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

I actually love that scene. What gets me is that even though she's so caught up in the triumphant victory speech, she still manages to notice - just a second too late - that she gave the wrong answer to Starlight's question.

Her injection of, "Wait, no, I was in the moment," comes before Starlight storms out crying. She recognized that she'd f*cked up and knew what consequences were coming and made a desperate effort to head them off, but her attempt was too little, too late.

That's the kind of incremental progress I want to see. She's still shithead enough at this point to keep making these mistakes, but has learned how to recognize in the moment that they are, in fact, mistakes.

My Tumblr. Currently talking Dragon Ball and working my way back to Danganronpa V3.

It just felt kind of forced and like a mandated friendship breaker. If she gloated behind Starlight's back before realising she heard it would have made sense, but she did it right in front of her making her look dim witted and almost like a card carrying villain.

Boast Busters was similar, given Twilight was conflicted over showing off so when Trixie just acts like a standard hammy performer, the other ponies go into an Anvilicious 'Ooh, boasting and showing off is so wrong' speech.

I like the show, but I would love if they tried some more subtle Aesops with the exposition dumbed down.

edited 31st Oct '17 1:35:05 PM by Psi001

I don't really get how you can see Sunset's loft and think it's fancy. It's big by our economic standards, but sparsely decorated with very simple furniture, the kitchen is tiny, directly below the bedroom, and her stuff looks worn. The bathroom is ancient, with external piping and again small.

Going by the layout of the building, its got two stories, four or so rooms of living space at most, and Sunset's entire living quarters seem to be that single room seen in the music video, so there's probably other people renting the rest of the living space.

In fact, comparing to the rest of the houses seen in the map of the city, Sunset's place seems the most low income, with Twilight's fancy house being the largest.

Rainbow had the second most fancy house, Fluttershy the most modest next to Sunset's.

And Sweet Apple Acres seems significantly smaller than Equestria's.

edited 31st Oct '17 3:25:31 PM by MrSeyker

I'm wondering if the idea is that they want Discord to still be something akin to Chaotic Good, but failed to emphasize the good part enough. He does show remorse, and he clearly cares about Fluttershy. The issue is unlike others, he isn't given enough episodes to develop much beyond a lesson or two, not enough to really heavily change them. The episode where he gives a tea party was a good lesson, but it doesn't help in making him good. It just means he cares about one person and to try and please them.

He is at least enough of a not-jerk to (way over)pay those ponies he got the stuff from before running off. Old Discord probably would have either stolen the stuff without even asking or dropped a bunch of snakes on them.

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

Because I'm poor and understand what living quarters for the poor are like. For a studio apartment miraculously paid for on a zero-income budget, that place is a goddamn palace.

edited 31st Oct '17 4:32:43 PM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently talking Dragon Ball and working my way back to Danganronpa V3.

She could have a decent part-time job for all we know. Heck, they released a Sushi Chef toy of her, maybe she does that. A decent chef would probably make a decent amount even part-time, and pre-redemption Shimmer does seem like the kind of girl who'd know her way around knives.

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

We see the girls have summer jobs during the Summertime Shorts here.

But, like...with a 20ish hour work-week at around minimum wage and no roommates, you'll be lucky to afford to live in a meth house. A place like Sunset Shimmer's is probably going to run about $1,000.00 to $2,000.00 per month in rent before concerns like utilities and food come in.

Given her situation, that place is a miracle.

EDIT: Looking closer, she doesn't have a kitchen area. She has a fridge and microwave sitting next to her computer table. This lends credibility to the idea that she's renting space in someone else's home.

That's more feasible. I'd say this place is probably more in the $600 to $900 range, which is still pretty unreasonable on a part-time salary.

edited 31st Oct '17 4:50:29 PM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently talking Dragon Ball and working my way back to Danganronpa V3.

$1,000.00 to $2,000.00 per month in rent before concerns like utilities and food come in.

Fuckin' hell, what are the prices like in Colorado? I'm in Montreal, and I have an apartment slightly larger than hers for $550 with water included. If she's using a shared cooking/bathroom spaces I'd be surprised if they went any higher than that.

Of course that'd still be tricky to hit on a part time job.

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

Is there a trope for that? Everyone Is An Interior Design Expert?

I think you're looking for "Friends" Rent Control.

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play

Yeah, for some reason I was thinking she had a full kitchen under her loft. I adjusted my estimate after realizing that she doesn't. She does seem to have her own bathroom but the absence of a kitchen facility strongly indicates a rented space.

And now that you mention it, housing's actually pretty ugly here which may be throwing off my metric. <.< Ever since legal recreational marijuana became a thing, people have been flooding into Colorado from all across the country and rent prices have jacked way the hell up as a result.

Because I'm a logistics nerd, I'm actually looking into entry-level part-time sushi chef jobs on Indeed.com. The median salary is $12.83 per hour which is actually pretty sweet for a part-time job. So if we assume a 20 hour work week, Sunset's looking at $1,298.40 in before-tax income, with an annual income of $16,879.20.

This puts Sunset in the second federal income bracket for tax purposes, so she'll owe about $2,068.13 of that in federal taxes. End result, she's looking at $1,139.51 per month - well, per four-week period - in take-home pay. There's also state taxes of course, depending on her state, but probably no benefits given that she's a teenager with a part-time job. So there's another little slice getting taken out, but not a particularly big one.

Still, That's pretty f*cking sweet for a teenager.

edited 31st Oct '17 5:19:10 PM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently talking Dragon Ball and working my way back to Danganronpa V3.

Unfortunately, the food industry is like the art industry. Unless you're among the best of the best, you get shit all for respect and barely more for money. I used to know someone who worked full time as a baker with nearly 40 hours of overtime per week and he wasn't even remotely wealthy.

Heh, it's not just Colorado. Haven't checked in a few years, but here in Saskatchewan, rent's pretty bonkers, too. My friend and his wife used to rent a 750-sq-ft apartment and it cost them something stupid like $1000/month and theirs was one of the better deals. It was at that point that they realized taking a mortgage wasn't going to be much more expensive—and did (note that housing prices were also super garbo).

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

Well, Sunset looks like a teenager, but thanks to the weird time displacement going between Equestria and the human world, she's probably got a few years more of emotional maturity than her peers.

Emotional maturity isn't going to matter to her salary. What's important is her legal date of bir—

...

...

Sunset Shimmer's an illegal immigrant. That's going to brutally affect her salary.

edited 31st Oct '17 5:35:16 PM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently talking Dragon Ball and working my way back to Danganronpa V3.

No, I mean, my apartment has its own kitchen and bathroom. Even assuming those were included I'd be really surprised if it was more expensive than mine.

$1,150 a month is definitely tight for that (I make 1600 a month and I usually can put away a little bit on top), but if she's frugal she could definitely do it.

@Kuroi: Why the fuck does Saskatchewan have high rent? Who's clamouring over themselves to get at all of the exciting opportunities in Moose Jaw?

edited 31st Oct '17 5:37:08 PM by kegisak

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

Rent is crazy and will vary a lot from place to place. In my country, it is quite a bit more expensive than what you guys have.

The economy of the human world is probably nothing like ours. Hell, they might use bits too for all we've seen of it.

As for Sunset's arrangements, she has probably forged the shit out of every single aspect of her identity.

Also, if you want to consider the Equestria Girls books, Sunset is also a web and app designer, so the sushi joint is not her only source of income.

edited 31st Oct '17 5:51:47 PM by MrSeyker

So, bad news for Sunset Shimmer is that because she has no birth certificate, social security number, or other proof of citizenship on account of the fact that she does not legally exist, she's taking a pretty big hit to her salary, even discounting the fact that she's not paying a dime into income tax because she's getting her pay under the table, probably in cash.

Average salary for undocumented immigrants is $7/hour. With no state or federal taxes and no benefits, this puts her making $560.00 per month on a 20-hour work week.

Good news for Sunset Shimmer is that she has basically no reason to stick to a 20 hour work week. She's being paid under the table; legally, nobody f*cking cares how many hours she works, and since her labor's cheaper than any colleague with a W-4, she's got a strong bargaining chip when it comes to negotiating hours.

She may well be working full-time.

edited 31st Oct '17 5:51:07 PM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently talking Dragon Ball and working my way back to Danganronpa V3.

Keg: There was apparently a construction boom here because of contracts in the north and rather large series of warehouses built to accommodate getting a big truck stop put in. Vacancy was like.. 0.3% or something ridiculously low like that, driving the prices of everything housing to hell and back. It's years later and things are still recovering. The one bright spot is that because our economy was its own special, batshit bonkers thing, the... other economic issues that hit the continent basically had no effect because we were living in Batshit Bonkers Land.

Tobias: Well, that took a dark turn.

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

I totally forgot to account for her being from Equestria in my original estimate. ^.^;;

edited 31st Oct '17 6:11:54 PM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently talking Dragon Ball and working my way back to Danganronpa V3.

"A Flurry of Emotions" was a pretty good episode. :) It was just severely lacking a certain hoof shake. ;P

I smell magic in the air. Or maybe barbecue.

Well, it may still not be as bad as all that. She might be working for some decent restaurateurs who are paying her well because she's an undocumented teenager.

In fact, it's their house she's 'renting' space in. They give her a decent price on the place, and in fact the only reason they're expecting her to pay in the first place is because she was so paranoid when they met her they knew she would get spooked and bolt into a worse situation if they didn't charge something.

Cause I dunno, you can go for the dark approach, but sometimes people aren't completely shitty and good things can happen. Cynicism and MLP just aren't exactly Chocolate and Peanut Butter for me.

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

I like that.

Hasbro, canonize it.

My Tumblr. Currently talking Dragon Ball and working my way back to Danganronpa V3.

Sunset a web and app designer? Where on earth did she get the skills for that? Its not like Equestria even HAS computers.

Optimism is a duty.

My favorite Sunset headcanon is that she got super-excited about electronics when she came to the human world and is secretly a gamer and PC enthusiast.

Not a very savvy one as she demonstrated with her *ahem* "Photoshop" attempt in EQG, mind you. But she probably posts in the internet.

She's my favorite part of this from Derpibooru.

edited 31st Oct '17 6:48:25 PM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently talking Dragon Ball and working my way back to Danganronpa V3.

I wonder what game's she playing?

Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.