After a 6 and half month hiatus, I've decided to continue /u/LessonZer0's original quiz thread with a third round. Many thanks go to them for starting up this idea.
Like last time, the rules are simple - match the artist's name to the corresponding artwork! There are 12 works in this quiz, and every work was made by a different artist. So, use process of elimination if you can.
START QUIZ HERE (Don't forget to hit "View Score" at the end to see your results)
Hi there! It's Thursday again and that means another chance to talk about what's been happening around here and how you feel about it!
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But some people may not want to talk about comics or anything else that hasn't happened yet, so you should be nice and hide those conversations from those people by using the spoiler tag.
If you don't know how it's as easy as making an emote:
>!It has ponies!!<
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It's a common topic around here that Friendship is Magic seems to have changed in tone or quality or vibe somewhere during the middle seasons of its run. Perceptions vary of course, but I suggest that there is a single underlying cause, which was the change in showrunners.
First, the history. The original showrunner was of course Lauren Faust, up through the second season opener Return of Harmony. Jayson Thiessen then held the position until the mid-season-5 hiatus. Jayson then switched to work on the movie instead. Jim Miller became showrunner at the mid-season-5 hiatus and has been through the present.
The breakpoint wasn't Lauren's departure, or Alicorn Twilight, or Equestria Girls, or Starlight Glimmer or any other villain redemption, or any of the other controversies. It was "Do Princesses Dream Of Magic Sheep", the last episode before the mid-season-5 hiatus, the last episode that Jayson wrote and showran. That was the real finale of the show's original run and vibe.
I've met each of the persons mentioned at conventions. We all know how wonderful Lauren is, of course. And Jayson Thiessen always continued her work fantastically. Jayson exudes so much joy for the character personalities and the worldbuilding and the music and everything, as Lauren Faust also always did.
Jim Miller... doesn't. He is a much different personality, more aloof and cryptic. The vibe from each showrunner's personality really does carry into the viewing experience, and that's the real underlying factor for why its spark first shined and then dulled.
Lauren and Jayson's show was most fundamentally about emoting with the ponies. You could feel what each of them wanted. The fundamental principle of drama, since ancient Greece, is that it's more compelling to watch a character strive than to succeed. Lauren and Jayson's show was always about following along with what the characters wanted. Starting with "The Ticket Master" and the gala, up through Rarity's boutiques and dresses, to Rainbow Dash's ascent through the Wonderbolts, to Fluttershy's search for assertiveness and the Crusaders for their purpose, we could always feel along with the ponies emotionally as they strove for what each of their hearts truly desired.
Jim Miller's show doesn't expose those same emotional nerves. We went from emoting with the ponies to mostly merely watching their antics. The crew under Jim has always felt like they're more concerned with displaying their reach and stretch as creators. Most directly of course in bringing all the student species into the worldbuilding, but there's a lot of more subtle areas too.
Jim's show likes to parallelize and reference and re-enact real-world tales and storytelling devices. "Rarity Investigates" was the first of these, "MLP does film noir", as the first time FIM adopted some genre or structure from outside its own universe. Then there are classic literature recreations: "Gift of the Maud Pie", "Hearth's Warming Tail", "Hooffields and McColts". There are movie remakes: "28 Pranks Later", "What About Discord". "Stranger Than Fan Fiction" and "Once Upon a Zeppelin" directly bring fan conventions in-universe. "Dungeons & Discords" is another real-world import. None of these references and recreations happened under the hand of the earlier showrunners.
And Jim Miller's show likes to deliberately cross up established characterizations. "Where the Apple Lies", now Big Mac is suddenly talkative. "Discordant Harmony", now Fluttershy has to be the chaotic one. "Cart before the Ponies", the Crusaders deliberately switch characterizations. "Buckball Season", Fluttershy and Pinkie become competitive and Snails is friendly. It's a search and attempt at fresh character development... that comes out as an uncanny valley of trying and failing to write and emote like Lauren Faust.
What goes so wrong with all of these is breaking the immersion. These deliberate recharacterizations and real-world devices and references make me always painfully aware that I'm watching a cartoon crafted by a studio of writers and not the actual real adventures of actual ponies in actual Equestria. The personalities have to follow the dictates of the studio and story framework, rather than free to act as the driving and shining force they should be.
It feels like Jim Miller's crew writes these stories the wrong way around. Jayson and Lauren's stories came from the deep desires and dreams of each character. Jim's stories come from first picking a framework or reference, and then the personalities are crammed into that. They don't get to shine and emote and exhibit like they used to. It's like a sitcom: pick a classic formula and throw the gang into it, hijinks ensue. Except we're watching those hijinks through a hole where the characters' feelings used to be.
Jim's show is too prone to just telling stories while forgetting to include the emotion. Stories like "Campfire Tales" and "Daring Done" may make for interesting stretches to the worldbuilding, but there just isn't any feeling in them. Within Campfire Tales itself is a microcosm: the one story out of the three that worked was Mistmane, which had the emotional component that you could feel her sacrifice. There's no heart in watching Rockhoof dig a trench or Caballeron steal a treasure.
The cutie map in general does this over and over: it's a device to put into each situation what seems to be the wrong pony, in search of new characterization material. But the problem is it's so immersion-breakingly transparent as a device that is serving the creators' needs and not the audience's. There's a fine line between freshness versus making the characters do something just because you can, and I feel the current show staff without Jayson Thiessen's guiding hand comes out on the wrong side of that too often. "Spice Up Your Life" is my example here: there's no reason Rarity's personality has anything to do with saving a restaurant business, she's there because the story framework crams her into it. It's still a fine story in itself and not bad by any means, but it just feels off-kilter from what that personality strives to be doing. There's no emotional payoff because there's no conflict with Rarity's nature.
Simply acknowledging fan input isn't a problem. Jayson's episodes "Slice of Life" and "Do Princesses Dream" were full of fanservice, and were thoroughly enjoyable. They didn't commit the sin of breaking immersion; everything that happened was still contained within the universe and made sense therein. They didn't talk at the fans to criticize them, as in "Flutter Brutter" and "Fame and Misfortune". The problem isn't that the fans can't handle poking, the problem is that any poking at any of its fans is so far off anything that Lauren Faust's show would ever have done.
There are some high points in Jim's tenure. At its best, MLP can still do the personality-driven interactions that originally drew us in so deeply. Examples are "A Royal Problem", "Parental Glideance", "Sounds of Silence", and of course "A Perfect Pear". These few examples keep us hoping that MLP can still recapture that same spark. "Best Gift Ever" came close too. But the truth is these have become the exception rather than the norm.
Lauren and Jayson could infuse soul and heart and joy into the characters and give them the emotion and striving that we loved to play along with. "Do Princesses Dream Of Magic Sheep" was the real end of the show's original era. Even with all the silly fanservicey dream stuff going on, Jayson's writing still gave us deep reverberations of the characters' personalities and strivings: Luna's torment, Spike's buff image, Scootaloo's longing wish for wings.
You may have heard this description of narrative structure: "Step 1, throw the hero down a well. Step 2, throw rocks at them. Step 3, get them out." Lauren and Jayson's show knew how to throw those rocks at the personalities, to challenge what each of them most deeply believes in and find the emotional payoff for coming out of it. Jim's show throws rocks merely at the characters, not at their psyches. Jim's show never has a pony doubting their entire identity and existence like in the classics "Party of One", "Lesson Zero", "Wonderbolts Academy", even "Flight to the Finish". And thus never achieves the emotional payoff for bringing them out of it.
Jim Miller said on one convention panel, referencing Equestria Girls, "If I had my way the girls would be pillowfighting in their underwear." It's unclear how sarcastic he was being, but just that a showrunner would think that way at all is such a drastic violation of the original world and characterizations of Lauren Faust. Jim's Twitter feed comes across the same way, like the comment about "does he know he's Trixie's dad", cryptic and inscrutable, emotions that just aren't the joy of what Friendship is Magic should be.
I have nothing against Jim personally, he's a great guy, does plenty of conventions, and he really does want to interact with and please the fans. And of course there are many other crew involved as well, the writers and directors and musicians and all. (Daniel Ingram's songs see some of the same problem, overserving the plot structure and forgetting the feeling, but that's another essay. And director Denny Lu comes across as careful rather than joyful, same as Jim.) But overall, I think the show's tone really makes that shift when Jim becomes the supervisor at mid-season-5.
So overall, if you want to pinpoint what changed in Friendship is Magic, it's the changes in showrunners. Jim's show goes like any other talking animal cartoon. It's still good, but merely a good cartoon along the lines of Adventure Time or Star Vs or Gravity Falls, doing fun worldbuilding and adventures, but not the deep personality studies. It was the characterizations of Lauren and Jayson that brought us the show that was so special and life-defining as to create our fandom, and their absence is what we've missed ever since.
So this character has been rather controversial some think he is a straw man, others like myself think that he is a VERY realistic character that one would find in such a position with the beliefs he held. A character who held Xenophobic and Racist beliefs who used the rules to hide behind his actions for the "Greater Good". However over the course of the finale "School Raze" we see him not only confronted and betrayed by one of his own kind but rescued and saved by those he had looked down upon throughout the season.
I am glad to say that this seemed to genuinely change him into a better pony and he seems to have lightened up his views on other creatures and now sees value in having them as allies and learning the benefits of Friendship. Unlike his previous portrayal this kind of transformation is rare, in reality they would likely see the students as "Credits to their people" or other some such that sees them as separate from those they look down on, but I appreciated it nonetheless.
Unfortunately this still leaves open the question of just how things are going to change in the future. How the Lawful Evil Neighsay turned Lawful Neutral is amazing one can't help but wonder . . . what now? Is Chancellor Neighsay going to continue enacting and ruling by the same rules and laws he has for so many years now? Will he go about examining the rules and trying to reform it into something more. . . if not open to other creatures less closed off? And what about the rest of the EEA? They seemed to have similar views to his old self about the other creatures in Equestria and the other creatures. Is he now alone and having to work against the rest of his colleagues? What do y'all see as the future for Chancellor Neighsay and the EEA?
So with what is likely to be the last Equestria Girls Movie coming out this saturday, or if not last second to last, I figure that we should take this back to the beginning and ask this.
Sunset Shimmer was being raised by Princess Celestia for some kind of Destiny that Princess Celestia would constantly hold over Sunset Shimmer's head. Sunset was eager to fulfill this destiny and figured that Princess Celestia meant that she wanted Sunset to rule by her side one day. So she learned, gained more powerful, and secluded herself to learn. Ultimately the two part with Celestia banishing Sunset from her castle and Sunset Shimmer overpowering the guards and entering the Mirror that had entranced her so.
And she has grown as a person immensely over the specials, shorts, movies, and other what not to the point that Princess Celestia embraced her in one of the most heartwarming scenes of Forgotten Friendship. However I do wonder just what was it that Princess Celestia planned for Sunset Shimmer in the first place. Did she plan for her to be the Element of Magic instead of Twilight? Did she actually plan on ascending her to a Princess to rule by her side as Sunset expected, something that she herself implies when she says that Princesshood must be earned? What WAS the destiny that Princess Celestia had planned for her and what destiny is in store for her now after all of this character development? For both if she returns to Equestria permanently or splits her time between the worlds.
Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,
Hey, it's me. Smolder. I'm that dragon at your school. So, uh, I've been here for a full year now … Sorry, I'm not good at writing these kind of dumb sappy letters you make us write. Dragons don't really do this kind of stuff. (Ocellus may or may not have helped me proofread this…)
That being said, … I actually kind of like it here in Equestria. At first, I thought it would be the lamest thing ever. After all, what kind of dragon would voluntarily decide to spend her time with ponies? (Oh, I guess there's Spike, but he's an exception.) But after spending a whole year with everyone here, I can say pretty positively that I am pretty glad Dragon Lord Ember dragged me here.
I used to think ponies were weak creatures who were too kind for their own good, but after spending time with you, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity, I discovered that you ponies can really kick butt when you need to – who knows, you might even kick dragon butt someday (or maybe you already have…). In fact, I used to think the same thing about pretty much all other creatures besides dragons. But after meeting Gallus, Ocellus, Sandbar, Silverstream, and Yona, I learned that spending time with other creatures really isn't that bad. In fact, I've honestly had more fun in Equestria than in any other community I've ever been a part of.
Who knows? Maybe one day I could convince other dragons that ponies aren't so bad. It'll be tough… no one I know back in the dragon lands knows that I'm in Equestria right now. And if they found out, I'd probably get made fun of for it by all of them. I'm honestly kind of scared about them finding out. Dragons like to look tough, and spending time in Equestria will definitely look weak to most dragons.
But even though dragons may like to look tough, trust me when I say that not all of them are. Dragons are rude, dumb, and impatient, but I like to believe that most of them aren't jerks who'll just take advantage of others for selfish reasons. Underneath that toughness is someone that does value things like family, love, and camaraderie.
One day, I'd like to take Spike to the dragon lands. We hang out a lot! We go against each other all the time in fire-breathing competitions, and I've taught him a few tricks of the dragon trade, like flying. Heh, after a spending a year with him, I feel almost like his big sister in a way. I hope that's not weird… what do you think?
Your student,
Smolder the Dragon
P.S. If we swap "Equestria" with something like, oh, "/r/mylittlepony", then the first part of this letter would be a pretty great analogy for something … :)
I'm not a horse person but there are several stables/ranches/farms around me, and I've always wanted to just drive in and ask if I could pet a horse. Would that fly with you?
Hi ho, stuck rider here. I've been taking riding lessons for more than 10 years.
My problem is - I only know the basics. This means I've worked with several lesson horses, know how to groom and tack up a horse, and have a 95% chance of staying on once I'm in the saddle. But there's SOOOO much more to learn. I don't really know how to lunge a horse, how to spot and identify common illnesses in horses, and, of course, my riding still needs a lot of improvement - my seat is very far from perfect, for example.
I'd love to buy my own horse in the long run, but I definitely don't feel ready yet. I'd love to learn more, but the barns in my area don't really have the capacity to teach riders these kinds of things. They were even reluctant when I told them I'd like to go back to lunge lessons to improve my seat. One of my best friends (who's been a proud horse owner for quite a while now) said I could just buy my own horse and figure these things out on my own, but it doesn't feel right - I could ruin that poor thing if I lunge incorrectly, don't recognise an illness, or feed my horse something I shouldn't.
Where and how can I learn how to take care of a horse before investing in my own horse?
Hi everyone I need some advice/help. I'm currently recovering from a trimalleolar ankle fracture. I just started PT so I'm just starting to use my ankle/leg somewhat normally again. I won't be able to ride for a couple more weeks but my big question is, is there a riding boot that any of you would suggest? I usually ride in plain cowboy boots, but I feel that would 1.Be too tight for my foot (I'll have swelling for the next 2-3 months on and off) 2. Not supportive at all. Also if you guys have any more suggestions about dealing with a hurt ankle and riding let me know!!
