its-homerj-deactivated20140626 asked: Also, why do you still keep ragging on about how supposedly bad Rainbow Falls was? Even though I do acknowledge the episode did have it's problems, even in terms of continuity errors and inconsistencies, at the end of the day, I don't hold such a huge grudge on the episode, unlike the very few bronies out there like you.
I only brought up Rainbow Falls because Corey Powell co-wrote Inspiration Manifestation (Plus obviously some of it is going to carry over into the next episode). The only other times I talked about Rainbow Falls other then when I gave my thoughts out there was when I was arguing with you. So I don’t think I have been constantly “ragging” on about it.
Rainbow Falls is just one of those episode that falls short on alot of levels for me. Including even entertainment value. When Derpy’s return is nearly the only good thing about the episode. (There were some other good things such as at least some of Twilight and Rainbow’s characterization. But even that wasn’t consistent throughout the episode). That’s not good for the episode’s quality as a whole as Derpy’s return is only supposed to be a minor positive, not the biggest positive.
It’s just also a little more disappointing because we know Corey Powell can write well. Season 3 as a whole is probably the most divisive thing in the fandom not counting Equestria Girls. But most people seem to agree that Sleepless in Ponyville was a great episode. For her to go from that, to Rainbow Falls just makes me wonder what happened. Even if this isn’t really the only case where a writer who did great or good for one season to mediocre or bad the next. Cindy Morrow wrote Hurricane Fluttershy and Sisterhooves Social in Season 2 which were great episodes for that season, what does she follow-up to that in Season 3? One Bad Apple and Apple Family Reunion… yeah…
its-homerj-deactivated20140626 asked: Also, many of the brony analysts out there with over 20,000 subscribers on YouTube, unlike your supposed favorite analyst The Mysterious Mr. Enter who has at least only 15,000, such as Silver Quill, Josh Scorcher, and even Tommy Oliver, don't hold as huge of a grudge with the episode as you do. They've said that despite having some issues with it, they enjoyed it overall even if it was a key episode for Rainbow Dash. So I ask, what is your big deal with the episode?! It's harmless entertainment.
Reasons why I did not like Rainbow Falls that much:
*Fluttershy should be more nervous about attending a Sport event if she had stage fright in Filli Vaniili.
*Bulk Biceps has flown fine before. (Ex: Hurricane Fluttershy and Wonderbolt f-ing Academy)
*There was a way they could have reached the resolution without turning the Wonderbolts sans Soarin’ into jerks. It kinda sours part of Rainbow’s want to be a Wonderbolt because you ask yourself “Why does Rainbow want to join them if they act like this?”
*Twilight’s reasoning for why Rainbow shouldn’t join the Cloudsdale Team feels like guilt-tripping and not very sound logic. Rainbow’s friends couldn’t cheer for her regardless of who she represented? There was many better reasons Twilight could of said to Rainbow besides that. Even knocking some sense into her would of been better.
*Other then seeing Twilight roll her eyes at Rainbow’s stupidity, the whole scene where Rainbow is faking an injury I find a bit cringeworthy
*While this is rather minor, Rarity’s dresses for Snowflake and Fluttershy were uggggggllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyy. It’s like if the puppet show thing wasn’t what made Rarity go into how she was in Inspiration Manifestation. Those could have also counted enough. Speaking of which, Rarity, Pinkie, and Applejack barely did anything in the plot besides influence what Twilight would guilt trip Rainbow for. They didn’t necessarily all have to be there. And you can’t say they’re all in the episode because it’s a key episode, because Leap of Faith was a key episode that featured only AJ.
*The Basic Plot was resolved in 5 seconds back in the Pilot. Seriously Rainbow Dash is there in both. Just replace the Shadowbolts with the Two Wonderbolts that are on the Cloudsdale team. Rainbow’s made this same exact decision faster then this back in Season 1.
*And like I said before, I can’t just ignore this episode like most other weak episodes of the show because it just happens to also be Rainbow’s Key episode. It just makes me wish that Rainbow got her key in one of her much better episodes this season. Even if it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for Rainbow to have an epiphany about Loyalty in either Daring Don’t or Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3. It’d still be better then having it being basically botched up in Rainbow Falls.
Well I was wrong about the comic last episode having to do with this episode. But Spike still ending up finding a book that caused some bad things to happen. So… Spike probably still needed that scolding from Twilight at the end of the episode.
Anyway, this was an enjoyable episode. Spike was done really well, but that’s not really a surprise when Meghan McCarthy helped with this episode. In case you haven’t noticed, Meghan writes Spike the best out of all the writers we have. How Spike was in Equestria Girls was one of the few positives about the Movie, and Lesson Zero still holds up as one of the best portrayals of Spike. Heck this episode was technically another insane pony episode. Something Meghan was kinda famous for in the days of Early Season 2.
Though I can’t really tell how much Corey Powell contributed. It definitely, definitely isn’t as bad as Rainbow Falls. In fact I think overall it’s a good episode. This episode even has the Magic Duel excuse where a character is doing something wrong but because of a certain artifact such as the Alicorn Amulet or the Book of this episode. You can’t fault the writer for making them cruel because they made it so the episode gave them something that affects their minds to the point that they’re not morally sane. I really wouldn’t say Corey completely redeemed herself since Rainbow Falls though, partly because we can’t tell what Corey did in this episode since it was a collab with Meghan. And Rainbow Falls was a bit of a deep hole for an episode like this to dig a writer out of. If Corey returns for Season 5, that will probably be the time to see if she can make up for Rainbow Falls. I know some people still argue with me that Somepony to Watch Over Me was worse, I just can’t agree because as I’ve said many times already I found reason to enjoy STWOM while Rainbow Falls is the only episode of Season 4 that still bugs me. Cause not only was a lot of the episode heavily flawed, because some of the problems I had with the episode is going to rear it’s ugly head again: How is Fluttershy not nervous at all about performing in an athletic event in front of a whole crowd? Regardless if it shows up or not, the writers are in a lose-lose situation there because if Fluttershy shows restraint about performing why didn’t she do so back in Rainbow Falls? If she doesn’t, they’re basically contradicting Filli Vanilli. Playing in the Olympics is just as pressuring if not even more so then singing in front of a crowd. And don’t get me started on Bulk Biceps. Regardless of how bad Somepony to Watch Over Me may be to some people, most bad episodes of previous seasons you could ignore it and it wouldn’t be something that effects something of the future of the show besides a passing mention (Like the reference to Spike at Your Service in Trade Ya… ick…). You can’t do that with Rainbow Falls since not only is it another one of the Equestria Games related episodes, it’s also one of the Key episodes. You watch Season 4 without Rainbow Falls, you never know how Rainbow gets her key at the finale
…And I didn’t mean to get a bit ranty about Rainbow Falls in this… Whoops ^^’ Before I end off the thing, I guess I’ll say at least a few more thing about the actual episode. I wonder, with the Mariachi band at the fillies birthday party… did Rarity switch locations between a band in canterlot or did the spell actually transform the Mariachi Band into completely different players? Because while two remained stallions, the one on the right seemed to have turned into Octavia. We never get any clear clue about this nor did we see them get changed back (Though I can assume they were by Twilight at the end). It could be argued that they were transformed into different ponies because that’s gotta be some really, really, really strong magic to just pick out random ponies in Canterlot and somehow switch them with a Mariachi band. That would be something I wouldn’t even think Celestia or Luna were capable of. Turning them into a different pony is more believable since it kinda seems like it could easily be like Changeling magic (Did I just make a theory that the spellbook was made by changelings?) plus there were items that Rarity just changed and not switched, unless all the crystal things she conveniently borrowed were all from the Crystal Empire. And with Transformation magic being more believable then switching out via teleportation, I have a sense that the spell is a lot like the Alicorn Amulet in that it corrupts the user the longer they’ve used it. And I have the sense that had Rarity been left unchecked for long enough, the spell might of made Rarity realize one day to make clothes or fabric out of things not usually made for clothing. Including ponies. Thinking of it that way… it’s probably good Spike basically destroyed the book by eating it (The only way it’s getting out is not appropriate for this show.)
Seeing Rarity going a bit crazy was fun, Spike was well-written, and being a blog that centers around a Genie. Seeing lots of Magic being thrown around was fun to see. Next week we have one last Spike episode before the big finale. The Equestria Games, I feel like what I said during my mini-rant about Rainbow Falls earlier is gonna come to fruition in one way or another. But let’s hope that’s the only thing I dread about the next episode.
waywardfoals-deactivated2014112 asked: I actually like Dragon Quest myself, since it also portrays Spike as being altruistic and a good... dragon at heart, though you make an excellent point. The other two, however, I agree with fully.
Yeah like I said. Dragon Quest out of the 3 I mentioned is the most tolerable. Because for once it’s not Spike’s portrayal that’s the problem. It’s the problem of the characters that Spike meet just happen to be jerks. Thus making the ending far more predictable then it needed to be. And also partly on the Ponies, because it would of been so great for the ponies to learn that maybe dragons weren’t so bad instead of them basically being proven right. Considering we even had a pretty good dragon back in Dragonshy. Why couldn’t we have had dragons like the one in Dragonshy be the ones Spike meet? (Granted we do see the red dragon cameo in the episode, but gosh darn it having him return and have another notable appearence would of been so much better then having dudebro teenage dragons)
It’s also a shame they never really did anything with Pee Wee (Spike at your Service shows us they brought Pee Wee back to it’s parents through photos). It would of been so cool for Twilight & Spike to have a Phoenix around. If Pee Wee had been used for occasional reappearances like the pets sometimes do. It might of given Dragon Quest at least a little more worth.
its-homerj-deactivated20140626 asked: I would disagree with how you consider the episodes, "Mare-Do-Well", "Dragon Quest", and "Spike At Your Service" to be the worst in the entire series. Because despite their issues (such as a moral that felt forced, poor world-building, and Spike not being portrayed in a positive light), I still consider those episodes to be entertaining and funny overall.
Sure there are some good things too all 3. Mare-Do-Well did have that one good scene with Rainbow being sad alone on a cloud. Not that it’s enough to really beat how both Rainbow being way more egotistical then she was at any point in the series, and her friends not being much better my basically spiting her and being a tad hypocritical when they basically hinting that they’re talking about themselves when talking with Rainbow about it.
Dragon Quest is the one of the three I probably enjoy a little more. Honestly my real biggest problem with Dragon Quest was missed potential. They didn’t have to make the dragons Spike be utter jerks to make him realize he should stay with the ponies. It’s a similar problem I had with Rainbow Falls. They could of reached the conclusion at the end without resorting of making characters jerks or including jerk characters. Say if Spike found a group of perfectly nice Dragons, not only would it actually give some worry from Twilight, Rainbow and Rarity that maybe Spike will stay after all. But it would give some actual weight to the conflict even if we know Spike’s going to go back by the end anyway. Spike could of just realized after years with living with Ponies, he just can’t suddenly go into Dragon Culture because he ends up being homesick. He would miss being Twilight’s assistant, he would miss the pony he has a crush on in Rarity, and he would miss the awesome stunts of Rainbow, and more. Eventually leading to when Spike makes a decision, he finds out Twilight, Rainbow, and Rarity followed him and said they watched Spike get along with the dragons they met. They even getting teary-eyed thinking that Spike was going to choose to stay with the Dragons for the rest of his life now, but Spike tells them he wants to go back despite having a nice experience. Cause after all, it would be the Ponies who would have learned that the Dragons aren’t really so bad.
And Spike at Your Service… I just can’t see Spike suddenly wanting to no longer be Twi’s assistant just because a pony saved his life once. Even if you believe he was mostly with Celestia when he was a baby. Twilight’s still one of Spike’s biggest caretakers, and while it’s good to be thankful to anyone who saves your life. Who would you rather live with as a child? Your mother and/or big sister that’s always looked out for you? Or the Police Man/Fire Fighter/Doctor/Etc. that saved your life just once? It just goes against everything I feel about Spike and Twilight’s relationship in the show. And if you’ve seen my Ask Blog, you know I take that really seriously. Spike at your Service did have some good character humor with the Mane 6 in the 2nd half of the episode (PInkie Pie’s mustache) but it’s not enough because it’s easily soured by Spike’s portrayal.
Is it hypocritical of me to dislike those episodes but still fairly like Somepony to Watching Over Me? Maybe, but that’s where “Guilty Pleasures” come from. I can find reasons to like episodes some others dislike while still showing dislike for other episodes. Cause that’s just how I feel. I still think the way CMC were written and the humor is enough to save the episode from being among the worst of the worst. Add the fact that I chuckled a few times during Applejack being overprotective (Such as the double helmet, and the door opening) and I liked the entire scene with the Chimera. And there’s no way I’m including that episode among the worst of the series, it at least raises it to about average level IMO. It’s one of the worst of Season 4. But that actually says alot. Because a majority of Season 4, I enjoyed quite a bit.
its-homerj-deactivated20140626 asked: I don't think one of the new writers for season 4 Scott Sonneborn has gotten some unfair flack due to the episode Somepony to Watch Over Me, because as I mentioned before, I felt that the criticism towards him was justified in my opinion. I would say that he's actually more suited for writing comedic episodes (like he did with Beavis and Butthead), instead of episodes that are meant to have a light-hearted message.
Maybe. But I just didn’t like how some were thinking he’s like the new Merriwether Williams. Regardless of how the episode was, it was not on Mare-Do-Well levels of bad that has forever incriminated Merriwether Williams’ work for FiM (Though at least Merriwether has Wonderbolt Academy & Bats! to her favor. However even those two don’t really outweigh Mare-Do-Well, Putting Your Hoof Down, Dragon Quest, and Spike at your Service). Even if AJ was out of character (Which whole the overprotectiveness may have been exaggerated. We have seen AJ being a bit overprotective and in the wrong for being so before. Ex: Princess Twilight Sparkle, Part 2), the CMC were excellently written. And I’d take that over everyone of the Main 6 being out of character in Mare-Do-Well.
Scott just seems to emulate something from other writers. In Somepony Watching Over Me, it’s Season 1 Dave Polsky (Cause Season 4 Dave Polsky has been at least the 2nd best writer of the Season). With good comedy, but a rather muffled-up moral. Similar to Feeling Pinkie Keen and/or Over a Barrel
In Trade Ya it was like Josh Haber’s work. Where the episode wasn’t really amazing but it wasn’t really terrible either. Trade Ya was as ok an episode can be in FiM. Similar to Castle-Mania.
Well what a sweet episode ^^
This episode was done by Scott Sonneborn. The same writer who I felt got some unfair flack just for Somepony Watching Over Me. And I definitely feel like he did an overall better job with this one.
The episode actually kinda felt more like a Josh Haber episode. Yes although he’s only had a few episodes there’s already a clear style to Josh. Josh Haber has plots that are pretty predictable. Even for the standards of Friendship is Magic there aren’t too many twists. This being one of those episodes where the main characters have to trade things in order to get another thing, to finally get what they want. At least in terms of Rainbow & Fluttershy’s part of the episode. Though I suppose there it’s at least different in terms that there’s three different things going on at the same time. Kind of similar to Castle-Mania. Which had Twilight & Spike reading books in the library, Applejack & Rainbow Dash doing a dare competition, Rarity and Fluttershy going to get fabric and/or to get Angel and Pinkie kind of in the background until the end. This episode has Rainbow and Fluttershy trying to get a limited edition Daring Do book, Rarity and Applejack arguing about getting each other an item that to each other seems worthless from the other’s point of view, and Twilight and Pinkie dealing with Twilight trying not to make her Princess status the sole reason someone buys one of her books. And Spike in the background until the end. And they even have the ending where all of them essentially get what they wanted anyway although they’re not the exact things they wanted for the exception of Fluttershy who got her bird whistle and Twilight who didn’t even really want anything.
Really the only issues I can really see is Pinkie was a bit mean to Twilight. As Twilight’s friend you wouldn’t think she’d say something like “Before she was a Princess, she was nothing!”. But at the same time, I believe Scott did what Amy Keating Rodgers was trying to do in Filli Vanilli but this time Scott made it at least a little more moderate in comparison. You could also say all the Main 6 besides maybe Fluttershy and/or Twilight were being petty at some point of the episode. But this is just a product of having main characters with conflicting interests and personalities. I don’t think there was anything too out of character this time around unless I missed something.
In short, this is Scott Sonneborn basically going Josh Haber. The episode’s overall good, though not really amazing overall. Though why do I have the strangest feeling the book that Spike got will have something to do with next week’s episode… Maybe I’m just speculating. But I just feel like there’s going to be a connection somehow.
My step-grandfather on my mother’s side passed away recently. I’ll sure miss him alot. I might partly dedicate the Mother’s Day special on Genie Twilight to him and my own Grandma who’s probably having a hard time right now…
Ugh, you know what, I’m going to rephrase it because fine you win.I never said that that was the actual intention of Nintendo’s, but it comes off that way because he feels lazily tacked on at the end of the story. Honestly, I wasn’t even upset at Nintendo or…
Likening Sonic’s last minute inclusion Smash Bros to Sonic 06’ seems like a grand insult.
I mean, how could you possibly see those are near the same excuse?
Sonic 06’ was a disastrous mess that got pushed out too early.
Brawl was a largely complete game already by the time they considered adding Sonic.
You saying that his last minute inclusion is like Sonic 06’ is effectively calling the developers lazy, and/or the producers shortsighted—as those were both the core issues of Sonic 06’. Neither of which apply to Brawl at all.
There would be no way they could possibly rewrite the whole story to include Sonic earlier on—not without delaying the game even more, and losing obscene amounts of money in the process. Do you have any idea how absurdly expensive a crew of developers costs a daily basis? I don’t know about you, but I’m grateful that Sonic actually got a full FMV dedicated to him—and that he was in story mode at all.
I mean, it was either they did exactly what they did, or he wasn’t in the game’s story at all—or possibly the entire game.
Would it be cool that he had more screen time? Hell yeah. But your complaining about it smacks of entitlement. I’m willing to bet that many Nintendo employees spend long nights at the office to get Sonic in with minimal delays. And it’s a shame that you don’t seem to appreciate that.
But yes, Sonic’s advance warning does seem like he’ll have more precedence in the game now (though any kind of story mode is up the air)
^I agree with all of what Ambris said. We should be glad Sonic was in the game at all. We should already be proud of the fact that the demand for Sonic was so huge that it delayed the game. You know fan demand was extreme if Nintendo decided they could not release the game if they did not include Sonic in there. Maybe there’s quite a few signs in Brawl that Sonic was indeed rushed in the game. Such as his role in the Story mode, and even some parts the way he fights.
But that never mattered to me in the slightest. Sonic was in Super Smash Bros. That alone is what made the game a Day One purchase. There’s at least some sign of effort in including Sonic. They had a few pretty good Sonic tracks in there, even a remix of Angel Island Zone. And although Sonic’s not really one of the best fighters of the game. He’s also not the worst, despite obviously pretty much most of the characters being more planned more then Sonic was (Ex: Ganondorf)
I also personally think that Sonic being included in Brawl was what kinda ended the dark age of Sonic. Sure there were still not that good Sonic games that came after Brawl (Sonic and the Black Knight & Sonic Unleashed) but I felt like things have really turned around for Sonic at that time after Sonic 06 nearly could have destroyed the franchise altogether. Which is part of the reason why it feels like an insult to compare Sonic’s inclusion in Brawl to Sonic 06. Sonic 06 was terrible to it’s very core. It wasn’t just the fact it was rushed that made it terrible, stuff that should be done early on like the writing was terrible even for Sonic game standards (The Adventure series had their fair share of plot holes too, but not nearly to the level of Sonic 06). Sonic 06 is also the big reason the Sonic franchise has lost it’s credibility that it once had and will probably never truly gain again. But that’s why I feel Sonic’s inclusion in Brawl despite it being last minute was the start of a bit of a turnaround. Sonic now being included among many famous series like Mario, Legend of Zelda, etc. made him feel worthy again.
The fact he’s returning in Smash 4 as an official Smash Veteran just makes me smile everytime I think about it. Sonic’s getting at least equal treatment to alot of the Smash Bros. characters despite not being Nintendo. Maybe it wasn’t so equal in Brawl but there were legitimate reasons why they couldn’t do too much. As 60% of the development time was already mostly on the SSE and the other 40% was on the characters, gameplay, online modes, etc. They probably nearly had enough of working on the SSE by the time Sonic was included. Sonic will be a much better fighter in Smash 4, you can count on that.And while a story mode with lots of cutscenes like SSE isn’t looking likely, I’m sure we’ll see plenty of Sonic content. As the game focuses mostly on what’s the more important stuff about Smash Bros.: Characters, Series representation and Gameplay.
(via ambris)
To be honest, I think that the way Sonic was portrayed in Subspace Emissary was a serious fuck you from Nintendo to SEGA because he literally did nothing but one punch Tabuu who was BUILT UP A LOT and I really don’t want them to do anything like that again.
That…just seems petty. To think that.
I mean, I could just as easily argue that Sonic saved everyone else’s life at that moment. I think it made it pretty clear that without him, they would have all lost. That he was made a hero in the context of the game, as a big thank you towards Sega.
But I honestly think that either way is bullshit. That’s just reading into things that really aren’t there at all.
It was basically most of the story was already well finished by the time they included Sonic in the game. But they also had to include him in some way so that the most heavily requested character for the game (So much so that they delayed the game just to include him) had some kind of role.
Personally, while I kinda wish he had a much bigger role in the story (Heck the Sonic Joins the Brawl Trailer had me thinking there would be a level where Mario and Sonic team up. You could do that… but not until after the story was finished) I appreciate what we got. The finger-wag and the smirk when he destroyed Tabuu’s wings were priceless~
(via ambris)