My Little Pony: Friendship Just Bugs Me

Forzare

...And that's how Equestria was made.

Vivi

Celestia is God-Tier.

Forzare

egads no

Gelzo

This Calls For Extreme Measures, Pinkie Pie Tier

Pinkie Pie

20% Tier

Rainbow Dash

Princess Celestier

Princess Celestia

Raritier

Rarity

Your Faithful Tier

Twilight Sparkle

Central Avenue

I already posted this somewhere, but whatever:

Forzare

^ Made me laugh this time too.

@Ica: Why not give MLP one or two episodes? That way, even if you dislike it, you can at least say "Hey, I tried it, and it wasn't my thing."

You might even like it.

Watching episodes to shut people up is the leading cause of bronies.

Gelzo

By the way, Juan's criticisms of the show are incredibly stale. I think if he wants to talk about it at all he should watch a few more and outline specifics. Maybe do a liveblog.

MillerCross

OK, choose my poison.

Gelzo

I'd like to know what you'd prefer to see and what you've already seen.

Glad to see you're being a good sport, BTW. It's not that I'm trying to convert you, it's just that haters are more entertaining when they know what they're talking about. Sort of like with the Twilight series.

MillerCross

I've seen Fluttershy and tried my hand at the pilot, which I tried my hand at twice, leaving it unfinished both times. 

And it's OK, I'm bored and I slept all day, meaning that I'm not sleepy. wheeee

anyway, what do i wanna watch...

hmmm, I guess I wanna watch an ensemble episode.

Gelzo

I'm assuming you mean Dragonshy, and that by ensemble episode you mean one that doesn't focus so much on a single one of the main characters.

Hmm... The one that's closest to having wide character focus is probably either Over a Barrel, The Best Night Ever, or the season 2 premiere, but the fan reception was kind of mixed on the first, I think the second works best as a sort of finale, and the third, while a good deal better than the pilot, might fall into some of the same problems the pilot caused for you.

What do you think?

MillerCross

OK, how's this? I'll watch Swarm of the Century, which has been mentioned to me before as an episode that works as a gateway, then Over a Barrel and finally The Best Night Ever. 

if all the three episodes manage to want me to keep going, of course.

Forzare

The season 2 one has Q, at least.

I wouldn't really recommend Over a Barrel first. It's been a while since I saw it, but I don't recall it being one of the better episodes.

Swarm of the Century is a good one too, I think.

ninja'd by Juan himself

ClockworkUniverse

I didn't like Over a Barrel that much.

Gelzo

Yeah I would have said Swarm of the Century or Party of One if Juan hadn't asked for an ensemble episode.

For the record, I liked what Over the Barrel brought to the table for the change in setting at the least. 

Forzare

Party of One is awesome, but yeah, it's not ensemble.

Swarm of the Century doesn't really focus on any one pony.

Gelzo

Fair enough, but I just kind of thought it was skewed towards Twilight and Pinkie.

Forzare

I guess it might have been a little bit skewed towards Twilight, but all the ponies have lots of screentime. And Pinkie actually doesn't show up that much. She mostly just pops into other ponies's scenes for a few seconds here and there until the last few minutes, iirc.

Gelzo

Just noticed this:

"if all the three episodes manage to want me to keep going, of course."

Well of course the episodes want you to keep watching. They want your soul. Forzare's isn't enough.

MillerCross

should have chosen better wording >_>

MillerCross

Ok, so Swarm of the Century

And it starts with Fluttershy walking around a garden picking up flower for princess Celestia. Uh huh.

Here's my first problem with the show. Fluttershy. she tries too damn hard. You can't say the same of the rest of the ponies.

In a way, she reminds me of Mugi from K-On. Who I also wildly dislike, but who's mostly forgivable because she doesn't seem to get as much attention as the girls. At least, when it comes to gags.

And then this insect thing comes in. And it eats all the flowers. 

...huh. can't ask for realism, so i won't complain. 

"You're the cutest thing ever. I can't wait to show you to my friends"

You know, someone mentioned a while back that there wasn't much of a problem with the voice actors. And they're right. The ponies are voiced as they're intended. But fluttershy's stutter and general awkward voice even when she's alone is so...grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

now we have an opening sequence

we all know it

My little Cthulhu~

My little Cthulhu~

wait...

anyway, we come back to Spike and Twilight Sparkle cleaning the place up. Spike complains about how he wasn't guilty for this and all that jazz that unwilling assistants are wont to do.

And Twilight Sparkle needs to impress Princess Celestia. Man, this bitch has all the ponies working for her. No wonder the fandom worships her.

And then Spike is forced to clean the place while Twilight goes and checks on the others. 

uh huh. 

As she checks on other people, they raise a sign that says "Welcome princess celest" lololol, geddit? misspelling. They then complain about it not fitting and and Twilight says "Try again" and leaves.

urm....is there supposed to be a joke in here my doofus intellect is missing or...?

And then she appproaches another pony and tells them they're doing good work watering the flowers

urm, why is my beloved time being wasted on that? >

Anyway, less nitpicking. 

So, Twilight gets to a bakery and asks mr and mrs Cake (Poor guys. Born to be bakers. Truly a life without choice) how's their baking...of things...going. They complain because someone's eating the goodies

And...WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU MOTHERFUCKER?!?!

It was.....................................................fluttershy

And I'll take a break because i need water.

Gelzo

I don't think the parts you mention as boring are really meant to be funny so much as establish the scene or be mildly amusing.

Malkavian

I think there are a few episodes that make Mugi a more interesting character, but that's not what we're talking about, is it?

Gelzo

I don't want to turn this into an argument, but I always kind of figured this show had more interesting characters than K-On! in general.

ninjaclown

It does.

MillerCross

@Gelzo: I know it's not intended to make me go "Laffo, zomg, lol" and shit, but I don't think it comes across as amusing or as...urm...shall we say, smilable as it thinks it is.

Break's over. Water was meh, in case you were interested. 

Anyway, Twilight scolds pinkie pie for eating the food and then she has a  cream beard. OK, that's an amusing sight, I suppose. Still not cracking a smile. 

She also says that "somepony should make sure that everything is tasty"

...grrrrrr, somepony. this word annoys me forever because of all the bronies who use it. All of them >

and then she eats anothe cake with a tongue attack...thing.

still amusing, not enough to crack a smile. I suddenly feel like a golem. Like...I know this is amusing and the execution is not bad, but I'm just not invested in it, I guess.

Then fluttershy comes in and introduces her insect to Twilight and Pinkie, with that "cute" voice.

musn't murder musn't murder musn't murder musn't murder musn't murder 

Twilight then decides to take two of the insects (Which Pinkie calls parasprite or something) to give one to Spike.

After this Pinkie Pie says something about having to search for trombone. why, it is a mystery.

and this is where I stop liveblogging and just watch the episode. I'll tell you how I feel about it when I finish it.

MillerCross

Anyway, I finished the episode

Random thoughts:

> The cast is not really that interesting and really doesn't call my attention. I guess the problem is that I can't help but feel that all the ponies are barely defined by one trait from what I've seen: Rainbow Dash is tomboyish, Rarity is snobbish, Fluttershy is sensitive, Twilight is orderly, Pinkie is hyperactive and so on. Admittedly, few episodes means that I've barely seen proper characterization, but the fact of the matter is that even within two episodes, I should see at least better characterization that this one dimensional deal.

> I could forgive this, were the show funny, but the show often tries too hard or is too lowkey when it shouldn't be. I think it has a timing problem. Punchlines, both visual and verbal are delivered without enforcing the gag's funnyness and instead come of as jokes of their own. Two unfunny jokes do not make for a funny one, imo

> The episode was fairly predictable. It was obvious from the start that Pinkie Pie held the solution to everyone's problems and that everyone was going to ignore her till she acted on her own instead of asking for help. Which ties into a pattern I've detected in the two episodes I've seen so far. Which is how only one of the ponies can solve a situation. For a show about friendship, this comes across as fairly individualistic.

Of course, bear in mind, I'm basing myself in two episodes. Two widely acclaimed episodes, but still two episodes. My judgement is not perfect. And it's not something that is anywhere near valid. 

But I definelty know that I don't like the feel of the show. The animation, while fluid and manic doesn't amuse me. The jokes are too pony/horse pun based at times for my own taste and there's this sinking feel as I watch that this just isn't my kind of show. Again.

So, that was it, I suppose. Not interested in watching the next one. although I'm fairly sure I'll take a pony challenge again because I tend to be bored and lazy to even consider to tackle my movie/tv series backlog.

Gelzo

Yeah, sounds like the main problem for your enjoyment is that you're just not affected by the general charm of the show. I think it'd be a pretty tall order to find cartoons for kids that you couldn't just as fairly level the same criticisms against. The characters aren't really so one-dimensional, but you can't spot exceptions to the rule with such a small sample size.

Are there any children's cartoons that you do enjoy?

ClockworkUniverse

It seems you've done what I once attempted to do: watched it and concluded that it's not your thing.

Gelzo

At least it was more interesting to see than his usual:

>4chan/implying bullets

>bland reaction image