My Little Pony

[RandomGeekNamedBrent]

personally, I think this may be a sign that next season could actually be the last.
the CMC, Rarity, and Twilight have all reached their obvious endgame (marks, canterlot boutique, and princesshood respectively). Dash is close to if not at hers (She's flying with the wonderbolts). none of the other mane 6 have obvious end goals.

then behind the scenes we have the senior storyboard artist and Amy Keating Rogers moving on to other projects. probably nothing, but if more of the older crew start leaving it could be a sign that they're planning on wrapping up.

or I could be reading too far into things and they'll keep it going til we don't want them to anymore

[IceKitsune]

personally, I think this may be a sign that next season could actually be the last.
the CMC, Rarity, and Twilight have all reached their obvious endgame (marks, canterlot boutique, and princesshood respectively). Dash is close to if not at hers (She's flying with the wonderbolts). none of the other mane 6 have obvious end goals.

then behind the scenes we have the senior storyboard artist and Amy Keating Rogers moving on to other projects. probably nothing, but if more of the older crew start leaving it could be a sign that they're planning on wrapping up.

or I could be reading too far into things and they'll keep it going til we don't want them to anymore

It could be that it's ending after the movie so at most we are going to get two more seasons depending on when the movie airs. Really I would prefer if this show does end with the movie or shortly after it as could fall into the trap that a lot of long running shows do. However this is a cash cow for Hasbro so who knows.

I think giving the CMC their cutie marks, having the development they are clearly doing on other characters and all the continuity callbacks and stuff like that is kind of the show starting to play catch up with shows like Gravity Fall,Adventure Time,Steven Universe and to a lesser extent Regular Show ect. Which I think is a good thing, as good as FIM is if it didn't start doing stuff like this I think it would have become completely dwarfed by those other shows in time and be regarded as much weaker than them in retrospect.

[Penwrite]

Alright I got behind so I just watched the last two!

Brotherhooves Social was honestly kinda insensitive. :/ I understand they had no bad intentions but still, they ended up touching on some pretty hurtful stereotypes with Big Mac. I'm glad the voice actor followed up and apologized, but ideally they would have handled the episode way better than that. The ending was kind of cute at least.

As for Crusaders of the Lost Mark... I'm torn. It was really emotional and I totally appreciate that. Diamond Tiara's face turn was kinda out of left field and I would have loved to see it happen more gradual, but I understand they just have 22 minutes to work with. I do appreciate how they seem to be keeping her personality similar despite making her not a jerk anymore (or at least not as much of one). As for the cutie marks... I don't like it. It was a great moment but now they just robbed their B cast of their primary gimmick. Sometimes shows work when Wile E. Coyote never catches the roadrunner, yaknow? Now they've lost a lot of what defined them and made them relatable to younger audiences.

Also I'm pretty sure that's as close to an explicit confirmation that Applejack's parents are dead as we're going to get.

I'm relieved to see I'm not the only one who felt that way about Brotherhooves Social.

[Sleet]

I dunno, I like how naive the CMC were. I think it's funny to see the episodes where they line themselves up to learn a valuable lesson and then... don't.

[RandomGeekNamedBrent]

I forgot to mention, In the election song there was a surprisingly deep voice for a song supposedly being sung by little fillies and colts. and I didn't notice it until they showed Button Mash singing, so he has a deep voice in my headcanon now

also a couple lines in the last song bug me a little: "helping fillies to break through" and "helping fillies most in need". both ignoring colts.I know the show's targeted at little girls and all but they could have easily made "fillies and colts" fit the rhythm if they dropped "to" and "most" respectively.

I'm also bugged by Diamond Tiara singing "every girl and boy" instead of the horse terms but that one would have been impossible to make work.

*finishes over-analyzing lyrics and harmonies in a cartoon about colorful horses*

[JeffCvt]

Speaking of the songs, what do you all think about the songs this season so far? I think they've been fantastic personally.

[Penwrite]

Overall I've really enjoyed them. "Our Town" is one of my faves for the whole series.

I didn't notice the deep voices, but did anyone else think Diamond Tiara's first song kinda sounded auto-tuned?

[IceKitsune]

I don't know why this didn't cross my mind until now but speaking of continuity and big changes in the show, if you thought the CMC getting their cutie marks was huge status quo change; this weeks episode The One Where Pinkie Knows, is going to also be a pretty big change to the status quo. If you have read the synopsis of it you know exactly what is going down. It obviously won't be as consistently impactful but the fact that they are doing it at all is pretty big IMO.

You know they really are doing a lot of status quo changes in this season and I wonder why. We know we are getting the movie and at least 1 more season likely 2. I think Hasbro has likely seen what other shows (like the ones I in my previous post above) are doing and have decided to just let the writers take more of the reins in what happens in the show at this point. The writers know they need to shake things up before stuff gets stale so they are doing sweeping changes to kind of push the show forward more and open it up to new story ideas.

[Radio Blue Heart]

Personally, I am glad that the CMC got their cutie marks and have decided to help others find theirs. Much like when Twilight became a princess, I see this as a milestone not a dead end.

Read the latest "Friends Forever" with Spike and Zecora and I liked it. It was sweet seeing them work together to cure the town and bond over the fact that they are the only ones of their respective species in Ponyville.

[Sleet]

The difference between Twilight and the CMC is that she's the main character and has a lot more space to work with than they do. They have a much more specific gimmick than Twilight does.

[IceKitsune]

So that is yet another huge change in the status quo for the show. This season is really shaking things up. I just wonder if Cadance will give birth in the next season or maybe in season 7. The episode was a first for Barrows, who writes the chapter books; I thought she did fine. Pinkie was funny but not over the top as some tend to write her. Shining Armor was insanely adorable in the room Twilight made up for him, that part had to be the funniest scene in the whole episode. I liked that the Cakes and Mayor Mare got quite a bit of the spotlight here and Pound and Pumpkin were adorable. Infact this whole episode was pretty adorable all around really.

Overall though it was ok, the premise of the episode was a bit thin for 22 minutes and the whole Pinkie Pie running into ponies mentioning babies was only funny for the first few times. I feel like the secret plot should have only been like half the episode or so and the second part should be either just Shining Armors and Cadances visit to give them some screen time or going to Canterlot to tell the rest of the families.

[Sleet]

Yeah I agree the premise got run a bit thin but overall I liked it! Crazy Pinkie is fun Pinkie.

I just read the newest Friends Forever, too. I really liked the subject matter they hit on! Plus it's neat seeing all kinds of character pairs interact. That's one of my favorite things about shows/comics/whatever with large casts of colorful characters.

[RandomGeekNamedBrent]

I enjoyed the royalty free version of Clarinet Polka that played while Pinkie was delivering the cupcakes.

[Penwrite]

This episode used Pinkie Pie well. It's easy to write her as just crazy and random, but it's important to remember that there is always some rhyme and reason for how she acts, even if only she knows it. Her literally falling to pieces at the end was hilarious.

[FritzyBeat]

I have nothing to analyze, I'm just enjoying all the pony *shot*

[Radio Blue Heart]

I was thinking. Since the CMC got their cutie marks and it has been leaked that by the end of the season that Starlight Glimmer will return. Do you think they gave the girls their marks just so they can be stolen by a vengeful cult leader?

[JeffCvt]

So I just thought of something. (Oh, I'm also not spoilering it because it's been long enough that you should know not to check any MLP related things if you don't want the episode spoiled. )

Starlight Glimmer's thing was removing cutie marks. Beyond that, we never really learned her motivation for doing so. To be honest, we're not that far away from the season finale where we assume they'll encounter Starlight Glimmer again. I wonder if the CMC's new cutie mark related cutie marks will play a major role in a cutie mark related villain?

Kinda sorta already beat you to that Radio.

Personally, I have no doubt that they'll play SOME kind of role in it, whether it be minor like having their marks stolen, or major like actually being the ones who resolve the entire thing. I don't see it being unreasonable that Starlight Glimmer's desire to remove cutie marks comes from not understanding/liking hers in some way, which as we've seen, is kinda the thing that the Cutie Mark Crusader fix.

[FritzyBeat]

GUYSH, SPOILER TAGS PLEASE XD

I barely avoided that post

[JeffCvt]

Oh, sorry.

The way it usually works here is that we ask that all discussion of things that haven't aired be spoilered (Assuming the info is actually spoilers and not just speculation like my post. I don't know ANYTHING about upcoming episodes). After something airs though, enter the topic at your own risk.

That's what I've always encouraged. It makes it a lot easier to read, quote, and respond to if it doesn't have to be put in spoilers.

[Radio Blue Heart]

Guess I wasn't paying attention.

[IceKitsune]

Well this episode was interesting lots of world building for both the Pies and the Apples. Having Maud back was great and I love the other two pie sisters, even Pinkie's parents grew on me by the end of the episode. So Pinkie is a twin which I didn't see coming but is a neat bit of info. Limestone pie was great she is a little ball of rage but strangely adorable. The tradition of carving out your own harthwarming doll I found to be even more interesting than the normal tradition. Applejack and Pinkie Pie worked very well together they are a great pair up that I want to see more of. I kind of wonder what exactly that whole choosing rock thing was and how exactly it worked. Also a lot of people are speculating that Holders Bolder is likely a petrified Dragon's Egg, a very large one given Spikes, but it does look a lot like an egg.

Overall this was a nice bit of world building that was needed for the Pies and I've very glad to see it.

[Radio Blue Heart]

The return of King Sombra story line in the comic is really heating up. The Flim-Flam brothers, Lightning Dust and Iron Will are just second bananas as Sombra is teaming up with Chrysalis. I get the feeling that he might be using her. But its half way over and already the Mane Six and Shining Armor have been captured, Luna and Celestia have been turned to stone and only Cadence is free. It also tells how Hope is still alive and is more devoted to Sombra than ever because the Umbra kept her alive in one of their crystals and fooled her into thinking they were her fairy friends.

I finally watched "Friendship Games" I didn't like it as much as the other two. But it did make a nice end to Sunset Shimmer's arc of redemption from villain to hero.

I discovered an awesome ask blog on tumblr. Its called Ask Movie Slate. You donate films to Movie Slate's collection and she draws art based on that film. There are all sorts of movies submitted but being me I love the horror films! Like this one for Halloween of Twilight as Herbert West and Discord as Dr Hill in the film "Re-Animator"!

[Sleet]

That was a pretty cute episode! It's nice getting to see more families. Now I want to see Twilight's in more depth though.

[The Blue Fox]

I think I need to catch up with the comics a bit.

[Sleet]

Dang, the newest comic was heavy for My Little Pony... I think they just showed on-panel death, too? I loved the story; it was pretty darn emotional and complex!

Still needing to watch today's episode. Maybe tonight!

[IceKitsune]

To give my thoughts on the newest episode (I thought I did when it leaked but I guess not) I thought it was great, it had a great lesson and lots of character development for Fluttershy. The beginning was kind of rocky in parts but after that it was very good. I loved the anime reference it had I guess Flutters is just a huge anime fan; also those anime now exist in some form, likely as a Manga, in Equestria and some of that scares me and really makes me wonder how some of them would work. AJ was super cute in the lion costume and Pinkie made some amazing drawings on those bags for sure.

On to a more recent development, If you run across the newly announced GM Barrows book I can not stress this enough, DO NOT READ THE SYNOPSIS! It SPOILED the heck out of a MAJOR PLOT POINT in the finale.

And for those who don't care:

Again, I can't stress this enough this is A MASSIVE SPOILER for the season 5 finale and for season 6, do not read if you don't want a major plot point spoiled for you.

I wonder how Starlight Glimmer is going to be as Twilight's Student? I'm guessing at least half the episodes will focus on her learning stuff. Season 6 going to be interesting for sure.

[FritzyBeat]

I discovered an awesome ask blog on tumblr. Its called Ask Movie Slate. You donate films to Movie Slate's collection and she draws art based on that film. There are all sorts of movies submitted but being me I love the horror films! Like this one for Halloween of Twilight as Herbert West and Discord as Dr Hill in the film "Re-Animator"!

Oh hey, I know Movie Slate, I've been chatting with him on Skype for well over a year now
I knew he had the ask blog, but I really haven't taken the time to check it out in all honesty :'D I guess I'm not terribly captivated by ask blogs... at least, not as much as others I know~

[Radio Blue Heart]

Dang, the newest comic was heavy for My Little Pony... I think they just showed on-panel death, too? I loved the story; it was pretty darn emotional and complex!

Still needing to watch today's episode. Maybe tonight!

I don't think they're dead. After all, Discord was turned to stone twice and Twilight was once and they came out alright. As long as he doesn't smash them to bits like he did to Princess Amore.

I discovered an awesome ask blog on tumblr. Its called Ask Movie Slate. You donate films to Movie Slate's collection and she draws art based on that film. There are all sorts of movies submitted but being me I love the horror films! Like this one for Halloween of Twilight as Herbert West and Discord as Dr Hill in the film "Re-Animator"!

Oh hey, I know Movie Slate, I've been chatting with him on Skype for well over a year now
I knew he had the ask blog, but I really haven't taken the time to check it out in all honesty :'D I guess I'm not terribly captivated by ask blogs... at least, not as much as others I know~

Next time you talk to him tell him his art and blog ROCK! I love ponies and I love movies (especially horror films!) and seeing them crossed over is more than I could have ever hoped for.

[RandomGeekNamedBrent]

To give my thoughts on the newest episode (I thought I did when it leaked but I guess not)

well that's because we specifically told you not to

as for that spoiler, I'm not entirely sure of how spoilery it is.
The way I read it, pupil could just mean anyone that Twilight teaches a friendship lesson to. not necessarily that Twilight will actually be teaching her on a regular basis. Though I guess pupil usually implies a more personal and continued relationship, like Twilight was for Celestia, so your reading is actually more likely.

[IceKitsune]

This episode was pretty good! It had a lot of great references; Loved the Bob Ross references that was some lucky timing given the fact twitch just had a marathon. I was glad that Twilight was actually reasonable for most of the episode and only went nuts at the end. Discord was great and got some nice development and I liked the message at the end it was a good one to learn for sure. It also had some foreshadowing for the finale if you have not read the synopsis yet. Overall a very nice little episode that had a great lesson and references.

[Sleet]

I think that episode was cute. Some of the inside jokes were pretty hokey, but I guess that was the point? I mean, I wasn't there. It's nice having an episode just about the main 6 being friends and learning friendship lessons again. Sometimes that's a welcome break from the more ambitious plots that more recent seasons have had!

[RandomGeekNamedBrent]

so, remember the inconsistency from Family Appreciation Day where Granny Smith was around for Ponyville's Founding while in Winter Wrap-Up Twilight says that ponyville hasn't used magic to clean up winter for hundreds of years?

a youtube reviewer (Firebrand on FOB Equstria) just noted that in Party Pooped, Applejack finds Pinkie's plans for her parents' 50th, 100th, and 500th anniversaries, and pointed out that it was either a "pinkie's random" joke, or it's confirmation that all ponies actually live for centuries, not just Alicorns, and that wasn't an inconsistency.

personally, I'd like if that were the case, but it probably was just a joke. but what do you guys think?

[IceKitsune]

I personally think it means at least Earth Ponies regularly live for over 100 years likely into the mid 200s perhaps. I mean it could just be a joke but with what we have seen in the show it's pretty likely.

Also just to give my feelings on this last episode, it was ok, its a story that has been told a million times at this point so its mostly old hat and there really isn't anything you can do to spice it up that much. Nothing overly wrong with the episode just nothing really special either.

Edit: Ok time for the new episode I liked this episode more than the last one. The songs were great and I loved Coloratura she was a very good character. I liked how while it said that the manager was a huge jerk and was abusing his powers; they had Rarity point out his job is legitimately hard a lot of the time, and that after he was gone it also pointed out that regardless of how much of a jerk he was he was actually very good at his job and knew what he was doing. Also that by getting rid of him, Coloratura's job was going to be harder now. If anything I felt like this episode could have been longer, perhaps to explore things more.

Also the Berrows books are now canon to the show, Twilight referenced the book Pinkie Party Palooza at the beginning of the episode when she said that Pinkie had experience organizing a concert before. The show staff also mentioned this on twitter as well.

[RandomGeekNamedBrent]

so this is apparently the last episode written by Amy Keating Rogers.
and happened to hold a few references to previous episodes written by her.
flowers from the Royal Canterlot Gardens from "The Best Night Ever", Cherries from Cherries Jubilee from "The Last Roundup", Eclaires by Gustave le Grand from "MMMystery on the Friendship Express", and at the begining they reference Sapphire shores, introduced in "A Dog and Pony Show". also the foals introduced in "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" appear.

on another note, I loved every song here, the overly processed pop song and the power ballad at the end are both my type of music.

also I liked the whole "unicorn magic mimicking technology theme" with the auto-tune spell and Twilight's video spell (which I didn't actually notice or question when I first watched it)

also, I hope Coloratura changes her stage name to Countess Rara

finally, Lena Hall said she'd love to make a whole album as Countess Coloratura, so I hope that becomes a thing.

edit: not finally. Amy Keating Rogers pointed out that her last episode ends with a song she wrote about loving Equestria. It's her goodbye to the world of ponies.

[Radio Blue Heart]

In the latest comic, the Cadence made the Umbrum reveal their true form to Radiant Hope and they are PURE nightmare fuel! Imagine a horse corpse made of smoke.

It also elaborates on Sombra's origins and that he is not truly like them anymore now that he has been forced into a pony form. I can't wait for the next chapter because things are really heating up.

[Sleet]

Magical. Autotune. That is absurd. But hey, I appreciate this show's commitment to keeping technology from being too modern!

I also loved the unicorns in the audience with "lighters." That's fantastic.

[IceKitsune]

So that was it that was the season 5 finale! Overall it was really good, not the best finale; in fact I would consider it perhaps the weakest so far. However that doesn't make it a bad episode. The major weaknesses of this were mostly that absolutely none of the alternate timelines made any sense, they were completely arbitrary. And Starlights motive was really weak seriously send a letter to him or something.

However while the timelines were silly and made no sense I liked some of the things in them, Dash with the missing wing, the changeling invasion one was great, good to see Zecora again as usual. The ending shot was amazing and Starlights song was really good. It was very actioned packed overall which was very nice and while I found her motive to be weak I really liked Starlight overall. I would give these episodes a 7/10 not in anyway bad but weak by finale standards IMO. By the way just to be clear I'm only comparing these episodes to Openers and Finales, I consider it unfair to compare a two parter to a regular episode that only has 22 minutes to tell its story.

[RandomGeekNamedBrent]

The major weaknesses of this were mostly that absolutely none of the alternate timelines made any sense, they were completely arbitrary.

well, it was arbitrary which outcome was paired with each change in the past, all of them were valid timelines for the basic premise of "the elements never got together and weren't there to defeat the enemies" (which just makes it stupid when Twilight says she doesn't know why her friendship being gone causes these issues. all of the timelines were directly caused by things you stopped or at least helped stop)

maybe the Flim Flam timeline was completely arbitrary, I'll give you that.
my issue is that they didn't have a timeline with Trixie to maintain her odd numbered season appearances. but that makes sense because without Twilight there she's just a showpony, she never gets the Alicorn Amulet,

also, my headcanon is that Derpy accidentally caused the barren timeline

[IceKitsune]

The major weaknesses of this were mostly that absolutely none of the alternate timelines made any sense, they were completely arbitrary.

well, it was arbitrary which outcome was paired with each change in the past, all of them were valid timelines for the basic premise of "the elements never got together and weren't there to defeat the enemies" (which just makes it stupid when Twilight says she doesn't know why her friendship being gone causes these issues. all of the timelines were directly caused by things you stopped or at least helped stop)

maybe the Flim Flam timeline was completely arbitrary, I'll give you that.
my issue is that they didn't have a timeline with Trixie to maintain her odd numbered season appearances. but that makes sense because without Twilight there she's just a showpony, she never gets the Alicorn Amulet,

also, my headcanon is that Derpy accidentally caused the barren timeline

They were arbitrary because half of them couldn't have logically existed. How did the Tirek timeline happen? There is almost no logical way for the timeline to get that far without the elements. Where was Luna/Nightmare Moon in the Crystal War timeline? Why was Luna actually Luna in the timeline Discord took over? ect. The thing is the timelines themselves were nothing more than excuses to show off the villains again, outside of the Nightmare Moon and Discord timeline (outside of the Luna thing) none of them could have ever happened. The issue is these timelines needed to be explored more, they really only should have done the Crystal War one and the Changeling resistance or the Nightmare Moon one. They didn't explore things enough really, even the Butterfly effect has to have some form of logic behind it.

[Sleet]

Well if we accept the butterfly effect explanation Zecora gave, it makes sense that perhaps the changing streams of time prevented those other threats from occurring, or allowed the dominant threat to break out sooner.

All in all, it was a great episode, and I loved the looks of the different apocalypses (plus seeing Equestria's army in action). Did anyone else get the vibe that this episode was written/storyboarded before it was confirmed there'd be a 6th season? It seemed very final, what with the song at the end.