If you have been following the news, you should be aware that the people of Lebanon have been under a violent bombardment that has recently escalated. Please consider donating to help them if you can or trying to spread word of the fundraiser.
Once again, pretty cute. I like the stop motion effects with the sand. I figured this would be another "Fall Weather Friends", but it went another direction, with some classic injury selling.
Also, looks like they're including the CYOA EQG shorts in the compilations, with the endings all one after another. Also lol misleading thumbnail. I wonder if they'll sneak in the CYOAs that have been unreleased on YouTube this way.
A wave of suicides sweeps through Canterville. Sunset and the girls can't stop it. But maybe Wallflower Blush can. She just needs someone to show her how. A crossover with Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
www.fimfiction.net
Chapter 2
This was a good followup chapter, allowing the characters to process what happened, and for us to see more of Lorelai's personality outside of being an aloof jerk. The dialogue continues to be good, and everyone acts in character.
It always feels weird to me when cops and such show up in EQG fanfics. Like the world as depicted in the animation simply isn't set up for higher forms of law enforcement than magical teens, lol. We see cops sometimes, but they're just there to dance.
I admit I had to look up what brinner is, before reaching the explanation in the story. Doesn't sound appealing.
I'm curious to see how witches handle rainbow lasers.
Well, it was to be expected for Kyubey to approach Wallflower. Will she be smart about this and ask for a second opinion? Probably. Will she proceed to meguca later anyway? Probably.
~~~
You might have seen #SailorMoonRedraw, and of course, that's resulted in a bunch of MLP images!
... I'm just going to be a lazy laze and link the Derpibooru tag.
Stream followup, we watched... a bunch of Simpsons episodes, didn't get the episode numbers. I'll edit them in later. EDIT:
1. Maggie Simpson in "Playdate with Destiny"
2. The Simpsons - 3107 - Livin La Pura Vida
3. The Simpsons - 3108 - Thanksgiving of Horror
4. The Simpsons - 3117 - Highway to Well
5. The Simpsons - 3121 - The Hateful Eight-Year-Olds
6. The Simpsons - 3114 - Bart the Bad Guy
Anyway, the episodes were pretty solid. My favorite episode was probably the one where Lisa befriends a girl over pony toys, but when she goes to her sleepover, her other friends are snobs. EDIT: The Hateful Eight-Year-Olds.
Stream announcement, we're watching the following.
1. FiM - Recap 3 - Memnagerie
2. She-Ra - 503 - Corridors
3. She-Ra - 504 - Stranded
4. Sailor Moon R - 64 - In Search of the Silver Crystal: Chibi-Usa's Secret
5. Your Lie in April - 8 - Let it Ring
6. Your Lie in April - 9 - Resonance
Getting back to the FiM recap episodes.
There's some interest in watching My Next Life as a Villainess, and the resident Your Lie expect suggested taking a break from that show after episode 11, so we'll see if we can fit it in then.
Fruits Basket dub has also resumed, but I think I'll let a buffer build up before bringing that back.
YouTube videos were all Fluttershy themed this time.
There weren't many people in the stream at first, probably meaning not too much interest in the recap episodes, but more joined as it went on.
She-Ra had pretty decent episodes, with Glimmer and Catra getting along and the latter starting her face turn in the first, and the heroes meeting some nice new characters in the latter.
Sailor Moon's episode was pretty fun. The other Sailor Guardians didn't play a major role in this, but I thought their scene commenting on Usagi and Mamoru was the highlight of the episode. Oh, and I forgot to mention before, but I skipped episode 63, since that's about Rei's grandpa, and no one cares about him.
Your Lie in April featured some fantastically animated performance sequences and some elementary school rivalries. The episodes were good.
And we have what is actually the final bit of FiM content, with "Memories and More". This covers Spike, Starlight, Celestia, and Luna.
I was surprised to see this was pretty light on new footage too. Since they split up Spike hatching and the rest of the Twilight cutie mark flashback into separate flashbacks, there was even a few seconds of repeated old footage. We do get a scene taking place after the last "present day" moment in "The Last Problem", which is nice. The final scene is "Best Friends Until the End of Time", but with the Trixie and Starlight scenes cut out, which really is a pretty good way to end.
And the Gameloft game is holding an event where filly versions of the Mane Six arrive in the present day, based on the IDW 20/20 comic special, but the big thing getting attention is this Trixie babysitter design.
The Goofy shorts were pretty fun, though the first two were trimmed down significantly by Disney, it turned out. The third was its intended length, so it was good.
The last and first time I watched An Extremely Goofy Movie was as a rental to show during my 10th birthday party. The other people in the party seemed to like it, but I wasn't a big fan back then.
Watching it now, it has a lot of individually good moments, but it doesn't come together in a clean way. It's also very very much of its time (2000), with the X Games, skateboarding, ska music, and even the return of disco.
The animation is overall much weaker than A Goofy Movie, of course, but there are some moments that look quite good. One particular focus the animators seemed to have is the female characters, for... certain reasons.
There are some legit emotional moments with Goofy's empty nest syndrome, but there isn't room for much else characterization. PJ in particular is practically nonexistent after a certain point. Oddly, the beret girl never gets a name, and is just called Beret Girl. The librarian, Sylvia, does get a fair amount of characterization, at least.
As for the story, it's a mess, like I said, tying together barely related subplots. Goofy doesn't even join Max at the college until 20 minutes in. I think it would have been much more solid if they cut out the X Games stuff and expanded the rest, but I assume that was a big reason why this was created in the first place.
Stream announcement, we're watching the following.
1. The Good Place - 409 - The Answer
2. The Good Place - 410 - You've Changed, Man
3. Glitch Techs - 5 - Castle Crawl
4. Harley Quinn - 12 - Devil's Snare
Including these, only five episodes of The Good Place left! Last one is an hour long.
We're also approaching the end of Harley Quinn season 1, but season 2 is well in progress, so we have plenty to go.
Stream followup, we watched the following.
1. The Good Place - 409 - The Answer
2. The Good Place - 410 - You've Changed, Man
3. Glitch Techs - 5 - Castle Crawl
4. Harley Quinn - 12 - Devil's Snare
The Good Place featured Chidi Ascendant, now able to make immediate decisions. The first featured extended flashbacks of his life, which were good, and the second featured deliberating about what a better afterlife looks like. I think the show writers worked around having to actually come up with a perfect afterlife, by making it so the afterlife had to appease the involved characters.
Glitch Tech's episode was a Castevania parody, and it was fantastic. You could really tell the writers were fans, and even the bits that would seem contrived, like the key to beating the game being a weak random drop, comes straight from Ghosts n' Goblins.
Harley Quinn featured some fun fairy tale enemies. Still not a fan of Ivy and Kite-Man as a couple. With Ivy, people in the chat commented they looked up DeviantArt for inspiration, with Ivy turning giant and then telling Harley it'd be messed up if she ate her now.
Like I mentioned, we're approaching the end of The Good Place, and Harley Quinn season 1.
Watch full episodes at Zap2it.com and find where and when to watch episode on your local broadcast, cable and satellite TV channels.
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Princess Probz
Air date: June 13, 2020
The ponies help Pinkie Pie audition for a televised cooking competition called the Royal Jelly Juggernaut. When the rest of the Mane 6 are caught in a sticky situation, Pinkie Pie has to audition for the Royal Jelly Juggernaut all on her own.
The Best of the Worst
Rainbow Dash's compitative spirit is put to the test when a new pony challenges her to a contest unlike any other. Rainbow Dash faces off against Dishwater Slog in a loser-take-all race to finally prove which pony is truly the worst.
Episode descriptions about fall in line with expectations. Which is to say I expected simple stories like this. As long as it isn't terrible, I'll be happy to have any Pony Life content at last.
Stream announcement, we're watching the following.
1. FiM - Recap 4 - Deep Tissue Memories
2. She-Ra - 505 - Save the Cat
3. She-Ra - 506 - Taking Control
4. Sailor Moon R - 65 - Dispute Over Love: Minako and Makoto's Conflict
5. Your Lie in April - 10 - The Scenery I Shared With You
6. Your Lie in April - 11 - Light of Life
After this, we're taking a break from Your Lie in April, but not for long.
Next week, I'll stream two episodes of My Next Life as a Villainess, and then the following weeks I'll stream 1x MNLAAV and 1x Your Lie in April.
~~~
PonyFest Online 3.0 had a Pony Production Panel where three DHX board artist talked about their work on the show. Here are my notes from it.
* FiM production was housed in the old and scary DHX building; EQG was in the new building
* Time scheduled per episode never changed, even as the amount of action increased
* Celestia wasn't intended to be seen outside certain views. Only profile or side shots. But eventually they have to design a 3/4 shot for her and such.
* Apparently the first time we see Celestia in a 3/4 shot is in season 3.
* Like it was specifically noted in the character design bible not to draw Celestia outside of profile or side shots.
* Indeed, I don't think we ever saw Celestia outside of a profile or side shot in season 1 or most of season 2. This is one of those things they strayed away from after Faust left that people hadn't noticed before, I suppose.
* They had to tone down the "Find the Magic" board because it was too sexy
* In "Sparkle's Seven", Tori Grant tried to get Maud to say, "Have fun storming the castle," but her VA wasn't scheduled for the episode at all, so that didn't work.
* Lyra and Bon Bon were paired up in the background because their colors were good together, and it blew up from there.
* The incidental ponies in Starlight and Sunburst's hometown in "The Cutie Re-Mark" were largely based on Sailor Moon characters; them being tied to a particular location and time unfortunately made it so they couldn't be reused. I checked and they actually do show up in season 8's "A Matter of Principals".
* Pinkie was the worst one to draw, due to her bouncy hair
* EQG Rarity's hair is harder than Pony Rarity's, it's a nightmare
* Applejack is the easiest to draw
* Especially since her hat covers her hair
* Tori Grant loves Applejack, Rarity, and Applejack and Rarity together
* EQG crew had to share a floor with Mega Man: Fully Charged
* (And Carmen Sandiego)
* Dissing shows isn't a good way to get into animation; there's a pretty good chance you'll be interviewing with someone who knows someone who worked on that show. This was specifically in connection to Thundercats Roar.
~~~
Also in PonyFest Online, I took part in the Iron Author event, to write a story based on the prompt in two hours.
Write a story that involves, in a significant way, all three of the following elements:
On my part, I was tired and had to take a morning nap after reading the prompt, so I only had on hour to write. I think spending that time just to think about it helped that hour go smoothly. I still had to rush the ending, though.
To my surprise, I got fifth place out of 44.
May God Bless Your Soul - 22.50
The Rarest Fruit - 21.75
Children and Kerfuffle Cherries - 21.25
Someone Out There Loves You - 21.25
Featherflit's narrow escape - 21.25
Fruit of Transformation - 20.75
Of Crowns and Colors - 20.50
As Above, So Below - 20.00
Remember - 20.00
In the Name of Love - 19.75
A Chisler's Tale - 19.75
Mine is "Fruit of Transformation". All of them can be found here.
Vapor Trail regrets quitting the Wonderbolts. Her marefriend, Rolling Thunder, has the solution: pretend you never quit. It may or may not work.
www.fimfiction.net
Definitely my least popular fic so far, with very few views a day. I wonder if it would have gone over better if Vapor Trail and Rolling Thunder weren't explicitly a couple, since I'm breaking up a fairly popular ship (Vapor Trail x Sky Stinger).
A thousand years after love drove them apart, Luna reunites with an old flame.
www.fimfiction.net
Finally finished reading this! It's pretty good. You did a good job setting up the love triangle and giving every party their say. My main complaint is that Radiant Hope's personality feels a bit vague, but I felt that during the Siege of the Crystal Empire arc too. I found her much more interesting during Sombra's origin story, where she had qualities that I interpreted as mentally atypical (though that could just be my foggy memories).
There's some nice poetic imagery here, particularly the last lines, but I have to say the candle and sun metaphor is a bit odd at points. Candles don't need the sun to work, and are more useful in its absence, for one thing. Also the narrative is inconsistent with using gender neutral "they" and "she". This being quickly written does explain this, though. Given the time frame, you did a good job.
Twilight likes to sneak books into Rarity's saddlebags, and Rarity likes to read them.
www.fimfiction.net
That was a very sweet story, and those are cute uses of other RariTwi stories. That last scene was really hard hitting, especially with the choice of book. I've been considering making a RariTwi story where Twilight dies before Rarity, but I'm pretty sure that segment would have it beat.
This was a cute and sweet story. Rarity wanting Twilight to shine is nice, and perfectly in-character. The bit with Rarity panicking over Sweetie asking about the dress, even though it was perfectly natural for her to ask, was cute too.
That Sonic and Rainbow vs. Metal Sonic video is a must watch, BTW.
I had some issues playing YouTube videos in the stream on Firefox, but they worked in another browser and they played for everyone else. Not sure what's going on there.
The MLP recap episode's framing device is pretty fun.
She-Ra featured cat saving and the return of a proper She-Ra transformation. It's a good thing Catra isn't evil anymore, otherwise she's be powerscaled to match She-Ra's upgrade. The episodes were good. Shame it looks like we won't get an explanation of whether Flutterina was a real moth person, or if the moth people knew she wasn't real.
Sailor Moon was a dumb fun episode, and also more sexual than usual, with a slime girl, a girl with a whip, and an outfit that has nipples (or eyes?) printed on.
Your Lie in April featured the main character messing up his performance, but he finally figures out a way to play in his own style. Then we get a minor timeskip, making this now Your Lie in June.
As mentioned, we're taking a break from Your Lie in April for a week, to show 2x My Next Life as a Villainess. Then we'll be showing one of each each week.
~~~
I released another fic this week, this time something I wrote two months ago. I was waiting for a cover art commission, but the artist injured their hand. After waiting for them to recover for over a month, I decided to go for a temporary cover rather than waiting more. I'll replace the cover once they're done.
Anyway, I'm very proud of this fic, which goes for a writing style similar to Shakespeare's comedies. It doesn't go full Bard, but it does include a sonnet.
So as uncovered by Wootmaster in this tweet thread, a man who is respected in this community, Jetfire2012, took to the streets to defend a bar he kind of liked from righteous protestors using a sword. He locked his account since, but pictures of his tweets explaining this can be seen here. He...
www.fimfiction.net
EDIT:
So I learned that a particular MLP fanfic writer, Titanium Dragon, is a massive asshole
Propagandists vie for domination of Wikipedia articles on feminism and feminists
wikipediocracy.com
I bring him up because I checked my judge reviews for the Iron Author event this weekend and he was the one judge that didn't like my fic, lol. My Iron Author fic included the detail that hippogriffs can use the Pearl of Transformation to change sex and Silverstream just goes, "Huh, weird," when she realizes ponies don't do anything like this. That's probably what did me in.
Stream followup, we watched
1. Little Women (2019)
I thought the film was alright. Probably not the best film to watch while doing other things like keeping up with the news, since that did make it hard to keep track of who was who at times. This is my first time experiencing anything Little Women.
I was already familiar with the changes this film made from what YouTubers have been saying, and it was interesting to see those in action.
And yes, in the end, they were no longer little girls. They were little women.
~~~
We have more Pony Life episodes! No release date yet.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic News, Brony and bronies, my little pony merchandise, pony art, pony music, pony media
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Cute-pocalypse Meow
Pinkie Pie practices for the Royal Jelly Juggernaut; Fluttershy makes an adorable new friend with a dark sense of humor; Fluttershy has to muster all of her cuteness to protect her friends from Bubbles' dark side.
How Applejack Got Her Hat Back
Applejack finds herself in the midst of an identity crisis when her signature hat becomes a city-wide fashion craze; Applejack joins a group of alternative ponies in the hopes finding a new style to replace her old look.
Guessing the first is where that wobbly Fluttershy GIF comes from. Second sounds like a nice dumb episode.
That was nice and cozy! For someone like Twilight, love without an absolutely satisfying explanation can be frustrating, but it's good to see Rarity calm her concerns.
Stream announcement, we're watching the following.
1. The Good Place - 411 - Monday, Am I Right
2. The Good Place - 412 - Patty
3. Glitch Tech - 6 - Alpha Leader
4. Harley Quinn - 13 - The Final Joke
Stream followup, we watched the following.
1. The Good Place - 411 - Monday, Am I Right
2. The Good Place - 412 - Patty
3. Glitch Tech - 6 - Alpha Leader
4. Harley Quinn - 13 - The Final Joke
This is effectively the end of the main story of The Good Place, but next week, we'll get the final episode, basically an hour long epilogue, going into great detail about everyone's fates. Here, the characters reform the Bad Place, and then go to the REAL Good Place. It turns out it isn't actually that great. Thankfully, they are able to fix things, and it's off to live in paradise.
Glitch Techs was pretty fun, finally showcasing the other glitch techs. Also had one of them put in quarantine. We also saw that Miko's hair is pretty versatile.
Harley Quinn's season finale was more serious than usual. There were some unfortunate similarities with current events, with Joker troops that resemble our current militarized police beating up people in the streets, which did bring things down a bit. There were some unexpected moments, like Scarecrow dying, GOTH Poison Ivy, and things turning into No Man's Land at the end.
~~~
Derpibooru has officially stated they support Black Lives Matter, will be protecting BLM images, and will be removing images making fun of it.
Wootmaster has a good thread about this.
PonyFest Online also came out in support of BLM.
A bunch of people on FimFiction called out Jetfire2012 and also promoted Black Lives Matter. There were some losers in the comments, but it was largely supportive. I argued against lots of people in the comments.
Cynewulf was the one who opened the floodgates, and has the most comments
More than one person shared with me the image of a crazed fanatic chasing unarmed protestors with a bladed weapon before being forcibly disarmed. Every single one of these people then followed this up by revealing that the individual in question was a writer of fanfiction for My Little Pony...
This one's the big downer. I want to talk about why I don't write for this community anymore, even though I used to love it and have so much fun being a part of it. I haven't written a word of fimfic since December, and I don't think that's going to change. And that sucks for me too...
Hard to say it more plainly than that. If you want to help but you're not sure how, here's a handy link: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/ When there's demonstrable injustice, we ought to protest it or at least give our solidarity to those who do. When police forces treat a populace demanding...
Hi everyone! Last week, I held a stream with my partner and a friend where we took commissions and all the money we made went to different charities in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. It did really well (we raised $1231)! And it could have done better if I had announced it here...
Black lives matter. All lives will not matter until black lives matter. If you disagree, fuck off. Fuck the police. They are currently committing war crimes and have been a fascist-state paramilitary force committing atrocities for ages up until now. If you disagree, fuck off. Fuck fascism. It...
Black Lives Matter. If your first instinct is to counter by saying All Lives Matter, you have two options from this point. A) Read on and learn why your words are hurtful and misinformed. B) Unfollow me and all of my stories. I will not miss you. [page_break] I have been on an emotional...
Imagine, for a moment, that your house is on fire. What do you do when your house is on fire? You call the fire department, right? Right. Except here’s the thing: in a Bradbury-esque ironic twist, a fireman was the person who lit your house on fire in the first place. They claimed they didn’t...
Just a followup to the last one, in much more positive terms. I've felt like i haven't been able to say what I did for a very long time. But because I couldn't say it, I didn't get to learn how many people really didn't know how bad the problem was getting for me, and how many people weren't...
www.fimfiction.net
~~~
Monochromatic posted a short speedwrite fic, as the chapter "Someone to Love" in this
Rarity enjoyed the simple pleasures of life. Drinking tea, fighting timberwolves, picnics with Fluttershy, meeting dragons and, most of all, spending time with an ancient alicorn spirit. She wouldn't give it up for anything in the world.
www.fimfiction.net
Oh, I saw the speedwrite version of this before! Still adorable. Best moment is Pinkie not wanting to fight Luna.
Stream announcement, we're watching the following.
1. FiM Recap 5 - Harvesting Memories
2. She-Ra - 507 - Perils of Peekablue
3. She-Ra - 508 - Shot in the Dark
4. Sailor Moon R - 68 - Protect Chibi-Usa: Clash of the Ten Warriors
5. My Next Life as a Villainess - 1 - I Recalled the Memories of My Past Life...
6. My Next Life as a Villainess - 2 - A Prince Challenged Me To a Fight...
She-Ra is a Pokemon playground rumor crossover. And we're starting the big new bi harem of the season.
This was pretty interesting. I admit I was unclear what tone it was going for. The first part presents everything pretty seriously, but then the jokes started appearing. If the goal was to have a tone shift, I think making a more obvious and sudden transition point would have helped. Still, I enjoyed the character interactions, and this is an usual set of characters to play off each other.
Luna is many things: a goddess, princess, and wife. What happens when she has a secret that threatens to unravel every one of those things?
www.fimfiction.net
Story about trans male Luna, and him learning about gender dysphoria after it was only defined in modern times. Review as of chapter 2
This is really good so far! It's interesting to see a story about a trans character learning about the existence of gender dysphoria, and it's especially rare to see a story about a trans male character. You did a wonderful job getting the reader into Luna's head, and his doctor is a good OC.
Applejack's recap is still the least interesting one.
She-Ra featured a fun villain club seqence where the heroes try to figure out if Pikablu's in the truck or if you have to trade Raichu 50 times or what. Also that often GIF'd moment of Catra sitting in Adora's lap. Second episode featured more cute Catra moments, to establish her dynamic as a good guy. I'm starting to see what people mean about the intro visuals changing, now that characters are moving to different parts as they get brainwashed.
With Sailor Moon R, we skipped the dinosaur episode, and thus reached an episode that featured... bed wetting from Chibiusa. This really weirded people out. There is a neat insert song sequence at the end, though.
Then we started My Next Life as a Villainess. Reactions to the series were pretty positive. Definitely seems like we'll continue it.
A wave of suicides sweeps through Canterville. Sunset and the girls can't stop it. But maybe Wallflower Blush can. She just needs someone to show her how. A crossover with Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
www.fimfiction.net
Chapter 3
This was a great chapter! Wallflower comes so close to figuring out what's up with the magical girl / witch deal, but Kyubey is a slippery cat thing. I'm really impressed by how you're balancing the Madoka side and the side that's a realistic take on the aftermath of a suicide. The dialogue continues to work well. As someone who's currently feeling sleep deprived, I connect to Sunset here. Great job!
Twilight doesn't fear supposedly-cursed stories. On an unrelated note, the story she's reading makes her look at Spike in a new light.
www.fimfiction.net
I enjoyed this as a speedfic and it's still good here. You did a good job showing Twilight's fall into suspicion. My one complaint is that the cursed story feels pretty normal. It's a straightforward tale, there aren't any oddities that could push Twilight's mind in certain directions when trying to understand it. That makes it a bit harder to accept that it would drive Twilight mad.
Stygian learns what it means to sacrifice for the greater good.
www.fimfiction.net
This was a pretty interesting story. I always thought Stygian using remnants of the Pony of Shadows like a stand was a fun visual, but that power turning him into a phoenix (with some help from Philomena) is an unexpected choice. Them traveling where the strings take them and solving problems, then Stygian sacrificing himself to fix as many as he could, is a nice mythical concept. I will say that Equestria is surprisingly stacked with life or death situations, even for this show, including what appears to be multiple ponies with Alicorn Amulets.
This is my fourth time or so watching Your Name, and it's still a very good movie. The gorgeous art and animation, the soundtrack, the charming story, and the emotional moments all come together. Plus, we had some people who hadn't seen the movie before, and we got their positive reactions. There was confusion about the movie having an anime opening, legit teary eyes at particular moments, everything you'd want. Looking at the significance of the Japanese cultural aspects, I really wonder how the American remake it going to work.
~~~
Day 2, the Pride and Positivity event is going pretty well so far, with three entries already (stories that were already being made).
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic News, Brony and bronies, my little pony merchandise, pony art, pony music, pony media
www.equestriadaily.com
And things complicate even more. Pony Life will be airing on June 18, a Thursday? It isn't even on Discovery Family's schedules. Will it be on Discovery Family?
Luna is many things: a goddess, princess, and wife. What happens when she has a secret that threatens to unravel every one of those things?
www.fimfiction.net
Chapter 3
Great chapter! Knowing you had previous Luna x Sombra stories, I assumed the references to past events were things that appeared in previous fics, so I was surprised to see them depicted in this chapter. It's nice to see Cadance is such a good friend, and Luna's and Sombra's interactions were good here.
Love is a broken corpse upon the rocks as the tide rushes in.
www.fimfiction.net
This was a good tragic story. I admit the beginning confused me, with Bon Mot being a new character and the different nicknames used. It took me a bit to get a sense of what the situation was. You did a good job showing the different emotions Lyra and Bon Bon were going through. Bon Mot being infected with a spell is odd, since that makes the reader wonder how the spell hit him in the first place; does Equestria just have spells instead of diseases? The reference to Lyra getting a dakimakura during the death scene also took me out of the story a bit. However, the story overall was very effective.
Luster Dawn must save Equestria from an epidemic of exploding heads.
www.fimfiction.net
This was a fun story. It's always hard for farces to balance sense and nonsense, and I don't think the balance was quite right here, but it was still a good output. I'm a bit disappointed that Autumn actually showed up in the story and the cover art wasn't a lie, like I was assuming with Silver Spoon's prominence.
Stream followup, we watched the following.
1. Glitch Techs - 7 - Collection Quest
2. Harley Quinn - 201 - New Gotham
3. The Good Place - 413 - Whenever You're Ready (END)
Glitch Techs was a ton of fun, with both bromance and sisterly bonding. Sucks for Hi-5's friend that he lost his memory but Miko's sister keeps hers.
Harley Quinn established the new No Man's Land setting. Things leaned a bit more toward story rather than comedy, which wasn't to the taste of some viewers, as the setting has become depressing, but it was still a fun episode.
Then we got to The Good Place's finale, which is an in-depth look at everyone's afterlife and when they choose to move on. This was actually my first time watching all of it. I watched this before with my parents, but my dad hates Return of the King's epilogue and had me skip ahead after he realized what was going on. This was good, and everyone enjoyed it.
Stream announcement, we're watching the following.
1. FiM Recap - Memories and More
2. She-Ra - 509 - An Ill Wind
3. She-Ra - 510 - Return to the Fright Zone
4. She-Ra - 511 - Failsafe
5. Sailor Moon R - 69 - Awaken the Sleeping Beauty: Mamoru's Distress
6. My Next Life as a Villainess - 3 - I Met a Beautiful Brother and Sister...
Decided to stream 3x She-Ra this week, for more room next stream.
This is the final recap episode. Next week, we're hopefully watching Pony Life.
Three high femmes try to find love. Two yellow dorks try to take their relationship to the next level. One confused changeling tries to discover herself. Zero common sense is exercised by anyone involved.
www.fimfiction.net
Great to see another part of this saga! Poor Moondancer, now having to plan a fancy proposal even though Fluttershy would have been fine just calling their agreement to marry that. Changelings having trouble understanding relationships and gender makes sense; people often play up their love absorption and thus assume they know everything about that, but creatures that can transform however they want would definitely have trouble wrapping their heads around a particular form being that significant. Rarity and Trixie is also a pairing I haven't seen in a very long time.
We've reached the final FiM Recap episode, with Spike, Starlight, Celestia, and Luna, then a scene after the end of the final episode flashback.
Side note about that What is Australia video, god, was Australia burning really just a few months ago? Seriously, what even is 2020?
So we watched three She-Ra episodes, which demonstrated that characters are way stronger when they're evil. Both with the mind-controlled characters, and with Catra being super-nerfed as a good guy. The action scenes were good, and there were nice gags. Also dad jokes. We also see Shadow Weaver can't help but be a jerk.
Sailor Moon featured Mamoru pretending to have a girlfriend because he's a jerk this season. The guide I'm following listed this as an important episode, but it seems pretty skipable really. Well, whatever. It was a fun enough episode.
My Next Life as a Villainess featured more befriending, but it wasn't quite as interesting as the previous episodes, which I was cognizant of due to one person who hadn't watched the first two episodes being there. However, there were still fun bisexual harem antics and a timeskip. Also a kiss on the neck which manages to feel like one of the lewdest things to happen in the stream, due to the rest of the series holding back in that regard so much.
Next time we'll be finishing She-Ra, Your Lie in April will return, and hopefully we'll get some Pony Life.
BlackGryph0n is a youtuber with 4m subs famous for doing music, impressions, voice acting and has ties to the MLP Fandom. With the current ongoing movement, he's been caught liking far right tweets criticizing BLM among others https://twitter.com/SaidJaleelSJG/status/1270598654940807169...
Former MLP:FiM convention BronyCon announced their support for Black Lives Matter and announced that they donated through their organizing corporation Lunar Solis Corp., $10,000 to Black Lives Matter D.C: Text of this Facebook post for anyone who can't access Facebook:
www.resetera.com
~~~
This fanfic was completed today. I read through to the end.
Ever since Rarity knew she was a filly, she knew what it meant to be a lady. Her prince would sweep her off her hooves any moment now, if only she were a little more lady-like. That's what she tells Twilight, anyhow.
www.fimfiction.net
Fantastic job with this story! Glad things worked out in the end.
Your frantic and meandering narration does a great job getting us in Rarity's head as she struggles against her immense nerves and self-hatred. It really doesn't help for Rarity's nerves that Twilight is pretty thick when it comes to love. Yes, Rarity was definitely talking about Pinkie Pie that entire time, Twilight.
I was surprised to see that Twilight already knew that Rarity was trans. From how Rarity treated that fact, I figured she kept that a secret from everyone.
Also,
I write to inform you of a high crime committed against me: grand theft of a priceless payload. A thief, I insist, stole my heart.
This is a baffling movie on every level. Even ignoring the differences from the books, the story is weird and lame and simultaneously weirdly low scale and weirdly high scale. Artemis's final line has him declare himself a criminal mastermind, even though that aspect of his character is completely dropped in this adaptation. Also it literally ends with them flying a helicopter into the sunset. I will confirm it's a decent group watch, given someone's there to mention differences.
When Sunset and Wallflower first started dating, Wallflower asked that they take it slow. A few months later, Sunset really just wants to kiss her already.
www.fimfiction.net
Finally got around to reading this. This was super cute! Also possibly one of the lewdest fics on the site. Just the title is lewd.
But in bigger news, someone was able to come across unlisted Pony Life videos on the official MLP YouTube channel!
This trailer was uploaded June 1
And the opening was uploaded June 3
I'm still not a huge fan of the art direction, but it looks fun enough. All the VAs are back, which we knew from the start but some kept suggesting otherwise.
Given when these were uploaded, that lends more credence to the idea that they had intended to start marketing it by now, but delayed it due to the protests.
Stream announcement, we're watching the following
1. X-Files - 322 - Quagmire
2. Glitch Techs - 8 - Adventures in Pet Training
3. Harley Quinn - 202 - Riddle U
We're watching four X-Files comedy episodes before moving on to another show.
Twilight shows Sunset a meme. Things get complicated. A Socratic debate about queer representation and anime schoolgirls.
www.fimfiction.net
Of course those two would turn a Madoka meme into a big discussion, lol. Damn, even quoting a book on systemic racism, that's a power move.
I will say it's kind of odd to see them discussing real life figures, and it does at times feel more like an essay than a discussion between characters, but this was a fun story. It's nice that you provided a no-picture version too.
So yeah, Gallus was happy enough he supposed. Had a great boyfriend, and actual friends. Life was good. However faced with the potential ending of his relationship, worries and then he speaks out. Loudly, in fact.
www.fimfiction.net
This was a nice sweet story. Yes, things ended up going pretty easily, what with all the princesses on Gallus and Sandbar's side, but I think it's fine for there to be fics like that. The odd part is them having to speak for themselves at the court case instead of Twilight getting a lawyer, but I'm sure she's giving them a lot of civics credits for that.
Gallus and Sandbar had nice interactions. I do feel like Gallus had much more influence on the flow of the conversations and of the story than Sandbar, but that is in his nature.
I felt at first that the low male population reason for being against male/male relationships was giving too much of an in-universe justification, but then you had Ocellus bring up there are other ways to handle it, so that's good.
After trials and heartache, Firefly, undercover changeling love collector and wife, received a wonderful and joyous gift. But what will happen when the inevitable fallout of the failed Canterlot invasion reaches her home?
www.fimfiction.net
This chapter had a great look at what comes next following the previous story, wonderful character interactions, and intriguing developments. I only preread the first chapter, so I'll be looking forward to the rest!
~~~
With Pony Life maaaybe coming out tomorrow, we got a new Pinkie Pie Says Goodnight
Welcome to the official home of My Little Pony & Equestria Girls! 🦄 Discover the magic ✨ of friendship with Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarit...
👀Watch more Pony Life episodes: https://bit.ly/MorePonyLife ❤️ Subscribe to the My Little Pony Channel: http://bit.ly/SubtoMLP 💖 About Twilight Sparkle in Po...
Watch #PonyLife full episodes on #Discovery Family every Saturday and Sunday at 11:30a ET! 👀Watch more Pony Life episodes: https://bit.ly/MorePonyLife❤️ Sub...
👀Watch more Pony Life episodes: https://bit.ly/MorePonyLife ❤️ Subscribe to the My Little Pony Channel: http://bit.ly/SubtoMLP 💖 About Rainbow Dash in Pony L...
👀Watch more Pony Life episodes: https://bit.ly/MorePonyLife ❤️ Subscribe to the My Little Pony Channel: http://bit.ly/SubtoMLP 💖 About Fluttershy in Pony Lif...
👀Watch more Pony Life episodes: https://bit.ly/MorePonyLife ❤️ Subscribe to the My Little Pony Channel: http://bit.ly/SubtoMLP 💖 About Pinkie Pie in Pony Lif...
www.youtube.com
There is no Applejack trailer.
The Rarity trailer in particular actually makes me pretty hopeful about this. It also seems like one big part of this series is Twilight now having a tablet phone. I wonder if it's something she invented, something she took from the human world, or something that will go unexplained.
Stream followup, we watched the following
1. X-Files - 322 - Quagmire
2. Glitch Techs - 8 - Adventures in Pet Training
3. Glitch Techs - 9 - Karate Trainer (END)
This week's X-Files episode was more to reestablish the show's normal tone with a slightly humorous episode that also has some thematic connections to next week's episode; the following three are the ones I was really interested in streaming. This episode was less overall comedic than I remembered, but it was still a fine episode.
Both Glitch Techs episodes were a lot of fun, and it's a shame that this is all there is of it. Five even just got a pet, and he can't use him!
Next Thursday, we're going back to Kipo, and in X-Files, we're jumping all the way to season 10 for "Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster".
Stream announcement, we're watching the following.
1. FiM - 208 - The Mysterious Mare Do Well
2. She-Ra (80s) - 56 - Of Shadows and Skulls
3. She-Ra - 512 - Heart part 1
4. She-Ra - 513 - Heart part 2
5. Sailor Moon R - 70 - Battle of the Flames of Love! Mars vs. Koan
6. My Next Life as a Villainess - 4 - I Enrolled in the Magic Academy...
Originally, I was going to resume Your Lie in April, but I was asked to hold off. Instead I'll stream this FiM episode we haven't streamed since 2017, and if it's available, swap it out for Pony Life.
With the final episodes of She-Ra, I thought it would be good to go back and watch an episode of the 80s series. I was surprised to see a lot of stuff from the new show actually did come from the original, including Hordak and Horde Prime being distinct characters, the First Ones, Glimmer's dad being thought to be dead but then coming back, Netossa and Spinnerella being friends, and Glimmer getting jealous of She-Ra and them splitting up. There were also way more appearances from He-Man than I expected, along with Skeletor.
After looking through episode descriptions, I narrowed it down to seven possible episodes then skimmed through them. I chose "Of Shadows and Skulls" because it had a good mix of characters that appear in the reboot, plus Skeletor. My other likely choice was "The Prisoners of Beast Island", which featured a lot of Catra's original ridiculous voice.
https://ew.com/tv/2019/11/13/my-little-pony-pony-life-first-look-lizzo/ (EDIT: Reupload) Yes, that's "Good as Hell". This premieres on Discovery Family in 2020. This gives strong Teen Titans Go vibes, with an unexpected resemblance to those old PONY.MOV fan videos. For those wondering...
1-2. Princess Probz / 3-4. The Best of the Worst
Well, it's finally here. There are a lot of things to say about this. I'll start out by saying I thought it was pretty alright, and it grew on me with a second viewing. The first episode felt like the better of the two, but the second wasn't nearly as bad as I heard, and I've seen some people say they even prefer that.
It's weird that this isn't actually 10 minute episodes, but rather 5 minute episodes, each with its own title card, and two-part stories. About the title cards, I think it's neat that they exist. Each Equestria Girls short had its own title card, so I imagine that's what led to this.
They're really chugging down these potions in these episodes, huh? Really gives the impression that Pinkie is a dealer and they're all getting together for casual drug use. It's also odd because I expected the potions to be ways to start plots, but they're pretty incidental instead.
There's more continuity than I expected, with Pinkie participating in the Royal Jelly Juggernaut being brought up in the second story.
It's still too early to note consistent characterization changes, but it looks like Applejack has been recast as the fourth wall breaker. Pinkie doesn't do any of that, to my recollection, but AJ talks to the audience in both stories. Twilight has a bit more of a season one flavor, with her having a "I'm done with this shit" attitude regarding Pinkie in the first story. Rarity has great moments, particularly one I'll post below, but they used the gag of her freaking out and summoning a fainting couch in both episodes. We see very little of Celestia, but she comes off as more capricious than usually shown in FiM. Teen Titans Go made all the characters jerks, and I was concerned that would be the case here, but thankfully Pony Life has avoided that so far. Everyone's legitimately trying to help each other out, and Rainbow even comes off as far less of a jerk in the second story than in most of her FiM focus episodes.
About the writers, confirming what was revealed on Twitter back during the original announcement, they're both women who have worked mostly on Equestria Girls. Credits from FiM Wiki.
First episode was by Katie Chilson, who in MLP worked entirely on shorts before.
FiM writing credits: Teacher of the Month.
EG writing credits: Game Stream, Best in Show: The Victory Lap, Five Stars, FOMO, Camping Must-Haves, Festival Filters, How to Backstage, Festival Looks, Five Lines You Need to Stand In, and Tip Toppings.
Second episode was by Whitney Ralls, who in MLP worked on shorts and one special.
EG writing credits: Best Trends Forever, Happily Ever After Party, The Salty Sails, Outtakes, Find the Magic, The Last Drop, and Sunset's Backstage Pass.
First episode was pretty alright, and had this fantastic moment.
I've seen people bring up the pacing being too fast, but really, FiM was always an oddly slow paced show for the 2010s. Even this is pretty slow paced compared to its contemporaries. Biggest problem with this episode was Fluttershy barely saying anything. There's also unexplained mentions of modern tech, but they haven't really come into play yet.
Second episode had a really really contrived premise, but Rainbow was surprisingly not a jerk in it. If any episode was going to have fart jokes and gross out moments, it was "The Best of the Worst", yet there were none. I suppose that means we won't get any in the rest of the series, so that's good. Also Fluttershy can change her size, unless that's just meant to be a visualization of her meekness vs. assertiveness. Or maybe she had a potion off screen. Dishwater Slog is an inspired name. I like that the ending was Rainbow realizing she doesn't have to play by his rules at all, though really, she shouldn't have in the first place.
Overall, not nearly as, say, fanfic inspiring as normal FiM quite yet, but not a bad series. I found the episodes better on a second viewing.
The 80's She-Ra episode was silly and fun, though it didn't really pick up until Skeletor got involved. He really is just a joy. Catra's original voice is absolutely MREOW hilarious. There were some WTF reactions to Skeletor just summoning a skeleton cage, but not really to the old versions of the characters besides Catra. I admire the use of teleportation to save on animation. There's also a certain elegance to all the stock footage use.
And then we reached the finale of the She-Ra reboot. There were some cool action sequences, there were some good emotional payoffs, and it was pretty gay. I feel like there should have been more of an epilogue, though. At least there's pretty decent demand for a movie or another followup. Hopefully Shadow Weaver returns to summon Skeletor and he'll put Hordak in a bone cage.
Sailor Moon featured negging, a fight almost entirely with Sailor Mars acting solo, and one of the enemy leaders down, with Koan turning good and losing her powers. It was a pretty good episode, and had some nice comedic moments like Koan not getting what Tuxedo Mask's deal is.
My Next Life as a Villainess introduced the game's intended heroine, Maria, and it's pretty great seeing Catarina just steal all of the romance scenes from the male characters. One important thing that keeps this all light and fluffy rather than manipulative is that Catarina is acting out of the goodness out of her heart and only realizes she's stealing romance events after the fact. Plus she's too much of an idiot to realize the implications of this.
~~~
Lost in today's shuffle, we got a ForgaLorga video!
I felt for a while their stuff was getting stale, but this was a lot better than the past few. It reminded me of one of Agrol's videos in tone, up until Starlight appeared. Favorite bits were Fluttershy's demonstration of how fascinating nature is, and Rarity's new house.
In those early days, when she first moved to Ponyville, one must imagine Pinkie Pie happy.
www.fimfiction.net
Fantastic job with this! You did a wonderful job showing Pinkie's thoughts through all this. Plus, a positive portrayal of therapy that the character isn't forced to attend by the story and is just attending as a matter of fact! It was great seeing things turn out well for Pinkie in the end.
Bon Bon and Lyra are enjoying a quiet evening in the bar when two unconventional patrons arrive. A crash course on how different creatures view gender ensues.
www.fimfiction.net
This was a nice story, and good job with those two OCs. It was an interesting exploration of how gender works with kirins and changelings, and you did a great job making things awkward but still recoverable.
Stream announcement, we're watching
1. Strange Frame: Love & Sax
This is a really weird looking animated film, but it was vouched for, so we'll try it out. This was suggested when it was pointed out we should watch a LGBT+ film in the stream.
~~~
Some more Pony Life details on Twitter, posted here
The art director, Alex Vetter, answered a bunch of questions on Twitter. She was also the art director for Rainbow Roadtrip. Notable answers: Few ppl were asking why the cutie marks of the mane 6 have changed. Well, they are smaller and simpler in #PonyLife because their bums are smaller and...
It's been three years, but us three Crusaders are finally comin' home. I've been lookin' forward to this forever, so why'm I feelin' like my stomach's all aflutter?
www.fimfiction.net
This was great! I loved the format with the letters, and it was great seeing all the girls find some success, even if they ultimately find their way back to Ponyville. Applejack's talk with Apple Bloom was really nice, and had a good lesson. The presentation of the girls' relationship is sweet, and the ending was really nice and cozy. I appreciate you adding lines about being unsure if it will work out, but being willing to try.
Rainbow Dash has a problem that she can't put into words. Hopefully, Applejack will know what's wrong.
www.fimfiction.net
Wow, that was rough. You did a great job showing Rainbow's mental state, and Applejack's impatience with her hit really hard. Hopefully Rainbow gets the help she needs after this.
On a side note, Applejack noting Rainbow's funks go away after a few days reminds me of a detail about Rainbow from the original series bible. One aspect left out of the show is that she'd sometimes disappear for a few days then return with no explanation of what she was doing. I doubt the intention was that she was staying at home in a depressive episode, but I think that would be an interesting way to interpret that.
Sparkling Cider likes girls tol and stronk. Especially the one she shares a bed with.
www.fimfiction.net
Ah yes, to have a big amazonian girlfriend... probably not for me, but this makes it sound very nice. I'd still prefer she took a shower first, though.
Great job on this!
Also, the Pride and Positivity event has been extended to July 13th.
Even a niche subculture built around magical cartoon horses is reckoning with racism.
www.theatlantic.com
I was willing to applaud the Derpibooru mods for removing recent racist images at least, but it really sucks to learn they plan to restore them later. That goes to show how toothless their actions are.
Even a niche subculture built around magical cartoon horses is reckoning with racism.
www.theatlantic.com
I was willing to applaud the Derpibooru mods for removing recent racist images at least, but it really sucks to learn they plan to restore them later. That goes to show how toothless their actions are.
This was always the fundamental issue with the community being largely rooted in 4chan. The rot runs deep, and we're years past the point where most of the pushback against it already gave up and left the major sites entirely.
I was concerned about the visuals of this from the trailer, but I thought it worked better in the context of the actual film. Plus I looked it up and discovered the animation is actually stop motion with cutouts being moved around, which is interesting. That said, there were a lot of awkward close ups and head on shots. It did have good trippy sequences though.
The beginning of the movie connected a lot to our current events, but by the end it went in another direction, turning into a straightforward story about a rich guy corrupting a band and then a rescue story. Oddly, the story became harder to understand once it reached that point, but it wasn't too bad overall. Definitely far more understandable than other trippy stories.
The story definitely felt like a hodgepodge of different scenes and moments, with major moments early on that showcase things that don't come into play later. One group of characters is mentioned in the opening narration, but they don't actually play a major role.
One thing that stood out to me is that while none of the characters are white in the movie, several are still played by white actors, including Tara Strong. If this movie was bigger, that would definitely receive more scrutiny now.
Response was that the movie was alright in the end, but it was a weird watch.
The morning after Twilight's ascension, she and Rarity have tea together to discuss the future.
www.fimfiction.net
This was really sweet! I love the idea that something like Twilight becoming an alicorn was obvious to everyone but her, and this is some delightful friendshipping with Rarity.
Rarity's birthday is coming up, and obviously, Twilight isn't stressed out about this. Nope, not one bit. Not in the slightest.
www.fimfiction.net
This was adorable! It was great seeing Twilight try her hoof at Rarity's skill, with Fluttershy being so supportive.
As for the random drug references and swears, those were peppered in perfectly for comedy, I thought.
Stream announcement, we're watching the following
1. X-Files - 1003 - Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster
2. Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts - 201 - Paw of the Jaguar
3. Harley Quinn - 202 - Riddle U
With X-Files, we're jumping all the way to 2016, where Mulder and Scully are now old. We're back to Kipo, and after a longer break than planned, we're back to Harley Quinn.
Three high femmes try to find love. Two yellow dorks try to take their relationship to the next level. One confused changeling tries to discover herself. Zero common sense is exercised by anyone involved.
www.fimfiction.net
Chapter 2
This was a good set up chapter! I admit I got a bit confused during the entire hypnotism scene, due to how long it took for the characters to mention what they were actually arguing about.
Luna is many things: a goddess, princess, and wife. What happens when she has a secret that threatens to unravel every one of those things?
www.fimfiction.net
Chapter 3
This was a really nice chapter. It's nice to see how supportive Sombra is of his husband. Once again I was left wondering if there was something I was missing from a previous story regarding Sombra's backstory, but I suppose like the previous bits I was confused about, this is actually self contained. It makes sense that there would be some suspicion of stallion leaders in this setting, at least as defined in this fic.
I have to say this chapter and especially the comments opened my eyes about the struggles of trans men. Even in Samantha Bee's new episode with a lengthy segment about black trans people, she focused entirely on trans women and never even mentioned trans men.
~~~
Following the posted article about Nazism in the brony community, I talked to a Derpibooru mod in the comments of this image (the image in the article). There, I learned that they really are sincerely considering bringing back the racist images they took down, adding a "racism" tag, and calling it a day. The mod even unprompted stated that if Hitler drew MLP art, then they'd host it.
As a result, I've decided to no longer upload any images to that site. I'll take more drastic measures if and when they choose to restore the racist images in question.
