I Dream of Twilight modblog

Hey, this is just something I saw a friend of mine who’s known here as Johnny Appleshy did at one point with a few things. Which started with FiM of course, and I was thinking of doing something of my own. With the first being FiM of course, and if there’s any other franchises or series you’d like me to do something similar with please put an ask in for such a thing. My answer for each will be the first thing I italicized in each answer.

The first character I first fell in love with: Twilight Sparkle, doesn’t get any easier then that. From the very moment I saw Twilight in the pilot for the first time (I went to watch it purely because I was bored, I don’t remember where I first heard of FiM but whatever provoked me to watch it, but when I found the first episode on Youtube all it took was boredom and a bit of curioisity and look where I am today). I was intrigued with the character and my like for Twilight would only increase as the series goes on. (Cutie Mark Chronicles, Lesson Zero, Magical Mystery Cure, and much of Season 4 are all points in where Twilight got even better each time for me ^^)
The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Trixie. After Boast Busters I didn’t actually like Trixie too much. And I thought the whole rivalry thing that some in the fandom had with her and Twilight didn’t make sense to me. And when Magic Duel’s first synopsis came out with something in which Trixie will get to duel Twilight and implies she’ll win one. I was actually a bit skeptical of the episode. But instead, the episode actually would change my perspective on Trixie by nearly a complete 180. She’s now one of my favorite occasionally appearing Ponies that I wouldn’t mind another Trixie episode in Season 5 or anytime.
The character everyone else loves that I don’t: Not sure if I even have one here. Nothing that really comes to mind anyway. If I answered this before Magic Duel, I suppose Trixie would be here. But otherwise, there’s no character that I dislike that I feel get’s too much attention. Because the one’s I dislike are usually ones that most generally dislike or there is too many mixed opinions to say they’re “overrated”.
The character I love that everyone else hates: I think this is one that I kinda share with AppleShy in that Spike just doesn’t get the credit he deserves. Though part of that is throughout most of the show his episodes have barely been up-to-par with alot of the Mane 6’s episodes. His only really good episode in the first three seasons was Secret of my Excess and even in then throughout most of that episode he’s a rampaging monster. He gets a somewhat better showing in Season 4 with some of Power Ponies, Inspiration Manifestation, and Equestria Games. But it’s clearly not enough. But yeah I appreciate Spike more then most Bronies do, his role in I Dream of Twilight Sparkle should attest to that.
The character I used to love but don’t any longer: No character. Pretty much the same thing with the one about a character who most love that I don’t. There’s nothing that really comes to mind of a character I don’t like as much anymore. Cause most of the characters I dislike to begin with were one-shot or kept to specific things that don’t affect the main series that much. And I don’t think there’s a character that I liked in the show that I’ve lost love for. I’ll call out some things when a character I like did something I don’t think they should, but I don’t point my finger at the character and suddenly dislike them for it. I look at more so the Writer of the episode in which I feel they did something in the wrong direction for a character.
The character I would totally smooch: C'mon. 9/10 times this is usually going to be the same as the “First character you fell in love with” :V. So yeah, Twilight.
The character I’d want to be like: Oddly enough, Twilight’s also the answer to this. You see, I not only like Twilight’s character and feel I related to her the most. But I also feel she’s a good role model, especially when she ascends to Princesshood. As much as the fandom had this huge dramafest over that ordeal. I feel that the way they fit it in was really great. Twilight worked hard and changed much from how she was at the start of the series. All her times with her friends and the times she’s stepped up to save Equestria made her ascension well-earned.
The character I’d slap: Lightning Dust. In Johnny AppleShy’s post he said Rainbow dash in here and the “character I love that everyone else doesn’t” thing. The thing is, I really, really like Rainbow Dash myself. (She’s probably my 2nd favorite pony overall). But I suppose there’s one thing I can agree on, if Rainbow Dash had none of her redeeming qualities. She would be an absolutely intolerable character. And that’s kinda what Lighting Dust basically was. She’s impatient, a complete bitch, and she nearly killed 5 ponies with barely a hint of remorse. (For the record, I don’t dislike Wonderbolt Academy for this, in fact it’s one of the reasons I like the episode. We’re supposed to not like Lightning Dust, that’s clearly the intention because Lightning Dust symbolizes what Rainbow would be without her good qualities. And we’re as angry as Rainbow is when she’s calling Lightning out on her bullshit)
A pairing that I love: While I’ve never been huge into shipping myself in a long time. I have a soft spot for TwiDash stuff. Some of Season 3, Daring Don’t, and Testing Testing 1 2 3 has made me really like seeing them interact. And admittedly I do find a lot of TwiDash art that I’ve seen very cute.
A pairing that I despise: FlashLight. It bugs me just accidentally coming across fanart of it. I also dislike how some who defend Flash Sentry and/or the pairing by saying people like me who dislike Flash are just saying it “because he stole your waifu LOLZ”. I think there’s a bigger problem with Flash then that. Cause let me tell you, if there was a future episode where say… Big Macintosh asks Twilight out on a date. I’d be just fine with that. You know why? I know what both Twilight and Big Mac are as characters, and thus I’d be interested in seeing how they react. As it stands right now Flash has barely anything to him other then the generic love interest nice guy that’s one of the many cliches that the Equestria Girls series just HAD to have. Nothing was done in Rainbow Rocks to make him any better. I’m also thankful that the “character that I never expected to love as much as I do now” for cockblocking what looked like was going to be a kiss between them.

Hey, just wanted to make this quick note now that Korra has finished up and everything and I have seen the finale. Don’t worry, I won’t say anything that spoils anything that happens. As more of I just want to speak my mind a bit on Korra as a whole.

You see, Legend of Korra in my opinion hasn’t really captured me as much as the original series that the series is a sequel to. It’s had it’s ups and downs, and while some of those ups are really, really good that can match with some of the best of A:TLA (Example of ups in the series IMO, the Series Finale that just aired. As well as an episode earlier that explained how the Avatar came to be). But the many downs have unfortunately really limited the series from reaching it’s potential (Ex: The Love Triangle from the first season, the lame fartbending jokes and childish stuff that was usually given to Meelo (Though to be fair there were at least two Meelo moments in the series that did legitimately make me laugh, one of which was actually in the series finale itself), most of the villains either too obviously evil and/or not that interesting or didn’t last long enough to really be all that effective, missed potential in several areas, etc.)

But at the same time, I don’t mean any disrespect to Korra because while I will forever maintain that it doesn’t hold a candle overall as a series compared to Avatar: The Last Airbender. Korra has had some really enjoyable moments that have made me glad that I’ve followed for the entire ride. I’ve enjoyed seeing new characters, seeing the return of some of the old characters, new inventive ideas, and seeing how the world that we loved so much in the original A:TLA grew in the many years that this series takes place after which.

All I want to say is, thank you Bryke, while Korra as a whole wasn’t perfect. I am nonetheless thankful that they brought another story within the same world that I have enjoyed watching ever since I first saw Katara and Sokka free Aang from the Iceberg.

Thank you so much :) 

Yesterday, I realized I had a little leftover cash in my Nintendo Network savings and thought I’d get a neat theme for my 3DS. Each one is only about $2 each. As there were 4 Sonic themes (Well, 5 counting the free Sonic Boom one but I didn’t bother with that) that I could choose from. They had a Sonic theme, a Amy Theme, a Shadow theme, and a Chao theme. I knocked out the Amy and Shadow choices immediately as I don’t super-like any of those two characters to have them as a theme. Amy’s comes with the hilariously cheesy My Sweet Passion theme that we hear in the Adventure games for her. And Shadow comes with Radical Highway from SA2. So it really came down to choosing between the Sonic theme or the Chao theme. The Sonic theme looked really cool, and I probably would have gotten it if it had a different song. You see all though everyone of the themes had a background music from the Sonic Adventure series. Sonic’s music is the Generations Remix of Seaside Hill. Which while nice, not really the song I’d like to open my 3DS to everytime. I probably would have chosen the Sonic theme if it was Escape from the City or even It Doesn’t Matter from SA2. Kinda strange that they didn’t do that since all three of the themes had background music from the Adventure games. But with the Sonic theme un-chosen, that meant I went with the Chao theme which also comes with the calming, relaxing music of the Chao Garden from SA2.

Which is what I’m talking about at least a iittle today. I’m not sure if I’ve ever outright said it, but Sonic Adventure 2: Battle is my favorite Sonic game of all-time. Not only that, but it was pretty much my first Sonic game to begin with (Though I got it with Sonic Mega Collection on the same day one Christmas Morning. SA2:B and Sonic Mega Collection both kind of introduced me to the series and got me hooked). The game left an impression with me that’s left me endeared to the Sonic series ever since. I loved going on the high speeds on levels like City Escape, going upside down on Crazy Gadget, and beating Final Hazard with Super Sonic and Shadow. I loved shooting things as Tails and Dr. Eggman. And even while the Treasure Hunting levels tended to be the most frustrating of the game, I found fun just flying around as Knuckles and Rouge as well. The levels just have a thrill to them that especially in the Sonic stages are fun to replay again and again once in a while. Playing to the awesome soundtrack as well. And even though I will definitely admit it’s not a perfect game, and what some of SA2 introduced would later end up screwing up the entire franchise’s reputation (Though mostly because they executed it way, way, way more poorly then the Sonic Adventure games did) later on when games like Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic 06 tried to continue the Adventure Game’s legacy in quite a few ways. And I know that Adventure 2 doesn’t appeal to everybody in the Sonic fanbase and maybe in some ways a bit overrated. Perhaps there are objectively better 3D Sonic games, like there’s a good amount of people that pretty much believe Sonic Generations is the best 3D Sonic. Which I can certainly understand why, but I felt Sonic Generations was just a bit too short to my liking. Certainly the best Sonic game since SA2 for me, but nonetheless SA2 just consdiering the story mode felt like it wasn’t too short, and it wasn’t too long. I think it had the perfect sort of length that a Sonic game would ever need. As there are examples of Sonic games that are too short (as I said Generations is one, but there’s probably a few others) and some that are too long (Sonic 06, even discounting the amount of times you’ll likely have to restart levels because something bullshit killed you on your last life or the load times is just way too long for a Sonic game). It just feels there’s more of a variety of things to do in SA2 then there is in Generations when comparing the two and that matters to me even if the gameplay is overall more solid.

Though there’s one thing that Sonic Adventure 2: Battle has that no Sonic game before or after it that is another reason why I love it over any other Sonic game. And that’s the Chao Gardens. The way they did the Chao Gardens in particular in the game is the peak of what they’ve done with it thus far. You know they did it well, because people like me actually ended up having a fondness for these chao as if they were real life pets of ours. They may have been just virtual, but whomever were the people who helped design the Chao system made sure you liked caring for them and seeing them happy. They start out with such a simplistic but very cute design, and even the sound design plays a part in making them endearing like their cute “ooo ooo” that plays when they can’t even walk when they’re newborns. But going back to their simplistic designs, they also had a neat way of changing them like taking care of them with Heroes made them more Angel-like or taking care of them with the Dark side characters made them the Demon-like Dark Chao (But even Dark Chao could be very cute ^^) and also biasing a chao on a certain stat led to many other complex designs you could do with a chao. (It’s possible to make a Neutral chao, but in SA2:B it’s a bit difficult because you have to treat it pretty much equally with one hero character and one dark character. As otherwise it will become a Hero or a Dark chao instead. Pet it with on side you have to it once more with the other. Same with feeding and such. Starting with just the basic types in it’s first evolution, in a 2nd evolution you could have the chao get trait’s of a 2nd trait if you wanted to or get further into the same trait. (Run/Run Neutral and Dark Chao end up being Sonic and Shadow Chaos interesting enough! I actually have one of each in my Chao Garden file for SA2:B ^^). All I’m saying is, there’s just so much replay value in the Chao Gardens in not just making the different type of chao and making them Race or Battle. But some people like me like to legitimately care for these things and watch them live and everything.

Even when there was that one time I decided to try to raise a chao just to abuse it just to see some of the things that happen. I quickly just couldn’t bring myself to do it for all that long. So instead I dropped it off in the Chao Transporter and selected the Say Goodbye option (Which is essentially just deleting your chao). Cause I felt bad even when my I was intending to abuse it. But I’m actually really glad of that because that means I learnt something about myself. In that I can’t even bring myself to torture a virtual pet without starting to feel bad. It makes me feel like I have a good conscious that I would even care for things that aren’t actually alive in the same way I or even real-life pets are. They give you the option to abuse and torture these little creatures all you wanted, and I’m sure there are some that did take advantage of that knowing they’re not real and felt little-to-no remorse for it. But knowing that I didn’t, and I felt bad even for creatures that aren’t really alive alive. It just makes me feel good inside.

I know not everyone is into the Chao Gardens and may get easily bored with how long it takes for Chao to grow and such. But those who do find something special within SA2 because of the Chao Gardens because it provides a replay value that no other Sonic game before or since has provided.

Which gets me to how it’s weird Sega has not even tried to bring back the Chao Gardens in any sort of way since SA2:B. Because in this generation of gaming. I think a new Chao Garden could work wonders these days. Just imagine the system that worked so well on a Gamecube now upgraded with even more diversity and things to do with your chao for the Wii U or heck even just the 3DS! The latter could have a more complex version of the Pokemon Amie that was in Pokemon X and Y or if they did bring a Chao Garden to the Wii U either via a new Sonic game or even just a downloadable game that’s just about the Chao you could have the cute Chao in HD and use the Gamepad in a similar way to Pokemon Amie. And with DLC you could get more stuff for your Chao to play with, wear, or even outright change the design of your chao. Maybe even special Chao colors that are only available through Spotpass that is sent from Nintendo and/or Sega. The Chao Gardens are a hidden x-factor for many regarding SA2 and it could be again in future Sonic titles if Sega ever took the time and effort to capitalize on the idea. It just would really be cool if anyone were to ever realize the potential they could do with Chao these days when they already did a pretty amazing job back when the Gamecube was new.

Honestly, until a Sonic game that can have thrilling gameplay. As well as reasons to come back occasionally to the game like the Chao Gardens do for SA2:B then I’m not sure there will ever be a Sonic game that completely overthrows the game for me. I personally believe the best games provide a reason for you to come back to the game when is all said and done. And what both Sonic Adventure 2: Battle had in both the main gameplay itself and the Chao Garden provides. No other Sonic game before or after has as much reason to replay the game for me in SA2:B and that raises the game’s higher then any other in the series for a big reason as a result. :)