
Social distancing? What's that?
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Submitted March 27, 2020 at 10:20PM by pandoraschocolates
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Horses/comments/fqd750/social_distancing_whats_that/?utm_source=ifttt
This is the official place to discuss the comic with a heck of a long name from IDW! Spoilers within!
Spring has sprung, and your favorite Equestria girls are back with three brand-new adventures! Celebrate March Radness with the Spring Athletic event, a visit by the famous A.K. Yearling herself, and... detention?! Return to Canterlot High, where mischief, fun, and friendship collide!
Keep any and all discussion relating to said comic in this thread! Making link submissions (say, from screencaps) is okay, but be sure to mark them as a spoiler and state what issue it is in the title for the benefit of those who might be behind!
(Want to get into the comics? Get 'em via IDW or eBay for physical copies, and Comixology, Apple Books, Amazon Kindle, or Yayponies for digital copies!)
Thanks to RainbowDashShellBash for compiling this information!
This is the official place to discuss the 88th installment of IDW's ongoing My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic comic series. Spoilers within!
The conclusion of Ted Anderson's exciting two-part adventure is here! The Draytona Breach has begun! Big McIntosh and Silver Streak are racing to determine the fate of their friendship; Rainbow Dash is racing to prove herself (again!); and Sacks Roamer is racing to retrieve his stolen goods in order to get them across the Yakyakistani border! Who's going to come out on top?
Keep any and all discussion relating to said comic in this thread! Making link submissions (say, from screencaps) is okay, but be sure to mark them as a spoiler and state what issue it is in the title for the benefit of those who might be behind!
Additionally, keep any discussion on recent entries in the Nightmare Knights series to its own thread (or spoiler it, assuming it relates to this discussion somehow)
(Want to get into the comics? Get 'em via IDW, eBay, or Amazon for physical copies, and Comixology, Apple Books, Amazon Kindle, or Yayponies for digital copies!)
Thanks to RainbowDashShellBash for compiling this information!
"Rarity's Gold Rush"
Rarity comes across a huge pile of treasure deep in a mountain. With Rarity's new-found wealth she's able to afford anything she wants, But will her new-found wealth alienate her from the friends who were her friends before she became rich?
"Friends Forever"
Sweetie Belle finds an old scrapbook in Rarity's attic in the Boutique, and we would learn how the mane 6 met before Twilight arrived in Ponyville.
"Wheel Bound"
When a handicapped pony named Spinshot enters school, the CMC would be determined to help the pony fit in. The CMC helps out Spinshot whenever they can but it starts to become clear that Spinshot might not want help with everything.
"Under The Shining Sea"
Fluttershy gets saved from drowning by a group of Sea Ponies. The Sea Ponies inform Fluttershy of ponies building a resort that would destroy their mating grounds, Which causes Fluttershy to try and convince her friends to help save something everypony thinks is a fairy tale.
"Ponyville: The Musical"
Twilight Sparkle performs the wrong spell from her spellbook on accident which causes A strange plague that spreads across Ponyville. It causes everypony to start singing everything they say and Twilight must find a way to stop it before it becomes permanent. It would basically be a parody of the show's musical aspect.
"The Life, Times, and Rhymes of Zecora"
The episode would be about Zecora visiting her homeland of Zebrica, and she's letting Twilight come along with her. The pair catch a ride on a trade ship and arrive at the desert city of Istanbul, without problems until they find out that the caravan Zecora arranged to take them to her village is delayed, much to their dismay. To cheer themselves up while they wait, Zecora and Twilight wander Istanbull's sandstone streets, as Zecora recounts her life in Zebrica, and how and why she came to Equestria.
"Sister Eclipse Part 1&2"
Part 1: It would be a detailed flashback of how Luna became Nightmare Moon when An argument occurs between Princess Celestia and Luna. Princess Luna threatened to use her powers as Nightmare Moon to keep the sun in its current state which has the Mane 6 learn the circumstances of what lead to Luna's banishment in the first place.
Part 2: Some Nightmare Moon fanatic or Maybe NM Cult causes A Solar Eclipse eclipse and threatens to send the whole world into chaos unless Luna surrenders herself and becomes NM again. Not entirely sure how that would narratively connect to NM's origins or the tensions that built up to the downfall, but its an idea.
"Sonata Beats"
Pinkie Pie & Fluttershy get called by The Cutie Map to solve A Friendship problem between Octavia & Vinyl Scratch/DJ PON3. We would see that Vinyl & Octavia have been roommates for a while, but The two haven't been getting along so much because of their differences with playing music.
The episode would focus on how these two are as different as they can get. One is all about standing out of the crowd, getting a lot of attention on her and always being loud while the other is the opposite. Vinyl and Octavia's opposite personalities get to the point where it threatens to destroy their friendship so Fluttershy & Pinkie Pie would be finding ways with convincing the two to stay as friends despite their differences.
The idea of using two ponies who approaches similarly contrast each other to solve A Friendship problem can be intriguing if done well.
What do you think of these episode ideas?
I loved MLP for A Long time during the Beginning, but the reformation of Villains is the biggest problem with MLP going back to the beginning of the show. So many and too many of the villains often get made sympathetic and are quick to be shoddily reformed with nary a second thought to give them consequences to their wrongdoings. Often their backstories don't give them any justification even to themselves for their actions when they come up and they come off more as parodies that we're supposed to take seriously.
One of the biggest problems with the theatrical movie from 2017 Is how thoroughly it pushes the idea that friendship can fix any problem, when in reality that's not how it works and that in many circumstances Friendship isn't the end-all solution to everything.
Tempest Shadow for how she's the only character who's voice and animation perfectly compliments the movie, ends up becoming a flimsier version of Starlight when you take more than 5 minutes to analyze her sob story.
Ok, so, because she got crippled by a starbear as a kid and two fillies got scared of her deformity she turned evil at a moment's notice. I'm not making this up, that's literally what we witness! Did she even like, TRY to go to a doctor to get her horn fixed? In order to remedy this, I'd have a lot more ponies ostracize Tempest for her disability and be scared of her for it, have the ability to do good magic rubbed in her face!
Have her own parents WHINNY IN TERROR when they see what their daughter has become and abandon her! Hell, have the Doctor be scared witless and just kick her flank out of the hospital telling her "there's no fixing the likes of you!" Is it cruel and mean-spirited? YES! But doing something to this effect would give Tempest a more valid reason to join the Storm King in the first place.
Starlights main problem isn't just how ridiculous and stupid her backstory is for why she becomes an omnicidal maniac, but how in-Universe she has to constantly remind us what a horrible person she is. With Shadow Play this could NOT have been put in a worse episode! Starswirl himself was handled badly enough in comparison to the comics, but this just makes him a complete asshole to everyone because of Starlight having never learned a single solitary fucking thing since her reform. It's a terrible idea to mention you're a terrorist in front of someone who is essentially the GREATEST HERO IN EQUESTRIA!
Again, if Hasbro is so intent on making us love Starlight by forcing her into so many episodes and down our throats, why do they have to keep reminding us of what a horrid character she actually is? How about making her, and I'm just throwing my shit at the wall to see what sticks: NOT HORRIBLE? Even the Pony of Shadows got hit with this bad with probably the worst redemption in the show, And he probably had the potential to be even greater than Tirek as a villain.
The only quick shot redemptions that have EVER WORKED in the series were Sunset Shimmer, Princess Luna, and Maybe Discord, the latter of whom isn't even directly involved with the main series! I've gone over how Keep Calm and Flutter On actually is a very good episode despite its issues and how reforming Discord worked out in the long run because while he was tamed he was still not a good guy in any sense of the word, but not truly evil. He's a troll and he's still a delightful troll even though he's mellowed out.
Sunset Shimmer is in every sense the perfect example of a reformed villain and everything they should be. Sunset doesn't have a tragic backstory or a woobie reason to have betrayed Celestia, she got jelly because she wasn't the chosen one and bitched off to human land. As weak as the first Equestria Girls movie was it did a great job of showing that Sunset wasn't malicious, but very very stupid evil and confused with her life. The subsequent movies give her major consequences for being a stupid bitch and she has to struggle and work towards proving she's changed after being hastily redeemed in the first film and she really has proven she's changed!
Whatever happened to just having villains who are evil just because? We had Tirek and then after that, they got fucked up! Saturday morning cartoon villains can be loads of fun like Lord Hater, King Koopa, The Hooded Claw, Simon Bar Sinister, virtually every member of the Legion of Doom, etc. I'm not saying sympathetic villains aren't good, they can be very good, but you have to know HOW TO MAKE THEM WORK! Characters like Jack Spicer and Mr. Freeze work because while you do feel sorry for them it's for the best they don't really become good guys because it would ruin what makes them so strong in the first place. They do evil things with their own reasons and goals in mind.
If what I've been hearing about season 8 is any indication I do not envy the return of Queen Chrysalis. In the comics, they've done well to show there really is nothing redeeming about her, how ruthless and psychotic she really is. I still don't think you can beat A Canterlot Wedding for having the best villain song and reveal of the entire show because of her!
For me it would have to be Griffin the Griffin; Mary Sue characters, filled with references to bad memes from 2012, but I still enjoyed every chapter.