>>12671
I love the windy panning transition shot we get of Canterlot, zooming in through Celestia’s window as she paces. Celestia explains the history of Discord and that he has returned to the Mane Six, and she states that Discord ruled Equestria prior to her and her sister sealing him away, which is an interesting detail. Discord subjugated the ponies that had migrated into Equestria fleeing the Windigos, and for how long is uncertain, but for a generation that lived through the political instability of the feuding pony tribes, the migration, the Windigos, and the rule of Discord, I can very easily see why Celestia and Luna came to be so revered. If we include later seasons, we get some other interesting correlations – when Shining Armor and Cadence have their daughter, Celestia says that an Alicorn has never been born before, suggesting she and Luna, like Cadence and later (for better or worse) Twilight, became Alicorns rather than were born as Alicorns (which might help explain their association with Starswirl the Bearded, if they had formerly been unicorns, particularly if they were unicorn nobility which would go some way in explaining the survival of the preexisting unicorn aristocracy all the way into present day Equestria). Also, earlier in season one, Celestia mentions that she recalls getting her cutie mark. Both these events would be particularly intriguing to me if they were occuring simultaneously to Discord’s subjugation of the ponies. Not only then would we have this entire generation of ponies knowing nothing but misery after being driven out of their original homelands, but we would also have Celestia and Luna in a sort of exile, learning from Starswirl as a mentor, and seeking to gain their cutie marks, become Alicorns and acquire the Elements of Harmony so that they could overthrow Discord. The fact that Hearth’s Warming Eve celebrates the defeat of the Windigos at the hooves of some more minor historical figures rather than the overthrow of the tyrant Discord by Celestia and Luna demonstrates, if any of what I have just outlined comes close to what might have really happened, an astounding degree of humility on the part of Celestia: frankly, I would consider the overthrow of Discord (again, assuming that what I outlined is how it all really lines up) to be much more the ‘real’ founding of Equestria.

Celestia explains why the Mane Six have to use the Elements to stop Discord instead of her, and we get a neat moment where Celestia uses her horn to open the lock on Canterlot Tower. The build-up, and the Elements of Harmony being missing, followed by Discord gloating in the stained glass windows is a perfect introduction to him. I’m going to have some criticisms to make of Discord and how he is handled, even here at the outset, as we go on. But for now, in this scene, he is handled and presented perfectly, plus, in concept I think he is a great villain. I’d imagine that there has been a fair bit made of Discord saying to Celestia “but I don’t turn ponies into stone”, however in the opening scene Cheerilee referred to Discord as having “the head of a pony”, so I think perhaps at this stage Discord is referring to himself as a pony, in the sense of the word ‘anypony’ or ‘everypony’. And in fact, Rainbow Dash then pipes up straight after with “Hey! Nopony insults the Princess!”. So in the same scene, we have had both Discord and Dash use the word ‘pony’, and Dash was using the word to refer to Discord, and earlier Cheerilee used it to refer to Discord, so if Discord says to Celestia that unlike her, he does not turn ponies into stone (and we know that Discord was turned into stone, so he is clearly on some level referring to himself), should we not then assume that he could be using the word ‘pony’ in the same way as it has been being used elsewhere in the episode to refer to him too? Cheerilee does also state that he is a ‘Draconequus’, to be fair, but even there, unicorns and pegasi are still ponies.

>>12673
I am not arguing that Discord is a pony as such, but I do think that at least as this episode is written, Discord appears to be being treated as a sort of pony-god. Or, rather, since we don’t really have concepts of divinity present in the show, he is rather a powerful entity equivalent, but opposite, to an Alicorn (also a type of pony). A sort of corrupted reflection of Celestia, as it were. In fact, Discord acts more or less as fandom has liked to humorously depict and theorise Celestia acting, interestingly enough, down to being a tyrant when he ruled Equestria. So he works quite well as Celestia’s ‘dark side’, I think. Incidentally, I recall John de Lancie saying that when he started getting emails about his work on the show from fans, he didn’t initially recall having even done voicework for the show, which I find easy to believe both because I’m sure he was running around doing all sorts of work at the time, but also because frankly… He doesn’t sound like he’s giving it his A-game in this episode. The evil chuckle during the opening scene, and the monologue to the ponies here, both sound half-hearted and disinterested to me.

As the Six approach the maze, where Twilight believes Discord has hidden the Elements, Discord removes the wings of Dash and Fluttershy, and the horns of Twilight and Rarity, then explains the rules of his game so that there’s no cheating. This is where I begin to take issue with how Discord has been written. He’s set on preventing cheating, but then goes on to cheat himself: I understand that he is chaotic and does not adhere to the rules of others, but given that this is the case, he could easily just not give the Six any chance to get the elements and just take over Equestria. Discord is perhaps not motivated by things like that, instead acting purely for his own amusement, in which case the actions of the Six are what he’s interested in, thus why he’s toying with them. But what he’s about to do, discording five of them and overriding their will to make them into their opposites, totally contradicts this as well. So on two counts, Discord is already being used very sub-optimally, which is a great shame because there are practically infinite possibilities for how you could use him as a villain, endless ideas of fun obstacles he could create or present. I would even go so far as to say that I think both are also out of character for what we have seen so far. Given Discord’s primary motivation of amusing himself, and his self-professed fondness for ‘laughter’, I would say that far more in line with his powers, motivations and character would be for him to have a sense of fair play about his games. That is to say, he objects to the rules of reality, but not to rules in general, and that he ought to be twisting the natural order of things by putting the rules of his game above other rules, not by ignoring rules altogether. That is not to say he should feel totally bound by his rules, but to instantly break them, in spirit at least, is silly in my opinion. Discord strikes me as a bad loser and someone who bends the rules, but he does not strike me as a cheat, especially since he is exceedingly powerful (the most powerful being we have yet seen in the show, and theoretically the most powerful that we EVER see) and exceedingly powerful cheaters will tend to simply grab what they want as soon as possible.

>>12674
Even if we were to assume that Discord, again seeking primarily his own amusement, finds it more amusing to discord ponies rather than to observe what they will do in a given situation, he could still then simply discord Twilight straightaway and be done with it because we see that even though Fluttershy isn’t buying into his nonsense at all he can simply override her completely. Unless we are to assume that somehow Fluttershy was susceptible to that and Twilight isn’t? In which case we just get down into the weeds of what discording even is, and that leads us into trying to figure out what the extent of Discord’s powers even are which just seems totally contrary to the entire point of Discord: the point is not that Discord presents a threat of a certain power-level that needs to then be overcome, the point is that Discord is for all intents and purposes all-powerful, and so you need to outsmart him. Brains and not brawn, a perfect challenge for Twilight. So really I just find this whole situation with the maze totally bonkers and frankly I think this entire section needed a fairly thorough rewrite. It really is such a waste of a good villain, and it’s such a shame since the episode up till now has been rather good. I certainly understand the intent. Splitting up the Mane Six and turning them against eachother undermines the teamwork on which they rely so heavily, so it presents a challenge that directly targets their primary strength. However. That to me ought to have been a separate consideration from Discord altogether. Discord is completely sufficient in and of himself to present a challenge, and one can almost certainly find another theme to fit with that if strictly necessary. The theme they are going with, the undermining of teamwork, is fine and even quite interesting in principle, but I think it would have been much better suited to another villain. In fact, we will later get an ideal villain for just such a theme in the form of Chrysalis! The changelings could have perfectly undermined the teamwork of the Mane Six by impersonating some of them after splitting them up. So really, I feel that Discord and Chrysalis almost got their themes mixed up. Furthermore, if we switched aspects assigned to the two of them like this, we could have perhaps better emphasised Discord overpowering Celestia here, and instead had Chrysalis and the changelings act more surreptitiously and insidiously in their episode so that they don’t have to knock Celestia out of commission yet again. But that’s a little off-track, and I’ll try to add a charitable note: perhaps Discord was primarily interested in Twilight, in how she would fare without her friends to rely upon. That’s the most charitable way I can read it, but he didn’t seem especially interested in her in the palace or outside the maze to me.

So ratings-wise… Does the Discord thing bug me? A little, yeah. This is in a lot of ways a ‘solid’ episode. Discord is interesting in most respects, everything leading up to the maze is fantastic, and then the maze itself is fine but just has the things that bug me about it. So, I think it’s an 8 for enjoyment episode that got derailed by a -0.6 irritation buff for what I feel was a waste of an outstanding villain idea. I’ll give it a 7.4, overall, placing it on par with Party of One.

>>12660
>The episode start, that quote was the first thing that stuck out to me, how chaos was something that was an attribute of Discord, rather than the defining one. Don't get me wrong, Discord did represent chaos and that was a major part of his character, but it was much more than that. He was evil and the opposite of harmony and the ponies morality and society.
In being the opposite of harmony, Discord is presented as entirely self-interested, and quite individualist. In fact, I dare say he'd be Max-Stirner-approved! But as a result of his character being the direct opposite of harmony in this way, working on his own without any use for friendship, teamwork or even wider society as a whole (or the laws of physics for that matter!), he doesn't really work for presenting an actual challenge to harmony all that directly. As I said in my post on part one, Chrysalis actually much more directly challenges and undermines harmony in a meaningful sense, ironically precisely because she's more collectivist: her character being conceived of separately from the idea of being the opposite of the theme of harmony makes her a much more compelling counter to that idea. Corrupted harmony, if you will (to steal a Fallout Equestria idea too), rather than simply the opposite of harmony. Which, in practice, is really the same as the absence of harmony it seems? Score one for the theological definition of evil. I think for me it really does all come down to feeling that Discord's character concept, and the threat he actually poses should have been two separate things, though I certainly understand why they remained tied together, it feels neat and tidy that way from a writing perspective.
>The segment wasn't my favorite though, my feelings for it are just average, it lacks something... but I don't have the words right now
I'd agree. In my opinion, the issue is it splits focus, so it feels more shoehorned compared to the rest of the episode. If I were rewriting this two-parter (not that I'm saying I could do a better job than the show writers, at least in this season, much as with at least these episodes I'm getting nitpicky with them) I would have the Mane Six taking a trip to Canterlot, perhaps to meet with Celestia (if Discord were simply due to break free like with Nightmare Moon, or some event was occurring soon that could risk his breaking free, that would fix my minor issue with a tiny argument apparently freeing Discord after over a thousand years, somehow never having happened prior, whilst also giving the six a reason to visit Celestia) and then having Twilight show her friends around her old home, and she could explain the statue to them as they tour the gardens on their way to meet with Celestia. Then, a small argument between them could produce the same effect we see in the episode. You could even keep Cheerilee's seemingly more metaphorical understanding of Discord for Twilight, it would make a neat contrast to her knowing about Nightmare Moon last season, as well as highlighting that there are things Celestia knows about that even Twilight doesn't!

>>12661
>My possible (not 100% certain yet) favorite scene in this episode, Celestia giving the backstory on who Discord is and Discord making his dramatic appearance.
It is a great scene when I think about it. It's just that in the moment, I always end up finding myself too distracted by Discord's voice in the scene, I find it hard to hear and understand what he's saying here.
>Discord's appearing on the stained glass windows, it was all pretty elaborate and creative by the show's standards and I wonder how complicated it was to pull off.
From a concept perspective, it makes me sigh for missed opportunities, like Discord wreaking havoc by entering Twilight's books and appearing as the hero in the illustrations, messing up signs in Ponyville and such. But as much as I lament the perceived loss of more creative shenanigans with Discord, the logistics of actually pulling that all off was not something I'd considered.
> This is going to sound stupid, but I didn't really click how this directly parallels Friendship is Magic with Nightmare Moon directly tempting and attempting to mislead the Mane 6, expect this time it works...
I also didn't notice this. It's another example for me of how it all works neatly and cleverly from a writing perspective, but I still would have preferred the end result, I feel, if they just threw all the cleverness out the window and went for a fun episode. Having said that, I have an ironclad preference not just in MLP but in general for escapism. I'd even say it's one of the main things I pursue in life, weird as that is to say (it's too long to get into fully, but the short version is that I view humans as experiencing-machines, that's fundamentally what we do and whether you ascribe fundamental meaning or total lack thereof to reality, both inherent and self-created sources of meaning rest upon experiencing things, and so, to me, escapism is a more logical way to go about finding personal meaning because it provides a vastly broader array of experience than reality can) so the thematic depth of the episode, whilst I acknowledge it's value, is of a much lower priority for me. Speaking of which!
>>12662
>This is what I mean by the morality being complicated a bit: Fluttershy does not take the bait at all. Discord, impatient, just pokes her and she is cruel now
Here the episode is in a way poking fun at it's own idea. Fluttershy isn't playing ball not just with Discord, but with the thematic concept at the heart of the episode here, so Discord simply forces the matter. I always read the scene as essentially a joke, that everyone else gets tempted, but it's harder to tempt Fluttershy so they simply lampshade it. This is also the issue with having Discord tempt the five ponies: what does he fundamentally have to offer that Nightmare Moon didn't? If anything he's in a much worse bargaining spot that she ever was. Furthermore, if they do become tempted, they then have to stay tempted, and then also have their betrayal patched up in the end. That's a very tall order, and so in comes what is in this show, as it is in so many, a gimmick to make the conflict work more smoothly: mind control. With mind control, you can have your temptations, your betrayals, and your redemptions all much more quickly, cleanly and efficiently than with characters functioning as they normally would. I'd hesitate to call it a lazy form of writing (although in 99% of cases where mind control is used I'd argue it absolutely is being used in a really, really lazy way) but it is still here to solve a logistical problem with the writing which I feel has been forced by the aforementioned pursuit of theme. It's not so bad or egregious that it isn't worth it as a trade-off, necessarily, but for me personally I just find it very depressing that to make the plot work, the minds and wills of these characters was simply overwritten to pave the way for it.

>>12652
Sure! The more sunlight the better.

>>12648
>Ya'know, Luna's thread has a thriving variety of topics we sometimes post there but Celestia we don't do much other than post pictures .
An all encompassing day theme would mean we could post Sunset Shimmer, but, an all encompassing Celestia theme would include Twilight Sparkle (but also possibly Sunset Shimmer). IDK, I am just trying to think of more stuff for this thread.

>>12653
Bathe in it all you want...because the sun is eternal

>>12655
I am working building some improvised structures in the summer heat so I sort of am!

This has Celestia kissing a filly Twilight Sparkle goodnight at night with Mare in the Moon in her full misery and blight in the background of Celestia's clear delight and yet I post this in /sun/ with mild fright at the taboo of sharing night in the thread of light which shines bright!

>>12643
I fixed it. There is new anti spam moderation tools for unfamiliar IPs. These might be interesting but considering I imagine we use VPNs and a lot of our regulars here post every once and awhile I have it mostly turned off for now.

>>12644
I think part of the issue was I actually had the VPN turned off for once! Plus unfamiliar machine perhaps. Everything's gone topsy-turvy during moving house

>>12646
Similar story, albeit I have two machines I keep switching between for my sometimes highly specific set ups for chan based pony posting.

Point is though, it might be useful to set up better, but also a bit of a hindrance!

testy mc test to see if this will bump.

>>12649
Okay, I *think* I fixed it. Another problem is that there is a limit in place for bumping old threads, not a bad idea, but, the default was 1000 days ago,a lot of are still slow but activeish generals are 6+ years at this point. I think we are good now.

>>12631
Yeah, unfortunately it maybe the case. At least from what I can tell: https://endchan.net/.static/posting.html

Let me test this:

>>12634
Er NOPE. Okay. For all I know there could be some setting or something I am misreading, lol, but I tried putting multiple rolls "dice 2d4 2d4 2d4" but that is just treated as an email address.

>>12633
I suppose one could set up a cyclic for dice rolls, but that maybe tedious, or use a simpler RP system. My potential issues with participation aside PM sent on that, I have no problem you trying an RP game on here if you decided against /mlpol/. If it was successful and you needed a lot of threads >>>/mlp/ might be a good idea. I own this board and had always wanted to clean it up and turn it into a wiki/repository/lists of things place but have never gotten around to it.

>>12635
>cyclic for dice rolls
That honestly would make the most sense.
That thread might have a player, but I think probably doesn't, just a tire-kicker.
Grab the sourcebooks before I yank the link, I guess.
Mega, slash folder slash r55EAapA#56e4eQ7cDStXpjmfBRIWoA

It looks like Thursday and Sunday are my weekend days, for at least a few weeks.

>>12636
General PoLS. I have some personal stuff going down right now that I am still trying to asses the impact of I detailed more of that on a PM.

Raining at night, used to be a delight, but now such a blight, and that ain't right.

>>12613
...or maybe Wednesday is Inky?

>>12613
And thanks for the encouragement: rain, there is more than one building I have to deal with that has holes/damage and when it rains, it often rains inside too, I have to deal with, so that expression was very literal.

Rain is still a pain, and while trying to stop leaks in vain, maybe I can stay sane, but rain is my bane.

>>12567
I can't match L23's, Bridgefag's or 5050's autism when it comes to reviewing but next time I remember this place exists I might give my thoughts on it. The premise sounds interesting though I wonder if the invasion plot + the murder might require more than 5000k words to cover properly.

>>12567
The next 1800 words, right after the first half you've already read. Search for 'new student, pleasant' and it should jump right past the missed plot armor that nopony got but was promised a couple paragraphs above.

>>12592
>The camera was proffered to Chuck. "Get her, Snow Drift specifically, to help you, using this camera. Use whatever lies you want or need to. My colleague has put a tracking spell on it so we'll know to pick her up for … well, anyway."
Alright, here we have some more intrigue and clarification (sort of) on intent. Okay, seeing here:>>12571
>Fears over the mission or avoidance over her unicorn aunt? I also am guessing the aunt might be the unicorn from the royal guard who is crying about her niece being sent on a suicide mission... maybe? That is the only thing I am confused over and that could be easily fixed with context.
I had somehow (his brief appearance or my exhaustion induced) mistaken the gender of who I now know to be Snow Ski, (or is it Snow Sky?) Snow Drift's uncle. His concern wasn't fear of something bad happening to her but of her sheer existence and presence there. We also get some key information:
>Snow Drift suddenly appeared and this timing is significant to Snow Ski, presumably with her disappearance.
>Snow Drift had met Ground Chuck Snow Drift only just over three weeks ago, and she seemingly enrolled in the school within that time frame.
>Most significantly, Snow Drift having wings is new.
So, the mystery thickens.

I don't have much to say on the flow or critiques this time. Perhaps it would be nice to know more of what Ground Chuck thought of everything going on with Snow Drift. I initially found myself surprised that he was just going along with the royal guard wanting to question or detail his friend, but she is a new friend he hardly knows and seemingly a drifter. Considering the situation and added stress, that is a pretty human-er, pony-reaction. More context before I can fully judge this of course, but that is my take right now. All I will say on the griffon invasion cloud fort at the moment is that I like the concept and think it is something very in show canon even you're more of the type to be running with concepts and the world beyond the show.

One Grammar Note:
>The unicorn stallion pulled himself together, still weeping but making eye contact with his coworker. Berryfield shook the camera in her aura, and Snow needed several breaths to steady himself before he closed his eyes
I assume the proper spelling is Berry Field based on the conventions your other names have.Though as a mononym I don't think is bad if that is the proper spelling.

>missed plot armor that nopony got but was promised a couple paragraphs above.

>>12600
>plot armor denied

The two unicorn colleagues have been thrown off kilter by the sighting of Snow Drift, or Snow Ski would have had the presence of mind to add the shield to them both.

> >Most significantly, Snow Drift having wings is new.
Technically all that's been said, is that it's more likely to BE Snow Drift if the pink pterippus has wings.

Re-reading it reminds me of how cheesy of a feel I was going for, despite the drama going on. Ski's niece Drift is working with Draft while Chuck watches pony-chucking right after singing David Bowie's Heroes song in a world that probably doesn't have an equivalent, although I imagine the indigenous Buffalo of the David clan have hunting equipment called the David Bow.

/* /me takes a bow/ */

I keep telling ponies, once I unveil the rest of it you'll be mad at me for making you laugh.

>>12601
I maybe mad I maybe not: something that jumps genre abruptly might be interesting/fun in it's own weird way. The main time. My guess is that Snow Drift murdered somebody for her wings in a creepy and evil way.

>in a world that probably doesn't have an equivalent, although I imagine the indigenous Buffalo of the David clan have hunting equipment called the David Bow.
Let's not forget the Diamond Dogs!

>The two unicorn colleagues have been thrown off kilter by the sighting of Snow Drift,
I know you're not aiming for realism but we have plenty of real world examples of authorities being thrown off worse than that (or just being stupid without anything bad going on). I can believe it.

I'd actually asked for a picture of a smol stallion with a very tall mare, but she's so cute in this photo I think I'll keep it around.

>>12556
How many boards have died over there? I sure hope bridgefag has a plan C.

>satyr
I don't see those as much of that as I used to, clop or otherwise. Has /mlp/'s mare! meme put a damper on it or something?

>>12467
Line doesn´t always go up. Well, in this case, tags often gradually go up. Very slowly but they get some progress by optimising old pictures from the archives, even ones that are deemed as miscellaneous content.


>Which surprises me slightly because I usually gravitate towards other ponies as seaponies over the race themselves.

I think that once you are used to seeing pictures of seaponified versions, the novelty eventually runs out. Their luster dilutes the more you are exposed to them and well...it pretty much relies on the content of the pictures themselves, no matter the species of origin behind it.

Save for exceptional features, the seapony body/structure is pretty much standardised in that regard.

Or maybe, tastes change and you just feel like leaning towards those pictures because of mere vibes/visual appeal and nothing else.

>>12468
>t pretty much relies on the content of the pictures themselves, no matter the species of origin behind it.
>Or maybe, tastes change and you
I disagree on novelty wearing off; those unique designs are still some of my favorites. Changing taste though, you might have a point. The movie /seapones/ have slowly grown on me, even if they still aren't personally a fave.

>>12471
>disagree on novelty wearing off; those unique designs are still some of my favorites.

both things don´t have to be mutually exclusive at all (that´s assuming we are talking about polar opposites in an extremely hypothetical scenario). Quite the opposite in fact.

Although one detail of most seaponified designs come to mind: many of the characters do NOT actually have an official design beyond the main characters of each gen (Ocellus and the CMC included). Beyond them, the rest are up to approximations from the fans and thus: they take certain freedoms in their bodies, rightfully so.

I mean, the fascination may come from the fascination of such transformation in itself anyway. However, some standouts that are brought up to qualify them as more special come from pictures of Luna, Celestia, Chrysalis or the one you´ve posted: Tempest.

However, I imagine that Gameloft will eventually release some vectors with the expanded cast so that we get "official" versions of them, just like nightmare, changeling, kirin or bat transformations have shown so far.

>>12471
> The movie /seapones/ have slowly grown on me, even if they still aren't personally a fave.
which is funny because the movie only showed like 10 minutes of them at most throughout its base material.

Like, the biggest arguments in their favour, as far as I am concerned, come from Surf and/or Turf and Set Your...


...wait a minute...


...oh...oh f*yay*k...


...I haven´t shared the Set Your Sail comics around here, have I?...

>>12474
>Beyond them, the rest are up to approximations from the fans and thus: they take certain freedoms in their bodies, rightfully so.
In that way, maybe they are a bit like bat ponies. Barely any appearances in any official media but just enough of a base to make it fun for designing things.
<Though, that being said, it seem like a lot of bat pony OCs are more conservative; I actually like this, as they aren't as often overdesigned like other OCs; though I am not sure I can fully hate maximalist OCs because we live in a world of dreary minimalism!

>>12475
>which is funny because the movie only showed like 10 minutes of them at most throughout its base material.
Considering that this is a fandom that memes background ponies, I say 10 minuets in actually a lot to work with.

> ...I haven´t shared the Set Your Sail comics around here, have I?...
That would make sense storytime, or at least post a review, I might as well.