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

^^I count Pinkie as another redeeming factor, since she is generally the one singing said music in that series.

I really do want to see a FIM abridged series with the same level of quality as Team Four Star's DBZ videos. But one of the problems is that FIM isn't exactly a series that lends itself to the Abridged style, since most episodes of the actual show are self-contained whereas Abridged Series involve poking fun at something with an ongoing plotline and flaws. It's kind of odd, since many parody fanfics and comics seem to hit the mark quite well, but not with ongoing videos.

What was Rainbow Dash's thing in FIW, even? I barely remember anything about her interpretation there.

^She was basically so egotistical that she constantly mentions her name when she talks. That's really all there is to her.

I think her thing was just being kind of dumb. Could be confusing that with another abridged series though, its been awhile. Which just goes to show that her shtick was less memorable than, say, cult leader Fluttershy.

Or this.

edited 3rd Nov '15 3:19:20 PM by Crowfall

My main problem with FIW is that it's just not funny. At all. Most of the jokes really don't seem to work for me. I find them either lazy, boring or just trying to hard to be shocking. It reminds me too much of post Seasonal Rot Family Guy. In fact, I don't think there's really too much of a difference between the two other then that FIW has ponies in it and a diffrent premise. Actually, I'll give it one point: At least it doesn't try to make you feel bad for it's characters despite them being terrible. It's suppose to be one of those things were you laugh at how horrible the characters are {IE Panty and Stocking for example}, whereas Family Guy tries to make you feel bad for Peter 5 minutes after he blew up an orphanage or tried to kill his wife. So at least it's consistent.

I think one of my problems is how hyped the series use to be. I generally try to not let hype get to me {Half the time when someone says that they don't like something cause of hype, it makes them sound like a snobby hipster, IE "I want to like it, but it's popular so therfor I can't!"}, but this is one time when I couldn't. People use to talk on and on about how funny the series is and how it's the best abridged pony series ever, and then when I watched it I didn't even laugh at a single joke. Maybe I've just been spoiled by much better abridged series out there.

edited 3rd Nov '15 3:35:51 PM by marston

Am I the only person here who thinks it's funny?

It has a few funny stuff, at least early on, but then it just became WAY to damn mean spirited and nasty.

Do not worry, you're not.

Eh don't worry, everyone has different tastes in abridgeness.

It's like when some people like Ren & Stimpy and others like Cat-Dog.

I think they're both tripe.

I apoligize for my pagetopper post. I might have been a bit too harsh there.

On a diffrerent note, I said this before but no one responded or seemed to see it, so I'll bring it up again: I re-read the first two chapters of The Vinyl Scratch Tapes and I'm enjoying it, but I also remember that later on the fic just kind of becomes "Let's bash Prince Blueblood as much as possible!". To anyone who's read the entirity of the fic, does it move on from that at some point and go back to focusing on Vinyl and Octavia? Cause the interactions between those two are what I care about the most for that fic.

edited 3rd Nov '15 4:12:05 PM by marston

Both seasons of the Vinyl Scratch Tapes have the same basic problem, where the first couple chapters are enjoyable banter, but the last chapter is a big unnecessary conflict with Blueblood. So to answer your question, yes it gets better, but then it gets worse again. Still worth reading for the good parts though. And at least the second season has Blueblood sort of reforming by the end, so it isn't just constant bashing on him.

edited 3rd Nov '15 4:19:54 PM by Crowfall

Ugh, that's annoying. I get it, the author wanted to write a 90's style comedy antagonist douchebag who's an unlikeable ass that gets what's coming to him, but it didn't have to go down like that. I mean, do you see Billy Madison dragging out the villain's commupance for 30 minutes? No, he gets a quick, satisfying and fairly amusing punishment. Humiluation Conga's can be very satisfying {IE Chaka's fate in Black Lagoon is a darkly amusing example of this}, but it shouldn't go on for too long.

edited 3rd Nov '15 4:26:47 PM by marston

To be fair.... it is Blueblood.

Yeah, to be honest I kind of dislike it when in fanfics that start out as comedy suddenly go into tons of drama and stuff like that.

The dialogue can be great, but when that's literally all the fanfic is, it feels kind of lazy to a point. Scriptfics just seem odd to read nowadays with the increased standards of fanfiction.

I also didn't like that they resolved the best part of the story, Vinyl and Octavia's slow chemistry and affection offscreen and have them be a friends with benefits deal between seasons.

It feels like there's three chapters missing from the story with all that development.

And I'll third FIW. I like the comedy and happen to agree that it's actually very smart. Most of the later stuff are brick jokes, throwaway lines that get expanded later, clever wordplay, or blink and you'll miss it continuity jokes.

On the contrary, it has so much hatred now that it's hard not to defend it. The majority of sites it gets mentioned on start up flame wars and name calling.

I remember you had that same exact complaint about Allegrezza, which was another popular Vinyl/Octavia fic. Did you get the two of them confused?

edited 3rd Nov '15 5:08:32 PM by marston

Nope, I have the same thought about both, around the same halfway mark of the stories, come to think of it.

Nice to be acknowledged about that though.

Your welcome, I suppose. I don't recall the conflict in Allegrezza completely ending till near the end of the story, but either my memory isn't the best or it just didn't bother me enough.

You know what's another good Vinyl/Octavia fic? University Days. It's funny and also has good interactions between the two leads. I've also read the first several chapters of Syncopation, and while I haven't finished it I do enjoy what I have read thus far. I'll link to both fics here. In fact if you ever want more stuff about those two, I'll just link to a FI Mfiction thread I started and point at the top of that page.

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/92137/syncopation

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/13477/vinyl-and-octavia-university-days

http://www.fimfiction.net/group/725/octascratch/thread/211026/fanfic-recommendations

edited 3rd Nov '15 5:29:06 PM by marston

I need to go back and finish University Days. There was a huge delay in chapters back when I was reading it, and I never got around to going back when it finally updated again.

Boop

edited 3rd Nov '15 6:23:45 PM by Crowfall

Also boop.

Boop X3 combo

C-C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!!!

Marston and Crowfall are both right: Rainbow Dash's thing in FIW was that she was stupid and that she said her own name in nearly every sentence.

And yeah, pretty much every abridged series that lasts for more than a few episodes makes Rainbow Dash stupid. Though they go for different flavors. In FIW, Dash was "ignorance is bliss" personified—for example, thinking that the Wonderbolts wouldn't accept her because she was "too awesome". In what I saw of The Mentally Advanced Series, Dash was a constant Comically Missing the Point joke—for example, the way she never figures out that Gilda thinks they're dating. In Ultra Fast Pony, Dash was an aggressive proponent of Insane Troll Logic: "I dunno. I was dead before [my parents] were born. [...] Obviously, if they haven't been born yet, then I must still be dead? Duh." And in Scootertrix, The Bird is... I don't know. Slow, weird, and awkward.

FIW has its moments. The best part is usually the songs though.

This was kind of nice. Didn't really go anywhere; it was just Vinyl attending one of Octavia's shows and noting just how much she puts into her music.

edited 3rd Nov '15 7:34:06 PM by HextarVigar