My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

[CainVoorhees]

I'm not sure whether this belongs here, but has anyone here ever enjoyed or even heard about the Don't Rest Your Hooves Pen&Paper RPG?
In short, it takes the premise of FiM, and combines it with a 1984-esque surreal dystopia in which nothing is as happy as it seems and Friendship is, indeed, mandatory.

I haven't heard of it. I played with the MLP paper/pen RPG 1.0 that's available on Equestria Gaming but haven't played many p&p RPGs with a pony theme since.

You're more then welcome to check out Brony Fan Fair if you'd like. I don't know how far Texas is from where you are though.

It's a possibility. Airfare from Chicago to Austin in the fall isn't all that much. I'm trying to think about all my options for travel in 2013, and thinking about something which won't cost *too* much. Also, I didn't know until a day or two ago that you had more than a passing interest in the con...

Ahahaha. I definitely understand the travel cost. When I hear about other bronies traveling to other conventions like Equestria L.A. or Las Pegasus, I often wonder "Where did you get the money for that?" Sometimes I get to cite trips around the state as business trips though - like next month we're going to see Hey Ocean! in San Antonio and I got to cite it as business.

Even if you can't come to BFF, the game I'm developing is intended to allow people to participate in a part of the convention even if they're not actually at the convention. I hope to have it done by late June.

However, if you do, definitely feel free to let me know and we can even meet each other in person.

[Taleweaver]

Well... now that season 3 is over, I think it's time to give an opinion of how they handled the final episode of what will hopefully not be the final season. Spoilers ahead!

Big plus: Musical episode! MLP:FIM shines whenever there's songs to sing, and so it does here. The catchy music easily brightens the day.
Smaller plus: Amazing production values - animation is at an all-time high. A few dollars more than usual went into ep13, and it shows.
Minus: Everything else. Yes, everything.

Let's start with the bad excuse for a plot: Twilight Sparkle botches a spell she didn't even mean to cast just by reading it aloud, and what's more, she doesn't even notice she's casting it - she, the most magic-attuned pony in the world! The spell switches all her friends' cutie marks around and thus changes their role in the world, and of course, they're all unhappy now. So after a night of sulking over ruining her friends' lives, Twilight comes up with the great solution: She just has to get her friends to help one another so that in helping, they realize what their real role in the world is. She proceeds to do that, and voila! everything goes back to normal faster than you can finish a single song. In fact, she helps all five of her friends in the time it takes to sing a SINGLE song! Nothing goes wrong, there's no further conflict to resolve - once everybody starts helping one another, all is well again.

Yeah, right. That's the easiest, cheapest solution EVER. Rainbow Dash couldn't even ask to make it 20% cooler because that would be impossible considering how much this sucks.

After figuring this out, Twilight Sparkle is transformed into an alicorn - a winged unicorn like Celestia, and she's told that she's now a princess. So in this world, princesses are... well, made? Not born? And I suppose only unicorns can become alicorns because they're the only ones capable of magic? Boo! Twilight has always been the Mary Sue of the show, but this is really too much! Now she's officially superior to her friends, being a princess, and I suppose she's also going to wear her Element of Harmony tiara at all times, as Celestia is wearing her crown. Then what's coming in season 4? "My Little Pony: Royalty is Magic"? No more episodes with focus on the other five because, well, they're not princesses, and you know, princesses are 20% cooler?

Instead of wasting EIGHT FUKKEN MINUTES of the show on showing how Princess Twilight is celebrated by everybody in the end of the episode, why didn't they put in another Status Quo is God moment in the end? This would have been the perfect time for the series to live up to its name! Let me give my ending to the episode:

Twilight becomes the princess, so now she gets to live at Canterlot all the time! Her friends can visit her whenever they want - well, unless Twilight is taken up with some other royal business, which she is going to be a whole lot (we've seen that aspect of Canterlot quite a few times already...), so actually, her friends aren't going to see her all that often from now on. Of course, everybody is unhappy with it, so Twilight turns to Celestia and tells her that she can NOT be a princess if it means leaving her friends behind. Celestia asks if that is what she really wants, Twilight says yes, so Celestia takes her wings away again and sends her back to Ponyville. And just as she is about to leave - the Elements of Harmony flash up again, turning Twiliglt back into an alicorn, even though she is no longer a princess! Celestia gasps and says that now the Elements have transformed her into an avatar of Friendship, and that means she gets to have all the good parts of being an alicorn without having that stupid Princess title, which is only something very young and naive girls would want anyway.

Wouldn't that have made a much better ending?

In any case, season 3 reaches the quality of season 2, and we're probably going to have a season 4 as well. Let's see how that one works out.

[Blane Doyle]

I'm just gunna leave these here for you guys.





They're actually really cute...

[CainVoorhees]

I still have to finish an episode of the Japanese dub. Rainbow Dash's voice actress surprised me; I thought she sounded strange at first but then realized that's pretty much what RD sounds like.

I appreciate the fact that the writers were experimenting a lot in season 3, but it was hit or miss for the most part. I hope that season four will work out better now that they have feedback from season three.

[Kari-Chan]

I've actually started creating a Mlp:FiM visual novel.I haven't come up with a name for it yet, though XD

[Taleweaver]

Speaking of which, Turnabout Storm is now complete, and it's really good. If you're not preoccupied against any kind of crossover, this is worth watching.

[Taleweaver]

Season 4 has begun, and with quite a bang! "Princess Twilight Sparkle" is the opening two-parter that made last weekend worthwhile for us Bronies and Ponyphiles. So how was it?

First impression: better than I feared. Even as a princess, Twilight is still the slightly nerdy and at times insecure pony she was who needs the help of her friends to get through trials. She's got a set of wings now, but she isn't exactly confident about using them - both metaphorically and literally.

Short summary: on the anniversary of Nightmare Moon's defeat (and her return to her role as Princess Luna), both she and Celestia suddenly disappear. At the same time, Ponyville is suddenly attacked by black roots from the Everfree Forest that threaten to overgrow everything. Everything's in chaos, and Twilight's the only princess outside the Crystal Empire who can bring some order!

Yeah, it's that epic. What did you expect of an opening two parter?

The rest is tried-and-true FIM standard: Overwhelming threat, nothing seems to work, Mane Six decide to go against it, moment of doubt that threatens to break them apart, they find back together just in time, Twilight finds the solution to the threat and everything's coming up Friendship. Oh, and Discord. Just because.

Artistically, the episode was at least on the same level as last season's finale, though without a musical number. Writing-wise, well, nothing special; same formula as the S3 season opener, only with an even less-memorable villain. (Technically, without a villain at all.) A few weird moments when there's a Macguffin involved that doesn't really fit into the world and that makes Twilight experience a vision that has nothing to do with the plot of this episode and looks as though it was only thrown in for some cool aesthetics. Weirdest moment: when Discord, of all people, has to remind Twilight that she and the others are friends and should act as such.

So how does this episode rank? Not as bad as last season's finale. But so far, the worst of the openers. Average, but in a show that's known for an abundance of above-average episodes. I think "alright" is the best word to describe it.

To put it positively: There's a great many ways in which Season 4 can still get better.