Starlight’s powers basically never solve a conflict in this show. They’re not really setting her up to be unstoppable.
-Fatigue, exhaustion and a huge disconnect to the fandom due to some disagreements
-I didn’t like most of the creative decisions made in season 6, especially the stuff related to the changelings, Chrysalis, Pinkie Pie and Starlight Glimmer
-I didn’t like Starlight
At the time, the only thing I cared about MLP was the 2017 film. I watched in cinemas and I loved it so much that one year later I went back to the same cinema and watched it twice (three times in total). That movie made me appreciate MLP in a way that I went back to love my favourite characters. Now, after 3 years and a half, I decided to give the show another chance. A chance to go back and finish the last three seasons of the show. For two reasons:
-I’m more calm now than I was back in 2015 and 2016, where I was annoyed by many episodes I didn’t like. If I watch an episode that annoys me or angers me, I’ll take a different spin on it because constant negativity is tiring and unhealthy. Outrage without direction doesn’t lead to a solution. As HelloGreedo once said: “So you didn’t like a thing? Cool! Make some goofy videos making fun of the thing you don’t like, make a video essay or write a blog entry about why you didn’t like the thing, in detail, and have fun with it and get creative. […] Accept that you’re not going to love or even like everything”
-In 2018 I’ve watched the fourth Equestria Girls film, and that movie made me appreciate Sunset Shimmer. A lot. She became from one of the most boring characters in EG to one of the most likeable and fun characters in MLP overall. This week I thought “Maybe Starlight would have an episode in the last three seasons that would make me appreciate her”.
Although that’s gonna be insanely hard for her, because Sunset Shimmer, in her four movies, didn’t have a moment like this.
If this experience happens to be somehow annoying, I’ll drink some beer. With that said, let’s have some fun. 26 episodes from season 7, another 26 from season 8 and the last 26 episodes from 9. Hopefully I’ll finish this before 2021.
If you happen to have finished the show or you happen to be bored due to the quarantine and the COVID-19 pandemic, consider this a playground to have fun and remember the good episodes and the good times. I’m just doing this for fun, after all.
So, Celestial Advise. So the first image we see-
I’m gonna grab some beer.
Ok, I have a couple of things to say.
-Is it me of are the episodes getting slow? The reason why I ask is because most of the things that the characters were saying were either redundant or unnecessarily slow.
-All bottled up, aside from the fact that it sounds like a fanfiction, I would have like it in another character and from another angle that doesn’t involve magic. I believe you can tell a story about anger or controlling it properly without associating it with magic. Putting your hoof down talks about being assertive and the consequences of being extremely assertive without using magic. So why would you use magic this time? Because you wanna make Starlight so powerful that she can canalize dark corrupted magic everytime she gets angry?
So know you have an unstoppable unicorn that:
-Can take off other cutie marks
-Manipulates other ponies for her own benefit
-Can make a time travel spell not only once, but many times
-Can go so fast that we can see two Starlights, kinda invalidating Rainbow Dash’s unique skill to go fast
-Can create dark magic to manipulate other ponies and make them bad everytime she gets angry
And people ask me why I don’t like anime, superhero stuff and power fantasy.
Speaking of that episode, I think we have the equivalent of Every little thing she does for Trixie. In season 6, we have an episode where Starlight ignores her friendship homework to do what she wants, ignoring the consequences. In season 7, we have an episode where Trixie ignores her friendship homework to do what she wants, ignoring the consequences.
Congratulations, DHX Media, we have two psychopaths instead of one. And one of them has learned real magic in ten seconds instead of giving her some time in the learning process.
Way to go. xD
-On the other hand, A flurry of emotions happens to be the best out of the first three episodes. An episode about Twilight and Flurry Heart sounds like a good episode and a type of story we haven’t seen in the show, and it is. The story is decent, the episode wasn’t slow and the jokes are funny, especially the gallery art, definitely my favourite part of the episode. It reminds me of not only the gallery art scene from the 2012 film Skyfall, but it also reminds me of the works from the art school where I studied. I think I like this one much more in comparison to the other two episodes because it shows a constant contrast in design or character dynamic for comedic purposes or character development, like Flurry being a little yet so powerful alicorn (that is funny), the dinamic between all the characters, especially Twilight and Spike; and Twilight trying to be patient with Flurry and learning from her mistakes.
I guess the only two problems I have with this episode are, one, this frame:
At least it’s one frame. xD
And two, wouldn’t have made more sense if this episode was from season 6? I mean, you have introduced Flurry Heart in the first episode of that season, you would expect an episode dedicated to her. Why would you wait until the next season when you decide it’s the best moment possible to have an episode dedicated to the little alicorn? I don’t get it, maybe it was too late for season 6 in terms of pre-production or production, maybe they have mixed things up, who knows.
But overall, it was a decent episode. A very decent one. I wouldn’t mind watching it again with better image quality (I’m watching 360p videos to give you an idea).
-As a final thought, I really really don’t like all the narrative attempts to glorify Starlight and Trixie and make them look like the good girls. I don’t care too much about Discord or Thorax, but I dislike the fact that Twilight sees her as a student and as a friend. I dislike the fact that there was a whole entire ceremony dedicated to these two, including Celestia as a guest. I don’t like the fact that Discord refers to Starlight as “student of the year” or “she has so much potential”. I’m not into the fact that someone like Starlight and Trixie got a medal. I’m assuming many fans have watched that episode many months after the previous season finale. In that time, you only have an abstract idea of what kind of pony Starlight was. I’m saying this because it’s pretty easy to think she’s good and to sing “Friends are always there for you” while you forget what she did in the past and what she did in Every little thing she does. She’s a manipulator psychopath.
We could say the same thing about Trixie. It’s pretty easy to say that in No second prances she was questioning Twilight’s decisions to judge her, that Twilight was mean to her, while you forget that she did pretty obvious evil things in season 3.
It’s really weird to defend or even admire someone like that.
You could argue that “she saved Equestria”. Yeah. But in order to do that, the writers made the Mane 6 completely useless and defenseless in a point of the show where they can practically defend themselves and they drastically changed the cool design of the changelings, like the writers were objetivists. It’s like “oh, you want an episode of Applejack? Great, but the episode has to have a very boring concept”. “You want an episode of Rainbow Dash? Good, but she has to be mean the entire time”. “You want Starlight to be relevant? Ok, but we’ll make the Mane 6 defenseless and we’re gonna change the changelings”. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was another episode where, in order to make Starlight look good, Twilight has to lose her reading skills and Starlight has to help her.
I’m saying this because I don’t want that her ultimate redemption (if there was one in these three seasons) happening in exchange of another thing from the show just to make her look good. If you have in your story decent and likeable characters, you’re gonna be fine. That’s why I really like the Flurry Heart episode.
If these three seasons are gonna have this specific tone and context, a tone where the main focus is Starlight, a supersticious tone where every single character in the entire Equestria glorifies her and says only good things about her and where you won’t hear a second opinion or they won’t question her attitude and her decisions, a tone where Starlight has to look good at whatever cost in terms of consistency, narrative, retcons and story… I’ll probably be clutching the Mane 6, the first seasons, the IDW comics and the 2017 film even tighter.
My original plan was to watch 6 episodes today and keep watching these everyday (or at least the days where I can watch 6 episodes each day), but I got some issues with the wifi, so I watched 3. I’ll try to watch the rest of the episodes and updating this topic.
But, yeah. Three episodes down. 73 to go.
Love and take care everyone.
Trixie: So you messed up. Big deal. [hushed] Don’t you ever tell another pony I said this, but even Trixie’s made mistakes. [giggles] I know! The trick is to just move on and pretend they never happened.
Starlight Glimmer: I feel like that’s almost good advice.
Trixie: Oh, there you are! For a minute, I didn’t think you were coming back, and that you might be upset with me for some weird reason. But then I remembered – you never get mad at me.
- That flashback with Maud Pie and Starlight. The unicorn asked for a rock that could extract cutie marks from other ponies. But, didn’t we see her back in season 5 doing that without any stones, rocks or diamonds or whatever? Or, hey, the staff.
Starlight Glimmer: Have you ever come across some kind of super-powerful stone that can store the cutie mark magic of… I don’t know… an entire village?
“They’re beautiful and strong, but they don’t judge you or make you feel less than in any way. I think I’m starting to like rocks, too.”
You’d all still be living your miserable lives thinking you’re better than everypony else
- That flashback with Maud Pie and Starlight. The unicorn asked for a rock that could extract cutie marks from other ponies. But, didn’t we see her back in season 5 doing that without any stones, rocks or diamonds or whatever? Or, hey, the staff.
“The staff is a piece of wood I found in the desert!”I’ve said many times in the past that the episodes of the show were basically procedurally made with no prepared plans.
Starlight Glimmer: I can cast complex spells, but baking a cake with Pinkie Pie freaks me out! And yes, I know how ridiculous that sounds. That’s why I didn’t say anything. I thought if I just kept wowing you with my magical abilities, you might just… not… notice?
I don’t see that in someone like Starlight.
So… every single character is ok with someone like Starlight after her previous actions, including manipulating towns and trying to destroy the world by time travelling?
Mrs. Cake: [chuckles] New friend. I like the sound of– [gasps] Howza-wowza! A-Are you trying to put me out of business with your fancy magical-thingy-whatsit cake?!
The specific weaknesses Starlight has in many episodes don’t sink up with the rest of the character. It’s just a convenience in service of her, not in service of the show.
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