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

Guess what I was talking about here on TV Tropes, 5 years ago, to this day?

How endearing I find the idea of the Genki Girl; and my speculation that many other guys find the idea endearing too.

Little did I know, while typing this 5 years ago, that literally that same day was the beginning of a show that would take off, starting, among other characters, the Genki Girl Pinkie Pie, on their path to being so beloved across the Internet.

Life's full of interesting coincidences, isn't it?

Congratulations to everyone on the show for a great five years.

edited 10th Oct '15 7:13:07 PM by neoYTPism

It's about thirty seconds of Kefka simply ranting about how much he hates you.

He's not lost forever. You just missed an early recruitment opportunity.

Fighting and winning gets you extra points toward the items, IIRC.

FE: Genealogy Story Run 7PM PT Sun, Mon, Fri; Expert Unicorn Overlord 7PM PT Wed, Thurs: http://www.twitch.tv/kuroitsubasatenshi

Though one of his Dances does become Lost Forever

Ugh, I can literally not go more than 30 seconds without coughing. This sucks.

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If I recall, none of my characters had broken the 1000 HP threshold

Seriously? I've got three or four characters with more than 1k hp! Sabin is well above 2k.

Have you been using the Shiva or Catapults espers? I'm not sure how the +10% HP on level up works, but that probably goes a long way. I've been using them on the lower leveled characters to catch them up faster so they're less likely to die.

edited 10th Oct '15 7:50:32 PM by storyyeller

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play

...

... the CMC are no longer markless! :D I AM LITERALLY CLAPPING FOR REAL, RIGHT HERE!! ... I wish we had gotten some justification for this whole episode being a full-on musical off the bat though.

That was... a really good episode. I feel like it was a bit tight, like they tried to put a bit too much into it. It wound up feeling kinda rushed, honestly. To a degree I guess that was inevitable - The CMC finding their marks would have to come on the tail end of helping somepony, after all - but even just the 'core' plot of "Diamond Tiara vs. Pip in the election" and "Diamond Tiara wants to be a better person" felt like they were packed in a bit too close to one another. Or rather, they weren't intertwined, so it felt like it transitioned from one story to another rather than having them be parts of the same plot. So it honestly kind of feels like we got three short episodes packed into one, rather than a single episode with three plot threads bound together.

That, and as much as I love DT and SS getting more characterization and growing into better people, it puts a pretty big dent in my current fanfic, which kind of seriously relies on that happening about two years down the line.

Also, it's kind of interesting that DT's mother implies that being biased against ponies who don't have their Cutie Marks at least exists among older ponies as well, even if it's not necessarily common.

Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.

I'm still not in favor of Tiara suddenly being a good guy. One episode is all it takes?? She manipulated the Crusaders for 4.5 seasons!

.... I really think they shouldn't do musical episodes unless they KNOW they will only tell ONE story instead of two or more!

edited 10th Oct '15 8:12:47 PM by kyun

I felt that you could very clearly tell as Diamond Tiara developed throughout the episode. It wasn't like when Discord was reformed, where he was "oh, I'm good suddenly!", there were several points throughout the episode that you could tell she was wavering between her previous attitude and realizing that she wanted/needed to change.

And the music only served to help the episode, not hamper it.

edited 10th Oct '15 8:14:54 PM by EpicBleye

"There's not a girl alive who wouldn't be happy being called cute." ~Tamamo-no-Mae

@Story: OOC: I don't mess with esper stat bonuses in my usual play throughs (except for one late game esper that give speed +1). That is, if my characters have an esper on them when they get a level up, then great, but it's not something I worry over.

Here's how the +HP/MP% bonus works. Upon a level up, the character will gain the usual HP/MP increase as well as an additional % of that increase. For example, if the next level grants the character 100 additional HP and they have HP +10%, then that character just earned 110 new HP.

We are all made of star stuff. Very, very weird star stuff.

Discord's was done better then DT's. First, he'd only had one time of being a villain, versus constantly being a complete and utter bitch like DT. So she had more baggage to clear up and needed far more work to convincingly get better after the shit she's pulled and spending so long as just a generic Bully cliche.

And his wasn't anywhere near as large a turn. DT went from utter bitch who would mock a person for being disabled and try to ruin their lives, just for her own ego. To, going out of her way, helping others, being a perfect little do gooder. Discord, entity of pure chaos that didn't give a fuck about anyone else. To entity of pure chaos, that might consider not screwing over others while he's having fun now.

Discord just went from Chaotic Evil, to Chaotic Neutral. DT, from Evil to Good.

Yeah Discords change was rushed to, but that was the only bit, the change. Here, we get so much all tossed at once, losing her friend, her mother, existentialist crisis, just so much going on so fast, none of it really build up enough emotional torque to counter 4.5 years of utter bitch for the sake of bitch-iness.

The ideas work, just, the execution was rushed.

Same, all I ever cared about with Espers was what magic they taught, and what effect they had in battle.

edited 10th Oct '15 8:24:30 PM by Seraphem

Just watched this week's eppy. Here's my reaction to it. :P

---

• Neat song there, also nice Cold Open there.
• Yayyyy new Amy Keating Rogers eppy! :D
• Oh... it's Diamond Tiara... *rolls eyes*
• Hehe, is this gonna be a musical eppy? That's cool. :)
• Also, this is a cool song too. :3
• Heh, is that Diamond Tiara's mother? Interesting...
• Yet another good song here.
• Also, YES WE'RE FINALLY SEEING ANOTHER SIDE OF DYT'S CHARACTER FINALLYYYYYY
• Heh, this is like the Magical Mystery Cure of CMC eppies. XP Not that it's a bad thing or anything... not at all!
• These two new songs were p. neat too.
• Heh heh, this was a go... wait... is what I think is gonna happen... ACTUALLY HAPPEN?!
• HOLY MOLEY THE CMC FINALLY GOT THEIR CUTIE MARKS. YESSSSSSSS
• Great ending there. X3

---

So that was my reaction to this week's eppy. Overall... THIS EPPY WAS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING AAAAAAAA

Yeah, as you can tell I really liked this eppy. ^W^

edited 10th Oct '15 8:27:14 PM by I-Block

boop I'm more active on here

Diamond Tiara's Heel–Face Turn makes perfect sense from conceptual perspective. The problem is that they had to cram all of it into a single episode without there being any foreshadowing or anything in earlier episodes. It's technically consistent (DT isn't the type to wear her emotions on her non-sleeve), but from a narrative perspective it's jarring.

It's particularly annoying because Gravity Falls did basically the exact same "Rich Bitch is revealed to be under the thumb of an overbearing parent with ridiculous expectations and eventually rebels" plot with Pacifica and it worked a lot better, almost entirely because they spread the plot over two episodes; before the actual "turn" happened she got an episode that showed she was at least kinda willing to be civil, which made it more believable when she tried to turn over a new leaf. It also helped that the other characters were skeptical of her at first rather than immediately accepting it.

Basically if an earlier episode or two had hinted that DT wasn't so satisfied with her life, I wouldn't have any complaints.

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Pretty much this, the ideas are sound and could work, but they just chucked them all together to fast to really build up the emotions needed to counter the baggage she has from the last few years. Rather then ever show even a hint she was anything but a bitch for the sake of being a bitch.

Silver Spoon, they've done a good job showing little hints that she wasn't that bad, and mostly just following DT's lead, but even then had limits to what she'd do. I totally buy her finally getting fed up with DT's bullshit.

I'm kinda sad the episode didn't focus a bit more on their interactions, but the episode was crammed enough as it is.

Anyway, I'm still kinda sick and should probably go to bed now.

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Yeah either they should have used Silver Spoon for this story or set up Diamond Tiara's conflict with her mother earlier.

The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.

That's arguable, really. Most of DT's appearance in the past have featured her trying to curry favour or take a strong position and make it work in some way or another. It's perfectly consistent with what we're seeing in this episode - she's driven to succeed and to lead. She was very brusque before, certainly, and very clearly viewed herself as being on top of the pile, but she's still always had objectives; what she's lacked has been motive. I thought the episode did a really good job of harkening back to her previous history of behaviour and finally framing it in a sympathetic way.

In short: Diamond Tiara has typically been a bitch to get something, that thing typically being for people to respect her or put her in a position to leadership. This episode finally showed why: She's whipped on by her mother, who provides a horrible example of how to lead. Her mother leads through intimidation and aggression, so DT learned to do the same.

The end of the episode actually does a really great job of contrasting the ending of the character arc to the beginning. In the beginning she uncovers the 'dirty secrets' of several ponies, and lobbies them to intimidate those ponies into falling in line. In the end, she goes to those same ponies and compliments them to use those same 'dirty secrets' to do good. In both cases, she has a remarkable talent for finding out what's special about somepony and putting it to use to make a pony do what she wants, but the differences is in the way she presents it.

Diamond Tiara has always been an ambitious, motivated leader, who cared about her good appearance in the eyes of ponies. The difference is that before, she wanted to stand above ponies and cow them to her will. Now, she wants to stand beside ponies, and have them follow her out of respect. It's definitely stark, but I think it's a transition with a lot of history, and I'd be surprised if they didn't have that sort of thing in mind for her for a long time. After all, if this episode proves anything it's that she's never just been a bitch for the sake of being a bitch.

Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.

I mean, all things considered, she was just a diamond in the rough.

I'll see myself out.

"There's not a girl alive who wouldn't be happy being called cute." ~Tamamo-no-Mae

No, still a bitch just for the sake of being a bitch given nothing required her to go so far as to mock and belittle a disabled person, or just how much enjoyment she got out of tormenting others. And it doesn't excuse how she went about doing things. At no point ever before now was there ever a hint of her being anything but a cliched alpha bitch.

And the whole mother thing explains why she was the way she was, it does not excuse it.

Yes everything works logically, but it was all crammed in far to fast and all at once to really function well narratively given it's trying to counter four and a half years of inertia in seeing her as nothing but the vile little Hate Sink she's been.

I guess that's one way to look at it.

edited 10th Oct '15 9:18:01 PM by EpicBleye

"There's not a girl alive who wouldn't be happy being called cute." ~Tamamo-no-Mae

Her mother fairly self-evidently did, I should think. If somepony is willing to be that harsh to her own daughter, and openly insult children, it's pretty clear that that's going to pass on to how her child views leadership. There may not have been a hint of the specific reasons, but there have been hints of more complicated wants and desires than merely seeing people suffer or bow before her. This episode merely crystallized it.

And, I never claimed that Diamond should be excused for her behaviour, I simply don't think she should be vilified for it. It's possible to both recognize that someone has done bad things, and been a bad person, without treating them like they, or their past, are entirely bilious.

At any rate, I doubt there's much point in taking this further. I certainly don't blame anyone who didn't see the stuff there; you're not inherently wrong that she was something of a hate sink and that quality can somewhat lessen people's desire to empathize. After all, this is media. If they don't give her a clear motivation she may as well not have one. The point is I can definitely see, and did see, the hints that there was more to her than flat bitchiness.

Birthright: an original web novel about Dragons, the Burdens of Leadership, and Mangoes.

Also it's not as if Diamond Tiara has been a constant character as it is.

Your momma's so dumb she thinks oral sex means talking dirty.

Who's willing to bet that next season will have an episode where Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon get fleshed out better and their Heel-Face Turn becomes more widely accepted by the fanbase? Because I've noticed this with the series: when they redeem a villain, they always end up fleshing them out after said redemption doesn't go over too well for the fanbase. I mean, Discord's redemption felt rushed, Sunset Shimmer's was out of the blue, and Babs Seed had that whole Freudian Excuse for her bullying too, yet all of them came back and were fleshed out somewhat and now look at them: the fanbase is more accepting of their turns. I'm willing to bet that we're gonna see an episode next season that focuses on them and fleshes their personalities out, while also making note of their past actions and giving us some much needed closure to this that doesn't feel so rushed.

Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?

Everyone's questions and fanfics, they are burning.

I imagine this episode as a great bonfire where so many things were tossed upon it to fuel its burning.