I agree. I was looking forward to Sombrero being awesome, and an actual risk. I did like it more than most of season 2, but it wasn't as awesome as it could have been.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wl3lKJT3is for the new episode. Currently processing. It'll be up eventually.

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Villain was bad. Cadance still a mary sue, I wish she'd been a one-shot character.

Twilight's gonna get addicted to black magic.

Spike's worst fear was adorable.

 

Agreed on the weak villain. Doesn't even come close to Discord, and he falls behind even Nightmare Moon. I was impressed with the use of magic in this one though. The gravity spell Twilight used was pretty cool.

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I share similar concerns over Twilight's casual use of black magic though.

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I've heard a few rumors here and there about how they might be planning on turning her into an Alicorn. I really hope that isn't the case.

 

I’d have to disagree with you all here. Sombra worked, but not like a Disney villain, theatrical and obnoxious like every villain in the show before, but as a Sauron type; distant, obviously menacing, and having nasty little bits of his legacy left behind to mess with the heroes.
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I feel it would have bogged down the episode to give him more lines or development than what was hinted at.[/FONT]

 

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Twilight going Alicorn would be the obvious route for her reaching some new level of education. It's certainly been suggested often enough in the fandom that it happening in-show wouldn't be shocking. Pulling off that big of a change could be tricky though, not to mention all the problems it could cause for the fanon surrounding Alicorns.

Mostly, I'm a bit excited about there being a potential plot arc for the season. So far the episodes have mostly been pretty self-contained, so getting a story arc could make for an interesting change.

After pondering it for a while, I think he actually could have worked just as well if they'd built him up less instead of more. Turn Sombra into some sort of impersonal force of elemental evil instead of a character. That would keep him from needing any story time for background and development as well as avoiding the need to give him a major presence. Just have him be a living shadow/force of evil, and nothing else.

If he's going to be a character, he needs some kind of personality and motivation beyond "I'm EVIL!" Keeping him as a kind of impersonal force would've given them even more time to focus on the Twilight development they seem to be building up.

 

Didn't have that big of a concern about the villain either, worked well enough for what he was supposed to do. Bigger problem was Twilight and her fixation on passing a test while a whole kingdom/empire was facing enslavement and destruction. Seemed a bit weird for Twilight to focus so much on a test while lives were at stake.

Other than that, laughed a few times and it was certainly enjoyable. Magic was rather cool within the episodes and while the songs were comparably weak, they weren't bad either. Just forgettable. Not one of the strongest episodes, but not bad either.

By the way, how come this season it is just 13 episodes instead of 24?

 

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So, I might be too used to Harry Potter, but I'm kind of wondering if we're going to dig into magic this season.

We've got suspicious stuff from Celestia and Luna about testing Twilight. Next week's preview stuff was talking something about Twilight's "Destiny." There's some wacky stuff going on with this strange magic Celestia and Twilight have used, and finally at the end Luna pulls out a book that looks like it has Stars and Swirls on it.

Over-speculation, go.

 

Wait until the season finale. If things are going as they have been all the important stuff is only at the beginning or the end of the seasons.

 

A pretty good overview of the fanon with this new episode. These guys have a whole web series along a similar vein, and it's all usually interesting and entertaining.

 

New episode.

A pretty strong Pinkie Pie episode, which makes up for a couple weaker episodes she got last season.

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The magic cloning pool was interesting.

Gotta say, when the Pinkie clones messed up everyone else's names, I thought that would've been the method used to see who was the real Pinkie. The test they used seems too complicated in comparison. Also, I couldn't help but notice that Pinkie's hair didn't get all flat like it has before when she's depressed.

The way the spell banished the Pinkie clones by hyper-inflating them was actually kind of creepy. As was the hoof-fingers one of them did, and the way one of them made her face look more like a real horse's.

And finally, anyone else think that Spike finding that book behind a secret compartment was a little strange? It has to be leading to something. Maybe there's more in that book we'll see later.

 

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The real horse's face thing was actually G3 Pinkie Pie.

 

Sweetie Belle was absolutely adorable in this episode. Just look at that face.

 

Another image dump of good and happy things.

 

Christmas Carol Kick is a go!

Carol of the Old Ones - Pony Edition!

 

Clip from the next episode.

Looks like Trixie is back. And the style of that necklace she's wearing looks awfully familiar.

 

And the episode itself.

I'd call it a pretty solid entry for the series.

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Also, I'm headcanon-ing that the Alicorn Amulet is tied to Sombra is some way. An evil unicorn would want something to bump him up to Alicorn-level, and Trixie's natural instinct under it's influence was to enslave and conquer.

 

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Yeah, the shape and color scheme of the amulet reminded me of Sombra, which is why I said it looked familiar before. Also, actually using the word Alicorn on the show, finally, will hopefully prevent terms like "pegacorn" from being used in the future. They just sound stupid in comparison.

Yoda!Zecora was cool, as were all the different spells they showed. Pinkie having her mouth stolen was funny, as was Fluttershy. I'm ambivalent on Trixie's attempt to turn a new leaf at the end -- I suppose it's expected, but it kind of closes the window for her returning in the future again. I guess we kind of got enough out of her now anyway.

I'm really hoping all the stuff they've hinted at over the last few episodes come back in some way. The hidden book, this amulet. An actual story arc for this season would be very welcome, and if Sombra comes back it might serve to make him a more interesting villain.

 

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Fun episode, loved the new horse pun, Pinkie losing her mouth was hilarious, we saw some cool magic and wow, the voice doing Trixi in the Phoenix Wright crossover sounds exactly like her or is that the same?

Didn't notice it when I watched it since it had been quite some time since I last heard Trixi but wow, do they sound alike.

The amulet was a nice addition, am liking the existence of (evil) magic artifacts.

 

By the way, there's an MLP: FIM comic being published. Only the first issue's out right now I think, but it's actually pretty good. It's not a cheap cash-in or anything, at least so far. I suggest reading it if you can find a way to do so.

 

I just recently received said My little pony comic, as well as the DVD set for Friendship is magic season 1 that finally got released on amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/My-Little-Pony-Friendship-Magic/dp/B0096W47NO/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1354759372&sr=1-1&keywords=my%2Blittle%2Bpony