My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club

[DigoDragon]

King of the Ponies? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi2iJfyllgI

Not bad. :3

Did...did she just make Spike a sex-bot?

I don't know. I don't wanna know. I'm going back to the safety of my ships.

Spoiler

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Shake Things Up - Might be the worst song in the show/movies.

Spoiler: My Take

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Quite the opposite for me! I actually love this beat and have already gotten the MP3 for it. <3

AJ apparently works for Planet Smoothie. Nice.

[Manga Shoggoth]

EDIT: I'm watching an Asterix cartoon, and this line just made me crack up;

"Brutus stop playing around with that knife, you'll hurt someone."

I assume you have read the books, then. They're full of that sort of stuff.

[Forum Explorer]

I assume you have read the books, then. They're full of that sort of stuff.

Yeah, but it's been a very long time since I read any of them, and they are very hard to find.

Spoiler: Getting Cuddles

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Spoiler: Did Pinkie plan that?

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Spoiler: Cadence's Regret

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[zimmerwald1915]

Spoiler: Fame and Misfortune

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Careful there, fandoms are like snails. Pour that much salt on them and they might just shrivel up and die.

Which would not be a bad thing for anyone involved, actually, as the episode points out. So er, carry on then!

[Aotrs Commander]

Whelp. Earlier than expected morning (since niece arrived early) and a long day session done. After all that effort in working out the silver mining, the PCs never used Unholy Water after all that! Still, we got to the end of the quest in a reasonable time, and with open-ended quests like the Dark Lord's Balck Ops, it's difficult to guage how long it will take. The combats that occurred were barely anything to speak of, as normal, most it was roleplaying and investigation.

The dragon's player unexpectedly made it (he'd said he couldn;t make it up the plan chagned this morning), and it was very good for everyone since he helped enormously. All in all, a good day.

A roundabout tip-of-the-hat to Digo, since I can't remember what the offhand comment he made months and months ago was (must have been something about viruses or something), but it was that that inspired the game!



Gonna leave pony until tomorrow, though, I think, I'm pretty knackered now. (We must have done the better part of eight hours straight, with seven players, since we started late (lunctime) and ran on until about eight.)

Yeah, but it's been a very long time since I read any of them, and they are very hard to find.

Really? That surprises me, since I never had any trouble. Perhaps its just they get re-printed much more often in Europe.

[Forum Explorer]

Whelp. Earlier than expected morning (since niece arrived early) and a long day session done. After all that effort in working out the silver mining, the PCs never used Unholy Water after all that! Still, we got to the end of the quest in a reasonable time, and with open-ended quests like the Dark Lord's Balck Ops, it's difficult to guage how long it will take. The combats that occurred were barely anything to speak of, as normal, most it was roleplaying and investigation.

The dragon's player unexpectedly made it (he'd said he couldn;t make it up the plan chagned this morning), and it was very good for everyone since he helped enormously. All in all, a good day.

A roundabout tip-of-the-hat to Digo, since I can't remember what the offhand comment he made months and months ago was (must have been something about viruses or something), but it was that that inspired the game!




Really? That surprises me, since I never had any trouble. Perhaps its just they get re-printed much more often in Europe.

Sounds like a fun game.


They are never in my local bookstores at least. At this rate I'll have to order them from the UK to get them.

[Alabenson]

Spoiler: Fame and Misfortune

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Careful there, fandoms are like snails. Pour that much salt on them and they might just shrivel up and die.

Which would not be a bad thing for anyone involved, actually, as the episode points out. So er, carry on then!

Spoiler: Fame and Misfortune

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Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what to think of this one. Yes, they were lampooning the fandom fairly viciously, but it seemed like they were specifically targeting the more relentlessly critical aspects of it. Also, I do have to give them credit for taking a swipe at Hasbro as well for using the show as a toy commercial (see Twilight's comments to the Cutie Mark Crusaders that the book was supposed to be about friendship and not marketing).

Overall, I think I'll need some more time to form a concrete opinion.

[digiman619]

Spoiler: Fame and Misfortune

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One of my crietia for a good episode is "would I watch it again?". I don't think this one qualifies. I get that it was a Take That at the audience, but it seemed a tad too mean. It's not Return of Slade mean, but I don't think I'll ever feel the need to watch it again, and it's only okay.

I do wish that they would have included it in the international "previews", as this would have been way easier to end the pre-hiatus on rather than The Perfect Pear

[zimmerwald1915]

Spoiler: Fame and Misfortune

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Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what to think of this one. Yes, they were lampooning the fandom fairly viciously, but it seemed like they were specifically targeting the more relentlessly critical aspects of it. Also, I do have to give them credit for taking a swipe at Hasbro as well for using the show as a toy commercial (see Twilight's comments to the Cutie Mark Crusaders that the book was supposed to be about friendship and not marketing).

Overall, I think I'll need some more time to form a concrete opinion.

Oh hey, do you have a new story out?

[Aotrs Commander]

Sounds like a fun game.


They are never in my local bookstores at least. At this rate I'll have to order them from the UK to get them.

Ah, yes "bookstores." We have dismissed that claim.



Seriously, I haven't bought a book from an actual shop for years¹ - that might be part of the problem (I buy pretty much everything from Amazon now). Waterstones (at least over here) always used to have a fair few.



¹Given as I don't have any reason to actually go into town to ANY shops, about the only brick-and-mortar store I purchase anything from tends to be disposable for supermarkets. 99.9999% of any shopping I do is online nowadays.

[Forum Explorer]

Ah, yes "bookstores." We have dismissed that claim.



Seriously, I haven't bought a book from an actual shop for years¹ - that might be part of the problem (I buy pretty much everything from Amazon now). Waterstones (at least over here) always used to have a fair few.



¹Given as I don't have any reason to actually go into town to ANY shops, about the only brick-and-mortar store I purchase anything from tends to be disposable for supermarkets. 99.9999% of any shopping I do is online nowadays.

There's something about bookstores, particularly used bookstores, that make me deeply, immeasurably happy.

Spoiler: Bookhorse

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[Aotrs Commander]

There's something about bookstores, particularly used bookstores, that make me deeply, immeasurably happy.

Spoiler: Bookhorse

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Don't get me wrong, a Proper Bookshop (i.e. one that is filled floor to ceiling with every space) is a nice thing to visit (there is - or was - one that properly felt like L-Space in a town near us). But I find these days that I tend to just get books I specifically know I want, rather than browsing. And add to that the fact that I only buy actual books for holidays and highdays. (Principally because I read sufficiently voraciously that either I would run out of pennies and space otherwise. This is a large part of why I read so much fanfiction. Also, as with say, Eddings, when I do read books, other things can tend to go somwehat to the wayside.)

[t209]

And just happened to talk with my Discord friends on Ponies, which they were upset about Brony fandom ruining everything. Even she can't let her kids look it up on google without any erotic pictures. Even on safe search, she says.
That happened to be the same time I was watching My Little Pony episode that had creepy side on Brony fandom.

[Forum Explorer]

Don't get me wrong, a Proper Bookshop (i.e. one that is filled floor to ceiling with every space) is a nice thing to visit (there is - or was - one that properly felt like L-Space in a town near us). But I find these days that I tend to just get books I specifically know I want, rather than browsing. And add to that the fact that I only buy actual books for holidays and highdays. (Principally because I read sufficiently voraciously that either I would run out of pennies and space otherwise. This is a large part of why I read so much fanfiction. Also, as with say, Eddings, when I do read books, other things can tend to go somwehat to the wayside.)

See I kinda do that. But I'll usually end up picking up an extra half dozen books, regardless. So it's still well worth it for me to go to the bookstore.

Also my library has literally emailed me when I didn't go there frequently enough.

[zimmerwald1915]

Also my library has literally emailed me when I didn't go there frequently enough.

Being perpetually under a budget knife and operating under a stigma that the services you provide are for people too poor to afford broadband will do that to an institution.

[Toastkart]

Spoiler: fame and misfortune

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I'm kind of with you guys. It was a pretty forgettable episode. Except for the song, I really liked that.

[SKarious]

Hey, a new episode at last. No Australian shenanigans this time. Let me check it out.

Spoiler: Season 7 episode 14 - Fame and misfortune

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Ooooo-kay. That was not what I expected.
Let's be honest here, I'm a pretty optimistic pony-fan. I can find something nice to say about pretty much any episode. Even ones like "Mare-do-Well" or those with the annoying teenage dragons. But I have really mixed feelings about this one. I'm not happy being made fun of, and I'm pretty sure many fans feel the same way.
This episode is "Slice of Life" done wrong, in my opinion. I say it's edging close to that "This one has morals" episode of Teen Titans Go!
And that's just out-of-show. In-show, the characters' personalities are being flattened again (except Fluttershy, who shows her assertiveness in a very awesome scenes), Twilight (the smart one) has the worst idea since "Lesson Zero", the background ponies are unbearable, and how could any pony possibly dislike Rarity for her actions is beyond me.

Towards the end of the episode I was really hoping this would be the one time Starlight would be justified in mind-wiping all of Ponyville.

Song was very good, though. well-shot and catchy. (But even this couldn't heal anything. Again, both in- and out-of- show)
I don't think this one is going on my rewatch list.
But feel free to explain to me anything I've missed. I want to keep liking this show, but this episode makes it hard.

Um, yeah. Let's see what the next episode has in store.

[Alabenson]

Spoiler: S7E14

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After watching the episode a second time, I think part of the biggest problem I have with it is the fact that it couldn't seem to decide whether to take itself seriously. The basic premise, that ponies misinterpret the lessons of the journal or miss the point entirely, could have worked, but the episode got bogged down in its fixation on poking fun at the fans of the show.
In several cases the reactions of the ponies don't make sense in the context of the show, which weakens the overall satire.
And unfortunately this problem extends to the episodes song, which I felt was not only the high point of the episode but a fairly good song on its own. The issue with the song is that it doesn't really speak to the issue at had in the episode, as most of the issues the Mane 6 were having didn't really stem from ponies demanding that they be perfect.

Overall, despite a great song and some very funny moments I think the episodes attempts at satirizing the fandom really dragged it down into a confused mess.

[DigoDragon]

Spoiler: Fame and Misfortune

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That's a good question. Why does it take Fluttershy so many times to learn one lesson.

Eh, it was a bit lame of an episode. Had some funny prodding at parts of the fandom, but it's just a one chuckle wonder at the end of the day. The song was probably one of the first times I got so bored of it that I got up to go put laundry in the dryer. Interesting that at the end they don't resolve the issue of the arguing crowds. Status quo not reestablished? Huh.

Spoiler: Did Pinkie plan that?

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Yes, I'm positive she did. :3

Spoiler: Fame and Misfortune

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Careful there, fandoms are like snails. Pour that much salt on them and they might just shrivel up and die.

Which would not be a bad thing for anyone involved, actually, as the episode points out. So er, carry on then!

Spoiler: F&M

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I think the fandom has been on the decline for a bit, so the salt shower may just go unnoticed.

Apple Samus

Spoiler

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Trixie!

Spoiler

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[Pendulous]

Spoiler: new episode

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Not only has Fluttershy not had to learn the same lesson over and over, it wouldn't matter because being meek is a part of who she is, and changing herself would imply there's something wrong with her.

The episode was fine, but the fact it didn't have a resolution at the is worrisome.

[b_jonas]

Hi, guys. Yes, used book stores are awesome, it's great to be around so many books, and the owners are generally friendly. And yes, you can't buy all the books you want. I already have too many books, there's a lot I have to get rid of, even some I've bought myself. There are a lot of books I can just borrow from libraries, read in libraries, or hardcovers you can read in a book store. But there are also many books that I don't want to buy and would want to read in libraries instead, but they're not available anywhere.

So, I know E14 is out, and I may watch it later today, but I want to quickly watch the new Equestria Girls 5 shorts now. (They're called “summertime shorts”, but that's sort of redundant, because why would I wear shorts during the winter?)

I'd already watched the first five earlier, but they were short and didn't leave too much impression in me, so I didn't bother to comment. I don't like the song (“Mad Twience”) at all. The dancing one (“Raise This Roof”) is probably the best.

Now for the new ones. The first three are not too new but I'm just going to spoiler all this anyway.

Spoiler: EG5 shorts

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“Monday Blues” is certainly better than the previous song. Best short this season so far. “Pet Project” is nothing special. In “Subs Rock”, when Principal Celestia said “Twilight, you're in charge 'til I return.”, I was expecting Twilight would just continue teaching the class. In the recently released short “Shake Things Up!”, the animation where Applejack juggled the two lemons in one hand looked strange.

[Deadly]

Spoiler: Fame and Misfortune

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I wasn't too bothered by it, but I do agree it felt a bit too unfairly pointed. I suspect the people working on the show (sometimes) get a lot of fanatical fans tweeting at them complaining and whining unreasonably, and so it's understandable that they might feel a bit like the ponies in this episode sometimes (M.A. Larson perhaps more than most due to the whole Princess thing), but I think it also makes it difficult for them to see and understand the more moderate fans like us here in Ponythread who may critique and nitpick a ton without being fanatical or rude about it. We still love the show and respect its creators, but we also think it's fair and even fun to nitpick sometimes.

Didn't Stranger than Fanfiction deal with this issue of quibbling fans, too though?

But I did like the lesson of the song very much: that it's okay to be flawed and not get everything right.

Overall I enjoyed it, though it might prove to be largely forgettable.

[zimmerwald1915]

Oh don't even pretend like we're among "the good fans," Deadly. There is no such thing. Fandom is a seedy place that eats at the heart of anyone involved in it, that thrives by preying on addictive personalities, and that promotes the worst sorts of subculture. We should all be ashamed of ourselves, at all times, for constitutional and unchangeable reasons.

Jack London was wrong; the fan is truly the lowest slinker on this not-green-for-much-longer Earth.

[Deadly]

Oh don't even pretend like we're among "the good fans," Deadly. There is no such thing. Fandom is a seedy place that eats at the heart of anyone involved in it, that thrives by preying on addictive personalities, and that promotes the worst sorts of subculture. We should all be ashamed of ourselves, at all times, for constitutional and unchangeable reasons.

Jack London was wrong; the fan is truly the lowest slinker on this not-green-for-much-longer Earth.

I struggle to understand your pessimism re the show and its fandom. I hope I'll never share it.

[zimmerwald1915]

I struggle to understand your pessimism re the show and its fandom. I hope I'll never share it.

I went to a convention once and wasn't run out of town on a rail. By Groucho's Law, that's all I need to know to write off the whole kit and caboodle.

[b_jonas]

It's great reading in the comments how for each of the three song shorts, there's someone who liked that the best.

Now for the new episode, S7 E14. As always, I record my own thoughts first, then read your posts about it.

Spoiler: S7 E14

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Let's watch S7 E14 Fame and Misfortune

• Toola Roola? They seriously named a canon pony with speaking lines Toola Roola? That's one of the unused names of the mane characters from MLP G3, the other one being Starsong.
• Oh! Look how quickly those two foals changed. So Twilight is willing to cast mind magic too, as long as the camera doesn't see her. If Starpony finds out about this…
• Wow, if even Applejack thinks the book is in a bad condition, it must be. The on-screen sprite didn't look that bad. I hope Twi won't go overboard and publish it in some really fancy form, like you know, dragon hide cover and thick high quality paper, because then only the people who never read it will buy it.
• Starlight has a book copying spell? Wow! There's no end to how much great useful magic she can do.
• There's a bookstore in Ponyville? Why have we never seen that yet?
• Oh! A long queue of foals. It will be a book signing, right? Also, Twist is talking with a foal other than Truffle Shuffle. They aren't respecting the one true ship!
• Ah, there's Tornado Bolt, standing right next to Scootaloo. I was expecting she'd turn up, with this many foals around. Also, (Apple Bloom) “The friendship journal's makin' us super popular!” Oh no. Twilight Time again.
• Twilight signs a page in the middle? That's unusual… but maybe she knows what she's doing and deliberately opening the book at the right place? One can only hope.
• Um… that's not how mint condition works, I think. If you let Twilight open it and sign it, it's no longer in mint condition anymore.
• I didn't think Rarity was so easy to insult, after all the shows he's went through. But maybe she's just having fun playing the drama queen.
• “I'm gonna have a chat with these two.” Oh come on, Starlight. That's a bad idea.
• And Pinkie signs on the hard cover? That's even weirder.
• Oh no. The fans have found Fluttershy. In the previous parts the mane six were just overreacting and having too high expectations from publishing a book, especially Twilight, but this here with Fluttershy cowering might get serious.
• Ok, Fluttershy got out of it fine. Good for you, Fluttershy.
• Wait, what's Applejack's problem? It seems like everypony is buying apples, cider, apple pies, and other products from Sweet Apple Acres. They've been selling those products directly to ponies before, and wished to sell more. And Twilight is still overreacting.
• If they have to run away from the stalking fans, Rarity does it in a stylish way.
• “Wait here! I've got an idea!” Quick, publish a terrible sequel. You can probably at least get people stop buying Applejack's products that way. Although I don't see why Applejack suddenly became unable to deal with all this. She didn't do this bad in S2 E15.
• “Twilight was better before she got wings!” Haha, now they're teasing the fans even more directly than they used to.
• Dunno. This episode just doesn't have it together. It doesn't work for me.

[Deadly]

I went to a convention once and wasn't run out of town on a rail. By Groucho's Law, that's all I need to know to write off the whole kit and caboodle.

I see. So you loathe yourself, and so anyone who would welcome you as a friend must, in your mind, be as despicable as you. Yes, I seem to recall you had a discussion with Thanqol about this not too long ago.

And where did this self-assessment come from? I seem to recall you being more positive a few seasons ago.

[b_jonas]

Spoiler: S7 E14

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and how could any pony possibly dislike Rarity for her actions is beyond me.

Spoiler: S7 E14

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The strange part isn't how they hate Rarity, or any one of those reactions alone. They strange part is how everyone seems to have such uniform ideas. In real MLP fandom, most episodes get mixed reactions, there are viewers who see things in different ways. Here, everyone hates Rarity (or so Rarity thinks), everyone thinks Fluttershy isn't learning her lessons, everyone laughs at Pinkie Pie, everyone thinks Rainbow Dash is awesome (well she is, but still), everyone goes to eat apple products and tries to become part of Applejack's family. There's no arguments among the fans, not even differing opinions. It's so unrealistic. It's like Starlight put some serious mind magic over the books for directing the readers how they have to react. They handled fans much better in S6 E13.

[zimmerwald1915]

I see. So you loathe yourself, and so anyone who would welcome you as a friend must, in your mind, be as despicable as you. Yes, I seem to recall you had a discussion with Thanqol about this not too long ago.

And where did this self-assessment come from? I seem to recall you being more positive a few seasons ago.

Couldn't tell you. It just seemed self-evident one day.

[zimmerwald1915]

Spoiler: S7 E14

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The strange part isn't how they hate Rarity, or any one of those reactions alone. They strange part is how everyone seems to have such uniform ideas. In real MLP fandom, most episodes get mixed reactions, there are viewers who see things in different ways. Here, everyone hates Rarity (or so Rarity thinks), everyone thinks Fluttershy isn't learning her lessons, everyone laughs at Pinkie Pie, everyone thinks Rainbow Dash is awesome (well she is, but still), everyone goes to eat apple products and tries to become part of Applejack's family. There's no arguments among the fans, not even differing opinions. It's so unrealistic. It's like Starlight put some serious mind magic over the books for directing the readers how they have to react. They handled fans much better in S6 E13.

Spoiler: Fame and Misfortune

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Don't be so myopic. Each criticism is associated with a clear and visually-distinct group of ponies, not all the criticisms are voiced by everyone at once. Each group, however, persists in voicing it's criticism all at the same time as the others, and nobody leaps to their favorites' defense verbally (except Rainbow's fans). The defense is all marked by signage and other paraphernalia.

So while it can seem that everybody's bandwagon on every critique all at once, that's really not what's happening.