Honestly thought the latest episode was terrible.

Plot-holes and characterization/lore flaws abound.

 

Welp.

Series Finale Spoilers.

I don't mind.

But there seems to be a bit of a storm brewing...

 

I thout the last episode was fantastic. Loads of continuitity, great use of music and very well written. One of my favourites this series.

 

I've been too busy to watch the latest episode, so I'll post my take on it sometime later.

 

I heard something about a My Little Pony movie for 2013. Anyone know anything about that?

 

Here is a video recording of an announcement from Hasbro's CEO.

Straight-to-tv movie, and a change of 'blueprints' across the whole brand. Or something like that.

Also, season 4 has been confirmed, and has 26 episodes.
I can't be bothered scrounging up the link currently, but it should be on eqdaily or mlpwikia.

 

Oh wow...

I'm loving this episode. The songs are pretty damn good, I've laughed a few times, and they actually seem to be getting the plotline in.

That last point was one of my worries. With the two story ideas that had been leaked

Spoiler

princess coronation and the cutie mark thing

, I was worried the episode would just be a mess of everything happening at once.
Okay, that happened a bit towards the end.
But it was still good.

CELESTIA IS SINGING.

The animation has been pretty good too, this time. The stream was laggy, but there were 10k watching.

Pinkie was as amusing as always, but didn't go over the top, like she often does.


Great episode, and there's so very many exploitable screencaps.

 

Didn't really enjoy the finale.

The Cutie Mark switch could've made a wonderful episode on its own, but then we rush out this coronation thing in the last five minutes and everything starts to feel majorly cluttered. Too many songs, as well, but without those the episode would've felt stupidly rushed. More so than it already did, at least.

I'll admit I hate the alicorn shit. I feel like it's too close to Mary Sue territory, changes things way too much, and the way they did it felt like they were leaving plot holes everywhere. If they were going to make this alicorn thing happen properly they shouldn't have shoved it into five minutes of screen time.

The "everything is going to be fine" at the end felt condescending as fuck, too, but I was probably just too butthurt and oversensitive at that point.

 

I enjoyed this episode. Although it did seem like quite a lot was being forced in, the songs were great, the animation interesting if weird, and the cutie mark storyline was fun. The alicornication... Well, that remains to be seen. So long as Rarity still gets some screentime, I'll be fine - she was very absent this series.

I hope the show doesn't become entirely Twilight-centric. That would be a mistake, however well they do it.

I don't have the sauce for it at the moment, but didn't one of the VAs say something about this almost being 'part one of three'? As in, this is just the first of a three parter episode, but we'll have to wait until the next series to see 2 and 3. That should clear up some of the plot holes.

 

Kinda have to agree—the episode really came across as a two-parter that they had to cram into a single episode.

As for the Alicornification, a lot's going to depend on what they do with it. Could be a fun change-up to keep things fresh and interesting, or it could be the series jumping the shark.

 

While the episode was pleasant-ish, it did feel way too rushed. Too many songs as well, who, while not terrible, weren't particularly amazing either. The series had way catchier and more entertaining songs.

The cutie mark stuff really felt that it would have been better if they had focused the whole episode on it and I have to say, didn't really like all that Twilight wank this episode had. Thought cutie marks were above magic, in a way, but apparently not for Twilight and friendship, which really didn't have all that much to do with the solution, really.

Also, if Twilight needed to discover a whole new branch of magic, what did Twilight's foalsitter do to earn her alicorness?

Anyway, episode was okay but really not all that good. everything could have been handled better and should have been dealt with in different episodes. Hope the next season is going to be more satisfying.

 

Isn't it obvious?

 

One interesting point I came across earlier: we now Princess Twilight and a redeemed Discord along with the Sisters and Cadance. Whoever the next Big Bad is, they'll have to be a pretty major powerhouse to stand up to all that.

 

Clearly, after his 1000 year absence the evil Emperor of Equestria will return to take up the throne that his sisters bribed him off of... with the promise of finding him an Empress.

DUN.

Dun.

dun.

 

Honestly, I could have seen this as a two part episode, maybe even a three.

It felt incredibly rushed/compressed.

Hell, if a lot more work was put into it, from start to climax, it would have made a fucking good movie.

 

It will be a 3 part episode, with the new seasons first 2 episodes completing it.

 

It seems so cheap to have a season finale (that feels like a series finale) and then to come out and say "Oh yeah, no, we'll fix it all next season."

Like this is a Finale. This is what everything is supposed to lead up to, where everything is wrapped up and completed. It feels silly to have a major finale and then fix things later on. It doesn't feel planned out at all.

 

Right, so I finally got around to finishing the season and I've had a while to organize some thoughts. "Just for Sidekicks" and "Games Ponies Play" were good. The intertwining events between them was neat, as was seeing all the pets that were sidelined before (Tank in particular -- even the phoenix Spike found before was shown a bit). And they were pretty funny in places, which is always good.

The season finale, however...

Well, I'll cover the first half or so of the episode first. I always thought cutie marks were governed by the ponies, not that the ponies were governed by their cutie marks. More like "you've matured and decided where your talents lie, so this patch of fur on your ass shows it off," not "you've discovered your predetermined role, and this patch of fur on your ass governs your identity for the rest of your life, have fun as a cog in the great machine." All this talk about how their destinies and whatnot were decided by their cutie marks was off-putting. It makes it sound like ponies never really have a choice in what they're going to do in life. Anyway, the basic idea of identity switching is fine I guess, but I think the execution needed work. The songs for this part of the episode were okay, but the episode was too saturated with them, especially since the rest of the season saw a real dearth of songs in proportion. There were some funny parts at least, like Rainbow Dash being ganged up on by the animals and Pinkie Pie's farming attempts.

And then there's the ending.

I've made my intense dislike for the idea of Twilight becoming an Alicorn known before. I think it's an awful concept no matter how you present it. Seeing it happen was painful to say the least, especially considering that Twilight was always my favorite.

And let me say, it wasn't even presented well here. There was barely any build up to it. I mean they discussed the idea of her reaching a new level in her education before in the season opener, sure, but you'd expect Twilight to do something far greater than anything presented so far to earn that, and you wouldn't think they'd just conjure some wings and throw a crown on her for it. The cutie mark thing was "problem of the week"-tier at best, and the solution hardly seemed like it would be an amazing feat of magic. It's just, boom, problem of the week solved, congrats you're a princess.

The last few songs for this part of the episode were pretty bad as well. Honestly it feels like everything past around the fifteen minute mark was tacked on at the last minute.

No, you're right. It's like they're blatantly giving you the finger on your way out.

No "could" about it. I think we've gotten some pretty strong hints now as to where the show's going from here. Hasbro executives more concerned about toy sale profits than story telling have taken creative control, and they're not going to let go of the reins now. The writers clearly lack the integrity to stand up against it as well. We're going to see more desecrations like this princess trash take place in the future. The show isn't what it was, and probably won't be again. Friendship is Magic was supposed to be different from the halfassed cash grabs from before, but they've lost sight of that along the way it seems.

I wonder if that's the real reason Lauren Faust left the show. Maybe she saw the writing on the wall before anyone else.

 

I'm pretty much in agreement, here.

Also, 'Equestrian Girls?'

Dear God, no.