Moon Runner [episode spoilers] · 6:33pm Jul 11th, 2015
The first time I saw Amending Fences, I didn't get the significance of Spike saying "Here's the rest of it", and so his picture at the end seemed like a deus ex. But I caught it and that's actually very clever. Also, for as much as I can sympathize with Moondancer and her desire to confess her love to Twilight at that party, I think Minuette is really my favorite new pony from that episode.
Also WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THIS HIATUS GOD DAMMIT DISCOVERY FAMILY YOU ARE THE WORST EVER
Meanwhile, current episode was perfectly serviceable and gives me a couple things to talk about. I'm still wishing for more Celly in S5, but this may be a better Luna episode (at least, in terms of character development) than Luna Eclipsed.
Rating: Good!
Man, that moral at the end. Luna's guilt made manifest? I'll admit the crisis of conscience resolved pretty darn quickly, but that seems to be par for the course this season, and I'd rather not see those sorts of things drag on. (That scene was getting a little draggy to begin with.) Also, totally Gurren Lagann: she believed in the ponies who believe in her.
SO. AWESOME STUFF. Luna's dreamwalking made manifest! Celestia cannot dreams. Spike can write letters directly to Luna.
I can't say I didn't enjoy the various dreams, especially Rainbow Dash's. (Though her "nightmare" scenario was awfully cringeworthy. Probably because I spent a significant portion of the 90's forced to watch Barney with my little brother.) The whole intro scene was obviously a dream of Luna's, but A) it was great getting to see Nightmare Moon again, and B) it was nice to see Rainbow Power again. I was kind of starting to wonder! (Also nice to see again: changelings, even if just dream changelings.)
So let's talk about an elephant: Princess Big Mac. The more pandering I see in S5, the more I feel 100% assured that Slice of Life was Doing It Wrong. If you build an episode around pandering, even if you can pull a decent moral out at the end, you're gonna end up with crap. Meanwhile, this? This was done right. Granted, I'm pretty sure this is something Peter New at least popularized, if he didn't come up with it himself, but it fit the scenario while being goofy (admittedly somewhat off-tone, but this episode was a bit dour). The whole time, I was going, "This is so dumb and it's so awesome." This is potentially the most characterization Mac's ever had!
Anything else to talk about? Yes? No? I dunno. I thought this was good, another really solid episode for season five. GOD I hope this hiatus is worth it. D:
Amending Fences
The Cutie Map
Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?
Make New Friends but Keep Discord
Castle Sweet Castle
Appleloosa's Most Wanted
Tanks for the Memories
Slice of Life
Princess Spike
Party Pooped
The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone
Bloom & Gloom
Our Town
I'll Fly
Hush Little Sister
Make This Castle a Home
Dream Flower Song
You're counting the 20 seconds flowers sang as an actual song?
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It was sung, wasn't it? And I'm counting "Hush Little Sister", so why not?
Point being, I'm just desperate for more music. D:
Did this episode remind you of the Nightmare Rarity arc from the comics at all?
Kinda surprised you didn't comment on Flutterbat.
All in all, a really cool episode. My only real gripe is with how quickly Luna's moral dilemma got resolved, but it still impacted my emotions, so I can't complain much.
And also I found it odd that the tantabus suddenly got really slow when it was about to win, and I wrote it off as just par for the cartoon course, but then I thought about it and realized that the tantabus was slow and hesitant every time it tried to escape into reality, and that's how they held it at bay for so long. That makes me think it actually has a hard time leaving the dream world even when it's so powerful, and it needs a lot of time and energy to manifest in the waking world. I might be reading into it a bit much, but I think it was a clever detail anyway.
PM me about Princess Mac. I need details, I will be at work for another five hours... 15 hour work day!
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You have a point.
It's a little sad we're halfway through the season and we've only had three full songs. Hopefully we'll get more in the second half of the season.
I liked this one. Nothing too amazing. I did find it rather fast-paced; this one could easily have taken two episodes to resolve, but I did like seeing the character development of Luna that Nightmare Moon still haunts her that much. The magical girl transformation sequence... man, cringeworthy, but kind of in a good way. I could do without Flutterbat, but changelings and rainbow power were nice touches, and Dash's nightmare was great.
Wow, self-flagellating Luna. I'm still impressed they did that. But it's only a small step from that to Goth cutting Luna. Beware, ponies! :where_the_hell_is_my_Zecora_emoji:
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Only at first. Tantabus is not the same entity as Nightmare (Princess Luna created the former, while the latter exists on its own).
3228858 True.
Also, incorrect. Celestia can't command Luna's power over dreams. Nowhere did Luna imply her sister doesn't dream.
What hiatus.
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Here: http://www.equestriadaily.com/2015/07/season-five-split-up-season-six-not-at.html
Okay, fine. I'm going to have to watch this one.
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What was it? The thing I noticed in the picture was Twilight having her S1 magic aura colour, but what's the Spike thing you're referring to?
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I believe he means that when spike looked in the box, he saw the picture. If you miss that line, the picture just looks like "Oh, we happened to have this laying around," not "I meant to give this to you back then."
3229039 Oh, right. I took that as read, since I caught the line first time round. I thought there might be another layer that I'd missed -- wouldn't be the first time!
3228831 hey, it just means more music in the second half! :D
It was quite an amazing episode
The problem with episode 100 (Slice of Life) was that it simply was not a pony episode. It had little to nothing to do with the show beyond the framework of "Matilda, a person we have seen in one pony episode so far, has a wedding in Ponyville where the mane six happen to be, and these are also characters you have seen a few times before."
I can take pandering and I will almost always dislike it. But I want it to be in a good pony episode at least. And this... well, it had its problems, but damn that finale more than made up for it.
Wait... Moondancer was confessing her love? Was that sarcasm or did I miss something?
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Nah.
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I just took it as dramatic timing. :B Granted, it's notable that splitting the dreamworld at that point seemed easy for it, but actually penetrating the veil was, as you said, difficult.
And I probably have a mental block on Flutterbat. I didn't really care. :B
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That first one, that's what I said. :B
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Well, why else would Twilight, specifically, not coming to the party send her into a year-long spiral of depression and hermitude? Why did she value Twilight over all her other friends? The writing's on the wall, son!
(Note, I generally only use the show as shipping fuel facetiously. :V)
3229771 He's either reading waaay in between the lines or just being sarcastic.
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The idea got off on the wrongest foot ever, but I still really want to like Flutterbat. I'm glad that it showed up here.
Huh. Really? For me, this felt way more like jumping the shark than Slice of Life did. In fact, I signed on to Fimfic immediately after watching the ep to read your bash of it...only to find nothing of the sort.
I guess I'll just have the unpopular opinion on this one.
The premise and concept behind the conclusion were good, in my opinion, but the blatant pandering and overflow of references completely ruined this one for me.
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This episode represents an acceptable level of pandering, like Magic Duel.
Plus, it also had a plot, which Slice of Life distinctly did not. :B
Who's looking forward to more LyraBon fanart now?
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So what the hell was Slice of Life to you if not the most pandering, referential nonsense ever?
This is my personal ranking:
1: Amending Fences
2: The Cutie Map
3: Castle Sweet Castle
4: The Lost Treasure Of Griffonstone
5: Tanks For The Memories
6: Party Pooped
7: Make New Friends But Keep Discord
8: Bloom And Doom
9: Appleoosa's Most Wanted
10: Slice Of Life
11: Do Princesses Dream Of Magic Sheep?
12: Princess Spike
I don't know what it was, but something about this episode just rubbed me the wrong way.
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Rather than take up pages and pages of this comments section, I wrote a blog of my own to respond. You can read it here.
TL;DR, I think I might be taking ponies too seriously.
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I have done this myself :B