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Time for the Advance Army to attack!

RM, out of curiosity, I decided to figure out how I would go about finding the sources for any of the banners, and I realized there really is no set way. If there is, it's extremely difficult to find, but if there isn't, they're either rarely sourcing or putting sources wherever they feel like, once again in posts that will be off the front page within a day. For one of the largest pony sites online, that also sources Nightly Roundups really well, I find it baffling that they can't have a source link near the banner for a whole week.

Also, since I got page ender, another link.

Wow, that's a lot of text, I don't know what to say… Just thanks, thanks for standing up for me. You're awesome, all of you guys are.

Don't worry, I understand that crediting is an important thing.

A thing I'd like to point out here though is that I find we're being a bit too biased in favor of Advance now. True, it was his vector, so he should be proper credited. And true, what Cereal Velocity did was kinda dickish, certainly for someone of his position. But the entire banner, alongside the effects and stuff, nothing of that was by Advance.

This would've been a perfect solution in my opinion:

Give both credit. Advance for the vector, Cereal Velocity for the banner. Both get it, not one, like it should be. What you people are requesting here is just Advance. Puts a bit of irony to the whole "proper crediting" don't you think?

They both do need credit, but the primary issue was that Cereal Velocity didn't ask, tell, or source anything originally. There's a similar problem on Derpibooru for vectors, but nice-enough people usually give proper credit when they notice. This, however, was a more notable example because it was a more notable person. I can probably tell you the exact steps CV used for that banner.

Import Vector
Import Background
Center
Crop
Opacity Change
Blend Change
Text
Layer Effect – Glow
Save

Takes about five minutes to do. Yeah we're biased in favor of Advance because we are in contact with him, but he did put forth far more work into his vector than Cereal did with his banner.

Oh I quite noticed that….mainly because of the fact that I've watched the finale 10 times in the last 24 hours….I will never get 'True True Friend' out of my head and I don't want to!

^That

The ideal solution would have been simply putting both names on there from the very beginning (and obviously having them actually ask before using it too).
Both of their work is there, it should both be credited, even if one person did more work than the other.

Honestly, the weirdest part about it, in my opinion, is that there was any credit on the banner at all.
99% of EQD’s banners don’t have an artist’s name or signature directly on them, even when made by fandom-famous artists like Pixelkitties and such.
Instead, EQD typically puts a correctly sourced link to the banner art in the Drawfriend post for whatever day that they begin using the banner.
Now, obviously when a banner is used for more than a day (or when they reuse older banners which they do on occasion), finding a source can be pretty difficult.
I just find it very odd that they would break that pattern just to add Cereal’s name to this one particular piece.
That seems very inappropriately self-serving.

@Twilit
Read your post and I agree with basically all of it.
The one thing I’d add is just to your last point.
Your ability to source correctly doesn’t really have a lot of bearing on EQD’s.
They are just too different.
As a small, new blog, there aren’t really a lot of expectations from you so you can take your time to track down sources for every one of your posts and put them up whenever you want to.
EQD, being so big, has ended up in a position where constant activity is expected even though they still run on a relatively small number of mods.
Like Random says above, it can sometimes be easy to lose track of things like that in the hustle and bustle of trying to organize the site on a larger scale.
Now, I am not saying this to excuse Cereal’s actions at all, he should still apologize and work to improve in the future, but it is at least somewhat of an understandable mistake.
(Thanks for the little shout-out, too!)

Have a sad:

I saw the change as soon as I cut my post short. Cereal took his name off of the banner and put your DA name. It's about as large as his name was, so at least he's no longer implying that he took credit for it.

But I think we all know that he wasn't going to change it unless someone said something about it.

In any case, if there's an apology, then I feel like they've done what they could have in hindsight. But since they only changed it after the issue was raised, I'm thinking that they're just as likely to do it again. Who can say though.

Personally, I appreciate the change made to the banner. At least it doesn't imply that Cereal Velocity put together the banner.

Season 3 episodes:

1. Spike at Your Service
2. Just for Sidekicks
3. Too Many Pinkie Pies
4. Chrystal Empire episodes
5. Magic Duel
6. Apple Family Reunion
7. Magical Mystery Cute
8. One Bad Apple
9. Games Ponies Play
10. Keep Calm and Flutter On
11. Sleepless in Ponyville (although it had some great moments.)
12. Wonderbolt Academy (guess who's my least favorite of the Mane Six.)

1. The Crystal Empire part 1, The Crystal Empire part 2, Too Many Pinkie Pies, One Bad Apple, Magic Duel, Sleepless in Ponyville, Wonderbolts Academy, Apple Family Reunion, Spike at Your Service, Keep Calm and Flutter On, Just for Sidekicks, Games Ponies Play, and Magical Mystery Cure.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.

1. Magic Duel
2. Apple Family Reunion (Because AJ.)
3. Keep Calm And Flutter On
4. Magical Mystery Cure
5. Crystal Empire 2
6. Crystal Empire 1
7. Too Many Pinkie Pies
8. Wonderbolts Academy
9. Sleepless In Ponyville
10. One Bad Apple
11. Spike At Your Service
12. Games Ponies Play
13. Just For Sidekicks

Overall, I give the season a B+.

Oh what, a conflict with Equestria Daily that I missed?

But yeah, Cereal was certainly being extremely dismissive and self-serving with the tone he took. Glad he saw his error in thought and fixed it. Hopefully Advance will get an apology from him soon, and not one of those cop out "I apologize you were offended by what I did" responses that throw the blame on the person who was wronged at that.

Still, I've never really understood how you would properly credit vectors. They're just digital tracings right? Of course I'm probably oversimplifying everything with the comparison and it probably takes a ton of work to get the formulas and stuff perfectly show accurate and even implying such a thing would perturb many a person who actually does vectors.

Hello, everybody. I've now finally signed up on Know Your Meme, and I am pleased to announce that I am officially now a part of the faceless mob of brand new members that have shown up to plague these otherwise fine forums! Although I see that there is a thread for people the likes of myself to post in (“New members introduce yourself”), I figured that I ought to just introduce myself here, because I joined this site mostly for the ponies (I’ve been a brony since November of 2011). Although I know this isn’t a pony-only site, I still feel as though I’m going to enjoy being a part of the community and all that good stuff.

I'm also pleased to announce that I managed to arrive here just as the season ends! My timing is impeccable, as usual.

As for the important topic at the moment: the season finale, I think it was about run-of-the-mill in comparison to a normal episode (although much more rushed), but I enjoyed it considerably less than the previous season finales. Like I just touched upon, the episode was a tad too hurried for my thorough liking, and it goes to show that even with M. A. Larson writing, there’s only so much that you can pack into 22 minutes. I certainly think that the coherence and development of the story were impacted by the episode’s length, but luckily, it appears that we’re going to be getting the continuation of this storyline that is very much needed. Unfortunately, there’s a hiatus in between. In order to stand the test of time, I think I’ll probably just watch this season a few more times to be able to develop a better analysis of the episodes. I’ve seen Magical Mystery Cure twice, and I still don’t think very much of it compared to the other two season finales.

The alicornization and coronation of Twilight Sparkle were sort of awkward, and not just in terms of being “out of character.” Twilight’s flyby at the end seems like a prelude to a missed opportunity, because I’m sure I would have enjoyed one or more “Twilight learns to fly” episodes. But if she’s already pretty dang good at flying (from what it seems), then there goes that, I suppose.

Also, as has been said already by Serious Business (and possibly more people, he/she was just the first one I caught wind of), where can Twilight go from here? I don’t think that you can advance any further than where she is at the moment, and that honestly worries me, because I was enjoying watching the characters develop. However, I just can’t bring myself to panic about this.

I enjoyed the songs as much as the next guy, which isn’t really saying much, because most songs are stellar. But nothing really grabbed me, which hasn’t usually been the case in the past. I’m going to give the songs a 6/10, which I guess is also my rating for the full episode itself.

By the way, has anybody seen SimGretina’s remix of “A True, True Friend”? Because it’s pretty good.

(As soon as I figure out how to go about creating a hyperlink thing in red text, I’ll link it.)

Rate the season, huh?

Here you go:

1. The Crystal Empire-Part 2
2. The Crystal Empire-Part 1
3. Magic Duel
4. Too Many Pinkie Pies
5. One Bad Apple
6. Keep Calm and Flutter On
7. Sleepless in Ponyville
8. Just For Sidekicks
9. Apple Family Reunion
10. Spike at Your Service
11. Magical Mystery Cure
12. Games Ponies Play
13. Wonderbolts Academy

Why?

Because reasons. Oh, and also, because although I don’t think there’s ever been a “bad” episode, some of these towards the bottom of my list just fell more flat on me than others. The ones higher up on my list really grabbed me.

I’d have to give this season the title of “worst season so far,” but only because it was half as long. The episodes were just fine, but half as many episodes means half as good a season to me. I’m also a believer in “quality over quantity,” but the thing is, the past seasons had both quality AND quantity, and this one didn’t.

Also, there wasn’t enough screen time for Rarity. Best. Pony.

I’m quite interested in how Season 4 is going to play out, of course. I think that the writers have a lot of potential on their hands here, but how they handle this alicorn/princess business is my biggest concern, because I don’t want the “main six” dynamic thrown off. I trust that they’ll do things well, of course…

Oh, and in response to the deal about the Equestria Daily banner, I think that both Advance and Cereal Velocity should receive the same amount of credit, since I presume them to have both done a good amount of work that added up to the final product. I'm still a bit disappointed with the tone that Cereal Velocity took, though.

@Twins

Vectors, even the ones that are traced, often take hours to get just right, at least if you care about their quality. This is work done in one's spare time mostly for the enjoyment and use of others, especially those who can take advantage of a vector's versatility (just like Cereal did). Crediting a vector artist for their stuff is not only good manners, it goes a long way to ensuring the artist will continue to feel good about making them.

Season Three Ranking:

1. Keep Calm And Flutter On
2. Too Many Pinkie Pies
3. Apple Family Reunion
4. Sleepless In Ponyville
5. Magic Duel
6. Just For Sidekicks
7. Games Ponies Play
8. One Bad Apple
9. The Crystal Empire, Pt. 2
10. The Crystal Empire, Pt. 1
11. Spike At Your Service
12. Wonderbolt Academy

13. Magical Mystery Cure

So, am I the only one who is really going to miss friendship reports? I thought they were charming, but it seems like many fans (often rather cynically) are glad that they're pretty much gone. What's up with that? I didn't mind the idea of the entire cast doing them, but dang it, don't get rid of them altogether.

I will agree with RandomMan that both artists deserve credit for the banner. I was only mad that the vector was used without permission or credit, not that the banner was made at all. It's actually a very nice banner, if you ask me. Just needed better sourcing. I actually was surprised that Cereal removed his name from the banner, I thought he would just add Advance's name next to his or something.

Moving on, I guess I will organize my thoughts a bit and list my favorite episodes as well. It helps that I watched them all in the synchtube the other day (thanks again for organizing that, DeadParrot):

1.) (Tied) Magical Mystery Cure – I already listed all the reasons why I like this episode so much, so I'll just sum it up and say that it was just really fun and exciting to watch. I will admit that I wish the cutie mark crisis and the Twilicorn transformation were two separate episodes.
2.) (Tied) Wonderbolt Academy – This episode made me really like Rainbow Dash and I will hear nothing from people who say this episode was bad.
3.) Too Many Pinkie Pies – Pinkie was my first favorite pony, and seeing how seriously she takes having fun with her friends was definitely fun to watch
4.) Keep Calm and Flutter On – What can I say, I think Fluttershy and Discord make a great combo for an episode
5.) Magic Duel – Some people say this is the greatest episode of the series, but eeeeh, I can't really agree. I did really like the episode, but it felt over-hyped.
6.) One Bad Apple – The introduction of a great character (and new CMC) and a great song to boot! I generally am not a huge fan of school bully characters, though, so that's why this one is so low.
7.) Apple Family Reunion – Applejack episode with an Applejack song? Sign me up! The apple family has a soft spot in my heart. It was also exciting that Applejack got her own song for the first time, even if it was a little lacking.
8.) Just for Sidekicks – This was a great Spike episode, and I liked the tie-in with Games Ponies Play.
9.) Sleepless in Ponyville – A Scootaloo episode? With Luna in it?? And I didn't find it annoying!? Awesome! Also, ScootaDash sisterhood established! This one is kinda low because, well… It just didn't stick out to me all that much.
10.) Games Ponies Play – It had great moments in it, especially for Rainbow Dash and Rarity. However, I did want more focus on the actual games rather than a whole "we got the wrong guy" story.
11.) The Crystal Empire parts 1+2 – I thought this was a great opening to the season. I put this so low because I liked the rest of the episodes more than this one.
12.) Spike at Your Service – Oh Spike… What did the writers do to you?? This episode wasn't terrible (In fact, I thought the mane 6 was hilarious in this) but god damn it, what is with Spike's character inconsistency?

To address the topic raised by Millennial Dan about the friendship reports, I think that the “friendship lesson and report” deal was at its best in Season 1, though the entire cast doing them was also something I had no problem with, much like with you. I don’t know why fans would be glad that they’re more or less gone either, because I thought that they were a sweet way to close out an episode.

…Just sayin'.

Not too far off of how I myself initially reacted, actually…which isn’t to say that I really “panicked” or anything, but I disliked the idea enough to take a short break from pony stuff.

I do figure that most little girls probably like the idea of Princess Twilight Sparkle, though.

That's actually what I read later on when I found the actual thread on reddit. Her reaction wasn't so much "I hate everything about the show now" as it was "They got it wrong."

Another girl a user posted about said their daughter of about the same age was more or less excited about her being a princess.
 
So certainly, Socks. Anyone can find any girl who didn't like (or just flat out hated) the the last episode and the future implications, but that may not be indicative of what most of the target demographic thinks.

I also told a friend that Hasbro has been in the My Little Pony game for longer than I've been alive (and I'm probably a bit older than everyone here except for maybe Daniel and Crazy/Advancey☾). They probably had focus groups asking a ton of little girls from all over "Hey! How would you like it if Twilight Sparkle was X?!" And they're people trained in qualitative methodology and developmental psychology, so they can ask questions so that they don't lead the girls into an answer they actually won't believe (in terms of asking their parents for merchandise.)
 
Good call, Socks. Good call.

I agree with Randomman and Crimson on the banner ordeal. I don't mind people using my vectors, but the way he went about it – using it without permission, putting his name on the banner without crediting me – just made it seem like he was taking complete credit for it. He did eventually fix the sourcing issue, though he didn't have to remove his name from the banner.
I'm actually thrilled that my vector is showcased on EqD for all to see, for an amateur vector artist such as myself, it's an quite an honor. And since Cereal fixed the source, I've been getting a flood of activity on my Deviantart account. So in the end, everything turned out alright, though I still wish he'd have asked first.

Well I guess it's time to make my list of my favorite episodes this season. I'll try to pass this off as Too Short; Did Read as I can.

1.Sleepless in ponyville: My favorite Mane6 and my favorite CMC getting the most attention in a story that does them both justice as well as the rest of the characters in the episode? Tell me why I SHOULDN'T praise this new writer!

2. Crystal Empire episodes: I liked the story (this was more of an adventure story than a villain story unlike the other villain themed episodes and it works) and I'm probably the only person here who didn't mind Sombra, compared to the Fallen Alicorn Goddess, The God of Chaos and the queen of a race of Changelings this one Unicorn was about as threatening as someone of his tier could be (like I said, compared to the literal gods that the Mane6 went up against), and struck fear into the hearts of his victims, enslaved an entire race (yeah and I see his flaws too so shut up before we give me a wall of text of stuff I am aware of) and next to Discord came closest to destroying the country/world (he was literally right there). Then of course the interactions from all the characters, the music all that good shit puts it up there. Then of course THAT FUCKING BOOK!

3. Games Ponies Play: This has to be the episode I had the most fun with this season, jokes hit their marks (even the Pinkie Pie stuff that people were criticizing saying 'What did they do to Pinkie Pie?!') how do you not laugh or even chuckle at her Rotunda explanation or when she gives her 2 cents about where the Games pony is, Andrea Libman delivered that line perfectly. Plus it's the closest thing we've gotten to a Rarity episode this season so that gives it extra points.

4. Magical Mystery Cure: You're all probably wondering about this Blasphemy here. Well I've described my thoughts about this episode several times in the last few pages. What puts it so high up on this list for those of you who refuse to backtrack? This Episode made me feel, I had Liquid Pride running down my face. NOTHING makes me feel or cry, want to know the last time I cried? Back in 2005 when my dad almost died, If this made me cry it did something right and it deserves it's place on my list

5. Apple Family Reunion: Why is it here? Because the one pony I want to like more than I do finally gets her own episode and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We got to see a new part of Applejack (nothing mind blowing, just the fact that she was so determined to make this the greatest family reunion the Apples have ever seen no matter what despite the failures) got to see some more of the apple family (if you told me three years ago that I'd want to see the extended family of the 'Apple' family on a show about candy colored talking miniature horses learning about friendship I'd probably kill you.) the song (while a bit juvenile) was pretty catchy and it's always nice to hear Ashleigh Ball singing again. Also, best shoutout to Lauren Faust's original design had to be to Applejack's dead parents thats fo sho.

6.Just for Sidekicks: Another reason to suck this new writer's dick praise this new writer for actually giving us a decent Spike episode (at least in my mind, since the only other Spike episode I liked was Secret of my Excess) and giving us a pet episode (something I've had in my hopes for a future episode list….somewhere near the bottom but it's still there) at the same time. T'was nice to see Tank again not just because he's the pet of my favorite pony because from the looks of it it just seemed like they would just ignore him since they can't exactly fit a flying tortoise in the plot of several episodes like say Opal.

7. Magic Duel: I thought it was a pretty good episode, nice to see Trixie Back (even though I never saw the hype for her all those years ago) and M.A. Larson pulled off the humor of the episode and of course the final 'showdown' was pretty good and I'm glad the reason why Twilight won wasn't spoiled to me or anything cause I was just sitting there like "…..Okay how are they pulling this off?". Besides, Two Rainbow Dash's and one was Fluttershy, Added Bonus!!! Also I think it had my favorite Pinkie Pie gag at the very end of the episode.

8. Too Many Pinkie Pies: The first slice of life/90% humorous episode in a long time and it wasn't bad it was just a bit underwhelming compared to the other Slice of life episodes. Although I'd be lying if I said I didn't find the storms of Pinkie Pies chanting 'fun' to be one of the funnier moments of the series.

9. Keep Calm and Flutter on: The reasons why it's not at the bottom: John DeLancie, Discord, Fluttershy, Tabitha St. Germain as the Gravyboat, the gags. Other than that the episode was quite a bit of a failure for an episode they kind of been hyping since John DeLancie crashed Tara's Q&A panel and accidentally revealed that he recorded another episode (the reaction on his face when all the bronies were reacting to his lines "Well I just recorded another episode" was priceless lol). Could've been MUCH better.

10.One Bad Apple: An episode I was just 'meh' about. I liked the inclusion of Babs but the whole Bully storyline was just a bit meh to me. I'm just glad it didn't go all 'Very special episode of My Little Pony' with an opening monologue from First Lady Michelle Obama discussing the issue….and of course it has the gags that make me want to put this episode a bit higher but I just can't…then there's the song!

11. Wonderbolt Academy: When this episode was leaked and people were saying it was written by Merriwether Williams (Aka My LEAST FAVORITE writer this show has ever had besides that 15 year old brony that wrote the idea for Keep Calm and Flutter On) so I expected the worst for Saturday. But when I finally saw the episode I was pleasantly surprised. Nothing great but it wasn't the worst, in fact I'd say this is the only other Merriwether episode I enjoyed (the other was Hearths Warming Eve). Ever since Dragon Quest she's been a lot better with the characters and it shows here…………………..except for Ms. Pie. Dear God, for the first time in the series (since I first started watching….yeah when I first started this show I found Pinkie Pie annoying and wanted to punch her everytime she was on screen) I found Pinkie Pie to be completely unbearable in this episode. Yeah I get she was just caring for her friend but seriously, look at some of her scenes in this episode and tell me Pinkie Pie isn't annoying. Despite being my second favorite Merriwether Williams episode it's still nowhere near my favorite episode period. Although when I saw this episode I had such high hopes for Merriwether since I thought she was getting better until….

12. Spike at Your service: The first episode (I sat through Mysterious Mare Do Well with no problems despite my issues with the episode) I seriously felt like turning off, seriously Spike was a bit clumsy before but he was never the equivalent of the Jinx from Hey Arnold. If it wasn't for the Mane6 joining in half way and taking part in some great exchanges (one of the things that drove me to this show were the interactions between the six ponies together…but for some reason the writers decide that these ponies need to be separated for many episodes at a time we don't get to see that certain 'magic' that much anymore) this would've been my least favorite episode of the last two seasons. Horrible First half, great second half. But like I said if the episode is half bad…well….yeah. Dammit Merriwether, you showed us you could handle shit like this!

So there you go tl;dr have a pony

And congratulations to you for that, Advance! Admittedly, I don’t do much in the way of pony art and stuff like that myself, but I do look at a great deal of art on sites like DeviantArt and Derpibooru.

Also, thank you, Verbose. Hasbro wouldn’t have gone through with the idea if it had gotten a negative reaction in “testing.”

Kids these days, this show is ruining our children!

Verbose wrote:

I also told a friend that Hasbro has been in the My Little Pony game for longer than I’ve been alive (and I’m probably a bit older than everyone here except for maybe Daniel and Crazy/Advancey☾).

Only by a few months you young whippersnapper. Why, I bet I could do hurdles over your head with my feet tied behind my hands.. When I was younger, we'd take wooden hoops and sticks and tie baskets together.. and.. uhm.. Wh-what was I talking about again? I think I need a nap..

@Princessification
Hasbro already knew little girls usually react well to princesses. It's the main reason why it's not Queen Celestia and Queen Luna. Queens have long been portrayed as evil/unsympathetic to main characters (who are often princes/princesses), which has created an idea that princess = good/queen = bad. They probably had a good turn out on any polling asking about Alicorn Twilight, but those girls probably didn't really expect it to happen so suddenly. The characters in the show have pretty rock-solid backgrounds/natures/characterizations, and shaking that up can leave an odd feeling in your stomach no matter what age you happen to be.

I'm glad the crediting issue was attended to quickly. Things definitely could've been uglier.
-
Season 3 rankings:
1. Too Many Pinkie Pies – I loves me some pink pone, and I love canon lookings into pink pone's flaws and insecurities even better.
2. Sleepless in Ponyville – Excellent episode with excellent gags, and more Luna is always a plus.
3. Wonderbolt Academy – An enjoyable episode that makes me actually like RD? Kudos, Merriwether: this makes up for Mare-Do-Well (*cough*nowmakeupforyourSpikeepisodes*cough*).
4. Magical Mystery Cure – Musical episode omfgyesssss
5. Keep Calm and Flutter On – DISCOOORD! Though I have slight mixed feelings about the basis of this episode, mostly surrounding the possibility of him not appearing again, which would make this episode skirt the "pandering" line (as much as I hate that word). I'm confident the writers will make use of him in S4, though.
6. Just for Sidekicks – All around enjoyable episode. Spike is actually in character (LOOKING AT YOU, "SPIKE AT YOUR SERVICE"), CMCs were humorous, and RandomMan is best frenemy. Keep it up, Corey.
7. Magic Duel – The continuity was nice, and everything about the "Pinkie gets her mouth deleted" gag was brilliant (that cut-off before the credits gets me every time). Not a big fan of Trixie though.
8. One Bad Apple – "Babs Seed" is an amazing song. But the rest of the episode is average.
9. The Crystal Empire – While I will submit that Sombra's foresight in traps and his mere reputation/legacy being a cause for terror in the crystal ponies was quite impressive, the fact that he was an indirect villain still kinda bums me. The fact that he got FREAKING EXPLODED is awesome for a little girl's show, at least.
10. Games Ponies Play – The mistaken identity plot is painful to watch, in hindsight. Thankfully, the facial expressions throughout the episode were quite amusing.
11. Apple Family Reunion – All around meh. AJ's song was a disappointment, too: she deserves better.
12. Spike at Your Service – ewewew spike's characterization in this ew

I'm fairly certain that the first 6 spots would shuffle around a bit were I to rewatch them in a single sitting, but I ain't got time fo' dat right now.

Millenial Dan wrote:

So, am I the only one who is really going to miss friendship reports? I thought they were charming, but it seems like many fans (often rather cynically) are glad that they’re pretty much gone. What’s up with that? I didn’t mind the idea of the entire cast doing them, but dang it, don’t get rid of them altogether.

Just so you know, Kewln00b, I did read your reasoning for why you made your episode list in the order that you did, and I think it was pretty solid. I notice that you brought up that in Wonderbolts Academy, Pinkie Pie just seemed annoying. To be honest, I think that much more could have been done with the character than what actually was done. I think that there’s more to Pinkie than just the “party obsessed comic relief” that I feel we’ve been seeing recently. I think that’s probably why I liked Too Many Pinkie Pies so much. HECK YEAH CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!

Also, thank you for welcoming me on my wall!

I also read yours, Jyron, and I can agree with you about potentially making use of Discord in Season 4. As you may be able to tell from my episode rankings, Keep Calm and Flutter On didn’t really strike me one way or the other, but I’d be glad to see more use of Discord in the future, because I really loved him in The Return of Harmony, Parts 1 and 2.

In Crimson Locks’ list, I found a lot of solid points, particularly the point about Spike’s character inconsistency in Spike at Your Service. Not a terrible episode to me, but I was wondering just what the heck was up with that.

Well it took some time to collectively gather some feelings toward this episode, most of my opinions and points were already said but something I absolutely enjoyed was Celestia's Ballad, but not just because of her singing but like how we had a recap of everything.

The BGM alone really gave me chills, it really added the effect of a long journey way away.
Similarly how the BGM was for season two's return of harmony episode.

(Starts around :37)
It's a collection of all those precious moments, and how moving on comes into play.
But it also gives the fandom an idea of how long they've been watching and why they're watching it in the first place, it's an awesome feeling. We've come a long way, 3 whole seasons come and gone. Now's the waiting game, this is the last weekend we'll have after an episode for several months, but hey if we made it through super long hiatuses before we can sure as hell do it again.
Can't deny that I wasn't too pleased how everything turned up so suddenly with twilight being an Alicorn, but this gives opportunity to new adventures, maybe expansion from Canterlot, The Crystal Empire, and Ponyville?
Pic Related.

I just needed to post this here.

@Socks

Yeah, the outfits were pretty ridiculous, Luna's most of all. Pink dresses for all, I guess.

Speaking of comics, I just happened to make one. Just a simple stick one to point out something I found funny.

Let me know what you think. From my description:

This is the full dialogue that inspired me:

Twilight Sparkle: Hello? Where am I? What is this place?
Princess Celestia: Congratulations, Twilight. I knew you could do it.
Twilight Sparkle: Princess… I don't understand. What did I do?
Princess Celestia: You did something today that's never been done before, something even a great unicorn like Star Swirl the Bearded was not able to do, because he did not understand friendship like you do. The lessons you've learned here in Ponyville have taught you well. You have proven that you're ready, Twilight.
Twilight Sparkle: Ready? Ready for what?

*Cue song about fulfilling destiny.

Notice something funny? Celestia never actually answers the question! What, pray tell, did Twilight do that has never been done before? A whole lot of "something", apparently. Did she write a new spell? That's been done thousands of times. Did she make friends? Plenty of ponies have done a whole lot of that. Whatever she did, it was apparently worthy of sprouting wings and being declared another ruler of Equestria. Crazy.

@ Dan, I'm not gonna say I'll "miss" the friendship reports, but I did think it was nice that they were there. I guess I never got too attached to them because it always felt like it stuck out as a "lesson of the day" type of thing that is shoehorned into a lot of shows for little kids. I just felt kinda "meh" about the letters to Celestia throughout the whole show. I won't miss them too much, but I do think the show isn't quite the same without them. Although, I never thought much of it when this past season didn't have too many letters in them.

Why……..why did you have to post Celestia's Ballad! It's the first thing in years to make me feel!!!
.
.
.
.You buddy, have just ended up on my shit list. I won't do anything cause I'm too busy here feeling and trying to wipe this liquid pride off my face (THEY'RE TEARS YOU PERVERTS! GET YOUR MINDS OUT OF THE GUTTER)

I'll be over here if you guys need me……feeling.

@Friendship report. I really only condoned the Reports at the end of the episodes because I knew they had to have SOMETHING that taught these kids something, they don't exactly get the message unless their favorite pony tells them the message. But then after a while I thought they were giving some great friendship advice (and some not so great…like the Mystery Express where the moral was basically "don't jump to conclusions" and not "It's okay to steal as long as you apologize") to the point where even I was sitting there like "Wow that's actually a good message". It's honestly something a lot of these anti-bronies should pay attention to (le snicker)

@Dan: Nice work, and I do mean that sincerely. I think that, when reading most comics, I prefer more simplistic art, so that's a plus right there; and furthermore, I think it excellently lampoons and/or sums up my thoughts on the story of the episode itself (what I said about logical coherence).

Ladies and gentlemen of the pony general, with all due respect, and I said "with all due respect," so that means I get to say whatever I want:

Get it together.

Weekly synchtube is go. Tomorrow's a federal holiday in the good ol' US of A, so I know my fellow countrymen at the least ought not to have anything that keeps them from staying through the wee hours of the morn' watching colorful ponies.

Not all of us are in school/have a job that recognizes holidays :'(

I'm reading a book about the making of the Lord of the Rings films and there was this quote I found really notable.

"None of our results is more surprising than the finding that hard-headed science puts the creative process at the very center of the motion picture universe. There is no formula. Outcomes cannot be predicted. There is no reason for management to get in the way of the creative process. Character, creativity, and good storytelling trump everything else."

Dumb corporate shits.

Click for sauce and full-size.

So I've written my first exam this year a couple of hours ago. It actually went quite well, I am surprised. Staying away from spoilers and stop pony-procrastination was like killing two birds with one stone for the last three weeks. Unfortunately I still have 4 exams to go until mid march…
The last three weeks were really damn eventful and I have missed so much. The sword of Damocles has dropped on the mane6, the alicorn drama, the equestria girls announcement and not to forget all the KYM intern drama caused by the banning of a well-known uploader who likes to stretch the boundaries of the rules. There are still some reminders left of that incident, but seriously did even RandomMan change his avatar? And all the name changes…who called himself 1,2,3,4? Some stuff is so strange to read now, if someone answered without quoting.

So I've finally caught up with you guys. Have you seen this leaked footage from equestria girls?

Just look at that animation! And wow the voice acting is so good…I think ponies have a real contestant here!

@WhitishCollar's Equestria Girls Thing

Prosecution: … Your Honor… I would like to request the Witness refrain from needless Sarcasm. It confuses the Jury.

Judge: Accepted. The notes shall now reflect the fact they were Sarcastic.

Prosecution: Regardless, the prosecution would like to point out that with the evidence provided, and their somewhat roundabout testimony; it can safety be assumed that this "Equestria Girls" video appears to be fake. No studio would dare publish a cartoon where the animation is static.

Judge: Indeed… It would appear so. Your thoughts?

Prosecution: I believe this means the "New Brand Expression" is not going to be Equestria Girls. At least not the Equestria Girls we see here. While Equestria Girl's non-existance is not necessarily certain, the fact remains that there is not any separate verifiable evidence of Equestria Girl's existence. Therefore, I am forced to admit we've been Trolled. Good show.

Judge: Indeed. That still leaves one Spin off project that needs to be accounted for though. It appears neither the prosecution nor the defense has a case.

Defense: Yes your honor. It appears the Trial of the My Little Pony Spin off is going to have to be postponed. And the defense also argues that even if Equestria Girls were to exist, the fact we have no hard evidence of what would be in the spin off also shows we don't have enough to go on to form an opinion.

Judge: Indeed… This Trial has been cancelled.

Sorry, Kinda spent too much time watching Phoenix Wright lets plays in the days since the Finale. I just felt I needed to have a bit of fun.

Speaking of… Any word on the Phoenix Wright/MLP Crossover?

You know, for something that's supposed to come out this spring, we really don't have any further information about Equestria Girls. I'm beginning to get quite skeptical about the whole thing being real.

Indeed, not to mention the fact that the official documents…

…Have a contradiction with the date of "Spring"!

Notice the date of "This Fall". As the only solid evidence of a spin off, why would this evidence contradict with the "Equestria Girls" information?

Probably because Equestria Girls is a LIE!

…Or a prank. Either way.

This leaves us back where we started before he heard the "Equestria Girls" rumor. "Just what will this spin off be?"

Since we don't know, we cannot judge anything about it one way or the other.

I rest my case.

A bit late, but here is my view on the season's finale:

I am not sure where I read that, but Hasbro's original plan was to finish MLP:FiM with season 3. As we know, the show is a commercial for toys, but there comes a time when the market is saturated. You can't sell more and more similar looking pony toys to someone who has already lots of them. The animation itself was always planned as a losing deal, they didn't have any interest in selling the episodes in the beginning and they never had the intention to do a full season DVD set, but this view has changed.

My guess is, that alicorn Twilight was really intended to be the end of the series. The toy department had already planned the alicorn toys since season 2, they have made a couple of prototypes, Twilight plushies with wings and more. What most people forget is, that corporations work slowly, everything is planned years ahead and they act very conservative. Usually taking a path that has been done before. I am sure that the executives at Hasbro were weirded out by the bronies at first. They didn't put much attention to them, thinking that they would be gone in a year and that fandom would fizzle out after season 1. There is no reason to invest money and try to appeal to fans that could be gone, when you start producing stuff for them.

But the fandom stayed strong and grew, so they started to think about ways to profit from them. One of the steps was selling the episodes on iTunes, Netflix, a full season on DVD and YouTube. The show, the animation itself is starting to become financially attractive. Thus finishing Friendship is Magic with Season 3 started to look like a stupid idea, but the toy department had already finalized Twilicorn and started the production, which meant that this had to take place in the show.

Yeah I am actually not yet finished with this, as you might have noticed that I haven't started talking about the real episode, but I am going to do it later…
Of course this is all highly speculative and I do not have sources for the things that I just made up, but this does make sense to me.

In the meantime you could read this article here

It's a news site for investors. I could provide the full article for the guys not interested in signing up later…

@whitishcollar's video

Not that you get points or anything for fooling a slow guy but you got me nonetheless.

Dammit. Lol'd though.

Oh and List time, huh? Let's do this.

1. too many pinkie pies
2. keep calm and flutter on
3. spike at your service
4. magic duel
5. sleepless in ponyville
6. just for sidekicks
7. wonderbolt academy
8. magical mystery cure
9. games ponies play
10. one bad apple
11. apple family reunion
12. crystal empire 1
13. crystal empire 2

So did anyone like the new dresses?

New dresses were… painful.

No seriously, you can't improve on the Gala dresses from season 1. Everyone's personality and style and design just shone through, in an incredibly pretty way.

These dresses… I mean, they must be from AJ's boutique. Garish.

@Iamslow: All I know is that Rainbow Dash had a bitchin' pimp hat.

Unlike Serious Business, I really loved the new dresses the mane 6 got. They were very pretty and still showed the ponies personalities in a different way.

I liked that they all got little hats too :3

Just found this:

What do you guys think?

@Advance

I think that we can't take toys to be an indication of what the series is going to be liOh wait alicorn.

Actually, I do hold to that. Princess Skyla still hasn't come up in the show or even been referenced. Applejack doesn't have a truck.
 
But I don't know much about the merchandise. Perhaps there are differences among one toy (Applejack's truck), a toy fair (the above image), and images and pictures from an overseas event (Twilight Sparkle as an alicorn princess). If you were to ask me, then I'd say "Skyla will appear in the series at some point as will this pony above." Skyla won't be much more important than Cadance, but the mystery pony above will be more important than the sister princesses.

I wonder if Hasbro will change their approach to what they show in the future at toy fairs. Bronies suspected alicorn Twilight since they saw those images, and now we're going to look out for any new, official toy. However, that might make bronies even more interested. Sometimes, the toys show up in the show and some toys don't show up/have yet to be shown. So if that's the case, then perhaps these exhibits become a "leak" of what the series might hold.

Also, most little girls probably don't care about collector's type of toy fairs. They'll see that pony and may never make the connection to the show.

Agreed. The Mane 6 dresses were adorable.

Luna's dress…

It's grown on me, but still, her coat and mane colors do not go very well with the lighter purple motif of her dress.

This just made that scene a lot worse for me. I need to curl up and cry somewhere.

Edit: Well turns out the actual picture is a lot smaller than it should be. So I will attempt to make this post a little more interesting.

Rainbow Dash is best pone what is Canada?