Sfdebris.net

I really ought to stop wondering what's going on when the schedule ends mid-week.

Cutie Map was always a strong opener, putting the cast in an interesting new scenario against a more unorthodox antagonist to boot.

Cutie Remark is fun in spots, but the constant shift from one timeline to the next means it lacks focus, and even with some genuinely strong character work with her in the seasons after, the reveal of Starlight Glimmer's motivation still feels lame.

Agreed on both counts. Cutie Remark is a fun episode just for the alternate timeline shenanigans, but Glimmer’s arc fell flat.

Mind, I think they lean into that in Season 6, where a big part of her ongoing development is feeling she hadn’t earned her second chance, but it’s still a weakness of Cutie Remark unto itself

I wish that Fluttershy faking her acceptance of joining the village had been kept secret from the viewer for a bit, then revealed to them when Party Favor was told. But that's me being really nitpicky. And some logic kind of goes out the window with 90+% of time travel stories, and the second two-parter wasn't worse than most in that regard, IMHO. Glimmer was forgiven too easily, though I think that's a problem with MLP in general. In the end, I enjoyed both two-parters.

The review was thoughtful, as is often the case. We've dealt with people being different in ability for a long time and will probably continue to do so for my lifetime, anyway. There are people stronger than me, people smarter than me, people better at any art than I am, people faster than me, and almost certainly there are people better at all those things together than I am or ever can be.

I can either accept that, or I can hunt them down one by one, and that's just logistically infeasible. And wrong or something, probably. Oh, and there are probably people more ethical than I am, too. I keep forgetting that one.

I don't find this particularly upsetting, but in some areas, such as promotions or academics, it's going to be of more practical impact.

Ah, Season 5... The beginning of the end of FiM, at least for me. Freaking Glimmer... This whole mess is why I skipped over to Equestria Girls permanently.

This was certainly a fun surprise! Season 5 was I think the really last, all-around solid season of the series. It was not flawless ("What About Discord?" and "Scare Master" immediately leap to mind) and there were strong episodes even in overall weak seasons, but after Season 5 things went ... south.

But I really liked both Season 5 two-parters, even if, yes, Starlight's backstory and motivations in the finale were meh (as were her suddenly suped up OP powers).

I actually wrote a long thing arguing against how Chuck depicted critics of Gifted and Talented Programs especially since he omitted one of the biggest and most problematic elements of it: namely the racial disparities involved, but I don't want to drag the thread down into a heated and very political subject.

Behold! A MLP:FIM Hearts of Iron 4 mod!

https://equestria-at-war.fandom.com/wiki/Equestria_at_War_Wiki

And quite a few videos of peaple playing this mod at that!

i get the feeling the next review is going to be equestria girls

I am yet again disappointment that Chuck didn't address the elephant in the room and I feel the need to bring it up.

Starlight Glimmer is really the start of this problem of characters being forgiven way to easily. so it can serve as a springboard to the problem in general.

once again, most of the reformed villains still are guilty of terorism or war crimes but not only are let off the hook by the Princesses every single time but absolutely everyone in the universe forgives them, there isn't even one person who still holds a grudge. can the opposite happen at least once? and they few villains that werent reformed don't count because they weren't focused on, it's an afterthought before switching back to how sad we should feel about the reformed villain and root for them to be redeemed.

and this kind of thing infects other hugely popular and influencial shows, need I remind you of the genocidal diamonds from Steven Univverse geting let off the hook?

I grew up with stuff like the original Powerpuff Girls and 101 Dalmatians: The Series, where, even the protagonists got punished every time they did something wrong. and most of the time, not even just karmic punishments but actually parentally or legally efforced punishments. and I didn't watch it grownig up but the original My Little Pony cartoon had stuff like one villain actually being handcuffed on sceen and another being given an ultimatum of "Stop being evil or we'll let you fall into a portal to Hell".

and Friendship is Magic has this poblem in regards to it's protagonists too like Rainbow Dash in "Tanks for the Memories" or any episode with the "reformed" Discord. even shows I still really like like The Lion Guard had this problem for half of it's run and only stopped by either having the main characters never make mistakes again after a certain point or make it so they aren't really their fault like Kion acting under the influence of cobra venom. I can only think of two shows that I don't see this problem in and one I only saw a few episodes of so am not sure of even that much.

what are these soccor mom approved shows going to teach kids, that they can get away with anything as long as they apologize, whatever happened to "sorry isn't good enough?"

equestria is a world where society puts value on friendship above all else those who do not feel remorse do get punished look at cozy glow for example and she is a child

equestria girls which takes place on earth does do what you are talking about (sunset shimmer is best character in all of MLP) people do hold the past against people and forgiveness has to be earned