My Little Pony's Justice 2 - Official MLP Thread v2

[DabigRG]

Oh yeah, I forgot to comment on the Starlight episode from last week!

Um, I remember thinking it was okay enough but while was a somewhat interesting story to see develop, the reasons behind it were kinda poor and the takeaway of it all felt fairly inappropriate. The tone/humor was also sorta badly placed at times throughout and can even feel sorta...intrusive.

Come to think of it, it's an episode I'd say felt pretty muddled with conflicting implications, purposes, and ideas for it's execution, failing to really get much out of any of them besides  maybe the threat of the Cockatrices. And that's saying something, considering it's nominally a Starlight episode.

[Strickerx5]

Yeah, I flat out don't really know where to put this one.

Real talk, I think this episode only existed to put an end to the whole "Scootaloo has no parents" headcannon without much thought beyond that. The episode itself felt scattered and actually managed to make the parents seem a bit unlikable to me. Like, they're written as "the perfect parents" during the first half, almost to the point where I thought this was all going to be some sort of dream sequence that Scoots was having in the beginning (which probably would've made for a better ep but hey). Yet, they're clearly not a big part of her life but still somehow feel the need to come in for a weekend and completely move her to a different location. The two ends don't really meet with them and they end up seeming like superficial characters at the end of it all, oblivious on how to actually parent. Of course, with this being mlp, they make the right decision in the end and "only want the best for Scootaloo" but that's a mute point when all of their time on screen is spent not listening to her and going on about how awesome their job was. I'm rambling here but real talk, they just didn't rub me the right way.

I did like that little ending they had for the most part though. While the scene itself went on for a bit too long, I do like the meaning behind it in having just about every character they've helped over the years show up to help them. It was a nice ending that, if this does end up being the final CMC episode, I'd be ok with.

Other than that, the rest of the episode just didn't really catch me. It was a lot of back and forth with the whole "moving away" trope while not doing much new with said trope. It was predictable at points and, compounded by the parents' actions, sometimes actually annoyed me in others.

So I guess overall... I don't know. I just feel like they could've done a lot more with this. Maybe have Rainbow play a bigger role as she's basically done more with Scoots than her parents seemingly have. I feel like the staff simply wanted to introduce Scoot's parents and aunts into the show and not go further than that. While it's interesting to see theories laid to rest, this episode doesn't do any more than that. What should've been a huge episode for the CMCs and series as a whole just ended up feeling, overall, dull and mismanaged.

[MetalSkulkBane]

Only I think episodes should end with Scotaloo leaving Poniville?

Show is ending anyway and kids have to learn how to deal with situations like this. Is this show teaching about friendship problems or not?

Then again, what I expect from show called "My Little Pony"? Other popular cartoon from 2010s also chickened in similar scenario
(Not wanting to spoil important plotline of great show, but most people can guess I'm talking about

Spoiler

Gravity Falls

 

[AdventChild]

This week’s episode kicks off the hiatus (well, there is the Rainbow Road Trip) Between Dark and Dawn featuring the sun and moon sisters.

Eh, I’m kinda mixed on this, more meh.

I liked much of the locations and background ponies featured in this, the Wicked reference, and the song was okay.

Celestia and Luna seemed off in their personalities and been handed the Idiot/Incompetent Ball for the sake of the plot. Speaking of which the humor just fell flat nearly throughout. Luna being excited of the friggin’ post office? Celestia scared of a chicken? Are you bucking joking with this? Also, the whole sisters not getting along, or sibling squabble stuff have been done before. Not to mention the B-plot with the Mane 6 felt pretty tacked on and the lesson of having others helping isn’t anything new the series has done either esp. since they have done much delegating in the past, just more redundancy.

A mixed bag at best, pretty so-so at its least.

[Strickerx5]

Yeah, I'm going to cut straight to the chase here since I watched this one when it was leaked a month back and have been holding this in ever since.

Simply put, one of the best episodes of the season. And as a bonus, that's not even fully coming from my Luna bias here... well at least not 100% coming from it... I think... Luna

With the sisters preparing to gtfo of politics, they're believably getting restless. It's great to see that helping out Starswirl in the opener sparked that desire to actually be on the front lines for a change. Also gotta say that I laughed real hard with how hypocritical the whole situation made the mane six here. Like, in the opener they're under the impression that the princesses don't do anything and now the two come out and start doing a better job at fixing things than they do; and now they're suddenly worried that they're getting put out of the job. Like:

Mane Six *opener*: "Wow, the princesses really don't help out do they, wtf?"

*princesses start doing shit in front of them*

Mane Six *now*: "... wha- no, wait, fuck, stop before we lose our gd jobs!"

Plus, fast forwarding a bit, the lesson the mane six learn at the end of it all is pretty much the exact same thing Celestia has been doing to them this entire time. That was just great to see.

As for the princesses themselves... just, yes. Like shit, this is what I've been asking to see for years now! It's been well documented (though in short burst) that the two are silly af when not on the job but we were just never able to see that side of them full on up until now. It was great just seeing them do something without the fate of Equestria hanging in the balance or them getting one shot because the writers are often too incompetent to utilize them in anything major. Though, with that being said, I do think they probably could've toned down that silly nature a taaaad bit but real talk, I can't really argue at where the bar was already.

Also, while I'm not 100% jazzed with yet another sibling argument plot line, it's simply another case of, again, I get it. I know from personal experience that arguments with one's siblings are nothing but inevitable after enough time. Like, even with just the show, how many times have we seen AJ and Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle and Rarity at odds? Shit's just a thing with sibling characters.

And holy shit were there a lot of scene changes and new character models with this one! Some of those new princess designs were top notch.

The only other real negative thing/ nitpick I have with this one are the mane six being there at all really. I mean I get it, have to build up the overarching narrative for the season with them moving up to rulers at the end of it but damn... this was the time for that truly pure, solo, princess episode. It saddens me that, at this point, we're probably never going to get that. Though, they do admittedly take the backseat plot for the episode and don't take up too much screen time so it is something that I can look past.

And of course, it has to be said.

LUNA

Based. Moon. Goddess. Represent.

So yeah, overall, while it does have some issues, this is still easily one of the best episodes in the season. Probably one of the better episodes in the last half of the show. Am I only saying this because of Luna? Well yes and no. I do think it's genuinely a good episode... but damn, again, Luna. I-I don't know what you want from me here. She's too perfect. She's like bacon or a nice break, her just being there makes things better. I just, omg, the only problem with her is that she isn't in the show enough. like really when the show ends that's probably going to be it's biggest dow- *continues to ramble about Luna*

 

 

Erm, well anyways. I guess that's the first half of the season behind us. Overall... eh. I mean, just by looking above, I do believe that there was some stellar content here. Though, looking back at the episode list... I do struggle with saying that even half of it all was worth watching. There were quite a number of sub-par to downright bad episodes/ moments here. As we approach what is to be our final hiatus (probably), I do hope that the second half is where all the good stuff is.

Though before that, we have an hour long special in the movie art style next week so I am interested to see how that goes.

[SBR2]

https://www.equestriadaily.com/2019/06/interview-ian-flynn-on-writing-feats-of.html?m=1

Ian Flynn gave an interview with Equestria Daily about his upcoming IDW mini.

[RedFox99]

TIQ: Now for the meat and potatoes of this interview: The Ponies. Here at Equestria Daily we have a traditional first question we ask all of our first time interviewees. And I see no reason not to continue that tradition now. So to begin, who is your favorite My Little Pony character?

IF: Not an easy pick, but I think I can settle on Spike. He’s a good guy, he works hard, and he cracks me up.

Nice

[DabigRG]

(So confession: I actually missed last week's episode and in my scramble to find it, I actually found this weeks episode. I did manage to eventually rectify that earlier, so I'll go ahead and save this week's episode for later.)

Episode 12 was The Last Crusade, which is funny because one of the characters is clearly based on Crocodile Dundee rather than Indiana Jones. Ah well, guess they just couldn't resist that title. 

Yeah, I'm gonna have to say this felt like one of those episodes that was heavily based on confirming/jossing fan theories. It did so via a very run of the mill plot lightly peppered with heartfelt continuity and was lacking in substance otherwise. Uh, not to sound like a certain someone there. 

Not to dredge it up again, but this is kind of the other end of the problem with the Spike's Not-Dad episode. Whereas that episode seemed to be reluctant to give a main character a non-super-ideal parental figure(in addition to being an episode that would've fared better in an earlier season), this episode does the exact opposite by making the parents inexplicably awesome. Yeah, it gives a decent reason why the parents wouldn't be around, but considering we're, what, 9 seasons into the show, it inevitably feels asspull-y.

And since that character is Scootaloo, who was secondarily defined both in-universe and out for what she lacked, that feeling is doubled. On a "lesser" note--and not just because I can't remember much about her parents--, let's talk about Aunt Holiday and Auntie Lofty. Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't those two introduced in supplementary material and implied to be abusive or whatever? Not complaining about that last part in particular here, but I was honestly shocked to see them here after the buzz about Scootaloo's parents I've skimmed. Honestly, am I the only one who thinks this episode would've been better served if it had just been about them and their hands off relationship with Scootaloo?

It's neat that Diamond Tiara eventually made a cameo, though she doesn't actually say anything. Oh and is it me or was Starlight among those who were convinced by the Crusaders --and where was Rumble?

On 6/15/2019 at 4:44 PM, AdventChild said:

 

I guess I do like seeing Scoot’s parents, though with her having parents (even aunts) it does feel it undermines Parental Glideance in a way compared to her being an orphan. 

Okay, I thought there was at least one episode where her not having much of a family life came up.

.

On 6/16/2019 at 2:50 AM, Strickerx5 said:

 Like, they're written as "the perfect parents" during the first half, almost to the point where I thought this was all going to be some sort of dream sequence that Scoots was having in the beginning (which probably would've made for a better ep but hey).

Yeah, I was half expecting that myself initially.   

On 6/16/2019 at 2:50 AM, Strickerx5 said:

The two ends don't really meet with them and they end up seeming like superficial characters at the end of it all, oblivious on how to actually parent.

I feel like the staff simply wanted to introduce Scoot's parents and aunts into the show and not go further than that. While it's interesting to see theories laid to rest, this episode doesn't do any more than that. What should've been a huge episode for the CMCs and series as a whole just ended up feeling, overall, dull and mismanaged.

Pretty much.

.

On 6/16/2019 at 10:29 AM, MetalSkulkBane said:

Only I think episodes should end with Scotaloo leaving Poniville?

Show is ending anyway and kids have to learn how to deal with situations like this. Is this show teaching about friendship problems or not?

Nah, you're not the only one.

And yeah, it might've made this episode more worth it.

[DabigRG]

Oh yeah, episode 13 Between Dark and Dawn. It was relatively decent from what I remember.

The weird/uncanny expressions continued in this episode with Celestia and Luna near the beginning, though the former inherently looks odd. The song was pretty nice, though Luna's voice was kinda odd--gave me Folk Country vibes overall.

Gonna have to agree that the Mane Six's subplot was a little eh in terms of whether it was necessary. The ending was hilarious though.

Fancy Pants seemed a little off at first and Jet Set& Upper crust were just sorta there. What's up with the sisters and weird birds, btw?

Ebonwumon the Island Turtle was kinda cool. Oh btw, Capper also makes a cameo alongside the other characters like Gilda & Gabby and Discord & Smooze.

[AdventChild]

Even though the midseason hiatus is in full swing, we’re given a bit more pony in the hour-long special Rainbow Road Trip.

Have to say it’s kinda weak. Not as good as Best Gift Ever.

Not that fond of or used to the movie style animation but it’s good at times in detail and I did like just one song.

Other than End of the Rainbow much of the songs were meh. The plot was basic and felt like a standard Slice of Life episode stretched to an hour, making it dragged on a bit and slightly dull. The solution of being nice to each other was obvious by the cues early on. The side and minor characters were fine, but not that memorable esp. with how little they had to work with the dull story.

An average special to say the least.

[Strickerx5]

For what is an hour long special, gotta be honest, it really didn't have much going for it.

To get to the point, that was a whole lot of production value wrapped around a very mediocre script/ plot. Nothing in this story screamed "needed to be an hour long special" at all. Hell, it really did feel like scenes were dragged on almost twice as long as they needed to be. Probably just to make that 1 hour mark.

The only real highlight here for me was getting another hour of the movie style. While it wasn't quite up to that bar for the most part, it did have quite a bit more movement to it than the standard flash we see in the show so it did its job well enough. Everything looked great and moved well. It's just too bad 90% of the scenes had to be gray-scaled like that.

Like, I wish I had something better to say here. I was constantly checking the clock with this one; it bored me that much. It was your painfully standard Mane 6 plot, only extended out way longer than it should've been. They didn't add enough in here to extend things for that long. Hell, it even made some scenes awkward with how much they choose to linger on certain things. For example, that bit with Pinkie and the karaoke towards the end was absolutely, 100%, not needed.

So yeah, overall... eh, I can see why they chose not to advertise this one nearly as much as they did BGE; even with the budget it clearly had. It just didn't have the script to match any of that effort put into the animation which is a huge shame.

Is it bad? Well no, it doesn't do anything that would really put it there for me. Though, damn if it wasn't one of the most boring specials this show has ever put out.

[MetalSkulkBane]

In short everything about this special was 'meh',

And can My Little Pony stop making "rainbow" tittles that don't have Rainbow Dash as main character? This is false advertisement, just like "Rainbow Rocks" was.

Rainbow isn't even my favorite pony, I was just mildly exited for special focused on not-Twilight.

[DabigRG]

So I watch the Rainbow Roadtrip special and it was indeed something of a meh. If only because I found myself losing attention around middle and even started nodding(though I was on my bed at that point). I'm honestly not sure why they got AllSpark involved, as I'm sure the show could've done something like this in it's sleep.

[pastelspectre]

i quite liked the rainbow roadtrip special. i think it's funny in a good way that it aired during pride month. i do think it went on for maybe a little longer than necessary but im not complaining considering i /love/ the movie style.. i wish it was used more often.

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, Skye said:

i quite liked the rainbow roadtrip special. i think it's funny in a good way that it aired during pride month.

...Why? 

1 hour ago, Skye said:

 wish it was used more often.

Honestly, I kinda wish they had used it for the Christmas special instead. 

[DabigRG]

Not sure if ya'll shared something like this before, but here is Starlight(or originally Aurora)'s concept art. While I do like her final design well enough, I do kinda wish they had retained elements of C and/or D to ensure she'd have something more unique to her look.

 

[pastelspectre]

On 7/5/2019 at 9:47 PM, DabigRG said:

...Why? 

Honestly, I kinda wish they had used it for the Christmas special instead. 

bc it dealt with rainbows and like, rainbows are a staple of the lgbtq+ community basically sort of

[DabigRG]

Has the second half of Season 9 started?

1 minute ago, Skye said:

bc it dealt with rainbows and like, rainbows are a staple of the lgbtq+ community basically sort of

a-Doy!

[AdventChild]

So it looks like Sunset's Backstage Pass is going to be the last EQG special/content. Don't really care for this spinoff series, personally. And looks like Hasbro didn't care either despite being more ideas to extend it. Though you think they would have a graduation special as its conclusion when the G4 series draws to a close.

Quote

 

[AdventChild]

With the hiatus over, it’s back to ponies this week with The Last Laugh featuring the return of Weird Al.

This one felt rather weak. Many steps below Pinkie Pride.

The humor and writing were rather dull. The whole Pinkie trying to find her purpose or whatnot felt like a flimsy plot device to meet up with Cheese Sandwich. Also, the song was meh and felt like a waste of talent for Weird Al to be OOC for most of the episode. I’d rather just have the two go on a friendship quest than waste it on a plot like this. Best I can describe this is it’s a laugh-less lackluster lull.

A below average episode.

[Strickerx5]

So after what should be the final hiatus, we have Al back to reprise his role as Cheese Sandwich for an episode that's pretty down the road, all things considered.

I don't really have a whole lot to go into for this one honestly. There were a couple of things I enjoyed like the constant subversion of basic gags, Cheese's modern day boss outfit, his business partner who just wanted the best and wasn't actually some evil corporate figure, and the song for the most part. It even managed to get a chuckle out of me in a few places. Though otherwise, this was a really by the books episode. The setting was a bit dull (which I get is what they were going for but still) and the moral, while overall still being a nice one, is too predictable for how long they spend hinging outcomes on it. 

So yeah, overall while it was certainly nice to see Cheese again, I can't say this was as entertaining of an episode as it could've been with the premise it had.

 

Guess we're officially on the final stretch. I would like to warn everyone that apparently episodes 15-20 have aired in other countries and are currently out there with English audio. It is also verily likely that the final will be released before it airs here as well. So the general forum rules apply in that unless it's aired on the Discovery Network, please keep discussion of such episodes in the spoiler tags.

[DabigRG]

More than a bit early, but here is the Season 9 Finale Trailer.

 

Stay Pony, my friends.

[AdventChild]

This week is 2, 4, 6, Great starring RD and her reluctance with cheer leading.

The episode was rather meh all things considered.

RD’s attitude was bad for the most part. However, the plot felt very forced because of how Twilight basically pulled a Celestia 2.0 and spurred it on by making her friends do much of the coaching on such short notice within a tight deadline along with neglecting to ask if they wanted to or not. Also, the writing and humor were boring as a result of RD’s attitude and Snips greedy priorities was a flat lined joke that ran on for too long.

Very so-so episode overall.

[8ther]

Judging from the past few pages, you guys don’t seem very impressed with the final season so far.

[Strickerx5]

1 hour ago, 8ther said:

Judging from the past few pages, you guys don’t seem very impressed with the final season so far.

Eh, yes and no. There are certain episodes that rank pretty damn highly for me (like episodes 4 and 13 for obvious reasons). Though yeah, tbh there are quite a few so-so episodes so far.

And speaking of so-so, wow does that fit this week's ep quite well.

 

While I'm not the biggest fan of Dash, it was still kind of annoying to see her be given the idiot ball this time around. Her willfully neglecting her responsibility to help the cheerleaders seems like something we'd see season 1 Dash do, not 9 seasons in. She really brought down the episode and, with this being a Dash episode,... that's a big blow.

Though otherwise, I will say that I did quite enjoy the other elements of the episode. It was great seeing Snips and Snails again, the student six continue to be great, Jocklestia, the actual moral of the ep, all great stuff.

One thing of particular note was Twilight becoming a full on Celestia 2.0 in this one. Right down to Celestia herself congratulating her for basically pulling the same shenanigans she does. I don't know how I quite feel about that one but it did admittedly get a chuckle out of me and does continue to build on the season's theme so hey, I'll mark it as a positive overall.

So yeah, overall another so-so one. While it had some great moments and ideas, the overall thing was brought down by yet another instance of the show staff dumbing down a character just to pull out certain moments.