fact that now, at rock bottom, Twilight has become Tempest. The Princess of Friendship is dead.

"Pinkie…I…." For, like, three seconds. Even Twilight recognizes how far she's fallen here, but it's too late to take it back now. That awkward moment where you realize, after having already lost your temper, that you're the bad guy here. I get that.

Bit of an awkward time for a Shipping Goggles moment but I do like that AJ walks away slower than everypony else. As the group's walking away from Twilight, Pinkie and Rarity lead followed by Rainbow, AJ, and Flutters. But AJ loses ground to Fluttershy; she's barely even moving at all, and Fluttershy easily starts to catch up to her.

It makes me think that this is harder for AJ than anypony else.

"I ruined everything. There's no chance to save Equestria now." A moment of near clarity. Twilight's correct that she ruined everything, but what she won't find out until later is that there's still a chance and it's all because of the great work her friends have done.

I want to know how the cage that drops down and grabs Twilight works. The top part of it comes down and closes around her, but where did the base come from? It just magically appears beneath her as the cage starts to rise.

"SPIIIIKE!!!" "TWILIGHT!!!" I love how Spike just sets that mook's arm on fire and that's the end of that. The mook runs away trying to bat out the fire and is never heard from again. The airship leaves without him. I hope he's okay because this island doesn't have anyone living on it at the moment.

And that feels like another great spot to take a place. This is the end of Act Two. The heroes are at their lowest, the villains have all but won. There's nowhere left to go but up.

edited 15th Jan '18 3:22:18 PM by TobiasDrake

I'm honestly amused by just how upset the Princesses get at Twilights proposal. Like, how DARE she suggest the other princesses contribute to the festival? Though I guess it probably has more to do with making light of important natural processes.

Celestia's politely worded "Hell no!" is great, though.

On Capper, the movie kind of brushes over this, but yes, he is definitely a villain. Its clearly not nearly the first time he has sold people off into slavery, or worse, this way. He has a guy he sells to. He has a system. Doesn't matter that he is in debt. He is still a trafficker.

I agree that these so-called seaponies were a big dissapointment in not acually being seaponies. I guess they did it so they could show up at the climax, and provide a free extra species without the need for characterization, because they were simply the same people.

edited 15th Jan '18 5:27:49 PM by Redmess

I want to know what the cage containing Twilight is made of. The bars seem to absorb and disperse unicorn magic. Why would the Storm King have cages that absorb and disperse unicorn magic when the only reason he's even willing to tolerate visiting Equestria is because Tempest promised him power?

"Why are you doing this? You're a pony just like me." "I'm NOTHING like you!" It's a neat change of pace to have the hero play the Not So Different card and the villain violently reject it.

"See the world from where I stand. Me among the mighty; you caged at my command." This whole song is basically an ode to how Tempest being slighted once when she was a kid makes it okay for her to hate. Not that she says, "Me among the mighty". She doesn't call herself mighty; she points out that she's joined the mighty. The mighty is the Storm King's Patriarchy. Tempest's saying that she's proud of herself because she's no longer a weak, helpless, callow woman/pony but has instead proven that she's good enough to be one of the Storm King's boys.

Given that she's the most powerful character in the film, the fact that she couches her language so as to assert the likes of the Storm King and Grubber as her equals if not her betters is very telling of her worldview. As a woman proudly upholding the Patriarchy, the first thing she ever learned is her place.

"I'm so sorry you felt so alone." "I saw the truth." Everyone thinks their worldview is 'the truth'. "I'm not cynical; I’m a realist!"

"Friendship didn't fail me. I failed friendship." There's Twilight again putting her character arc succinctly.

"You think maybe it's time we talk to Twilight?" And there's AJ not only walking away slower than the rest but being the first who wants to let bygones be bygones. This has totally been harder on her than the others.

"Good thing I happen to know of a group of mighty heroes that could handle this easily." So it begins: the payoff for all the bonds of friendship the group has formed over the course of this journey.

"We're onboard to help you fight the Storm King!" You know, Capper and Captain Celaeno came here together. They totally choreographed this entrance in advance. I'm just picturing them huddled over a diagram drawn in the sand, talking about who should say what and when the pirates should enter for maximum dramatic effect.

"You got back our arr and we're ready to kick some booty." Nicely punned. Also, the triumphant music is great but I still can't help but think, like, months down the line when various merchant vessels are greatly regretting that Rainbow Dash got back Celaeno's arr.

I know you, you're a special one. "Oh god, they're killing everyone!" Some see crazy where I see love. "The ship's on fire! Why?! Why would they set the ship on fire?!"

"I talked things over with Shelly and Shelldon and they pointed out that you were just trying to help your friends. So I want to help too!" Okay, but how, though? Skystar would have to have stolen the pearl in order to transform herself back into a hippogriff, but she does not appear to have the stolen pearl with her.

"Tempest, don't do this." So, let's talk about this room. Why does this exist? Like, I get that the Staff is supposed to steal pony magic or something, but the fancy ritual magic-stealing chamber? Why did Celestia commission this to be installed in her palace? At what point during the construction of Canterlot Castle, just after she banished Luna, was she like, "I need to have a room with a fancy slot in the center of a four-pronged diagram so that if there are ever four Alicorn Princesses, all of our magic can be drained into this magic Staff thing"?

It makes no sense for a room like this to exist in Celestia's castle for multiple reasons.

"She won't be a problem." "Yeah. So." I like how the Storm King manhandles Tempest as he walks past her. She's in the middle of explaining how this all works and he feels the need to go in for a grope. Not because he likes her or is attracted to her, mind, but to remind her of her place relative to him. And he does it so casually, as though there's nothing unusual about rubbing his hand all over her. Walks by, gropes, and then continues the conversation like it didn't happen.

And she puts up with it. Because she knows her place.

"I don't like cute. I never did like cute. It doesn't really go with my whole big bad powerful magic guy thing. Deliver the punchline, Tempest, because this has got to be a joke!!!" The guy oozes Toxic Masculinity out of every pore.

"Let's get this storm started! Ooh, that's good; I should trademark that." And then he doesn't just blast a hole through the doorway. He blasts Twilight through the doorway. She was not directly between him and the doorway. That took effort. He aimed for her.

"Not bad. Actually, kinda first rate!" I like how he first tries to play it off all chill but then gives up and admits that it's awesome.

"Pinkie, quit lookin' so happy. You ain't foolin' nopony." There's a guard standing like three feet away from AJ as she's whispering this. There's no way he didn't hear that.

"Who puts eyeballs in filling?" This is the one and only thing Grubber does to contribute to his side and, ironically enough, it's brought about by being a really shitty henchman. This was supposed to be the Storm King's cake and Grubber's just like, "Yeah, I'll help myself, why not?"

The job security that guy has is enormous.

Seriously, the Storm King's mooks are made of papier-mache. Several moments in this action scene feature them not even doing anything to defend themselves while the protagonists mop them up. Pinkie Pie takes one out with cupcakes. Cupcakes. These guys are the worst evil henchmen.

Which, as I said before, is totally befitting for the Storm King's paper tiger dynamic. They're only supposed to look intimidating.

"Keep going!" Like, if you need evidence of how pathetic these guards are, Shelly and Shelldon score a KO.

"It's…it's the magic of—" "Friendship and flowers and ponies and bleugh." This is great both as a trailer moment and for Twilight's arc but doesn't quite fit in context. All she can see is the courtyard. Most of the friends they've made on this trip are further down in Canterlot. All she can see is Capper laughing maniacally while using Spike to light goons on fire. That's more like the magic of violence.

"I'm so totally over the cute pony thing." The Storm King is that guy who declares a fad to be over not because it's actually gotten old but because he never liked it in the first place and is trying to convince others to abandon it. You neved liked the cute pony thing in the first place, Storm King. You can't be "over" something you didn't join.

"Who cares about your dinky little unicorn horn?" And there's the rub.

"Get with the program. I used you. It's kinda what I do!" The Storm King never had any intention of keeping their agreement. There never was a cure for her horn. This entire arrangement was founded on a lie. Her position in his military was founded on a lie.

Because at the end of the day, no matter how much she rejects her femininity, no matter how much she achieves for him or how loyal she is or how strongly she takes his philosophy to heart, she's still a woman. She was never truly one of them. She was only allowed to believe for a time that she was.

"Hold on!" "Why are you saving me?" Because she remembers who she's supposed to be. I love this Friend v. Idol moment, especially because the friend in question is an enemy. This is Twilight's moment to do what she should have been doing all along. The logical thing, the smart thing to do would be to grab the staff and let Tempest die. Y'know, 'cause f*ck her. It's Tempest.

But that's not how the Princess of Friendship is supposed to roll. In this moment, she chooses to put her faith in the magic of friendship, having finally remembered her way.

"The staff belongs to me!" This is one of the rare moments in the series where Twilight forgetting she can teleport is actually reasonably justified. Because her magic was drained into the staff, she actually can't teleport right now. She can't even use her telekinesis. She is entirely powerless.

That said, why Rarity doesn't use her unicorn telekinesis to retrieve the staff is beyond me.

"Twilight! NOOOOOOOO!!!" I like how the resolution to this Disney Death fakeout is just "Oh, yeah, she has wings."

How the Storm King came to be clinging to the edge of the balcony, on the other hand, is an unexplained impossibility. He f*cking teleported.

Man, it still surprises me that they were willing to clearly, unambiguously, 100% kill the Storm King onscreen.

So he died. Ignominously in a far-off nation surrounded by pastel colors and pretty, pretty princesses. Because Girl Power > Patriarchy.

"Twilight!" "Princesses!" Is it bad if I wanted somepony to be like, "Look out! It's Tempest!" and blast her with an alicorn laser?

"I know you, you're a special one. Some see crazy where I see love." That lyric is so shippy. So shippy.

Jesus, Pinkie Pie and Skystar are literally holding each other. There is no way the writers meant for this to be taken platonically.

"You are so grounded." Appropriate response. Your daughter ran away an joined a foreign legion to fight in a war. That's, uh…that's pretty high up there on the parental punishment scale.

"Nice touch, Tempest!" "Actually, that's not my real name." I'd like to take a moment to note that it's not uncommon for former villains to become friends and allies to the hero in fictional works. Defeat Equals Friendship often brings bad guys into the fold. My Little Pony's played that card several times over its existence. But you know what stands out about Tempest?

She was never defeated. The only person who matched her in combat was the Storm King and then only when he had the Staff powered up. She is the film's undisputed champion of violence.

But she's here now. She's here because the Storm King never appreciated her. Because he lied to her, manipulated her, and straight-up abused her. She's a refugee from the Patriarchy, finally opening her eyes and seeing the oppressive treatment she's been under for what it was. Finally willing to accept that maybe condemning an entire demographic because a few members of it were kinda shitty to her is f*cking nuts whether or not it's a demographic you belong to.

She's here not because Defeat Equals Friendship, but because Friendship Equals Friendship. Because you don't have to be stronger than someone to treat that person with respect and kindness when others won't. And now she's finally willing to let go of the pride she felt in being one of the Storm King's boys, and embrace her pride in being Fizzlepop Berrytwist, a strong, independent pony woman who doesn't need to be given permission to have value.

So, yeah, that was My Little Pony: The Movie and I was super thrilled with it. This is everything I've been wanting the two-parters to be since they surrendered the Elements of Harmony. Faced with a great evil that threatens Equestria, Twilight and her friends save the day not through some new magic Deus ex Machina but through the power of friendship. I am very satisfied with this film. It's got its flaws here or there, but it's easily one of the best My Little Pony stories the series has had in years.

Nice review. I think my appreciation of the movie just went up quite a bit.

Iiii think he's reading a little too much into it.

I contest the notion that such a thing is possible.

While I doubt the writers intended the patriarchy theme to be in there, that doesn't mean it can't be interpreted from it—it is, after all, a heavy part of our own culture so it's likely to leak in. And the friendship/narcissism element was definitely intended to be there considering how closely it gels with the show overall's themes.

All of which is irrelevant because the purpose of critical analysis is not (usually) to determine what was put in, but what is there. And if you can justify and defend it, then it's there.

I agree that applicability is a thing.

What I disagree with is claim that if you can justify and defend it, then it's there. All justifyig and defending it requires is to be willing to connect bits of random data in a way that looks like a pattern, pretend it isn't random noise and actively dismiss all evidence to the contrary.

For example: My Little Pony is actually about how women are unnecessary and should all be replaced with men. We can see this as all the main characters are equines. This is a representation of the male soldiers who rode horses in cavalry. The protagonist's Cutie Mark also shows the dominance of masculinity with a symbol made of sharp, violent spikes. Note that the main cast all include shades of the masculine colours of blue and red. One of the main characters also wears a cowBOY hat. The symbols of the talents are also typically in threes, or multiples of threes, with three tribes, three CM Cs and a multiple of three protagonists. Three is of course a symbol of male genitalia. A main character grows apples, the symbols of Eve's original sin. The communication with royalty is entirely dependent on the male dragon. Loads of importance is assigned to writing with the phallic symbol of the quill. It evn needed to be supplied by the male owl.

I think it's possible to read too much into something, though Death of the Author is still in effect. Saying "And if you can justify and defend it, then it's there." feels like giving a little bit too much leeway because it allows you project any message onto anything by stretching the symbolism. There is a lot of freedom to interpret things, but there are limits to that.

Of course there are also differences in opinion as to what "justify and defend" means, so that could account for my nitpicking right there.

Basically, I disagree with the assertion that it's impossible to read too much into something; you definitely can, and I think that point is when it becomes impossible to reasonably defend your interpretation with evidence from the work. Of course, agreeing on "reasonable" is a whole other can of worms.

edited 16th Jan '18 7:16:27 AM by JapaneseTeeth

It's more that Tobias's interpretation seems so angry. Does that make sense?

Edit: Like, I can see "Girl power beats the masculine coded Storm King" but the stuff more specifically about Fizzlepop being some kind of sex-traitor that needs to reject masculinity has worrying implications for me going the other way.

edited 16th Jan '18 7:24:58 AM by God_of_Awesome

Internal categorism plays a heavy role in a majority demographic keeping and retaining power. The best example I can give is an African-American slave being trained to hold the whip and help keep his fellow slaves in line. To preserve the dominance of white nationalism, slaves were encouraged to police each other, reporting against other slaves and helping to keep the white master's power in place in exchange for special dispensations.

We see this dynamic in modern hate groups all the time. Women and minorities gain a special vaunted status when they're a part of groups designed to oppress them. Whether it's women speaking out against feminism, black people speaking out against BLM, Hispanics who want to crack down on illegal immigration, etc. these people are trotted out all the time as if to say, "A woman agrees with me; therefore, I can't be sexist."

But of course, just because they're part of the oppressive group doesn't mean they aren't still part of the oppressed demographic. If a black guy joins the KKK, at the end of the day, they still just see him as black.

Tempest had her own reasons for joining up with the Storm King. She's as misogynistic/pony-hating as the rest of them. But she was never really one of them. The Storm King was planning to betray and abandon her from the beginning, because no matter how hard she hates women/ponies in his name, the fact that she is a woman/pony is all the reason he needs to dump her on the curb.

That's the funny thing about hate. It doesn't tend to be very loyal.

edited 16th Jan '18 8:58:53 AM by TobiasDrake

I can definitely see where you're coming from, though given the show's typical emphasis on interpersonal relationships I tend to interpret things in light of individual character motivations rather than based on what groups they belong to.

I mostly see it as Tempest basically being starved for attention; as a kid she suffered a rejection that caused her to believe that relationship are based on practicality rather than empathy. She joined the Storm King because she believed that she could prove her worth as a person to him by carrying out his orders, but in the end she realized that he never really cared about her as an individual and only about what she could do for him, and once he didn't need her anymore he dropped her like a hot potato.

By contrast, Twilight was able to empathize with her despite the fact that she had nothing material to gain by doing so, and in fact had a lot to potentially lose. It showed Tempest that real friendship views people as intrinsically valuable. You care about people because they're people, not because you have something to gain from it.

That's more how I interpreted the movie, too, but I find Tobias's interpretation really interesting. I dunno, it's a neat angle to look at it from. Not something I ever considered.

I love that the Storm King was actually defeated by friendship in the truest sense. That was very cool.

edited 16th Jan '18 11:05:21 AM by DeathsApprentice

I just assumed Grubber was the Storm King's nephew. Firing him would get Grandma all up on the Storm King's back.

Tobias' analysis of the relationship between Tempest and the Storm King reminds me of the film and musical Heathers, specifically the relationship between Heather Chandler and Heather Duke. Ostensibly best friends, Chandler is the leader of their little queen bee posse and never misses an opportunity to demean or dismiss Duke if she feels Duke is nudging into her position. I got that same feeling from the Storm King's attitude towards Tempest, belittling her as a means of staying secure in his position.

Heather Chandler also used masculine phrases to refer to herself when she felt someone was questioning her authority, something else that reminded me of the Storm King and his rejection of 'cute' when it came to his image.

The princess vs. queen issue was a thing even way back during the initial conception of G4, but I think we still get a reflection of it here. Queens bad, princesses good. Who just wants to hide away and not lift a finger to help? Queen Novo. Who joins up with the heroes to save the world? Princess Skystar.

Claiming somebody is reading too deep into analysis is flagrant poppycock. Yes, some analysis is pretty damn bunk (like those guys who think The Shining exposes the moon landings were faked) but Tobias's entire analysis is quite good. I really don't see the problem.

These statements are mutually contradictory.

My point is that Tobias's analysis isn't somehow reading too deeply into the movie. Frankly, nine times out of ten whenever somebody says "You're reading too deep into it", it's to silence genuinely good analysis or criticism because people can't handle hearing it or don't want to hear it.

Then you should say it's usually poppycock. There's a difference.

EDIT: But thank you, because people have said that to me. I think you have even implied it to me, if I'm not mistaken.

edited 18th Jan '18 11:12:22 PM by Sereg

Please don't police my tone or criticize my word choice. My point still stands that saying one is "reading too deep into things" is usually not a good argument. Usually. There are occasional exceptions. If someone were to interpret an episode of MLP as being, say, about how JFK was a victim of a conspiracy to lead the US into the war in Vietnam and keep the Mafia from being prosecuted then that's, like, blatantly not true.

If you're going to come out with an obviously aggressive tone, you have to expect some people to call it out.

That's also a really weird, arbitrary line to draw. People call these things out because they see the evidence to the claim as dubious. There's no oppressive conspiracy to silence people (in this thread) and that level of disrespect is simply doing exactly what you're accusing other people of.

edited 19th Jan '18 1:07:02 AM by KuroiTsubasaTenshi

I'm not alleging any conspiracy or trying to insult anyone here though? It's kind of a thing that sometimes people get pissed at analysis or criticism and reply that the person making said comments is "looking too deep". People criticize the one episode in Apploosa and suddenly they're "looking in too deep", for example. What of Drake's analysis is him looking too deep?

If I'm sounding like I'm insulting anyone or coming down on anyone specific, I'm genuinely trying not to, I just want to make it clear that I'm really tired of hearing "you're looking in too deep" in response to analysis.

edited 19th Jan '18 2:04:01 AM by AdricDePsycho

Yeah, I wouldn't use those words myself. I don't think there is such a thing as "too deep".

I'd say "You're being blinded by your prejudices" or "You're imagining things that aren't there" or "You're projecting onto the episode/creator" or "Your paranoia is feeding a non-existent message into the work" or "Your obsession with your Single-Issue Wonk is causing you to see it in every shadow" or something like that.

I'm going to guess the part that people are saying was "reading too deep" was probably the part where I drew comparison between Tempest and a female antifeminist who's spent her life learning how to slide into the Patriarchy rather than combat it.

I had a hunch not everyone would like that particular interpretation, but it's what I saw through my particular lens.

I mean, I highly doubt the writers were thinking in exactly those terms, but it's not wrong either.

Just purchased my own copy, BTW.