I was playing cards with my 4 four year old niece with the tv on Discovery kids and then MLP started to begin (Ticket Master). My ears bled with the horrible voice acting.

Wait, what?

Are you saying The Ticket Master had bad voice acting?

I wasn't very clear. Sorry. What I mean was that the Portuguese dub for Brazil is horrible.

The Dutch is also really bad,

Think of it as a bad voiced version of Dora the explorer.

Ah, I see. Well, they can't all be winners I guess.

Here you go,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvMon-LcOHI

If this is the same dubbing job that you saw, I would agree. They made Rainbow Dash sound like a boy.

*listens to the European Spanish dub*

I have the strangest urge to punch EVERYTHING now. Hm.

Wow...I can't believe I heard manlier Dashes than the Portuguese one.

While I have read some fics that tried injecting that kind of stuff in and it was just awful, I have to say I think Penwrite's fics actually deal with the darker side of the world very well.

I'm not one who usually likes putting death into the MLP universe either, and maybe my judgement may be biased on Penwrite's fics because they remind me of Stephen King (Who's writing I love), but I do enjoy reading fics that deal with the darker side of the world that we don't usually see in the show. (And not always death. It could also be about something like losing a house, daily struggles with money, or maybe trying to reclaim a lost love.)

Um.

Wow.



Okay then. Never expected to be cited as an example of something done right... Thanks. I'll try not to disappoint you with my future writing.

Edit: recently a 13 year old girl and her little brother started a petition against Hasbro for their girly easy-bake oven promoting gender stereotypes that only girls can cook. Quick, someone start a petition that pony toys are too girly!

Ahhh, I kid, I kid.

Looks like my fear for the Spike episode was true...

Well on the bright side, we're getting another Timberwolf appearance. Although, you'd think that would be the one monster a baby dragon could fight off with ease. You know, fire breath and all.

Yes. I think Spike could burn a bunch of wood made wolves (that would be awsome, in fact). The thing is the whole "my life was saved, so I'll become person X's slave to annoy person X and also the audience". Hey arnold did that if I'm not mistaken and I dislked it the same.
I can imagine the ending:
Spike: "Sorry, Applejack. I led about existing such code. I only said it existed just so you would let me repay you. sorry for the trouble I gave you at yur farm."

He can't be Applejack's slave! He is already obligated to be Twilight's slave!

Wait, Twilight getting annoyed at Applejack taking all of Spike's time and a slapstick tussle ensuing would make the whole episode worth it.

If that's the route the episode follows, then I'm okay with it. Also we can't discuss the leaked episode, yet, right?

not until official tv airing
i've managed to hold out until then somehow

I think that most people who enjoy darker MLP stories enjoy them because they allow you to explore more mature themes than would ever be touched on in the show (no, including a 3 second clip of a funeral does not count as touching the subject of death; especially considering the scene took place in the middle of an upbeat CMC song about finding Cheerilee a date for Hearts and Hooves Day). Also, as Jeff pointed out, "darker themes" doesn't even need to be something like death or blood and gore type stuff. It can be something as simple as financial or romantic struggles, which present a much more realistic conflict than overcoming an army of Changelings or defeating an ancient god of chaos. And that makes the story easier to relate to.

On the topic of the upcoming Spike episode, I have to say that I'm more than a little disappointed with the current description. I mean, come on: Noble Dragon Code? You wanna talk about shoe-horned? THAT is shoe-horning at it's worst. How have we never heard about this before? This is hardly the first time that Spike has needed to be rescued. Rainbow and Fluttershy saved him at the end of Secret of my Excess. There were no claims of Noble Dragon Code then. He needed to be rescued at the end of Dragon Quest. No mention of the code. Saved at the end of Crystal Empire. No mention. And while he's already basically serving Twilight, there was no mention of this code at the end of Owl's Well That Ends Well either.

If they wanted to make up this Noble Dragon's Code, they should have introduced it a long, looooong time ago.

I agree, having darker subjects in the MLP universe in fan stuff doesn't have to be 90s comic Grimdark style blood and guts here with every other word being a swear. Just more realistic and mature themes, which doesn't have to be war. Though speaking of war stuff, just yesterday there were people arguing on /mlp/ that Equestria has never ever in their history had a war and getting angry when people pointed out that was just blatantly untrue because they wanted to have Equestria be this perfect peaceful land. Which IMO highlights the problem with some people who don't want there to be any mature themes at all in anything having to do with MLP they just ignore stuff that is detrimental to their point.

As for this Nobel Dragon Code thing either its something that Spike just learned about (remember he doesn't know much of anything about Dragons really) or its something he made up to force Applejack to let him help out of a sense of duty to his friend.

I have to agree with both your points there.

Also if you take into account that the Wonderbolts are either the Equestrian Air Force or a Branch of it, those three dots on Spitfires Uniform are likely the equivalent of stars for the US Air Force making her full title Lieutenant General Spitfire. Also it could be Vice Admiral Spitfire if you consider them more like the Blue Angels which are part of the Navy.

Rainbow Dash was great in this episode and before anyone says anything Spitfire was not in anyway acting out of character nor was she ruined by her acting like a Drill Instructor should act. I have had enough of hearing about how her character was ruined by this episode already. Its like this fandom has no idea how a DI is meant to act like, considering how many bronies are in the Armed Forces I find that a bit sad.

After two showings of this episode (yeah I watched it twice) this is a solid 8/10 episode for me personally. The only thing was they went a bit over board with Pinkie Pie IMO to the point were it was a bit annoying actually.

i can see that being a bit annoying for some people
applejack did

Watching people have fits about Spitfire's personalty and complaining about no Derpy is so bloody amusing. I love when people's headcannon is blown out of the window, 95% of the time, they turn on the canon for not being close enough to what they saw in their head and it's amusing pointing out that headcanon is not real canon.

I want to know as well, I'm sure now that the episode is out they can tell us if we ask them.

Also I really loved AJs expressions when Pinkie was going on her little rant especially when she looked at the camera and had this look of "Are you kidding me." on her face.

Just because canon contradict headcanon, it doesn't stop people from writting in their own personalities for the characters. Also I don't think Spitfire was weird at all. The wonderolt academy was pretty much in a "military" school. Remember in Secret of my exccess? The wonderbolt tried to fight off gient Spike (they lost, but they still had to fight him off). She had to be though because it seems that the wonderbolts are more than just "show off" pegasi. They're also the sky police.

The problem at least for me anyway is not when they do give characters their own personalities (for Background characters anyway) its when they get angry and indigent that cannon doesn't follow what they want so they start attacking it and other people.

Yeah the Wonderbolts seem to basically be at the very least a Branch of (if not the whole thing) the Equestrian Air Force which makes the Academy basically Basic Training.

Oh yeah and one thing no one pointed out even though it was never said at the end its kind of obvious that Rainbow Dash is now a member of the Wonderbolts. Her only competition was Lighting Dust from what we saw and her stunts likely screwed her over in that department so RD is really a shoe in for the team, at least as some kind of junior member or something like a second string/back up team.

By the way, do you guys think that Lighting Dust can perform sonic booms too? She seemed to be much faster than RD.

Its likely she could she is at least as fast as RD if not faster like you said.

It was said before that Rainbow Dash was the only pony to have ever preformed a sonic rainboom, but not just a sonic boom. Maybe what happens when a pony goes faster than the speed of sound depends on the pony.

Oh hey, big muscle pony is back!

edit: also, is it bad that it took me nearly a third of the episode to notice Spitfire's voice was different from her last two speaking appearances?

no i don't think so

thoughts on the episode?

Thoughts?

I thought this episode was absolutely amazing. The animation was spectacular, even better than usual I thought. The background music was epic and exactly what I'd imagine for an episode like this. We got a healthy amount of world-building here with a deeper look into the Wonderbolts and how a pony joins them. But even more importantly, we see how much Rainbow Dash has grown throughout the series. She's really become a great pony, not just in her flying skills but in her moral character. Near the end when she was berating Spitfire and quitting, and then became leader and got saluted by the other cadets... I'm gonna be honest here, I could have cried. Maybe I'm a big softy, but that whole thing was awesome. I mean, watching the first season, who could have believed Rainbow Dash would willingly quit the Wonderbolts in such a way?

Also, this episode continues the more mature lessons of S3 as far as I'm concerned. "It's not just about pushing ourselves, it's about pushing ourselves in the right direction." I can't express how boggled my mind is that a little girl's show is advancing that lesson. I love it.

Overall, great episode with a strong moral and a lot of rewatch value thanks to its beautiful animation and rocking music.

Derpy Hooves has a cameo in the web comic "Anthronauts".

http://anthronauts.katbox.net/wp-conten ... png?6949c1

It is also a "Spaceballs" reference.

Uh... was Derpy always an anthro cat in a skimpy red outfit?

What are you talking about? Derpy is wearing the white spacesuit and helmet.

Am... am I... the only one seeing the... um....

I think I know what the problem is. This site does not allow hot linking and the angry cat girl is their warning sign. I can't read the latest comic now because of it.

But this is what I was attempting to show.

Only thing I'm going to say about the episode is that I'm curious as to how they're planning to account for the fact she's apparently a Wonderbolt now, but is still going to be spending the majority of her time with the main cast. Unless they're going to have her come flying in at the beginning of every episode saying, "Hey guys, I just got off of [insert Wonderbolt-related event]. What have I missed?"