Steel's Blogs - My Little Pony Friendship is Magic

[Steel Sponge]

As you could imagine, I just "love" ripping off ideas from Doug Walker's stuff, (yep, shame on me) but there's such thing as the word "homage."

 

While the Animated Reviews segment is STILL on hold, here's something I could potentially do. You know Doug Walker's Avatar and Adventure Time vlogs, right? In this thread, I will go through shows on my bucket list in which I need to finish up. Eventually, I will review them. What will I start with? Considering that the fourth season is coming close and that my trouble with catching up brings up my point that I have A LOT of catching up to do....

 

Spoiler

The first blog will center My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

 

I will begin doing this for next month, so just you wait.

[Steel Sponge]

Looks like I'm going to decide on starting this early, I guess. This would not be considerably described as "making progress" though. The catch up would pretty much start tomorrow, so you'd know. Without further ado, Friendship is Magic is the first I will be blogging in part of catching up and writing episode reviews. One reason for doing so would involve trying to write up Trinity Leaf Pegasus, which has been in development hell for 2 years now. Before I start this up, let's see how many episodes I need to see compared to ones I've already watched:

 

1. Friendship is Magic part 1 (Mare in the Moon)

2. Friendship is Magic part 2

3. The Ticket Master

4. Applebuck Season

5. Griffon the Brush-Off

6. Boast Busters

7. Dragonshy

9. Bridle Gossip

22. A Bird in the Hoof

27. The Return of Harmony part 1

28. The Return of Harmony part 2

29. Lesson Zero

30. Luna Eclipsed

42. Read it and Weep

45. Putting Your Hoof Down

46. It's About Time

48. Hurricane Fluttershy

55. Too Many Pinkie Pies

56. One Bad Apple

57. Magic Duel

 

To specify, those are episodes I have seen. Not counting the first two episodes and kinda/sorta "Luna Eclipsed," those are the episodes I will not review. And that brings up my total of....45 episodes plus Equestria Girls, which I need to see compared to those 20 episodes. How I'm going to do it differently is like this: I will start off by rewatching the first two episodes. Until then whereas I will begin watching all the other episodes, enjoy.

 

 

My Little Pony Blogs Part 0: The Nightmare Moon saga

 

Part 1: And as it turns out, I guess Youtube's got the best of it and has been cleaned away of these full episodes. Regardless of that, I'm still able to watch the episodes and I won't have a problem watching the rest. As the episode starts out, it tells the story about the princesses, Celestia and Luna themselves along with the elements of harmony, which impacts to the main story of the 2-parter. To kick things off with reviewing the episodes, it has some good storytelling. For the animation, the Adobe flash animation is out of the ordinary and tops it off in a lot of ways. For a girl's show that has attracted most older men, it shouldn't be surprising on how its gained its own magic to become a instant hit. Once I watched it during the pony mania back when we had SBC, I felt like I was enjoying it, but it didn't catch on me too much at first. On to the episode, we are introduced to Twilight Sparkle, Spike, and the other members of the Mane 6, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash, a colorful cast I should obviously say. So anyhow, Twilight Sparkle writes a letter to Celestia to warn her about danger being threatened in Equestria by the fated return of Nightmare Moon, but everypony is preparing for the Summer Sun Celebration, and in the meantime, Celestia assigns Twilight for her mission to making friends aside from her studious background. Yeah, since I'm not as professional at being critical, I can warn you that I can summarize this most of the time and that my opinion is usually short and proves my point. That, and/or also because these episodes won't be as "blind" as the all the episodes I still need to see..which I am bringing up a lot. So, Twilight meets the ones in-charge of the things with the celebration and gets a suprise party from Pinkie Pie who talks really fast to her upon after her previous introduction. After a while, Celestia appears to be missing and Nightmare Moon makes her entrance, just like how Twilight predicted so, and then we move on to part 2 a la cliffhanger. Anyways, to make my verdict on the first episode, it's simply a classic to what started off this phenomenon. I was liking the characters already, I like how the villain was introduced, being generally a memorable one. This 2-parter was very good and from the likes of Lauren Faust, this show was a excellent breakthrough alongside the other shows from the Hub. It gets the A grade right here.

 

Part 2: Continuing on from this not-so-blind portion of the MLP blogs, we got part 2 of the introductory 2-parter of Friendship is Magic. As it should obviously go, Twilight becomes paired up with Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash in order to find the Elements of Harmony to stop Nightmare Moon, which are located in the Everfree Forest. However, Nightmare Moon is in the way of things and plans to manipulate their journey ahead. Once as Twilight approaches Nightmare Moon, she struggles to figure out about the sixth element and realizes about the other ponies that resemble the other 5 elements of harmony. After that piece of summarizing, I might as well already contemplate on my thoughts and give out my verdict. As an understatement or not, Part 2 was even better than part 1. This episode shows off its creativy and well-done plotting and bit of an edge that makes the show worthwhile and reccomendable. I pretty much liked what was going on. Namely the symbolism throughout the Everfree Forest to the elements of harmony was near-to-simply perfect. In addition, I can say that I liked the laughter song throughout as well. It was also heartwarming between Celestia and the now-redeemed Luna after the defeat of Nightmare Moon. Overall, it was a brilliant episode with a brilliant way to end the 2-parter. So yeah, all that gives it an A+ from me. While I work on catching up, see you guys then with new reviews.

 

Episodes left to watch: Still 45

[Steel Sponge]

My Little Pony Blogs: Blog #1: Cutie Mark Crusaders-thon Part 1

 

Call of the Cutie: Why am I skipping ahead into Episode 12? Let's mix things up a bit, even though it's...the first blog not counting "blog #0." Right now, I am reviewing every CMC centered episode from Season 1. Part 2 will handle the CMC episodes from Season 2. I have to admit, I can't be able to pay attention to everything, and I usually get it all straightened up when I watch things a second time or look things up like a Sweetie Belle. What I'm saying here is I'm going to critcize this episode through memory, which would be accountable for every episodes and blogs in the future. So, where do I begin? This episode introduces Apple Bloom and eventually the other two members of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. For Apple Bloom, it centers her trying to get a cutie mark this instant so she could attend Diamond Tiara's cute-ceanera, which I pretty much mistaken for "quinceanera" at first. It sounds wierd, but it takes away the context of the meaning of "quinceanera." And I guess that sums up most of the episode, before moving on to Apple Bloom trying to hide her blank flank at the party and then...we are introduced to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. Going over the characters, one pony of interest that first comes to mind to evaluate is Twist, who was in Apple Bloom's class as a blank flank. As she was going to offer Twist to go to Diamond Tiara's party as blank flanks...only to release she just recently recieved her cutie mark, hence her name. And then we never see her again and get much talk from her. So with that said, I've got nothing much to say about Twist, except for someone who hasn't seen the episode until now can be flashed back from Monsters University, whereas we see Randall wearing glasses upon his first showing, eventually upgrading himself to the Roar Omega Roar fraternity, losing in the Scare Games due to Sully, and it's by the fact that we never get much talk from him, analyzing through the entire movie...minus the Scare Games thing. Why I'm changing the subject here is how I can compare Twist's character development to how half of the time it was similar to Randall in MU, (again, minus the Scare Games thing and Twist's glasses being a trademark), even though MU came last. Ugh, if you didn't find that similar or necessary, I just had to talk it up. Then we got Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. As of what I've seen of them, they're pretty much simply generic brag n' drag type of characters throughout most of the episode, while I can see their traits being deliberately conceived like that. Then there's the moral. Using the facts instead of my brain, the moral is usually that you can make good friends other than trying not to be isolated in a certain group. Using my brain, I suppose not being in a hurry to get what you want could add up. I dunno. Now, this episode overall, I can't say is very much of a big deal except for introducing the aformentioned and not-so-secret society. I have a couple of chuckles, I guess. I'm just mostly mirthless than laughing out loud. The moral is good, as always, and while I don't find it very much interesting, except for introducing more characters to add up to more storylines and plots, MLP: FiM still doesn't fail to entertain me. While I don't always give Spongebob episodes a high grade, I figure it would make sense giving this episode a C+. Next episode...

 

 

The Stare Master: Well, I don't think I have enough material or discussion into making this into a good enough review, but I'm evaluating this anyways. So, when Rarity has work to do and can't do the CMC sleepover, Fluttershy insists foalsitting for them, but with the Crusaders going all around trying to find their talents at her cottage, it becomes a struggle for Fluttershy. After returning the chickens to the coop, one apparently goes missing, as well as a Cockatrice on the loose. Well, what can I say? I don't know whether it's slightly less amusing or interesting as "Call of the Cutie," but it gets better during the Cockatrice part. During that, I didn't really expect Twilight Sparkle to be turned to stone, but anyways, Scootaloo is called a chicken for a moment and cues any possible joke for that overused joke (opinions, opinions) and Fluttershy faces the Cockatrice to protect the Crusaders and show off her tough side once again to stare down the creature. What can I say? Right now I feel jeopardized where I have no idea how I'm going to critcize this episode except that it only gets good after about 14 minutes. What do I like about this episode? Getting to know more from Fluttershy with her stare ability and Fluttershy staring down the Cockatrice, that's for sure. Oh yes, the "Hush Now Quiet Now" song was really good too. In addition, I guess it has some good jokes here and there and still does best to be entertaining. So that goes to show that I have not many nipticks, but what do I not like about this episode? It was ehhhhhhh....nothing much. It seems like the reason why this review is shorter and to the point. I'll give this episode a C grade, to top it all off.

 

 

The Show Stoppers: Now onto this episode. In this one, the CMC get their own clubhouse, handed over from Applejack, they still struggle on finding their talents, and then they decide to enter the talent show to realize their talents. Getting to know more about the Cutie Mark Crusaders, they make this episode more interesting. Before I talk about that, the Crusaders take Twilight Sparkle's advice to do what they enjoy doing. Spite Apple Bloom being good at design, Scootaloo being good at stunts, and Sweetie Belle being good at singing, they admit to doing something else for their showcase. So yeah, it's an interesting episode so far, we get more insight on the Crusaders and get more development from them. As for the positives I have, such as getting hints towards their talents, even though they're nowhere to discovering it, the scene with Scootaloo on her scooter and the CMC theme song was fairly good near the end, it's all good. I can't really think of anything much that's wrong with this episode. As for the ending, it's fair, but it's obvious they don't get their cutie marks, and I don't have much talk for it, not that I need to discuss more. It's just a great episode IMO. So overall, it's an excellent watch. It's also a shorter review overall, sorta. I know. With one more episode in the way, I give this a B-.

 

 

The Cutie Mark Chronicles: (While I've seen this episode now, I'll write my review sooner or later)

 

 

Episodes left to watch: 41

 

Oh yeah, I'll admit to missing the Season 4 premiere, but I have to time to watch the two episodes. Anyhow, expect an update where I review The Cutie Mark Chronicles. After that, I'll go through the CMC episodes in Season 2. Turns out I have five of 'em to see. It's surely gonna be a pain, but it will be worth it. Also, if there's some pitfalls behind my reviewing style and/or that there's something I can improve with, you can just let me know and do your worst...or best.