S02E07: May The Best Pet Win!

[blonkAh, my ridiculously circuitous plan is two-four-six-eighths complete.]

I'd like to request the scene after the Tortoise's talent show where Fluttershy pokes her head out from behind the curtains, and then goes back in.
Maybe extend the time where there's just curtains for while so that it's not a head-banging session on the part of Fluttershy. If that's possible without too much work, that is.

Having re-watched the episode I can safely say that Fluttershy absolutely steals the show. The delivery in the "-tortoise" line above and her "yay?" at the end cement how well she can be utilized for humor, and I love it.

Also I think it's been touched upon, but did the animators change the look of the faces when viewed from the front? They seemed different in this episode or maybe we just aren't used to seeing them from that angle very often, but I thought it looked really good. There were some particular moments during the song where it stood out.

[WylieCIDER CIDER CIDER]

Having re-watched the episode I can safely say that Fluttershy absolutely steals the show. The delivery in the "-tortoise" line above and her "yay?" at the end cement how well she can be utilized for humor, and I love it.

Also I think it's been touched upon, but did the animators change the look of the faces when viewed from the front? They seemed different in this episode or maybe we just aren't used to seeing them from that angle very often, but I thought it looked really good. There were some particular moments during the song where it stood out.

It's that dimpled smile they're using this season. They've pretty obviously expanded their bag of tricks since last season- they've got the pony equivalent of particle effects that they can play with (i.e. Sonic Rainnuke, Fluttershy's kicking at the dirt/dust in the open of this episode, the little puffs of smoke that Pinkie Chicken leaves with her egg in that one scene, etc...), and they've been testing out lots of new faces. Lesson Zero was chock-full of one-off crazy faces, but it was supposed to be, so we didn't notice it right off. They obviously did some work on making ponies look cuter when viewed head-on. There's a few different options they have for that angle now.

[TyberiusPut'em up, put'em up!]

I really liked this episode even though the second I saw that there was a turtle, it would be him instantly and even called his name before Dash realized it. Tank is 20% cooler than all other pets in this show.

[BouncyPonySo.... you better Watch Out!]

Tank is 20% cooler than all other pets in this show.

Only because the bat wasn't chosen.

[PhoolCatKeep on Trottin']

It's that dimpled smile they're using this season. They've pretty obviously expanded their bag of tricks since last season- they've got the pony equivalent of particle effects that they can play with (i.e. Sonic Rainnuke, Fluttershy's kicking at the dirt/dust in the open of this episode, the little puffs of smoke that Pinkie Chicken leaves with her egg in that one scene, etc...), and they've been testing out lots of new faces. Lesson Zero was chock-full of one-off crazy faces, but it was supposed to be, so we didn't notice it right off. They obviously did some work on making ponies look cuter when viewed head-on. There's a few different options they have for that angle now.

I'm still not a fan of the head-on full-face blobby roundness shots, they still kinda creep me out.

…and speaking of, that turtle tortoise is totally representing the older fandom, creeping out the show makers with our stalking & creeping, until we demonstrait how loyal we honestly are to the show and gain acceptance in their eyes

[Chaos Sonic]

"That is soooooo 1991"

Rainbow Dash always dresses in style.

TWO DECADES LATE.

[HalfpastYellow]

It occurs to me that rocks put into slings are also called bullets, so quite possibly there are still no firearms in Equestria

[Dodger]

Applejack's misfortune, other than not having as many friends on staff as Rainbow, is that her element is one of the most roundabout ones to characterize.
I'd be interested in seeing her put in a situation where it actually mattered whether she lied or not: one where everyone does but her. Most characters (save her sister...) don't find the time to lie, so most of the time honesty is bit redundant.
If Applejack were some kind of default mediator or escrow pony, it would make more sense. Maybe two ponies want to arrange a business agreement, and they count on Applejack to hold things in escrow because she's the one everyone knows will keep true to her promise.

Maybe she'd be asked to watch over someone's trove of delicious, warm, flaky, wonderful apple pastries, and we'd watch an entire episode of her fighting the temptation to take a bite. I'd like that as an episode because it's a call back to a bird-eater's anonymous Sylvester the Cat cartoon I remember fondly, and because I'm a bit of a sadist. The freeze frame opportunities from that situation would be legendary.

The thing that bugs me most about Applejack apparently having the element of Honesty is that she -blatantly- lied to Rarity in Boast Busters. Rarity is freaking out about her hair and both Twilight and Rainbow Dash lie outright. Twilight says "Nnnothing." then Dash says "It's fine!" followed by Applejack, the element of Honesty saying "It's gorgeous." Not only is that outright lying, but it's flat out wrong and needless to do so. They could have easily had Fluttershy say it's gorgeous instead, with Applejack giving the honest "It's green." line, instead of Spike, but they didn't.

I'm sure there's probably other instances of Applejack lying, and yes you could argue that they're just "little white lies". It just seems, to me, like she should, at the very least be the one that always tells the truth, especially if it's a time when it's hard to do so because it might hurt someone's feelings. I mean you've even got Rainbow Dash, the one that has no filter between her brain and her mouth, lying to Rarity to make her feel better!

[Headless Horse]

The thing that bugs me most about Applejack apparently having the element of Honesty is that she -blatantly- lied to Rarity in Boast Busters. Rarity is freaking out about her hair and both Twilight and Rainbow Dash lie outright. Twilight says "Nnnothing." then Dash says "It's fine!" followed by Applejack, the element of Honesty saying "It's gorgeous." Not only is that outright lying, but it's flat out wrong and needless to do so. They could have easily had Fluttershy say it's gorgeous instead, with Applejack giving the honest "It's green." line, instead of Spike, but they didn't.

Heh, that's true. I guess they were trying to give Spike more of a focus in that scene and play him up as the one who's most actively pushing the "we gotta do something about Trixie" line, but it doesn't seem like it'd have hurt anything to have Applejack be the "honest" one there.

Still, I'm trying to picture that scene now with AJ saying "It's green!" ... and you know, having AJ be a character with an "always tells the truth" schtick actually feels really weird and uncomfortable somehow. I know it's just that we know her character really well by now and anything that departs from it will seem "wrong", but it seems to me that they've carefully made her into someone who's matter-of-fact and businesslike and a little bit harsh, but not under any kind of compulsion to Always Tell the Truth even in situations where it's not quite called for. It's like, it would almost go against the rest of her highly self-aware, well-socialized persona for her not to have control over that impulse or to not be able to even force herself to lie when it's the "appropriate" thing to do.

Going back to that Boast Busters scene, she's the one who yanks on Rainbow's chain when she's being classically tactless. (I love that scene so much; it was one of the earliest "I'm gonna fucking obsess over this show, aren't I?" moments.)

"Showin' off ain't cool, y'all."
"Yeah! 'Cause I'm the best anyway!"
*glare*
"Uh... yeah! Magic sucks!"
*glare more, because hey remember some of your friends do magic and stuff*
*stare with enormous eyes, like "What? What??"*

You know what I mean? It's like her "honesty" as conceived is really more of a moral-support/social coaching kind of thing than a "never tell lies" kind of thing. It's more that she'll tell you what you need to hear even when others are afraid to, whether it's to encourage you or to correct you—and even if it's not strictly true, as long as it gets you motivated or solves an immediate problem. It's more about honesty in spirit—maybe "openness" or "earnestness" would be a better word—than a simple inability to lie. (The latter feels more like a gimmicky quirk than a useful element of friendship in any case, doesn't it? It'd be like if they'd made Pinkie the Element of Telling the Future.)



E: So to follow-up itinerant nomad's point, I wonder if a story that really exercises Applejack's character wouldn't best be about some situation where someone's counting on her to keep her head on straight somehow, by being sure to tell her if she's getting too obsessed or whatever, but AJ finds she can't bring herself to do it because it means too much to whoever-it-is to be able to succeed. For the sake of argument, make it RD pushing herself to train for the Wonderbolts, and she's counting on AJ to tell her if her routine is up to snuff; and she works for weeks on some particular stunt, and it's up to AJ to tell her it's just not cutting the mustard, but RD is so obsessed with it AJ can't force herself to tell RD to cut it in favor of something else. That would be a failure of the kind of "honesty" that AJ really embodies, to me.

E: VV Oh sure, not saying "they should do this episode"; just putting together a straw-man situation to illustrate what I'm talking about. Hell, make it about Twilight working on her thesis. Can't you just hear her going, "Applejack! You were supposed to be honest with me! How could you let me spend so much time chasing this dead-end theory?"

[FightingDreamerBrony For Life]

...How do you find the time to write all this, man?

Still, I agree wholeheartedly with it. Although wouldn't that episode premise be a little similar to Sonic Rainboom since Fluttershy kind of found herself in the same position?

[kefkafloyd]

AJ already kinda-sorta did that in Suited for Success when she white lied about her dress to Rarity.

[AramekYour MRI results have shown total infection to now be approximately one fifth of the full mass of the tissue."So you're saying..."Your brain is about 20% tumor.]

white lied

Happy someone brought this up. It feels so damned odd when people claim that AJ "lying" counts against her element, but, really, white lies don't count as lies. It is terribly unreasonable to assume that they do, as that's only applicable in a very, very black and white world of stark morality. Using a DnD metaphor, claiming that what AJ does is "lying" is like a shitty DM taking away a Paladin's powers because "you told that dying villager that 'everything was going to be alright', even though you knew they were going to die."

Other examples of stuff that doesn't count as lying:

"Gee, Homer, that was the best darn Irshy and Patchy cartoon ever!"
"Aww, I wasn't hungry anyway."
"Your hair looks fine."

Etc.

[ArtificerGoes well with All Natural Milk Naturally Flavored with Natural Flavors.]

Countless, countless essays about why lying in certain cases is a good thing and death before lying is stupid.

Rainbow Dash's "She kind of IS a laughingstock." is honesty, yeah, sure. But that isn't the kind of "Honesty" you'd see as an Element of Harmony.

[Headless Horse]

Ha, true--it's like that one foreign dub (I forget which) that translated Pinkie's "Element of Laughter" as being essentially "Element of Mockery".


Also, regarding the dimpled smiles:

Adorable? Creepy? THE CHOICE IS YOURS TO MAKE.

Put me down for "creepy". I get some serious Uncanny Valley vibes from that face.

I'd rather they overuse than lean more heavily on this one going forward.

[Mr. BigBrush is mightier than pen.]

I have to say, the thick, colored outline makes their mouths look like human lips.

[Mechanical ApeThank you Sweetio!But your cutie mark is in another castle!]

Only because the bat wasn't chosen.

Aw, don't worry about the bat, he's gonna be fine. I hear Luna's cloak is offering internships...

[HollowThis place needs a miracle.]

If you really want to wonder what the heck you were thinking as a kid, go back and watch old He-Man and She-Ra episodes. I used to watch those religiously, and now I use them as sleep aides.

I still watch He-Man and She-Ra, they're only horrible if you expect too much from them. They're very campy shows, so you should put forth the same expectations from, say, the live-action Batman show.

Skeletor and Hordak are the reasons to watch them, though. They're competent for a few seconds, god bless 'em.

[shotgunbadgerBeing pressed into labor is fun, as long as the work is peppy!]

I'm sorry that rules, and if you disagree you suck.

[numsOic]

I like that expression, though I found this elsewhere and it's not entirely inapplicable:

[Headless Horse]

Blarg, I don't think the scrunching of the lower eyelid in the doctored shots on the right quite solves the problem.

Pony faces can look fine without a perfectly anatomically correct interaction of facial creases and folds. is a good example; it's pretty much physically impossible, yet it looks cute and attractive.

The observation is on point for animation art in general, but I don't think it quite has a handle on what makes those particular pony expressions weird.

(I say it's that it pretty much erases the implied 3D muzzle structure and looks like it's pasted onto a much wider, humanlike surface than is really available on a pony face. Normally you just have this narrow little muzzle to work with, which is why the tiny little smile is what you usually see.)

[kefkafloyd]

Unfortunately, the front-on faces in this visual style are just very hard to look "horsey."

[BartonFink]

I follow the logic of "smiles disconnecting from facial features are weird" (I'm pretty sure I saw this done with human faces on some site before), but the ones on the right still creep me out.

[reidransom]

Yeah, equine faces (even on giant basketball sized cartoon pony heads where they mimic human expressions) don't really work the same as ape faces, so you can't really follow the same logic. But there's still something weird about those smiles. Maybe it's just that it's a new sort of thing they're doing. I dunno, doesn't really bother me though. Just different.

[CuckooMy only regret is that I have Ponitis]

The uncanny valley thing is more from the design issue of the pony's forward view in the first place. It's just not easy to make such tiny snouts look equine from the front view, when from any other the perspective kind of indicates it.
I mean show this to someone who has never seen or heard of My Little Pony in their life (in order to do so, start your search under rocks) and they'd swear it was a pig.

The narrower smiles were cuter but this wider face shows more emotion. I don't mind it and didn't find it particularly unnatural as long as every single mouth movement isn't that wide - then it would just feel like a Fleischer cartoon.

[Scuderia FerrarityWhy?Because Twilight Sparkle. That's why.-- Twilight Sparkle]

:"Magic is impressive..."
:"But now Rainbow leads! Wings for Everyone!"


Baldur's Gate's greatest teammate has a site dedicated to him and his animal friend, that's still running 13 years after the game's release.
http://www.minscandboo.com/quotes.php
http://www.minscandboo.com/quotes/Magic ... essive.WAV

[Schwaumlaut]

So I doodled a few attempts at converting the dimpled smile full face perspective to a profile view:



The one on the upper right which I drew with guides is maybe a little too distorted, but I think the lower left is a reasonable take (maybe the snout is too big). It seems like trying to make a profile view from the full face and vice versa are pretty difficult. I dunno, maybe someone else will have more success at demonstrating it as a 3d structure than I did?

[Abby NormalGIFT TANK]

I still watch He-Man and She-Ra, they're only horrible if you expect too much from them. They're very campy shows, so you should put forth the same expectations from, say, the live-action Batman show.

Skeletor and Hordak are the reasons to watch them, though. They're competent for a few seconds, god bless 'em.

Hey, Adam West batman had a good reason to be campy. It was not only a product of the 1960s but was based off the comics from the Golden Age of DC. It had every right to be what it is while 80s He-man was just guilty of being made by Filmation around that time.
No show coming off direct influences like these would have been anything but Westian Batman.

As for this episode, did anyone bring up how surprisingly willing Fluttershy was with leaving her animals in the care of someone as as Rainbow Dash? Especially taking part in a potentially dangerous race to be her pet? I know it’s important for ponies and animals to be friends and all - but Dash isn't exactly the safest creature to be around.

[Headless Horse]

Between Dragonshy and Sonic Rainboom, the two of them kinda talk about each other behind their backs a lot. That's an interesting dynamic if they decide to try to perpetuate it; there might have been a chance here if there was a slack second (and if it beat out establishing that Winona has bad dog breath).

[Ashenai You're dorkin' up the skies, Twilight Sparkle.]

Unfortunately, the front-on faces in this visual style are just very hard to look "horsey."

I remember doing a double take way back when I saw Pinkie's face front-on in the S1 pilot, during her Giggle at the Ghostie song. I'm pretty used to the front view now, though, they no longer look weird to me. When I first watched May The Best Pet Win I thought Flutters and Dash looked different in that shot, but I kind of liked it. Those silly grins are fun and expressive, I don't really get the problem with them.

[stonecutterOne-trick Pony]

Hey, Adam West batman had a good reason to be campy. It was not only a product of the 1960s but was based off the comics from the Golden Age of DC. It had every right to be what it is while 80s He-man was just guilty of being made by Filmation around that time.

That show would've been so different if the network execs had chosen Lyle Waggoner.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vpl-eO6Tik

[DarkMatter]

I, for one, love the dimples.

[brakelessA pegasus will fly long and hard for a bit of gilded brass.]

They're kinda freaky in freeze frame, but adorable in motion. They make RD and Fluts look so enthustiastic.

[NightthreeVote Brain Gummy Party 2012]

So, who set up these obstacles for Tank? Was it Fluttershy? She does pop out from behind the curtain a second later. Where does a pony even get a guillotine?

[Herr Generalfabulous]

So, who set up these obstacles for Tank? Was it Fluttershy? She does pop out from behind the curtain a second later. Where does a pony even get a guillotine?

So they have executions in Equestria? Perhaps it's not entirely the wonderful place it's made out to be.

[numsOic]

That is obviously a fruit cutter.

[Herr Generalfabulous]

That is obviously a fruit cutter.

Or a bagel slicer!

[shotgunbadgerBeing pressed into labor is fun, as long as the work is peppy!]

Things ponies know:

Bullets
Tanks
Guillotines

So uh, hey Celestia how'd you guys get power from Discord again?

[ozonethe ride never ends]

Some guy on Reddit wrote a ponified version of the French revolution to explain it:

Yes. The Fancy Revolution started innocuously enough. Fance was bankrupt, given its generous support of the United States of Amareica's war of independence from the kingdom of Great Breedain. The Fancy King called a meeting of the Equestriates-General to reform its system of taxation. However, backed by the volatile ponytariat (referred to at the time as sans-fers-à-cheval, as Karl Marex was yet to be born), the Third Equestriate took control of the new National Jackassembly. Following the storming of the Buckstille, the left hoof of the Jackassembly (often referred to as the Mountagnards) began to marginalize the rest of the Third Equestriate. Looking to Amareica as an inspiration, they passed the Declaration of the Rights of Pony and the Citizen and adopted the slogan Liberte, Egalite, L'Poney. Under the influence of demagogues like Mareat, they imprisoned, deposed, and eventually executed the King of Fance--who had brought them together in the first place.

Following this, the Kingdom of Great Breedain, the Prancipality of Equestria, the Holy Ross-an Empire, the Kingdom of Pferdssia and even the distant Czebra Paul I of Stripeberia in turn declared war on the new Fancy Republic. The frightened Jackassembly morphed into the Damrectory, a paranoid military dictatorship led by the "incorruptible" Robesponey. Their campaign of arbitrary arrest, show trials, and public execution became known as the "Rein of Terror." Beset by murderous paranoia at home and wars of unprecedented scale on multiple fronts abroad, the once-inspirational Fancy Revolution became a brutal bloodbath lasting until the defeat of Emperor Naponeyon I twenty years later on the outskirts of Leapzig and, ultimately, on the famed fields of Whinnyloo. The Galloptine (named after its inventor) is now across the world a symbol of arbitrary and final terror, perhaps the most memorable image of an great and awful upheaval started and maintained by ponies trying only to do the right thing.

26 horse puns all together.

[Herr Generalfabulous]

Things ponies know:

Bullets
Tanks
Guillotines

So uh, hey Celestia how'd you guys get power from Discord again?

Don't forget a song that is pretty much exclusively played while helicopters murder everything in a rain of steel.

[shotgunbadgerBeing pressed into labor is fun, as long as the work is peppy!]

So Celestia murdered the fuck out of whatever race Discord made didn't she?