Pony Ramblings

In which Kaitlyn talks about things she knows nothing about

babysealburritos:

((This has nothing to do with writing or ponies, and instead discusses my feelings about music from the anime Madoka Magica. Whoops.))

While Sayaka is probably my favorite character and makes me incredibly sad to think about, it’s funny to admit that listening to Sayaka’s theme songs doesn’t affect me as much as you’d think.

Homura’s themes— especially Inevitabilis— however, move me deeply.

I realized this last night while listening to Modoka music at random, and it made me think a little. While I’m no musician by any stretch of the imagination, I’ve come up with some conclusions about the two batches of themes.

Read More

This has nothing to do with ponies, but it’s ramblings and thus goes on my ramblings blog.

Dial M for Marzipan

kyronea:

tsundereburrito:

Wow. Another browser error wiped out my second attempt at this. Some higher power really doesn’t want me to type this. Too bad I’m going to take extra measures not to lose this last effort. Last night Two nights ago I wrote a pretty long and detailed analysis of this week’s episode, and I’m going to try my darnedest to rewrite most of my points because by jove I thought they were fairly valid ideas.

Read More

The inability for any of them to retain self control is definitely a little odd. However, I would say that in this case, the writers couldn’t much avoid it. The episode was a parody of Murder on the Orient Express, and as any parody of that book, there is a requirement for multiple perpetrators. Almost everyone has to have been involved at one point or another, and so they were. Because the show is unable to actually handle the subject of murder in any sense of the word other than fantasy jokes like Pinkie being tied to the train tracks, they needed something else to sacrifice instead. I think the writers, at least when it comes to the ponies deciding to eat the cake, did a fairly good job. They took a tired old idea and made it enjoyable, which is no easy feat.

Plus, they were forced into doing an episode about trains and Pinkie Pie anyway. The Friendship Express toy features Pinkie Pie as the conductor, and the show is for the sake of selling the toys, after all, even if we often forget it due to how good the show is. Honestly, I don’t mind that kind of promotion if this is how they handle it.

Still…still, you’re not alone in being bothered by how quickly Pinkie’s friends took advantage of her. It bugged me too. The fact that Pinkie may have made even more trouble for herself at the end by eating the combined cake doesn’t make me feel any better about it either.

I completely agree that from a writing standpoint it only made sense to have them as the culprits, and I think that the episode works for what it was supposed to be. I did really like the episode; I thought it was cute and clever, and I’m always happy for parodies (and things to sell trains. I am unashamed to say that I own a Pinkie Pie train myself).

But for the sake of over-analysis (my specialty) the trio’s behavior would be unacceptable in everyday situations. The apologies kind of bothered me too; even though I loved the way the line was delivered, “I’m guilty! I wear false eyelashes! Oh. And I took a bite of the cake.” really doesn’t sound that remorseful. Before my original post vanished into thin air I wrote a little more on the subject: (I just remembered) what irks me the most is that in the end the moral is about Pinkie Pie and her jumping to conclusions when the main focus of the episode was on the stealing of cake and in the end the fact that her friends totally ignored her feelings and ate the cake. Pinkie was making a lot of wild accusations, but it didn’t seem to be the central problem here. I’m not really saying it’s a sloppy moral, but it was not what I was expecting to hear at all. I guess since it was a Pinkie central episode, Pinkie was the one who had to learn the lesson, but it just felt off.

But still: good episode.

Dial M for Marzipan

Wow. Another browser error wiped out my second attempt at this. Some higher power really doesn’t want me to type this. Too bad I’m going to take extra measures not to lose this last effort. Last night Two nights ago I wrote a pretty long and detailed analysis of this week’s episode, and I’m going to try my darnedest to rewrite most of my points because by jove I thought they were fairly valid ideas.

Read More

Wouldn’t you know it? I spent two hours typing up an analysis of yesterday’s episode only to have it completely wiped out by a browser crash.

Fa~antastic.

I’ll try to redo it later, but it’s 8:30am and I want to sleep.

Okey Dokey Loki!

I’ve uploaded all the ones I could find. I haven’t altered them from their original postings, so there are a few instances of conjecture that is later made moot by newer episodes.

Whoo! Analysis!

Whoop. Some thoughts I was thinking earlier that I was reminded of by Howdoponieswork’s reply to my ask. Gonna “read more” it because I feel like I’ve text posted you guys plenty today for no reason.

Read More

I just rewatched “The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well” and I still don’t understand why so many people hate that particular episode.

It was cute and funny (Spiderman references for the win) and I feel like there were things in that episode that developed Rainbow Dash’s character a little more. During the episode she tells us that she “hates being alone” and that kind of makes me think that she is a person who thrives on the approval/adoration of others. This made doubly fascinating by the fact that we have never seen her parents. Did she have a rough childhood? Did she strive for their attention/approval and never get it? This little thing allows me to step back and think, “Okay. So she isn’t an obnoxious braggart just for the sake of being an obnoxious braggart she’s that way because she’s insecure.” Which, in a way, makes her that much more endearing.

So, please let me know what you thought.

Did you hate it? Why? I’d like to know.

Did you love it? Why?

Slightly deeper thoughts on New Episode

I’ve had a little time to think beyond my initial reaction and now I’m ready to go ahead and type out my thoughts on the episode. So here we go.

First off I thought it was cute interesting the way that Pinkie had a hard time throughout the whole episode really understanding that babies are more than just new people to play with but actually require a good amount of care and attention to take care of. I think this works well with not only her personality as a whole (party pony in the hiz-ouse) but with the fact (I’m not one hundred percent sure if this is canon or just fanon clinging to one line said in the first season) that she is supposed to be the youngest pony of the Mane Six.

The whole lampshading of the twins being two different kinds of ponies (and different from their parents too) was hilarious. I couldn’t stop laughing over Mr. Cake’s face when he said “That makes sense. Right?”

Anyway, I related to Pinkie on a lot of levels in this episode (I have a hard time stopping myself in this regard as you know by now). Babysitting was something I was forced into when I was younger; as the only girl in a family with four sons people assumed that I not only liked babysitting but that I must be amazing at it. As if womanly skills like child care is distributed equally among daughters, and since I was the only daughter I had the undiluted magic touch with children. I am more mature now, but at the time I really disliked children and I don’t understand why people kept hiring me (to be fair I did take good care of the children but I never enjoyed it).

The whole time she was trying to take care of children the way she would amuse ponies her own age. She’s used to being a source of entertainment for others and she likes being the pony that brings smiles to everyone else’s face, but that’s not what’s required of babysitters or anyone who’s taking care of children. “These babies won’t listen to reason!” She tries to take charge, but the twins (oh Lordy don’t get me started on twins) manage to get the upper hand on her using their wings and magic to give her the run around. (There was never a time on the show that I felt bad for Pinkie being an earth pony, but man did this episode make me feel sad that she was grounded.)

In the end she has to resort to lowering herself to their level and breaking down to… I’m not sure. Gain their sympathy? Make them see her as a colleague? I don’t know, and to be honest I liked the ending, but I would have rather seen Pinkie be able to grab the reigns and seem like the grown up somehow than to simply break down and cry to get what she needs. But at the same time I know that it’s hard to keep from crying while babysitting. Children can be holy terrors.

The last thing I’m really going to talk about is the entire theme of other ponies thinking Pinkie is not able to be responsible. This is another thing I empathized with Pinkie about since I’ve been having trouble with people in my life thinking I’m incompetent. It was sad to me watching the Cakes go to every other pony (Rainbow Dash? Really? You think Rainbow Dash will take better care of your kids?) to ask for help and completely ignoring Pinkie’s offers until the very end. Not to mention how Twilight just comes along and almost slaps Pinkie in the face with “Not everypony can handle responsibility.” (Sorry, Twilight, babe. You’re still best pony, but sometimes you lack tact.) I guess that’s why what I wanted to see in the end was Pinkie getting to step up and do what needed to be done, and I guess she did in a way at the very end by surprising the Cakes.

All in all I liked the episode. I love Pinkie Pie (that much is obvious) and episodes devoted to her are always wonderful. I’m just a little disappointed because I really thought that this was the episode that would have the “Smile” song in it. Boo. Oh well.

Pony Babysitters

Why? Because I’m bored.

One of my absolute favorite parts of today’s episode was the Pinkie parade. It made me really happy when the rest of the Mane Six appeared during “Smile Smile Smile” and then when they carried her along…

Man, not sure if it’s my crazy hormones making this episode so emotional or if it was just fantastic.

Oh. Something interesting (to me at least) is that last semester during my scriptwriting class (that one I keep referencing?) I had to come up with three episode ideas to pitch to the class which were: 1) Rainbow Dash breaks a wing and has to deal with not being able to fly when the Wonderbolts come to town 2) A new pony moves to Ponyville who refuses to smile despite Pinkie’s best efforts to the contrary and 3) Fluttershy goes missing, the rest of the Mane Six thinks she’s been kidnapped and have to follow clues to find her.

This season has had both Rainbow Dash breaking a wing and a pony donkey who wouldn’t smile. Funny to think that the writers of the show and I were thinking alike. :)

I was going to type something about Pinkie and what the song revealed about her character, but I decided a while back that I tend to project a little too much when it comes to Pinkie so my opinions get a little skewed. So nothing doing today.

And I guess no new episode next week? Sad.