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

[batson]

Question: Is the brony fandom going to make the transition from G4 to G5? I mean, the fandom has basically prided itself on NOT being a general MLP fanbase (not being into the previous generations) but rather specifically a MLP:G4 fanbase. So once G4 ends, are bronies in general just going to stick with being into only G4 for all eternity, or are they going to migrate to G5? Obviously the answer is that it will vary from person to person but, again, I'm speaking in general terms...

As for me personally, I actually belong to those few people of male gender who was into MLP even before G4 came along, namely I was into G1 for purely nostalgic reasons since it happened to have been one of my favorite shows when I was a small child. So I've already seen MLP generations come and go, and frankly I haven't been all that interested in any of the newer generations, instead mostly just being curious as to how much content from G1 will carry over to the newer incarnations (from this perspective G4 has been a mixed bag, sometimes going entire seasons without anything new from G1 being adapted, but with characters like Tirek, Grogar or the Smooze nevertheless popping up frequently enough for me to keep having an eye on the show). So when G5 comes along it will pretty much be buisness as usual for me.

[DabigRG]

So just to say something on 2,4,6,Great real quick, that episode seemed like a case where it sounded like a cleverly simple idea, but ultimately came across as rather lazy. Whether that's purely on the execution or not is up for interpretation.

About the only noteworthy aspects are how they tried to give Snips something to do character-wise and how Celestia equipped her team with things to both aid & limit their playing, although I can't say they were that well implemented. Oh and I guess Ocellus's voice not being projected while she flipped was a nice attention to detail.

I can't help but feel this episode would've been better if Rainbow at least pretended to give the smallest bit by at least making the most basic of suggestions(which is what the montage amounted to) and/or if Snips took over as the acting coach during practice since he had a "vested interest" and often made the decisions when it was just him & Snails.

 It was certainly telling that there were around 6 minutes to go with the technical runtime when they were ready; made me think we were gonna see some actual Buckball amongst the teams.

On 8/10/2019 at 5:55 PM, AdventChild said:

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.

Essentially.

On 8/10/2019 at 10:27 PM, 8ther said:

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

Eh, I personally like how they're trying to pull out some stops and do some interesting things, but you can kinda tell these middle episodes are sorta there to fill up space. This one in particular felt like it was coasting.

Plus, I suppose there's also the matter of different preferences as influence and there not being that many people commenting.

On 8/11/2019 at 12:43 AM, Strickerx5 said:

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.

Definitely agree.

[AdventChild]

This week’s episode is A Trivial Pursuit, focusing ofTwilight and Pinkie.

This one was alright for the most part.

I did like Sunburst, Fluttershy and Bulk Biceps.

RD and AJ competitiveness reared its ugly head in this one too. Not as bad as Noncompetitive Clause mind you, but still slightly annoying. Speaking of annoyances, Pinkie was somewhat like this during the first half of the episode and not knowing flint was questionable but what took the cake was Twilight freaking out getting tiresome after a while and was bad on how she had Pinkie disqualified like that which hurt the second act, rather cringe-inducing to say the least.

An Ok episode overall.

[Strickerx5]

Gotta say, I enjoyed this one quite a bit.

This was some vintage, early show Twi. Right from the start it felt like an episode from one of the earlier seasons with her getting obsessive over something in a fun way. Now I will stop here and say that yes, it is a bit hypocritical of me here to be praising the show for reverting a character back to her pre-character growth self when I just knocked an episode last week for doing the same thing. Though, in defense I'll say that the two characters in question are the furthest away you can get from a similar situation. Dash, back in earlier seasons, was terrible. Her growth in later seasons only helped her imo. Twi, on the other hand, actively got worse for me as the show went on. They seemingly took out the character traits that made her fun to watch for the sake of her ascension to royalty. Them going a bit back on that in this episode really helped.

Anyways, this was a fun one to me. Even straight down to its initial conflict. It's like playing a competitive game online with others. Like, "Ok guys, one more game and I should finally be able to rank up. Let's win this!" But then you get paired with someone who doesn't care about their rank and is only there for fun (though admittedly that's me most of the time). It was fun seeing that scenario play out in an organic way. Pinkie would join a trivia event both for the lols and simply because a lot of her friends are there. Twi would be dead eager to win such an event. The set-up was great and it was executed pretty well too.

Though, I can see how the antics of both Twi and Pinkie here could've gotten annoying. Both did seem to go a tad bit overboard in certain instances, being handed the stupid ball for the briefest of moments, just to get the episode into the next phase.

But for me, overall, I really liked this one. Can't really find much wrong with it and I simply enjoyed seeing the characters acting to their personalities instead of to the actual plot of the episode for the most part.

[DabigRG]

A Trivial Pursuit felt like a bit of mess, but a fun one.

Okay, really what it comes down to is that it repeatedly ducks the expected moral or resolution in favor of having some fun with it's characters and continuity. Even if the characters, like Cranky and especially Matilda, don't do much.

Kinda had to laugh at Muffins being locked out; what an odd whiplash of a gag. And Granny Smith and Rainbow got a good barb in at one point. Oh and the implication Starlight had some sort of breakdown keeping score.

Kinda thought Twilight was setting herself up to lose and was gonna deserve at a point.. In general, the conflict reminded me of one of Mr. Enter's old videos.

[Celestia]

So, asking as someone who hasn't bothered keeping up with the show for years: with the way they've been building things up, the finale's going to be the standard adventurey two parter, right? I'm honestly slightly disappointed by that...as weird as this might sound, I was hoping they'd end on a slice of life episode, mostly because that's the part of the show I enjoyed more (and it's what most of the show is like anyway).

[DabigRG]

6 minutes ago, Celestia said:

So, asking as someone who hasn't bothered keeping up with the show for years: with the way they've been building things up, the finale's going to be the standard adventurey two parter, right? I'm honestly slightly disappointed by that...as weird as this might sound, I was hoping they'd end on a slice of life episode, mostly because that's the part of the show I enjoyed more (and it's what most of the show is like anyway).

Adventure episodes with stakes and a villain is how the show started and aside from the Season 1 finale, how it's always started & ended a season.

With that said, what kind of slice of life would be suitable for the end of the show?

[Strickerx5]

On 8/19/2019 at 5:49 PM, Celestia said:

So, asking as someone who hasn't bothered keeping up with the show for years: with the way they've been building things up, the finale's going to be the standard adventurey two parter, right? I'm honestly slightly disappointed by that...as weird as this might sound, I was hoping they'd end on a slice of life episode, mostly because that's the part of the show I enjoyed more (and it's what most of the show is like anyway).

Ngl, was sort of hoping for that too before the news came. The show is always very hit or miss with these specials as, a lot of the time, the writers don't really know how to handle a majority of the characters in them. It often just ends up being one of them or a small group (sometimes not even the mane six) who end up actually getting a good showing while the rest are either given the idiot ball or completely messed over; sometimes both.

[DabigRG]

Thinking about it, isn't this one of the earlier shows that were somewhat meta in recognizing opinions of it's fanbase?

[Strickerx5]

Just now, DabigRG said:

Thinking about it, isn't this one of the earlier shows that were somewhat meta in recognizing opinions of it's fanbase?

It became the trendy thing to do during its earlier seasons, yeah. Though a lot of people argue regarding exactly how much good it did. Some people love the call outs, others hate them. Some think it added to the shows appeal, others think it actively killed the experience.

As for me, eh. Use to love the stuff but now I'm a bit jaded on it. More into the well written nods than straight out jabs tbh.

[DabigRG]

24 minutes ago, Strickerx5 said:

It became the trendy thing to do during its earlier seasons, yeah. Though a lot of people argue regarding exactly how much good it did. Some people love the call outs, others hate them. Some think it added to the shows appeal, others think it actively killed the experience.

As for me, eh. Use to love the stuff but now I'm a bit jaded on it. More into the well written nods than straight out jabs tbh.

I suppose that's fair. Of course, nowadays, a level of self-awareness in a series is more commonplace and a potential sticking point. 

I do feel like it's better and/or more appropriate when it leads to certain characters and plot elements being further utilized and/or improved upon in it's own space. Of course, I suppose it's entirely possible for them to end up crossing the wires, which is probably why we got things like how confounding Starlight can be.

[AdventChild]

The Summer Sun Setback is this week’s episode about Twilight trying not to freak out.

This one was fine, slightly above average.

I mostly liked Discord and the villains working together in this, still prefer Frenemies over this one though. Also, the buildup for the villains’ plans for the finale as well.

For the longest time, I’ve never been much of a fan of Twilight’s ascension and princesshood to the point of being emotionally numb. And how she was written during these latter seasons didn’t help much either, making me care less and less about her character. The one question that hasn’t been asked during all this that felt like it had potential, wasn’t if she was worthy of the title or even if she was ready for the role and responsibilities. It is this: Is this something Twilight wants to do for the rest of her life? So Twilight getting over her annoying panic attacks, doesn’t really change my opinion on her at all as she continues on the Celestia 2.0 path. Also, Twilight’s friends not telling her about the things going wrong, being an obvious plot device with some character regression, and the troupe of unicorns dissing the show felt forced conflict as well.

So yeah, an alright episode due to the Discord and villains bumping it up.

[Strickerx5]

Well this week's episode was certainly eventful though, truth be told, I don't really have a whole lot to say about it funnily enough.

I enjoyed it for the most part. Seeing Twilight start to embrace the role more is a nice bit of progression as we near the finale. Not to mention the Princesses getting a nice bit of appreciation at the end there in replacing a holiday that, really was, a celebration of what was their worst hour with something that only reflects themselves. The bias Luna fan in me greatly appreciated this lol.

This episode also served to really set the finale up in terms of the villains too. It's going to be very interesting to see how the three's plan are going to conflict with Grogar's.  Especially since we... really don't know a lot about either of their plans at all really. All we do know is that the three can work very well together now which, if written in properly, could be a threat in itself.

So yeah, overall a pretty decent episode that got me intrigued for the finale with a nice little ending to boot.

[AdventChild]

Welp, Australia and The Netherlands said 'Screw It' and released the rest of the episodes sooner than later so expect massive spoilers for the two parter finale and epilogue episode floating around esp. in the comment section in the links below.

https://www.equestriadaily.com/2019/08/netherlands-drops-rest-of-season-9.html

https://www.equestriadaily.com/2019/08/australia-expected-to-finish-season-9.html

Of course, curiosity gotten the better of me and had to look at some of them and have to give my two cents. WARNING SPOILERS:

Spoiler

Two-parter finale

• Discord - You thought it was Grogar, but it was I, Discord! Yeah, apparently Grogar = Discord this entire time. This whole "legion of doom" thing was his twisted way of him trying to reform the villainous trio only for it backfire on him. Kinda upsetting that there wasn't a larger organized group that pose a much larger threat to Equestria and it was all just a botched up .
• Cozy Glow becomes an alicorn because of Grogar's bell. Yeah that happened.
• There are no villain reformations for Cozy, Tirek and Chrysalis as they get turn to stone in the end.

Epilogue Episode

• A time skip showing things 20-25 years from the present.
• RIP Granny Smith
• Ton of shipping fodder such as Lyrabon and even Cheese Sandwich/Pinkie Pie, showing their child.
• Twilight becoming an alicorn proper. Basically, a purple Celestia. Unicorn Twilight was and is still the better one for me and this cements that and just makes me feel a bit depressed on how she was handled.
• Oh,remember years ago when Meghan McCarthy said that Twilight will never outlive her friends? Even though you see Twilicorn with her aged friends, it still feels like that is still a possibility. (Do you see why there is need for consistent writers?)
• And what about the other princesses? We don't see what the Royal Sisters during retirement and haven't read anything about Cadence and Shining Armor or even what an older Flurry Heart would look like.

 

[Strickerx5]

55 minutes ago, AdventChild said:

Welp, Australia and The Netherlands said 'Screw It' and released the rest of the episodes sooner than later so expect massive spoilers for the two parter finale and epilogue episode floating around esp. in the comment section in the links below.

https://www.equestriadaily.com/2019/08/netherlands-drops-rest-of-season-9.html

https://www.equestriadaily.com/2019/08/australia-expected-to-finish-season-9.html

WELL THEN, damn it Netherlands. First we thought Italy was going to pull the trigger, then we were sure either China or Australia were going to do it. But nah, gd Netherlands from outta fucking nowhere XD.

I've only skimmed a few things regarding the final (really just to make sure you know who comes out ok) but otherwise, yeah I'm going to stick to the U.S. air dates.

[DabigRG]

This week's episode is Summer Sun Setback. I somewhat enjoyed it, although it did raise a few tangential issues.

Within context, I liked how it was a mishmash of three different episode/plot types: Twilight trying to accomplish a Royal Task(with Discord around), the other Mane Six dealing with mundane/specialized stuff, and the villains preparing their big move in the background. These three things worked in tandem with each other without necessarily breaking up. Somewhat liked having Braeburn and those other two ponies representing both each task in addition to each race, which seems to hint at Cozy's approach for the finale. Characters like Discord, Chrysalis, and at one point Tirek helped add some funny moments on the side; special shoutout to Cozy breaking the lock on the Bewitching Bell Tome with a book that has a key on the cover. And the episode ended on a sweet gesture on Celestia and Luna's behalf, which I'm a tad surprised has never been considered before. Oh and the Shining Armor episode actually came in handy, as it was an influence in the villains' subplot.

In terms of the grander scheme, though, I thought it was a little ...weird; like, what number episode is this? We still have yet to see Grogar really do much within an episode beyond the premiere and even though we've gotten quite a bit of backstory & methods through those three episodes(the third being Frenemies), it's starting to concern me. On a lesser note, the exposition at the beginning of the episode seemed a bit much for some reason. And although I think Braeburn and those other two were a smart framework, I have to wonder if there wasn't any other pre-established characters they could've used. Also, I would question where Starlight was during this, since she's the only major-main character not to be in this, but then that might've caused Chrysalis to breach cover.

1 hour ago, AdventChild said:

Welp, Australia and The Netherlands said 'Screw It' and released the rest of the episodes sooner than later so expect massive spoilers for the two parter finale and epilogue episode floating around esp. in the comment section in the links below.

https://www.equestriadaily.com/2019/08/netherlands-drops-rest-of-season-9.html

https://www.equestriadaily.com/2019/08/australia-expected-to-finish-season-9.html

 

52 minutes ago, Strickerx5 said:

WELL THEN, damn it Netherlands. First we thought Italy was going to pull the trigger, then we were sure either China or Australia were going to do it. But nah, gd Netherlands from outta fucking nowhere XD.

I've only skimmed a few things regarding the final (really just to make sure you know who comes out ok) but otherwise, yeah I'm going to stick to the U.S. air dates.

...Is now a bad time to admit I actually don't have the channel this comes on anymore?

[AdventChild]

This week’s episode is She Talks to Angel for a Freaky Friday dilemma between Angel Bunny and Fluttershy

This one was rather dull.

There wasn’t much to talk about because as stated, it’s a Freaky Friday trope plot that has been done countless times before where they walk a mile in their horseshoes for a time and find how hard it is to live like the other person with shenanigans ensuing. This isn’t that much different and followed the basic points to a T. Much of the humor/writing was stale even with Angel being Fluttershy. Though there was wasted potential for Angelshy to interact with the other Manes or even more major/minor characters than just animals nearly 80% of the time.

Also, Fluttershy making carnivores be vegans in the sanctuary was rather odd and kinda cruel. You can chalk it up to different world, different rules in this animal kingdom, yet still. Not to mention the whole-body switching thing caused by Zecora put many in danger.

A bland episode overall.

[Strickerx5]

This was a neat little episode all things considered.

While this is another episode with a well played out trope, it was admittedly pretty hilarious seeing Angel's attitude being projected from Flutters. It was neat seeing the interplay between the two as they voiced their values while still obviously caring about one another at the end of the day. Being able to see things from Angel's perspective and explaining why his reliance on Flutters is actually important was an important touch too. Led to a pretty nice moral in the end.

Though, if there's one thing I can't really say that I enjoyed all that much, it'd sadly have to be Zecora here. Her being all like "Here's a potion that's going to 'help' you guys but I'm not going to tell you what the hell it even does." was pretty off brand for her imo. Like, she'd had to have known how terrible things could've turn out right? It just seems like she gave out a crude solution, that probably could've made the situation way worse, to a small problem. I realize she says that this should've been done at home but she really could've at least monitored the situation a bit more. Just seems pretty out of character for her in all honesty as, throughout the series, she's usually been the one with the more sensible solutions.

And the MVP of this episode goes to that vet pony though for being so gd understanding through it all lol.

So yeah, overall, this ended up being a pretty interesting episode. One that certainly had a few questionable points to it, but still managed to remain generally engaging for the most part.

[MetalSkulkBane]

Hmm, restrained comments. No one will go even a little banas about

Spoiler

Angel (as Fluttershy) saying "I want to marry Discord".

I know it's far from canon, Angel might be wrong or messing with people, but still. This show rather avoided any romantic implication about mane six, save for Spike's crush and Equestria Girls.

[Strickerx5]

2 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Hmm, restrained comments. No one will go even a little banas about

  Hide contents

Angel (as Fluttershy) saying "I want to marry Discord".

I know it's far from canon, Angel might be wrong or messing with people, but still. This show rather avoided any romantic implication about mane six, save for Spike's crush and Equestria Girls.

Honestly, Andrea sort of mumbled that line so much that I didn't even hear it the first time. Though now that you point it out, well...

*knowing slightly where the show is going due to the few leaks I did see*

... stay tuned on that front.

[Kevin]

As if the accidental early release of the rest of Season 9 from the Netherlands wasn't enough, now the English versions have been leaked.

[MetalSkulkBane]

So, we're all going to pretend to be internet-law obeying citizens, that clearly didn't marathon whole thing as soon as possible, caused mix of anticipation and fear of spoilers ruining us the last moments of this incredibly popular and showing up everywhere cartoon? And we're gonna play that game for at least 2 more months, maybe longer?

Alright then.

EDIT: Have you listened to "Let It Rain" Sunset Shimmer song? It's best music from MLP in years. I would call it perfect EQ send-off, but apparently there is one last special coming.

[DabigRG]

On 8/31/2019 at 9:30 PM, AdventChild said:

 Though there was wasted potential for Angelshy to interact with the other Manes or even more major/minor characters than just animals nearly 80% of the time.

 

Yeah, I thought it was weird they didn't go there. Especially since Twilight and Spike show up for all of a minute, not to mention Fluttershy and Doctor Fauna sharing voicing voices with Pinkie and Cheerilee.

On 9/1/2019 at 1:28 AM, MetalSkulkBane said:

Hmm, restrained comments. No one will go even a little banas about

  Hide contents

Angel (as Fluttershy) saying "I want to marry Discord".

I know it's far from canon, Angel might be wrong or messing with people, but still. This show rather avoided any romantic implication about mane six, save for Spike's crush and Equestria Girls.

Oh, is that what he said? I honestly didn't hear most of that.

 

On 9/1/2019 at 4:11 AM, Strickerx5 said:

Honestly, Andrea sort of mumbled that line so much that I didn't even hear it the first time. Though now that you point it out, well...

*knowing slightly where the show is going due to the few leaks I did see*

... stay tuned on that front.

Oh wow, okay.

9 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

So, we're all going to pretend to be internet-law obeying citizens, that clearly didn't marathon whole thing as soon as possible, caused mix of anticipation and fear of spoilers ruining us the last moments of this incredibly popular and showing up everywhere cartoon? And we're gonna play that game for at least 2 more months, maybe longer?

Alright then.

EDIT: Have you listened to "Let It Rain" Sunset Shimmer song? It's best music from MLP in years. I would call it perfect EQ send-off, but apparently there is one last special coming.

Be careful on stuff like Youtube then. Cause I saw a few thumbnails that make sense, but are a tad surprising out of context.

On 9/3/2019 at 6:47 PM, Kevin said:

As if the accidental early release of the rest of Season 9 from the Netherlands wasn't enough, now the English versions have been leaked.

...They don't speak English there?

[AdventChild]

Dragon Dropped is this week’s episode focusing Rarity and Spike.Will the Sparity shipping survive? Do I really care? No, not really.

This was meh all things considered.

I guess Gabby’s and Spike’s friendship was surprising and kinda interesting, but that’s pretty much it for me as it much focus on this love-er um friendship triangle between the two and Rarity. Speaking of which, Rarity’s over dramatic moments kinda gotten old fast and took up much of the episode and her buying Spike’s time and affection with stuff. Also, the solution of sharing Spike with others could be seen a mile away and feels like more S1 character regression in a way.

A so-so episode.

[DabigRG]

Spike and Gabby is technically an instance of notable enemies becoming friends.

I also liked the brick joke with Twilight.