Wedding of the Dead: “A Canterlot Wedding” review

This week featured a very special episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: The last episode…of the season!!! It was the last episode of the season and the one we’ve all been waiting for: A Canterlot Wedding!

I’d like to open by giving a few first impressions. I wasn’t expecting much. In fact, I was expecting it to suck. It’s a wedding! What could possibly be that amazing at a wedding!? Plus, I didn’t have that great a week, so my cynicism was in overdrive, and if you know me you probably also know that it should have killed me.

But an hour later, I had a smile on my face that just wouldn’t go away! I was happy, and I wasn’t exactly sure why. Probably because I’m a hopeless romantic!

Though, that is not to say the episode didn’t have its problems. It certainly did. Let’s run through them! Continue reading

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C.S.I.: Train to Canterlot: “MMMystery on the Friendship Express” review

This week on My Little Pony, we witness an interesting phenomenon: The application of critical thinking.

Remember back in season one? The episode Feeling Pinkie Keen was all about Pinkie’s precognitive abilities, and Twilight being extremely skeptical, and continually searching for a more logical explanation, but in the end just accepts it without another thought.

This pissed off a lot of skeptics. She should not have just accepted that Pinkie had superpowers, she should have vehemently denied their existence. Well, I disagree, primarily because the events of the entire episode verified Pinkie’s abilities. The thing about the supernatural is this: Skeptics don’t simply not believe it exists because it doesn’t fit any models of known science. We don’t believe because there’s no evidence that it’s anything more than deception.

If you can prove that you can predict the future, beyond any doubt, and can do it over and over again, I will believe you. It’s easy: just tell me what this week’s Lotto numbers are…and do it more than once to prove it’s not just a fluke. After that, we can work on modifying, adding to, or replacing the various physics models we use, so they fit this new evidence.

Prove there are ghosts, and I’ll willingly throw out the Theory of Relativity!

But still, it pissed off a lot of skeptics, and I guess I can understand. It might send the wrong message to children who wouldn’t see the big picture. But this week, it appears they’re making up for it. When we see Pinkie call up her inner Greg House and learn how to be a bit more skeptical…kinda. Continue reading

Biased and Faulty: “Ponyville Confidential” review

The thing about journalism is that it has become kinda shitty in recent years. “If it bleeds, it leads,” is the new adage among many newsrooms, and this has caused many people to either ignore these morons, or take them seriously, and I’m not sure what’s worse.

The role of journalists is to report the truth in the most honest and even-handed way possible. To be fair and accurate, as my old journalism professor put it so many times. Unfortunately, that doesn’t really sell papers, or get ratings, or page hits. Fear, controversy and rage are what get people’s attention, and so that’s what editors tend to push to the front page.

You ever see Moonlight? It premiered a few years ago and only lasted half a season, so it’s okay if you didn’t. Anyway, one of the characters was a reporter for a website called BuzzWire, and when her editor is murdered by a vampire, her replacement says his top priority is getting the story out before anyone else. So, forget fact checking, if it’s wrong they can print a retraction later. What a cunt! This is not the way to do business! At least not ethically!

There was a time when journalism wasn’t about the money, it was about doing the right thing. A company would gain money from other sources and use the profits to fund a media outlet that wasn’t necessarily designed to make a profit. But in recent years, it’s something the shareholders frown upon.

With all that in mind, we move to the latest episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, as the Cutie Mark Crusaders try their hoof at journalism, and learn these ethical principles the hard way. Continue reading

Fluttershy and the Waves: “Hurricane Fluttershy” review

Equestria is an unusual place. I mean excluding the whole ‘sentient ponies’ and ‘living mythological creatures’ thing. What I mean is, it’s unusual because of the jobs certain ponies have. Specifically, the jobs inherently connected to their race.

Now, earth ponies are in charge of managing the animal and plant life in Equestria. Which makes sense to a certain extent, I mean, here on Planet Earth, we have farmers, and pet owners. But generally they don’t bother taking care of wild animal and plant life, because those can take care of themselves.

Unicorns are in charge of raising the sun and moon every day. I wonder when the others pony races are going to clue in that the planets orbit naturally, and if they didn’t, the moon would’ve crashed into the planet long ago. But it’s a good scam they got going on, no wonder they don’t tell anypony the truth. Now, it is possible the planet is tidally locked, so they need to force it to rotate, but it would have to be a lot closer…they must have one hell of an ozone layer.

Finally, the pegasi, who are in charge of the weather. Which actually makes a lot of sense, I mean if we could do it, we so would. We could prevent hurricanes, tornadoes, major ice storms that can take out three provinces at once, and snowstorms during exam time. But this week it’s revealed that they don’t just control it, they need to create it. If they didn’t, the entire planet would likely become a wasteland. How the hell did life evolve on this rock!? Continue reading

Dumbass and Dragons: “Dragon Quest” review

Don’t ever forget, above all else, to know thyself. It’s a very important concept to remember. Know who you are and what you are capable of. I, for instance, know I am an atheist skeptic with a chip on my shoulder. I also have a natural skill in mathematics and I love Earl Grey tea and my cat when she’s not being a pain in the ass.

As part of this, it’s also important to continually try to learn new things about yourself. As they say: you never know until you try. I, for instance, recently discovered: I like coffee. I used to think I hated it. But that was probably because, back then, I was served shit coffee. Apparently, if it’s made right, I actually kinda like it. Funnily enough, I feel the same way about tea.

It is on this note that we begin this week’s episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Spike the dragon is a unique specimen. Like a man raised by wolves (I hear there are a few movies about that), he is fully absorbed in pony culture. So much so that he gets caught in a bit of an identity crisis. He’s a dragon, who doesn’t act like a dragon. So what exactly is he? Continue reading

Time and the Poni: “It’s About Time” review

Twilight is very very smart, yet crazy and stupid. What? You’re shocked!?

Turns out you can be smart and stupid at the same time. It may be hard to understand, but it’s true. You can have the entire Encyclopedia Britannica memorized, and still manage to fuck up every social encounter you make.

Twilight Sparkle is the epitome of this concept. Hell, it’s the premise of the whole series! Twilight Sparkle, genius, goes to Ponyville to learn basic social skills. Hell of a show!

Unfortunately, Twilight’s idiocy isn’t just limited to social interactions, but…well, basic logic and reasoning.

Thus, we are led into this week’s episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, where Twilight time travels. Continue reading

Derpy Shot First!: The Derpy retcon and “Putting Your Hoof Down” review

Okay, okay, okay. It turns out I’m prone to making mistakes. A month ago, I wrote about the Derpy controversy on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, where Ponyville’s resident lazy-eyed pegasus, appeared to be getting retconned out of existence. In the end I determined that despite the fears of the fans, there probably wasn’t much to worry about.

Turns out I might have been wrong on that. Continue reading

Friendship is Canon: The white Celestia doll and “A Friend in Deed” review

Last week, I mentioned how perplexing it was that Hasbro hasn’t released a White Celestia. A toy that has been requested by every member of the fan community since day one. I figured it was the same reason they haven’t released a DVD box set: A crippling fear of money and success. Turns out I’m wrong. You see, a few hours after I posted that, the news hit the community: They are releasing a white Celestia!

The background gang's all here!

WOOHOO!!! I’m excited! Not just for the Celestia, but for the rest of the gang: A glow-in-the-dark Zecora; DJ Pon-3; and Nightmare Moon, which I thought was a completely unique mould, until I noticed a Celestia that they probably based it off of. There’s also everyone favourite bitch: the Great and Powerful Trixie, and my personal favourite: Heartstrings…or Lyra, if you prefer. Continue reading