@applelight You have a manager who isn't an asshole and from you have told us might actually care. That's worth staying in my eyes. At the very least you should have another job lined up before resigning from your current one.

edited 23rd May '12 9:34:55 PM by stevebat

My only issue with season 2 is that it ended. And that means a summer with no new episodes.

What he said, unless it's really that unbearable.

edited 23rd May '12 9:36:55 PM by Chadaman99

@Applelight: Is there any other employment that you can seek? If it is really having that bad of an effect on you I seriously think you should consider quieting for real. By the way how long are these shifts? Same as the last ones?

@Mio: While exaggerating a characters personality for the sake of a joke once or twice is acceptable in my opinion, doing it nigh constantly isn't. I loved episode three despite the exaggerations because it was a novelty. They hadn't done anything quite like that before. Also, I find most everything after episode 4 to be mediocre although I loved Sweet And Elite (especially the song). The others episodes had their moments but they can't make me smile from beginning to end like S1.

@stevebat:

• 2: Point taken but the season openers and finales should focus on the entire Mane Six. Not just one of them.
• 3: Again, point taken. However, it wouldn't have killed them to extend the Beam-O-War a few more seconds to make it look like Celestia is actually winning.
• 4: I don't understand your first point and while the second is sort of true, I still don't like it.
• 5: Still doesn't mean I have to like it.

Ello everyone. Been playing Minecraft for the first time. *Squeaky smile*

I honestly think for many of the people who think season 2 is a drop in quality, it's merely the novelty having worn off. Season 1 was a beautiful oddity: an old, bad property that nobody expected to be good, and yet was one of the best things seen in recent years.

Season 2 was still excellent, but the glamour was no longer there because, well, we already knew it would be excellent. That's not to say there aren't valid reasons for disliking it; it had a different style and I wouldn't mind a return to the season 1 style now and again, but on the whole I found it just as good, merely different.

Anyways, I've been up long enough. More apartment hunting tomorrow, so I'm off to bed. Goodnight, folks.

A bit late, but re: Fluttershy Palette Swaps: Cupcake is particularly unique for a few reasons:

• She's the only toy line pony to get a Dub Name Change (to "Sugarcup")
• She has counterparts in G1, G2, and G3
• Of the toy line ponies, she's the only Palette Swap to be a different kind of pony than the one she's a Palette Swap of (and she came before any of the Pegasus Palette Swaps of Fluttershy)
• Of the five Fluttershy Palette Swaps, she's the only one who hasn't been a Rainbow Dash Palette Swap in the Blind Bags (she either hasn't appeared in them at all or has appeared as an Applejack Palette Swap named Sprinkle Stripe)
• Her color scheme is nearly the same as that of Princess Cadance (who she came before)

Between the birds and the freak occurrences that seem to have happened, Applelight, I'm sure you can pull through. Hell, I'm able to pull through in my part-time job at my mom's shop despite it being located in a city just off from the outskirts of Detroit.

More often than not, we're much stronger than we usually assume ourselves to be. Just don't quit.

@Zelenal

Well, I, for one, found most of your problems more or less justified. Of course, it's all subjective, and those things did happen in the finale. I just file a lot of it under Tropes Are Not Bad.

Remember the New Guy was explained adequately for me, aside from Cadence's exact origins. Considering what they managed to do characterization of what was most likely a character created solely to drive the merch, they did an amazing job. I know for a fact that when I lived away from home, I never exactly talked about my siblings to my friends unless they asked about them, so Twilight not mentioning her brother isn't exactly farfetched. The characterization on his end was great, too.

As for Twilight being the main character, rather than the group as a whole, it was pretty much necessary for the plot. The story was about her relationship with her brother and his fiance. While it's nice to have stories about the group as a whole, not having them doesn't detract from the stories in any real way.

While Celestia did suffer from the Worf Effect, she was facing something equal to or greater than the Elements of Harmony in raw power. I'd be more confused if she didn't lose. This also works into your problem with the Power of Love, which I guess comes down to preferences. To me, though, Friendship and Love aren't exactly separated by that much, and I don't see why a universe where friendship is a powerful force can't also have love as an equally powerful force.

I'll give you the foreshadowing, but it's likely that they had a lot of episodes planned out in advance when Hasbro decided to make the wedding a thing. Kinda hard to make a subplot work in to already established episodes without looking incredibly out of place.

Again, though, I can totally see why someone would take issue with some of these things. It's just that most people don't.

Edit: I have been ninja'd.

edited 23rd May '12 9:41:42 PM by PerpetualLurker

The shifts are twelve hours long, seven at night till seven in the morning.

If I had to relocate, I could easily get a job with the garbage trucks. My uncle is the north depo manager.

Yeah, most of the criticisms seem based on different tastes. I personally like a lot of the S2 plots more than S1 for example.

But I have to say that out of everything, Love being the solution to the problem didn't come out of nowhere. For one, we know that Shining Armor and Cadance are both powerful. With the mane six not able to use the elements, there isn't much that could be done to beat Chrysalis. The pair was the only thing there that could beat her.
And I actually noticed recently that there was actually a bit of focus on Love in the second season. Lesson Zero had the Want It, Need It spell, which I assume was a basic spell that put basically the whole town into a panic. Hearth's Warming Eve had the Fire of Friendship. Which, admittedly is based on friendship, not love, but showed how powerful emotional magic could be. Hearts and Hooves Day should be obvious. And to a lesser extent, A Friend in Deed had Cranky and whatshername.

Yeah, wall-rant of semi-relevant text that I had been thinking about for a while now, but haven't felt like posting.

Crackle sent me a comment for you guys.

*Ahem*
...
...
...
GWAH!

That is all.

No. No no no no no no no and no. There is no why the villain (because I can't remember her name) is more powerful than the Elements of Harmony. They are the strongest magic known to ponydom and if the can defeat Discord then they can defeat damn near anything.

How sweet of him. "Gwah!" right back atcha, Crackle.

I'm going to see which of your points about the finale I agree or disagree with.

(I've probably been ninja'd several times over, but whatever.)

• The very blatant Remember the New Guy. — Yup, I agree, it came of as "WTF, since when did Twilight have a brother?"
• The Mane Six are reduced to mere supporting rolls. — One, I like having fewer characters to focus on, because that tends toward deeper character/relationship development. Two, personally, I don't much mind the six not being the focus at all, possibly because I never really considered them to be central to the premise of the show. Heck, season whatever could suddenly have a Trixie episode, and I wouldn't mind one bit. Three, I'm not entirely sure how, but the two characters that were the focus of the episode felt sufficiently introduced (again, speaking for myself here) that I was pretty much cheering them on. Well, mostly Cadence, but you get the picture.
• Celestia was hit with The Worf Effect a little too hard. — I kind of agree, but I kind of also think this bit was forgivable.
• The way the villain was defeated was BS. — Love is one of the greatest manifestations of friendship. And I don't mean romance. Romance is hugging and kissing and scoodilypooping. Love is devotion and companionship and being together through good times and bad and compensating for each other's weaknesses. That aside, they could have done a better job of explaining why adding Cadence's magic suddenly makes Shining Armor's spell ten times more powerful.
• Celestia plays no role in defeating the villain. — See second point.
• None of the events were foreshadowed. — Honestly, I don't see why this is a problem (except for Twilight suddenly having a big brother out of nowhere). It's not like seasons are written around a Story Arc.

@Applelight: You would prefer to do that then the job you are doing now?

@Zelenal She was fueled by the very same Power of Love that managed to defeat her and all of her minions simultaneously. While it might not be greater than the Elements, it's has to at least be close.

edited 23rd May '12 9:45:31 PM by PerpetualLurker

I think the assumption is that Twilight learned Want It Need It from Cadence or created it while trying to imitate her.

Suddenly, I want to see a unicorn whose special talent is this "emotional magic".

Twilight? Potential master of all magic remember.

Well I gotta go to be see ya laters.

edited 23rd May '12 9:49:33 PM by Chadaman99

@Kyler

• At least most people seem to agree on that.
• Focusing on individual characters is what the other episodes were for. The opener and finale are to focus on all six of them at once.
• I wouldn't mind too much if it wasn't for everything else. However, it wasn't good enough to get that part a pass. Also, it still could have been executed better while still have Celestia loose.
• Except this wasn't platonic love. This was romantic love. Those two were getting married after all.
• See second point.
• If they did it in S1, why couldn't they do it in S2?

@ Mio

Twice the pay, no dealing with the public...but it's only a six month contract.

Also, the season 1 pilot was focused on Twilight too.

The pilot was an intro for the show.(duh derp)

Well for real, night.

If you have any comments on my story (assuming anyone reads it) please leave a comment or send me a PM. I'll make one more post here for when I've started the MLI page then I'm off. Not because of the difference in opinion, mind, I just have no reason to stick around and I don't have enough time to keep up with the herd.