The Round Stable

(?) · by **londonarbuckle** (?) » Sun Jul 01, 2012 2:58 am

numsOic wrote:"estorba"

No wonder I couldn't find a translation for "estrobar" :rainbert:

When somepony tries estorbar, tell them "No s'ar." :v:

(?) · by **Crow** (?) » Sun Jul 01, 2012 3:11 am

numsOic wrote:"estorba"

Typo

(?) · by **Plobo** (?) » Sun Jul 01, 2012 10:40 am

Jupiter wrote::starity: Moi? Repair a dam? Oh no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no.

goddammit I was reading it the whole time like it was in French and I even tried to translate what the fuck repair in French means until it hit me :lol:

(?) · by **Chaos Sonic** (?) » Mon Jul 02, 2012 3:26 am

Headless Horse wrote:So that's another piece of the ongoing Rarity/AJ dynamic, told through ridiculously subtle hints: Rarity is apparently always on AJ's case about her appearance, goading her into reluctantly keeping herself more presentable; the only reason AJ isn't wearing her hat during the ceremony is because Rarity would badger her if she did.

Were you insulted when I insulted your hair?

(?) · by **itinerant nomad** (?) » Tue Jul 03, 2012 5:04 am

It's one of the more consistent traits AJ's been depicted with.
Rainbow Dash and Rarity are two friends that have gone toe to toe with Applejack, and once that sort of power play manifests, we see a more combative and subversive streak in AJ.
I think the attempts to hash out a pecking order with Rarity across the seasons were an interesting bit of character continuity. Originally, Applejack resents being lectured by Rarity. This is followed by times, where she is an authority in life lessons. Rarity's next move is trying to nudge or scold AJ into propriety. This leads to Applejack tweaking her a bit.
It's a little petty and not quite mature, but that's how many inside jokes and long-running gags go.

Coincidences and too many distant dots being connect? At any rate, a primary goal in the show with these characters was to portray many ways an individual can be themselves, but it also has shown the various forms friendship can take.
Applejack is not the same kind of friend to Twilight that she is to Rarity and Rainbow.
The latter two interact with Fluttershy quite differently, and Pinkie and Twilight have their discipline vs. spontaneity dialectic.
It does strengthen their characterizations, whereas if we had every other character event and plot point kept the same, but they were only allowed to be friends in a very fixed manner, it would weaken them.

(?) · by **Headless Horse** (?) » Mon Jul 09, 2012 12:27 pm

Thinking some more about how the development of this episode's script played out, it strikes me that these writers are really good at having their cake and eating it too.

Back when it was a half-hour story about Twilight being unjustifiably suspicious of Cadance and envious of her horning in on Shining Armor's attention, the resolution of the story (presumably) would have left us with a message about how you should give new family members a chance and don't immediately assume they're going to "steal" your brother from you, because they could turn out to be a wonderful addition to your family. :allears:

But then, when they added the changeling element to it, the story became one where Twilight's suspicions were totally justified. Everyone being too trusting of the new princess almost led to the downfall of Canterlot, and Twilight—the POV character—is the only one who saw through it. So although that makes for a neat action/adventure story, it would have ended up giving us a message of "Don't trust an interloper in your family as far as you can throw her, also everyone but you is stupid". :bluh:

But then, they brought back the real Cadance and spent an appropriate amount of time establishing that she's a nice and likable pony who really does deserve Shining Armor, and she wins over Twilight during their escape from the caves. By the end, we're rooting for the real Cadance as much as we were against the fake one before she was revealed.

And the final message ends up being something like "Welp, when your brother ends up getting a new girlfriend, she might be a perfectly nice person that you'll love as much as he does, or she might turn out to be an evil succubus. Who knows? You gotta use your best judgment!" :pinkieshrug:

So: nice save, writers.

(?) · by **drunkill** (?) » Mon Jul 09, 2012 1:10 pm

The biggest issue I have with this episode is the fact the giggle Rarity and RD share during the wedding does not have the giggle they used in the preview, it was heart sickingly cute.

It's been awhile since I've seen the two parter, watched it two weeks after it aired for the last (fourth) time. I might need a refresher soon.

(?) · by **Mechanical Ape** (?) » Mon Jul 09, 2012 5:13 pm

Twilight being the character to get all :twonk:

was a canny choice, because this is not the first time she's been like this. There have been times when she's had doubts which were proven correct, but there have also been times when she's freaked out over nothing. It's understandable that her friends might choose to believe this is one of the latter cases (especially after being bribed with important wedding jobs).

(?) · by **Headless Horse** (?) » Tue Jul 10, 2012 12:02 pm

That's true--Twilight's mixed track record helps keep this from being a "crying wolf" type story.

It also keeps Twilight from coming off like the only halfway intelligent pony in Equestria. :-/

Even as smart as she is, and as cool as it is to be smart, smarts aren't everything.

Love this show's balance.

(?) · by **itinerant nomad** (?) » Thu Jul 12, 2012 6:20 am

One thing this episode made me wonder is whether ponies can see a unicorn's magic color, or if it is a visual feature for the audience.
A lot of what unicorns do would look extremely static or unintentionally silly if the show didn't have that aura of color around when Twilight or another magic user gets to work.
For example, if in "Boast Busters" we saw no magical light when Twilight was subduing the Ursa Minor, would it look like she was performing a heroic magic feat, or that she needed more fiber in her diet?

The thing is that nobody ever comments on it in the show.
While it was great visual shorthand indicating that Something Is Not Right when we see Twilight's memory of Cadance casting her love spell and then shortly after the bile-colored emanation of the bride-to-be, it's a curious thing to go completely unnoticed.
Is this something she could have eased into? Can a unicorn dye her aura?

(?) · by **Doctor Wheeze** (?) » Thu Jul 12, 2012 3:54 pm

Ponies are colorblind. It's the ultimate irony :twonk:

(?) · by **Headless Horse** (?) » Thu Jul 12, 2012 11:15 pm

That continues to be one of my favorite things about the show's execution and why it's blowing my mind to this day. By the standards of any past "kids' show", every last little detail and development that they bothered to put in would be called out explicitly in dialogue, leading the audience around by the nose.

:bluh:

"That's right, you're the ball-bouncing champion. Of course you're gonna win this event."
:smirk:

"I can get into Rarity's shop through the cat door!"
:v:

"Oh look, Number 15! I'll just take that thank you!"
:twonk:

"Ohmigosh! Her magic was a different color back then! Something's wrong!"

If it wasn't important to the plot, a typical show wouldn't have even made the effort to put it in. But this one just says "fuck it, if kids don't pick up on it now they will on the second or third viewing or five years later when they watch it again".

They realize a) how much it adds to the story to put in these subtle little details and bits of silent, offhand storytelling, and b) how much it detracts from it to have to explain them all.

(?) · by **Davyinatoga** (?) » Fri Jul 13, 2012 12:18 am

itinerant nomad wrote:One thing this episode made me wonder is whether ponies can see a unicorn's magic color, or if it is a visual feature for the audience.
A lot of what unicorns do would look extremely static or unintentionally silly if the show didn't have that aura of color around when Twilight or another magic user gets to work.
For example, if in "Boast Busters" we saw no magical light when Twilight was subduing the Ursa Minor, would it look like she was performing a heroic magic feat, or that she needed more fiber in her diet?

The thing is that nobody ever comments on it in the show.
While it was great visual shorthand indicating that Something Is Not Right when we see Twilight's memory of Cadance casting her love spell and then shortly after the bile-colored emanation of the bride-to-be, it's a curious thing to go completely unnoticed.
Is this something she could have eased into? Can a unicorn dye her aura?

I've felt for a while that ponies cannot see the actual aura, but can probably feel the presence of magic as it's applied to objects. They've never acknowledged the auras before, and seemingly can't discern different colors. They generally seem to know when magic is used, such as the Ursa Minor example (though Fluttershy's runway debacle at the end of GIYC apparently went completely undiscovered), though they might not know from where the magic comes from.

(?) · by **Wayoshi** (?) » Fri Jul 13, 2012 12:47 am

Headless Horse wrote:They realize a) how much it adds to the story to put in these subtle little details and bits of silent, offhand storytelling, and b) how much it detracts from it to have to explain them all.

Which is why, if I remember right, you knocked a lot off of your grade for Gilda ep. For me on that part, learning exact names of pranks wasn't too detracting, but now I'm getting off-topic :modesty:

.

(?) · by **Headless Horse** (?) » Fri Jul 13, 2012 1:32 am

Yeah, exactly. During my loading dose watchthrough of the first season, all through the first few episodes I was all like "Okay show, don't belabor the exposition or I swear I'll"

...Who am I kidding. :ponydrugs:

(?) · by **Wayoshi** (?) » Fri Jul 13, 2012 3:06 am

And then it was an isolated case. :-P

It's funny how Morrow's bookend episodes are that (which many find to be in their top 10s - for me it's about on par with Read It and Weep, I dunno Gilda felt a bit inserted into the proceedings)... and freakin' Hurricane Fluttershy.

(?) · by **Headless Horse** (?) » Fri Jul 13, 2012 4:04 am

Morrow's definitely the Most Improved as far as I'm concerned (though Williams might give her a run for her money if she keeps on pace).

I wonder whether McCarthy will still be penning scripts in S3, now that she's Story Editor (I've heard people refer to her as Head Writer, so my guess is yes). I hope so; she seems like maybe the writer who's able to deliver classic mainline Pony most consistently. And ACW is definitely a showpiece for her range.

(?) · by **Bag of Magic Food** (?) » Fri Jul 13, 2012 4:46 am

Doctor Wheeze wrote:Ponies are colorblind. It's the ultimate irony

There might be evidence for Pinkie Pie being colorblind, at least. She couldn't match up the hair and feather colors correctly in "Mystery on the Friendship Express", and apparently she had to be told she turned gray in "The Return of Harmony"? But then Pinkie was able to sort cherries by color in "The Last Roundup", and it seems as if everyone can recognize rainbows.

Headless Horse wrote::twonk: "Ohmigosh! Her magic was a different color back then! Something's wrong!"

Twilight would be the one to say things like "Her wings evaporated into thin air!"

She probably picked it up from those other unicorns who say things like "Does that pony do anything except study? I think she's more interested in books than friends."

(?) · by **Crow** (?) » Fri Jul 13, 2012 4:58 am

As for leading the audience around, I'm fairly sure that was mostly because it was still an "ei" show in season 1. Season 2 does a lot less leading by the nose because it doesn't have to explain things like, "Hibernation is when bears eat a bunch of food and go to sleep for a long ass time, Spike"

(?) · by **Bag of Magic Food** (?) » Fri Jul 13, 2012 5:58 am

You mean there's no more E.I.? Ever? Darn, I wanted to think I was learning something. :saddash:

(?) · by **Headless Horse** (?) » Fri Jul 13, 2012 11:58 am

We're learning what anemometers are, and what "uncouth" means, and the difference between a turtle and a tortoise, and and and :-P

(?) · by **Bag of Magic Food** (?) » Sat Jul 14, 2012 12:04 am

But can you be just plain "couth"?

I bet freaking Strong Sad is just plain couth.

(?) · by **Headless Horse** (?) » Wed Jul 18, 2012 3:16 am

From FFT:

Wayoshi wrote:

This right here is one of those beautiful little moments that this show is just full of—there's so much natural emotion bound up in it that it never fails to make my eyes well up.

It's not that it's a scene that sounds maudlin or heavy in print; it's not a "Mufasa's death" kind of moment. It's just a silly little offhand action, something that's barely worth a second glance from a storytelling point of view, but that conveys a huge amount more weight than the sum of its parts. It's a coming-together of a whole lot of little factors that have built up over the course of the episode and, really of the entire show's worth of character development. In this one little instant, where Cadance's eyes light up in enjoyment and she reaches out and takes a second one of AJ's treats, it permanently explodes the version of the scene from the first part where fakeCadance was an ass about them, and it completely sells us on her as a nice, fun-loving person we'd all like to hang with.

It's one brief shot in a sequence of others that accomplish the same goal, and they're all warm and fulfilling in the same way; I especially like how Fluttershy's bird music seamlessly blends in to the background score (which is a huge part of why the AJ shot is so effective—it's a wonderful little montage with perfect music accentuating all the shots). But this one in particular just hits me a certain way—when she grabs that second treat, I just want to hug her for giving AJ the reaction she deserved the whole time. And meaning it.

(?) · by **Mechanical Ape** (?) » Wed Jul 18, 2012 3:47 am

Well, now I was inspired to watch the sequence again. You're right, Headless, it's great. If I may, I'd like to expand on your point. With, naturally, Rarity.

We all know that Rarity works hard on her projects. This shot illustrates how hard she's been working on Cadence's new dress -- the crinkly hair, glasses and measuring tape tell the story. And the room full of smiles tells the rest of the story. Rarity's effort has paid off and Real!Cadence is letting her know it. Our designing pony has just made a friend for life.

And here's where the sequence ends. With Twilight, the happiest of all. In this particular moment, maybe even happier than the bride and groom to be. (And not just because she completed her checklist! But partly that.)

This whole scene directly follows the defeat of Chrysalis and it's a wonderful, perfect way to bring the audience down after the danger and drama we've just been put through. Action and music combine efficiently, and beautifully, to say "everything's okay now".

Yep, that's Celestia's niece all right. :gotcha:

(?) · by **Headless Horse** (?) » Wed Jul 18, 2012 4:29 am

Each one of those little mini-scenes has Cadance making one of the Mane 6 completely and deliriously happy, just by appreciating them for doing what they do naturally.

There's nothing else she could have done to make me like her better, and no better way to cap off the season than by justifying all the characters' being exactly who they are. :allears:

(Fluttershy's shot being a callback to the very first episode of the show is particularly awesome in that regard.)

(?) · by **Wayoshi** (?) » Wed Jul 18, 2012 2:08 pm

It helps that the background music is jovial also. It's really the only time we see Cadance interact with the Mane 6 and also really the only depth to her character, which isn't a lot ("she likes AJ's food and Rarity's design and Fluts's animals and Pinkie's ... pinkie-ness"), but it's something we have to latch onto.

(?) · by **Yarma** (?) » Sat Jul 21, 2012 6:02 am

To sum it up: pink princess pony is best pony. (I liked the finale more than most of the episodes this season.) The first half of episode 25 was weak and I was groaning about all the stuff they had to tell us in a short amount of time. It's about the time fake cadence shows up that it gets good and it was a lot of fun. It had songs, fight scenes, and shaking butts at royalty. It's my new favorite non-rarity-centric episode.

(?) · by **Applepie** (?) » Thu Jul 26, 2012 2:18 pm

This right here is one of those beautiful little moments that this show is just full of—there's so much natural emotion bound up in it that it never fails to make my eyes well up.

One of the best parts of the episode.

So that's another piece of the ongoing Rarity/AJ dynamic, told through ridiculously subtle hints: Rarity is apparently always on AJ's case about her appearance, goading her into reluctantly keeping herself more presentable; the only reason AJ isn't wearing her hat during the ceremony is because Rarity would badger her if she did.

I hope for another AJ/Rarity episode again in Season 3.

(?) · by **Mechanical Ape** (?) » Thu Jul 26, 2012 4:26 pm

My headcanon says that if the Mane Six had managed to get the Elements of Harmony and use them on Chrysalis, it would only have made her more powerful. Concentrated friendship is like a super energy drink to a changeling. Nice work, girls!

The ponies would have the same problems as before, except Chrysalis is now 50 feet tall and shoots green lasers from her eyes.

At this point, there's only one course of action left.
Give all the wedding presents to Spike.
And stand back.

(?) · by **Discord** (?) » Tue Jul 31, 2012 5:58 am

So I happened upon an interesting discovery.

CR- the incrdible reviewer behind the My Little Pony Retrospectives and Reviews are Magic (RAM), actually has voiced his opinion about the finale a couple of weeks ago; in the form of guest starring in a "Let's Watch" with OtakuAscended, which are a duo that does watch-along commentaries of every episode.

Part 1- Episode 25- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9ZtksgFdJE&feature=plcp

Part 2- Episode 26- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRTeLOOV ... ure=relmfu

So he's not as detailed or as funny as in his retrospectives or Reviews are Magic, and since it's more of an informal thing his thoughts won't be as well-edited, but it's still interesting to hear the opinion of someone I, and I think some others, rather respect. The views and points made are quite interesting.

I don't know if he intends to do a RAM of the finale or not- he kind of missed a chance to strike with the iron hot on it. Its been a while since he's done one, but then who knows how frequently he really wants to put them out- given he is a guy of many tastes. On the other hand, I know he voiced his opinions on Mare-Do-Well in an interview not too long before he busted out his RAM of it, so :pinkieshrug:

Of course it comes with the guys at OtakuAscended too, and they speak as much if not more than him- but they're certainly not bad.

And what's CR's opinion?

He compares how much this finale bugs him with how much Mare-Do-Well bugs him :twonk:

(?) · by **Mechanical Ape** (?) » Thu Sep 27, 2012 4:00 pm

I kinda wish that it had turned out, when we finally meet Shining Armor, that his voice sounds exactly like Twilight's sandwich impression.

(?) · by **numsOic** (?) » Thu Sep 27, 2012 7:56 pm

That would be hilarious but it's not the kind of gravitas they were looking for, surely.

My Little Pony. Gravitas.

(?) · by **Pocket** (?) » Sat Nov 10, 2012 7:36 am

Watching this again on Synchtube, I noticed something. Does anyone remember how, in Lilo and Stitch, the blasts from the plasma guns look and sound more like blobs of glowing glop than beams of energy? Well, now pay attention to the scene after the Changelings break through the forcefield, when they start dive-bombing. Their impacts are very similar.

The Round Stable

S02E25 & 26: A Canterlot Wedding [SEASON FINALE]

Re: S02E25 & 26: A Canterlot Wedding [SEASON FINALE]

Who is online