Amph My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Admit it. You love it.

At least it is SW-related!

 

So I've been watching this lately. I saw it was leaving Netflix so I binged it. I watched season 1 three or four years ago and enjoyed it but fell off after that; anyway I rewatched it first to refresh my memory. I've really gotten into it. I would say Friendship is Magic is probably in my, well at least my top 20 western cartoons of all time, easily. I've watched all the first seven seasons and all the Equestria Girls stuff (which is less good but okay to pretty decent and I love Sunset Shimmer), and the movie, which was mediocre. I wouldn't call myself a "brony" despite the fact that I've ended up watching a bunch of fan stuff, but I do that for everything I get into that I really like. Anyway now I'm catching up on season eight and still having fun. I'm quite happy that I got around to this and will be sticking with it.

And Luna is best pony. Or Rarity. Maybe it's just better to say Tabitha St. Germain is best pony?

Season 7 was the best so far, season 6 was the weakest. Best episode so far... probably either Crusaders of the Lost Mark, A Royal Problem, or Slice of Life. Slice of Life was fun. I love Vinyl!

 

Oh yeah, I think I left off somewhere in the middle of season 6. I've got a zillion other things to watch and catch up on, so I have no idea when I'll get around to it.

 

I get it. I'm that way too. I've started trying to commit to big "projects" lately though, like watching the entire MCU or now I guess all of MLP G4, and I went through all the X-Men films earlier this year as well. It's been fun and intense and a good way to clear large swathes of the backlog.

 

Need to catch up on it myself. Dropped off around season 5/6. Got a bit nostalgia boost for it when I watched Bronies React to Episode 100, but things are kind of crazy ATM and I really don't have time to re-watch a bunch of MLP right now.

 

I actually started watching the Bronies Reacts sometime while I was watching season 6 or so and have mostly really enjoyed them. I've almost caught up to those as well and they've definitely enhanced my appreciation for the show a bit. They're fun guys.

 

I’ve been hearing for years about how good this show is, so I downloaded Vol. 1 from iTunes and thus far its excellent.

 

I watch it with my daughter and we enjoy it. Rainbow Dash is my favourite, Tempest is my second. She likes Pinkie Pie.

 

Pinkie Pie used to annoy me early on because I felt she was too insensitive (aside from the opening song the Cranky Doodle Donkey episode is my most hated in the show) but she started growing on me around the time of Too Many Pinkie Pies, where she showed how caring and conscientious she really could be towards her friends, and I started appreciating her antics more. She's still not my favorite, but she's up there.

Rainbow still annoys me sometimes with her ego, though she has moments of greatness, and she's definitely better than she used to be. Her episode with Scootaloo this season showed a lot more maturity than we often get with her, which I liked. Tempest was fine but wasn't around too long and I didn't like the movie very much for a lot of reasons.

Rarity is by far my favorite of the Mane 6, both because I love her good-natured generosity and caring for her friends and because I adore her hamminess. She also tends to learn her lessons faster and more easily than the others. Twilight and Fluttershy are great too. Applejack can be great sometimes, but honestly I often feel like she just doesn't stand out as much as the other five. I like her sister more.

Luna is my favorite character, though, because starting with her second appearance she steals literally every scene she's in in the entire show. She's just a wonderful character all around. Even Equestria Girls Luna can be pretty good sometimes.

On another note I only have the season 8 finale two-parter (found online because it's aired in other countries even though they haven't aired yet in the U.S.) and the final part of Equestria Girls Rollercoaster of Friendship (releasing on youtube in a couple of days) to be completely caught up with all MLP animation! I'll watch the two-parter tonight or tomorrow and maybe give my thoughts on a few things then. Overall season 8 has been pretty good so far, though not quite as good as a few other seasons.

 

Oh yeah, so I was watching that one episode "Stranger Than Fan Fiction" where Rainbow Dash meets up with a fellow fan-pony at the Daring Do convention. I was at the part where they were both gushing over the novels, and at that point I paused it to go get a drink of water or something. As I was doing that, I thought to myself, "That's not right. Fans aren't supposed to agree with each other on stuff. They're supposed to fight and argue incessantly." I came back, unpaused it, and right on cue Rainbow Dash and the other pony get into a fight over which books were awesome and which ones sucked.

 

So it took me a bit longer than I planned but I finally got to the season 8 finale two-parter just now, and am fully caught up with all G4 animation. I wanted to take this opportunity to post some of my main thoughts on the show and my experiences with it. This will have some spoilers but I'm going to try to avoid spoiling anything important from the past couple seasons.

I heard about the popularity of the show not long after it came out, but I didn't really pay attention to it. I have nothing against "girls shows" and I love animation generally, but I just had other things I was focusing on. I heard it was good and kind of figured I would get to it eventually but I'd never been in any hurry. Around 2014 or 2015 I actually got to watching it on Netflix. I completed the first season and liked it a lot, but I got distracted and didn't watch any more even though there were four seasons up for streaming at the time. I always intended to get back to it eventually. That finally happened over this past summer when I saw it was leaving Netflix, and I decided to binge it. I started by watching season one, and I'd forgotten some things but overall it was much like I remembered, an enjoyable and fun show that was mostly consistent in quality, but nothing really special. It actually took me a bit of time to get through it again, and also season two. Somewhere around the latter half of season two though I started to become a bit more invested and I also started seriously picking up the pace of viewing (also partially because time was running out). It was due to leave in mid August and I realized I wouldn't watch it, but I figured "I'll try to finish season 3 or 4". I ended up watching eight or nine or sometimes more episodes several days a week, and started really loving it. Luckily its time on the platform was also extended a bit, and I though "I'll try to finish season 5" or whatever. I also decided to watch Equestria Girls stuff when they happened in production order, and it eventually expanded to all the animated stuff in the main show, the movie, shorts, and specials. When I commit to this kind of thing my completionist streak sets in and I just go for everything. And due to continued extensions (and thankfully it seems to have been fully resolved for the time being) I no longer had to worry about running out of time either, but I continued to keep up a decent pace just because I was enjoying myself.

I think one of the greatest strengths of the show is its willingness to evolve and change over time. I know one can be cynical and say new characters and locations and developments also means more merchandise, and of course they're right, but if it works then I don't mind. And I know some of the changes (Twilight's ascension, the crystal castle, ,Starlight Glimmer, Equestria Girls in general, etc.) have been controversial, but I actually like them for the most part, because I think it keeps things fresh. A lot of kids shows go for the "status quo is god" ethos and never change anything. There's no real continuity, no real character development, it's just one episode to the next and you can watch them in any order, and that can still be fun, but it's nice to see a kid's show that's willing to change things up and actually take chances. Season 1 and season 8 could be completely different shows; hell, season 1 and season 5 are quite different themselves. Allowing this dynamism allows the writers to try out new ideas and expand the world and keep things interesting, which I'm thankful for because while I enjoyed the first couple seasons we never could have gotten to season 8 with everything staying basically the same. Just this past week the episode that aired (in the U.S.; I actually caught it online because of other markets a bit earlier) had kirin in it (including one of my new favorite characters of the season because she's adorable), and I would love to see them bring them back in the future as another culture in the world.

This also feeds into another major topic, which is the frequent reformation of villains. Yeah, it's a kid's show and it's supposed to be nice and friendly, whatever; I know some of the reformations have been controversial. And I can see their point, for the most part. Starlight's reformation in my opinion was not handled very well when it happened (though she's won me over since). But this also gives more characters to interact with hte main cast in new and positive ways, and for the most part the reformed villains become interesting characters in their own right. For one thing Sunset Shimmer and her development after the first Equestria Girls movie is easily my favorite part about the spin-off, and she's one of my favorite characters in the franchise now. I liked Discord's villainous side but I find his friendship with Fluttershy sweet and his interactions with the boys fun to watch, and he's still his chaotic and manipulative self a lot of the time, which is good. And Trixie? I honestly didn't care for her much in her villain episodes. She was fine, but nothing really special. But Trixie reformed and friends with Starlight is comedy gold (and Equestria Girls Trixie has also gotten some decent development independent of normal Trixie). And they don't reform everyone. I am very glad Chrysalis is still a villain, and Tirek, and enjoy seeing them. I wish the Sirens would come back but I guess we can't get everything we want.

The other thing that has helped sustain the show and the fandom is all the different characters. I've already talked a bit about what I think of the major characters so I'll spend some time talking about the others. I know a lot of the "background ponies" have caught on with the fandom and for the most part I can see why. The Slice of Life episode is one of my favorites for it's fun spotlight on some of the fan favorites. I like seeing these characters get some time every once in awhile and some more development. Especially Vinyl and Derpy (er, "Muffins"). Some of the more important supporting characters like Maud and Big Macintosh are also great to watch. And I love the CMCs to death, about as much as the Mane 6, and greatly enjoy their focus episodes. Luna is my favorite character in the franchise, period, and Celestia has gotten some nice development in the past couple seasons. Overall I'm just happy that they have a lot of great characters to work with, major and minor.

There are certain things I haven't been wild about. I never had an issue with the premise of Equestria Girls, but I think overall it hasn't been as good as the main show. While I love Sunset post Equestria Girls 2013 she's a really boring villain in that movie and that entire first movie is just mediocre at best. A lot of things just didn't work very well. Thankfully Rainbow Rocks was a huge step forward and I really enjoyed that one, and the other movies as well for the most part. I think the post Legend of Everfree shorts and specials have for the most part dropped in quality again (except for Forgotten Friendship, which is the best EG thing ever), though most of it has been okay. Except for the recent Rollercoaster of Friendship special, which I thought was probably worse than the first movie. It had some good things but overall I was really disappointed with it (since it only aired recently, and the last part went up on youtube literally a couple days ago, I won't say too much about it for anyone who wants to watch it).

And then we have the movie.

I am not a fan of the movie. Tempest is the only good new character it, and maybe some of the songs were good. But the Storm King isn't as good as a lot of the other villains. Character development regressed due to catering to a larger audience, and Twilight was especially bad. Not a fan of how they animated it either. I felt it could have been an hour long special instead and maybe they could have made something better out of it. Just overall a disappointment.

But one good thing that came out of the movie was the expansion of the world that they were able to use for season 8. Season 8's School of Friendship took a bit of time to get used to for me, but I really liked the introduction of the Student 6 as new supporting characters and a new friendship group along with the Mane 6 (and Spike. And Starlight.) and the CMCs. I'm especially a fan of Ocellus and Yona. It feels like the world is the largest it's ever been and I really appreciate how that's been a major running theme this past season. But it also feels like things are winding down. The Mane 6 started out as ordinary ponies. Now they've saved the world several times, one of them has become a princess with her own pupils, they've all achieved their dreams, and now they're teaching a younger generation. I know season nine is going to happen, but I've heard rumblings that G4 might be ending soon, and honestly I don't think I can really complain because this feels like we're getting to that point. Nine (or maybe ten) seasons might be perfect. I do hope we get more of a soft reboot like a Generation 4.5 in the same continuity, though, and with old characters coming back even if not in the main roles. The Student 6 or their contemporaries could make good new main characters, pushed a few years into the future. And I'd be all over a CMC spin-off, and am fine if they keep up with EG the way things are now, though hopefully they do get to graduate high school eventually. I like Equestria, ad the world that has been built, and I wouldn't mind seeing that continue.

Overall I give My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic a solid 9.0 out of 10. It's a great show and I enjoy watching it.

EG ratings:
My Little Pony: Equestria Girls (2013)- 5
Rainbow Rocks- 6.5 (maybe bump it up to 7)
Friendship Games- 6
Legend of Everfree- 5.5
Magical Movie Night (three shorts)- 5.5
All the various 2017-18 youtube shorts- 5 overall, with some standouts.
Forgotten Friendship- 7
Rollercoaster of Friendship- 4.5

The movie: 5.0 out of 10

I want to read the comics sometime soon, though it will have to wait till after I'm done with some other things.

Now I need to get back to the MCU since I basically completely stopped catching up with it while focusing on MLP (in fact burnout with MCU probably contributed to my picking up the pace and following through with all of MLP). Jessica Jones season 2 here we go.

Here, have some Flutterbat:

 

So this promo just happened: