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

Oh! And another thing. Apparently a thousand years is not "lasting" now?

If I do not feel immersed or invested in what's going on that's a problem with the story not myself.

A thousand years of what exactly?

Ah I remember, Two Best Brothers Bitch About Ponies?

I dunno, I was on the edge of my proverbial seat that episode.

Kept giving me anxiety.

Not related to the Two Best Sisters?

edited 6th Apr '15 8:04:49 AM by edvedd

If I do not feel immersed or invested in what's going on that's a problem with the story not myself.

It depends on the story and the individual. The Unpleasable Fanbase trope exists because there are some people who can't get invested into something no matter what that story/franchise does, for instance.

edited 6th Apr '15 8:09:52 AM by NapoleonDeCheese

Ya know the True True Friend/Winter Wrapup mashup that'll be on the next album mentioned yesterday? Preview here:

So, Arch-Enemy finally confirmed?

The whole forced to have a happy ending thing doesn't really bother me. Most stuff tends to have a happy ending or a bittersweet ending at worst, so I am kind of used to it. Tbh, I prefer stories to have one of those endings over a downer ending anyway (especially in videogames, unless it is a forgone conclusion (eg Halo Reach). Nothing is more frustrating in a game than struggling though some of the most difficult parts of a game only to be told you lost, game over, hahaha you lose, the end).

Also, just because a story has a happy end, doesn't mean that the story can't be good. The Journey and not the Destination and all of that stuff.

As for Fluttershy, I don't hate her while at the same time, she isn't my favorite. I just can't dislike her (unlike her main pet. That Rabbit is evil). Still thinking Flutterbat will return in the future too (that episode was good imo)

Well, Pterry did mention that stories existed to tell us that the monsters can be vanquished, that there's always light at the end of the tunnel, even if sometimes it's just an oncoming train.

Of course they're going to save the day every time, but this did enough different that it felt fresh. It set a distinctly creepy mood, and the plot turns and tight pacing (it had none of the pacing issues that most of these two-parters tend to have) kept me invested. Using Fluttershy as a mole was one of the smartest turns the show has done and helped justify her oddly unflappable optimism earlier on.

Well, those are my reasons anyway.

Just to nitpick, that first image actually comes from GK Chesterton. To paraphrase, fairy tales aren't important because of the monsters; children already know about monsters. The fairy tales tell them that the monsters can be killed.

Image?

And yeah, Pterry quoted him before.

Randomly spotted on the book of faces:

Because this.

Well, my argument really didn't have anything to do with whether it was good or not. I was just saying that despite some stuff that could be construted as dark does not make the episode or the show as a whole particularly dark.

Rainbow Dash is the fastest Jaeger, dethroning Striker Eureka.

Not overtly. It's more about subtlety (which is often praised in genres like psychological thrillers). And then there's the fridge.....

edited 6th Apr '15 8:41:36 AM by nervmeister

I though that this episode was rather dark, but only when compared to other episodes of pony/ other shows in its target demographic. Other shows have pulled off similar plots or just generally darker things before this. It's not any darker than your average Disney movie.

edited 6th Apr '15 8:38:25 AM by PrincessGwenevere

The episode was rather unsubtle, I felt.

You can make something dark subtly rather than making something obviously grimdark.

Best example I can think of is The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. Looks cartoony, everyone looks happy, you are sailing on the ruins of Hyrule. Termena is destroyed too, many have died in Ganondorf's second invasion and the great flood. By the end of the game, Hyrule is forever lost beneath the ocean, Ganondorf has the master sword embedded in his head and is now miles beneath the Great Sea, the King of Hyrule has drowned and now Link and Tetra have to abandon their old lives to find a new land for the inhabitants of the Great Sea to call home.

It's not that you can't make something subtly dark, it's just that pone was never terribly subtle, even when it's being subtle.

Assuming this is valid complete, it has nothing to do with how dark the story is.

Being in stone while conscious, stuck on the moon, having an entire city missing

@Gwen: Well, I agree with the Disney Movie comaprison. It went to some interesting places though, and the villain, by virtue of not being a world-ending threat and using tactics that an actual person in her position may use, was one of the more complex and interesting ones they've done. For all her hypocrisy, she has shades of the true believer about her. And she'll probably be back in some form too, which is a nice change of pace.

And that, it probably hits a bit closer because of what we're familiar with.

edited 6th Apr '15 8:59:15 AM by edvedd

Maybe we get creeped out because we're familiar with other stories that heighten the creepiness. For all I know, the target audience might just think the villain was just being mean by forcing everypony to smile and have the same cutie marks. They didn't read 1984 or any creepy cult stories.