People manage to create watercolour paintings, entire flash games, plush figurines, musical remixes and presumably cures for most forms of Cancer for the pony fandom in the time it takes me to complete my dot-point skeleton article.

The amount of writing I’m able to get done is swiftly dwindling, but nevertheless, let’s take a look at the two most recent episodes, Luna Nightmare and Sisterhooves.

LUNA NIGHTMARE:

One that many have been looking forward to for a LONG time, this episode really had its work cut out for it. It had alot to get done, it had to re-introduce two season one, bit-part characters, simultaneously tie them into the plot, have a newly re-designed Luna as the focus for the moral, and dress EVERY character in a costume. This is probably the episode that was being tweaked while the delay for Lesson Zero was buying time.

Not to mention it is jam packed with references. Jaws, Batman, and even Mortal Kombat all manage to sneak in here, as well as appearances by Derpy, Colgate (as a freaking dentist) and I’m pretty sure I even saw Octavia in a little devils outfit at one point.

The odds were stacked against it but honestly I don’t know why I’m surprised anymore at each episodes success. Everything about this show has been so well thought out before-hand that there just isn’t any room for mistakes anymore; they just don’t seem to be really happening.

Ok I could nitpick a few errors in pacing or the occasional hypocrisy in character development but on the whole I think it’s impossible for them to fail now. Eventually I’ll write an article about EXACTLY what works in the way the show is put together, and use some examples of other well written animated television such as the Batman series. Yo dawg, I’ll write about writing so you can read while you read. Aren’t you so glad I suck ass at video editing so I can’t do YouTube reviews?

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Now here we have Princess Luna…a character who by her very design is intended to be tragic but still somehow manages to turn it around for herself. Yes I know it’s pointless for me to expect an unhappy ending in this show, but the way a sad character turns their frown upside down is always realistic and logical, and usually succeeds because of its good old fashioned common sense simplicity.

Occam’s razor has always been an integral tool for storytelling in children’s television, and FIM is no exception. What it does differently (or should I say, more successfully) is in the way it HIDES its inevitable happy ending by having the odds truly stacked against the heroes. It really tries it’s best to put these characters in difficult situations, and the stress we feel from the expressions on their face and the panic in their voice really pays off. We end up thinking for a split second…”Holy crap, how the hell are they going to make THIS better within the next fifteen minutes?”

THIS simple story writing skill is right at the core of what made Luna Nightmare so great to watch. Add to that a sympathetic main character, some cute costumes, a cameo or two, and BAM! You’ve just written yourself a classic episode.

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Characters in Luna’s position have always been a favourite of mine to watch. The long-time career villain giving it their best shot to turn legit. How will their fumbling, clumsy attempt at living the straight life turn out? Will they reform and become better people? Return to their old ways? Make a compromise, or will it all take a tragic turn for the worse?

Obviously the latter can never happen in the MLP universe, but if you want a fantastic example of similar characters who lay all their cards on the table only to have them burst into flame before their eyes, then check out an episode from a show I mentioned just before: Batman The Animated Series.

The episode I’m spraying cheetah crumbs from my word hole about is called “Birds of a Feather”. In it, The Penguin just up and decides it’s time for him to start living legit, and he really means it. Like Luna, his new life begins shaping up for him quite nicely, but is ultimately doomed because of the very person he is. Unlike Luna’s realisation that the thing setting her apart from making friends could have been bringing them closer all along, Penguin learns the hard way that you might just have to live with the ugliness of who you are, and stop trying to convince yourself otherwise.

You’re ugly. No-one likes you. You are alone. Live with it.

Luna accepted her position but made good on what she had. Penguin didn’t.

This theme of living with your scars and soldiering on regardless is one I have yet to see tackled properly in any FIM episode. They glaze over it often by mentioning “acceptance regardless of strange personal quirks” and I guess Gilda kind of had to just accept that she wasn’t welcome anymore, but I have yet to see it really addressed head on. Oh well, at least with Luna Nightmare, we get to see the un-scarred side of that particular coin toss.

A grim episode, that has more positive attitude than many that came before it.

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SISTERHOOVES

This one was a refreshing return to normality. Compared to all the episodes of season two so far, the confrontation in this one feels more like minor annoyances than anything else.

I mean…episodes one and two of the new season, we had a dragon-goat-hybrid-demigod-thing poised to turn the whole of Equestria into a living freakshow carnival….episode three we had our main character and de-facto team leader having a nervous breakdown because she was potentially going to be sent away from her friends and…y’know…END the show…and episode four had a previous big baddie return and walk an increasingly tense fine line between new pal and vanguard of the apocalypse.

I mean….holy shit…..that ALOT of stress in four episodes….what the fucks going to happen in episode five?

Oh some sisters are squabbling? *PHEW* After everything that’s just happened who gives a flying turtle squirt? Let’s take ten minutes to sit back in the recliner and take a fucking break…..

Ok that didn’t make it any less entertaining, but it certainly feels a helluva lot less deal breaking than what we’ve just been through.

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Sisterhooves is an episode that has essentially given all future episodes the green light to have more family members of the mane character make an appearance. Slipping in Rarities parents is a nice little teaser of more family oriented story arcs to come, and I’ll eat my own shoe if there isn’t an episode focusing on child disobedience that uses Rainbow Dash as an example of kids who just want to be snarky little punks.

Regarding the episode itself however, Sisterhooves will obviously strike its strongest chord with audience members who actually have siblings. As a big brother to a little sister, I definitely got choked up at Sweetie Bells arts and crafts. The episodes real strength lies in creating familiar situations between squabbling siblings, so if your an only child you probably get more joy out of Rarities over-dramatising (which is only getting funnier by the way) than in the redemption and compromise of the conclusion.

The episode says you don’t HAVE to necessarily change who you are, I don’t think any episode has really outright stated that, but you do need to cave in every once in a while. The same lesson can be applied to any and all relationships.

Other than that there’s not a whole lot to say right now, other than it presents further evidence that Rarity is the most unsuited to her element of harmony. She seems to be the only one who needs to be consistently REMINDED that she is supposed to be embodying generosity. For me, this reduces the elements of harmony from integral character lynch pins to convenient props used to illustrate a point.

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And…..that’s all I think I have to say about these episodes for now. Again I apologize for how late all my articles are. By the time I get a chance to write them the episodes have been picked clean of discussion value, like a rat carcass in a piranha tank.

Soon I will be moving onto and commenting on other interests besides ponies. I’ll still be doing episode reviews, but I’ll also be trying to push out more content.

Why does the last bit of that sentence remind me of childbirth?