Well time #a billion to get this thing on the road. Who's up for the next Round Robin (premise: EQG except that one character is body swapped with their Equestrian counterpart)

So, I finally sat down and watched The Washouts. All in all, another fricking funny and heartwarming Scootaloo/Rainbow episode. Seriously, I love their relationship so goddamn much - the writers have done an excellent job building it up over the seasons. Now I just need to see Dash meeting Scoot's aunts.

Gotta say, I'm actually kinda happy with the route they decided to take with Lighting Dust and the rivalry with Dash still burning. She could use some actual development, perhaps some humbling is in order, but I do wish the rivalry would stand even under those circumstances.

Also, Spitfire's fricking hillarious. Glad to see her trouble with handling kids transitioning to the show proper. Though, it did get the job done, as Scootaloo recalled when she saw the stunt LD prepared.

So yeah, chalk this one into the column of good Season 8 episodes. What I've seen so far of the second half of the season has been pretty strong.

Why does Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo's relationship remind me of Superman and Jimmy Olsen? They're both super speed flyers with a young friend of the same gender that can't fly, but that's about it... so maybe I'm just thinking that it seems like a plot that a Silver Age comic book would have done. Complete with a cover of the hero being jealous that their young friend has a new passion and ripping up their stuff.

Edited by bookworm6390 on Sep 12th 2018 at 4:26:54 AM

I'd like to be part of the Round Robin!

I'm in for the RR as well.

Me three. What are the rules?

A good clean fight. No biting. No hitting below the skirt. No wing-blinding or horn gouges.

Post of the Day #2272

Count me in for the RR too.

Edited by LordVatek on Sep 12th 2018 at 10:40:43 AM

Next week in Ponies Lost In Time: Rockhoof can't seem to fit into modern society, and needs Twilight's help to find his new purpose in life.

This sounds like the sort of episode we should have had a lot more of this season (about 6 more, to be exact). I imagine we would have, if the School Arc had not shoved them unceremoniously aside.

Will we see the other Pillars? And is Rockhoof really the most interesting of these for a focus episode?

Which episode is that? I want to see that detail myself.

@Tobias: If I wear a skirt on top of my head, does that make me untouchable?

Edited by KylerThatch on Sep 12th 2018 at 10:42:57 PM

> A good clean fight. No biting. No hitting below the skirt. No wing-blinding or horn gouges.

is magic allowed

@Kyler: It's "Putting Your Hoof Down". That's also the one where Derpy has a muffin as her saddlebag clip, which was one of the early acknowledgements of the fanon idea of that being her favorite food.

http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Sweetie_Drops/Gallery/Season_2#Putting_Your_Hoof_Down

Edited by Rainbow on Sep 12th 2018 at 10:30:58 AM

@Red I'll say this. Before this episode, Rockhoof was the pillar I could honestly take or leave. This did a lot to make me like him as a character.

I'm not fond of the Pillars as a concept, so that's a thing. But I've got nothing against the individual characters necessarily. It'll be nice seeing one of them outside the context of "OG Mane Six with alarmingly sexist gender assignments".

Rockhoof, Flash, and Mistmane in particular didn't appeal to me very well because I considered their introductory episode, "Campfire Tales" to be just about the worst way to introduce these characters. I hated that episode so much.

Somnambula's introduction was a bit better because of how it tied into a Mane Six adventure, though I still dinged it for being both a Pillars Introduction episode and a Daring Do episode. But also noted that, unlike most Daring Do episodes, it found room to focus on a character other than Rainbow Dash and Daring Do: Pinkie Pie. So I ranked it the best Daring Do episode ever, which is a faint praise.

I really don't like Daring Do.

And then there's Mage Meadowbrook, whose introduction episode was totally perfect (minus a few tiny quibbles unrelated to Meadowbrook's story) and demonstrated exactly the right way to slot these Pillar introductions into an interesting story without detracting from the characters that we're actually invested in and care about. So. Y'know. She's awesome.

But that was then. Now they're here, they're existing characters within the narrative, and they can have stories with the protagonists rather than instead of the protagonists. So color me interested to see what Rockhoof's got in store.

To an extent I can see what you mean about Campfire tales, but god I loved Mistmane's story in that one. The others were quite weak but I thought that specific story was really well told.

I agree, out of the three campfire stories, Mistmane was the most compelling and memorable.

I just dislike how Namby just appears to be some kind of generic "We can do it!" pony in the show, but in the comics she's goofy as fuck, and it's great. She and Ponks would get on so well.

I just wish there was more to these pillars other than just being the subject of these legends (and Star Swirl being a Grumpy Old Man), and episodes like "Rockhoof" fix that.

I absolutely love the Pillars, and considering Rockhoof was, imo, the one with the least polished introduction and knowing what they have done with him in the comics, I'm really looking forward to his modern day shenanigans.

Do wish we'd gotten more Pillar's in S8. I know that they'll show up in Rockhoof's episode, but I really would've loved one more outing for each of them. Specially Flash Magnus, who I want to see aknowledged as related to Flash Sentry, and Somnambula who's own legend got told by an old Somnambulan pony, robbing the audience of hearing her maginficent voice for more than a couple of sentences.

I do believe Netflix has lost seasons 5-7...

Wow, you're right. I guess it really is leaving then.

Post of the Day #2273

Eh, like I said, was a good six-year run. Lasted longer than other cartoons people loved (I'm still miffed that Netflix lost the DCAU).

Everyone's trying to make their own streaming service, failing to realize that the draw of Netflix was that all of these movies and shows were in one place on the cheap. They ain't gonna buy a $10 subscription to every single service just to be able to stream everything we wanna watch. We'll just pay $10 to one or two, and then find alternative means of watching everything else.

People are trying to reinvent cable, and it's going to die the same way cable died.

This competition between streaming services is simply going to kill streaming services, or at the very least it's going to kill any shows being hosted on one of them.