Oh, man. I had been staying away from both TAS work and live discussions of this show for quite a while, but the reactions to the latest episode from the likes of KennyMan666 and Warp have made it glorious to me in a way that smooths over any disappointment. But first,
Apple Bloom disputes your claim that such board games are impossible for her to play.
Warp wrote:
I am also completely puzzled what exactly they were after with this episode.
Someone shared a comic that sums up a lot of the puzzlement:
Naw, I think the point was, "It's my destiny to accelerate my own destiny."
I liked that Spike was full of suggestions, but I think one of them should have been, "Just cast the same spell four more times, since it's apparent that the marks are getting passed around in a ring." Come on, it doesn't take a mathematician to think of these things. :p
But even if the episode's script did feel like a rough draft, or a fanfic, or a rough draft of a fanfic which was then turned into a ratings stunt with the aid of a songwriter, I like that it's inspired me to make more dumb joke videos again.
Link to video
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
I just can't get over how much the last episode bothers me, for some reason.
As KennyMan quite well stated, it makes no sense that changing the meanings of the elements of harmony would have changed cutie marks. The elements of harmony are related to personalities, not talents, which are completely independent (for example, farming apples has nothing to do with honesty, and being very fast has nothing to do with loyalty.) And cutie marks themselves are related to special talents, not to one's career and life choices, which are also independent (one's special talent may help with one's career, but it doesn't determine what it is.)
What bothers me even more, though, is that the effects of the spell make no sense either. It's completely unclear whether the spell retroactively changed the entire history of the world, or if it only took effect from the instant it was cast, and somehow changed everybody's memories (except Twilight's.) In either case the behavior of the affected ponies and the villagers is highly inconsistent.
The affected ponies had clearly no memory whatsoever about having been different but a day before, and suddenly changing. It's as if they thought they had been like that all their lives. (Again, it's unclear if this is because history was changed, or just everbody's memories.) Yet they act like they had been doing their new "jobs" for less than a day, rather than their entire adult lives. One would think that if they had been doing those things for their entire lives, they would be either more experienced or just abandoned it as hopeless. It was certainly not established that something forced them to do a job they had no talent nor motivation whatsoever for.
The behavior of background characters is no less strange. For example Fluttershy's animals clearly thought Dash was their "caretaker" (even if an incompetent one), did not recognize Fluttershy when she arrived... yet were acting like Dash had been their caretaker for less than a day (rather than having been so for years, either by changed history or memories.) Likewise for background ponies expecting Fluttershy to throw a party and entertain them and Rarity to take care of weather. Nobody was wondering what's going on, and instead acting like that's what's expected... yet still acting like they had been doing that for less than a day. Really, really inconsistent behavior.
And why did guiding the ponies to their true talents gradually reverse the effects of the spell? Did it also restore everybody's memories or history? Gradually? How and why?
Argh, it just doesn't make any sense.
(And this not even going to how out-of-the-blue Twilight's "upgrade" to alicorn came, from "fixing" a spell that makes no sense in the first place... And possibly retconning the origin of alicorns from what has been subtly implied during the series.)
Edit: I just thought of a good summarization of why I hate this episode: It feels like a pre-G4 MLP episode rather than a G4 one. Precisely the style of "kids are simple-minded, therefore the cartoon should be simple-minded as well."
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Location: Windfall Island
A friend of mine asked how I liked the episode, when I told them I hated it they were dumbfounded. I asked what the spell was supposed to do and they said it was a spell for friendship. I then asked why starswirl the bearded would work on a frienship spell, as he had never been mentioned as doing anything of the sort. She had no response. Even people who liked the episode have no idea what the fuck happened.
About the background characters and ponies acting inconsistent, how about Spike? He seemed to be immune to the spell like Twilight (bullshit excuse is he was inside the library). Also, since the realization of their talents came from the sonic rainboom, it must have changed history. But if it was changed, it makes no sense how they could "remember" their talents. Also, since when does magic have to be read and not use her horn (atleast I don't remember her horn glowing)?
IronSlayer wrote:
Your counterargument would be like me saying that the Earth is round and then you telling me that I need to show it's flat so I can "prove us all wrong".
Warp: I actually have a whole part two of my analysis incoming based on comments I got about the first one I did elsewhere. It touches upon some of the things you mentioned.
There's a few underlying problems about the whole concept of cutie marks, not the least of which being that the more convoluted explanations you have to come up with for how a cutie mark actually relates to your true self (seriously, Cheerilee, was that the best you could come up with?), the less sense the entire idea of cutie marks start making as a whole. If cutie marks really decide your destiny, there's some really really bad implications.
Someone said that it was the true selves of the ponies that were shuffled around - but it seems to me that that's exactly what wasn't shuffled. I still haven't been able to figure out what it really was that was supposed to be scrambled, because it wasn't talents, it wasn't memories, it wasn't personalities, it wasn't elements, it wasn't any actual knowledge about what they thought they had to do with their new cutie mark or anything else at all. The only way for it to have worked to any degree is if they all lost all their memories of everything up until the moment of the shuffling and didn't get anything to replace it with. And that... didn't seem to be the case.
Incantation magic isn't completely unprecendented - some kind of incantation was what made the pond work in Too Many Pinkie Pies. I can buy the casting of the spell, just not what happened when it was cast.
Seriously, nothing I come up with makes anything make any sense. During my writing of things a completely different theory popped into my head, but that one is solidly in fanon territory.
Det man inte har i begåvning får man ta ut i energi.
"I think I need to get to Snoop Dogg's level of high to be able to research this post." -Samsara
Read my fanfic, One Piece: Pure Corruption
A friend of mine asked how I liked the episode, when I told them I hated it they were dumbfounded. I asked what the spell was supposed to do and they said it was a spell for friendship. I then asked why starswirl the bearded would work on a frienship spell, as he had never been mentioned as doing anything of the sort. She had no response. Even people who liked the episode have no idea what the fuck happened.
About the background characters and ponies acting inconsistent, how about Spike? He seemed to be immune to the spell like Twilight (bullshit excuse is he was inside the library). Also, since the realization of their talents came from the sonic rainboom, it must have changed history. But if it was changed, it makes no sense how they could "remember" their talents. Also, since when does magic have to be read and not use her horn (atleast I don't remember her horn glowing)?
If you watch the episode, you notice that the spell activate's Twilight's crown which messed with the other pieces of the elements of harmony. Why Starswirl the Bearded would make (or technically "attempt") to make a spell that worked with that, is hard to say. There is still 2 more parts coming according to the writers. Hopefully we will get an explanation as to what the hell this episode was about. I'm not bothered by the idea, other than it felt rushed.
My only guess as to what the spell was attempting to do/became after Twilight fixed it was to amp up the power of the elements of harmony to beat some greater evil that was probably sealed away 1000 years ago...like all the others. :P
Here's to hoping for some BIG bad evil for Season 4. Not like whats-his-face from the start of Season 3.
Starswirl the Bearded writing a spell relating to the Elements of Harmony actually seems to hint towards something that's a part of the other theory I mentioned: that he was once the bearer of the Element of Magic himself.
Det man inte har i begåvning får man ta ut i energi.
"I think I need to get to Snoop Dogg's level of high to be able to research this post." -Samsara
Read my fanfic, One Piece: Pure Corruption
Someone said that it was the true selves of the ponies that were shuffled around - but it seems to me that that's exactly what wasn't shuffled.
Yeah. If it were their "true selves" that were shuffled, then one would expect them to be competent at their new jobs.
(In fact, that would have made a more interesting plot. What if everything had been changed between the main cast, except for their very identities. In other words, Dash is now skilled in animal care but extremely timid and shy, ie. exactly how Fluttershy was, Applejack is now a proficient dressmaker like Rarity was, and so on. And everybody would be happy with their careers and talents. (Rarity would have been the odd one out, because unicorns don't control weather... Maybe a different set of more logical switches would be better in this scenario.) Anyway, now it would become a stronger philosophical issue and a larger problem on how to reverse things.)
Sir VG wrote:
There is still 2 more parts coming according to the writers. Hopefully we will get an explanation as to what the hell this episode was about. I'm not bothered by the idea, other than it felt rushed.
My guess is that the events of this episode will not be mentioned again, and instead those two new episodes will concentrate on Twilight being a princess/alicorn. (And hopefully things will be reverted to status quo by the end of the trilogy. But I also hope that if they do revert to status quo, they do it in a much smarter way than this episode, so that it doesn't feel forced or artificial.)
(In fact, that would have made a more interesting plot. What if everything had been changed between the main cast, except for their very identities... now it would become a stronger philosophical issue and a larger problem on how to reverse things.)
Damn, the more I think about that, the more I like the idea (or would have liked if the episode had been made like that, I mean.)
Imagine Twilight explaining to one of the other ponies the situation, and she replying something like "but I like my life as it is now, I don't want to change back; I can't even imagine my life otherwise." This kind of dilemma would have been deep.
Joined: 10/27/2004
Posts: 1976
Location: Making an escape
Actually, what I think might have been better is if their core personalities remained intact, but their talents and proclivities got switched around. It's been mentioned earlier, but perhaps Rarity would have been as picky as ever but switched over to making athletic gear. Dash would still be brash, but in a way that woodland critters appreciate. Would have been interesting to see Shy throw wild parties while barely saying a word and sticking to the background.
It's interesting to see how people had faith that this ep might have been good since Larson was the lead writer. Seems that faith was misplaced.
A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon my work and marvel at my skills but never know my name. And that will be good enough for me.
It's a hobby, and people who like a certain hobby do care about it.
If it's fun to scrutinize and analyze a work of art, then who are you to belittle that hobby? If you don't care about this particular hobby, then go do something else.
Joined: 10/27/2004
Posts: 1976
Location: Making an escape
I think the intended message is that you shouldn't let labels dictate who you are or what you do. Evidenced by how the marks, which ordinarily indicate what a person is good at, weren't working and that their real callings in life laid where they originally were. This unfortunately kinda messes with the established lore and mythos of the series concerning said marks, and we all know how much nerds worship those two things.
A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon my work and marvel at my skills but never know my name. And that will be good enough for me.
That's the thing, though. There would have been ways to pull of exactly that plot without resorting to ass pulls ignoring sixty-four episodes' worth of worldbuilding.
But yeah, guilty as charged for being a sucker for continuity. You should have seen me theorize over Castlevania and Mega Man continuity in the past.
Det man inte har i begåvning får man ta ut i energi.
"I think I need to get to Snoop Dogg's level of high to be able to research this post." -Samsara
Read my fanfic, One Piece: Pure Corruption
Joined: 10/27/2004
Posts: 1976
Location: Making an escape
Having grown up during the nineties, I was used to seeing us westerners go crazy for anything Japanese. It's always odd seeing the Japanese reciprocate, especially with this.
A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon my work and marvel at my skills but never know my name. And that will be good enough for me.
I was dieing seeing all the errors but I ignored it (not really)... ENJOY
Apple Bloom disputes your claim that such board games are impossible for her to play.
Naw, I think the point was, "It's my destiny to accelerate my own destiny."
I liked that Spike was full of suggestions, but I think one of them should have been, "Just cast the same spell four more times, since it's apparent that the marks are getting passed around in a ring." Come on, it doesn't take a mathematician to think of these things. :p
But even if the episode's script did feel like a rough draft, or a fanfic, or a rough draft of a fanfic which was then turned into a ratings stunt with the aid of a songwriter, I like that it's inspired me to make more dumb joke videos again.
Link to video
;)
