Day Two Hundred - MLP:FiM: Season 3, Episode 3, "Comfort, comfort, comfort fooooooood."

For some reason, the past couple of days, doing the blog was seemed more and more like a chore than anything else... such that, though I feel a small urge to watch something, I also have the decidedly stronger urge to not... watch anything... ever... again.

It could be that I'm starting to burnout... or have been for quite some time... or, it could be that I'm just having an off week.

Either way, when the prospect of picking something to watch today from my never ending queue (now totaling close to four hundred movies and series) loomed metaphorically just overhead, all I could feel was ever so unmotivated.

I needed comfort television... and STAT.

Of course, that meant one thing. Well, honestly, that could mean any number of things and encompass any number of shows, from Firefly to Adventure Time to Pushing Daisies. Sadly, PD is still not streaming, Adventure Time still only has it's first season available, and Firefly? Let's just say that I can't stand the perpetual sexual frustration that the grand majority of episodes invoke in me.

So, back to that "one thing."

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: Too Many Pinkie Pies = Inside... Joke... Heaven!

The premise of the episode is that Pinkie Pie is so afraid that she'll miss out on having fun with her friends (who are doing different things in different places) that she goes to an enchanted pond and makes copies of herself so she can be at multiple events, rocking things out. Of course, this leads to the copies making copies and all of the sudden there are dozens of Pinkies wreaking havoc and disturbing the peace.

I love Pinkie Pie. She's not my favorite of ponies, but her manic energy, preternatural ability favoring punnage, and the power to break the MLP universe that rivals only that of the other 4th wall breaker in the series, John De Lancie... aka "Q"... aka Discord, just make for great fun.

When the "Pinkie Effect" is in full force, things start getting surreal delightfully quick. Most of the episode highlights her precocious ADHD with cute effects (like the frog and bluejay who are turned into oranges), but the real comedy gold of the epi happens during the climax and the "Watching Paint Dry" contest that Twilight and the rest use to separate the real Pinkie from the fake ones.

Boy, it's like this small segment was a direct nod to the adult fandom. While it doesn't seem like much, in retrospect, just having Pinkie's clones make opposable digits (with Lyra nowhere to be found) and a Gen 3 face sight gag are enough to make me squee in delight (that's right, "squee").

Sure, there's a far too convenient deus ex device about Spike finding a hidden tome in the library that just happens to have the answer to sending the extra Pinkies back to the void, but no episode is perfect, I guess.

As ever, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is cute, wholesome fun... even with the disturbing implications concerning the ethical treatment of doppelgangers. I very much recommend it (though, I acknowledge that it's not for everyone) and feel that it was just the pickmeup I needed to turn this day (and my possible burnout) right around.

Also, "Fluttershutter" XD... that is all.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

Day One Hundred and Thirty-one - MLP:FiM: Season 2, Episode 8, "Batpony to the Rescue! And without personal tragedy~"

I think that this has to be my favorite episode. I mean, yes, I love Luna in Nightmare Night and could squee at pretty much whatever Fluttershy does, but there's just something about a superhero episode that makes me happy.

Unless it's Psych. I'm sorry (Brit), but The Catch and Tap-Man are terrible. That's kinda the point, but... wait a minute, this is off topic.

Back to MLP... I love The Mysterious Mare-do-well. She embodies Truth, Justice, and the Equestrian Way without bragging or hamming it up, which is the point of the episode.

You see, Rainbow Dash makes quite an impression early on in the episode by saving not only a filly trapped in a well, but a baby carriage about to plummet off a cliff.

The townsfolk love her so much that it all starts going to her head and she begins to become a braggart jerk who is full of herself. I mean, way to be a TOOL Rainbow Dash.

That doesn't sit right with Mare-do-well, a masked hero who decides to start beating RD to crisis after crisis, saving the day so that Rainbow doesn't get the recognition she thinks she deserves.

Mare-do-well's exploits become so popular and RD so desperate for attention that the former gets a special celebration and the latter starts creating disasters from minor inconveniences (unmowed grass, a stuck lid on a jar) to try and win back the townsfolk.

As far as fables go, like most episodes of MLP, the lesson to be learned is quite obvious, as is the secrety identity of Mare-do-well, if you're paying attention.

Still, that last chase sequence where Rainbow Dash tries to unmask Mare-do-well but keeps getting turned around by her apparently preternatural speed and cunning is fun as heck. Sure, RD eventually catches up and manages to defrock the purple-clad heroine, but the antics are fun and ring of Scooby Doo.

Overall, while there's nothing really gush-worthy about this episode (no "yay" moments for Fluttershy ;P), it still ranks as my favorite.

Well... most days.

It's hard not to consider any episode with Fluttershy or Luna or Discord my favorite on the day that I watch it.

As always, the series is totally worth it... I just wish I could convince my friends of that. It's lonely being a Brony in my peer-group. ;_;

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~