How to participate in the liveblog chat:
Option 1: Whenever you watch the episode, comment on this post as you watch with whatever responses you feel like posting!
Option 2: Go to http://webchat.freenode.net/. Enter a nickname, then for the Channels field enter ##rabbitcube, and finally fill in the Captcha and hit Connect! We'll be watching the episode and commenting there starting at 3:00 p.m. EST. At least... hopefully someone will? I currently have no idea whether I'll be doing it--I'm going to a season finale party, but thanks to some miscommunications it is no longer clear whether the season finale will actually be viewable at said party. So if I watch it there, then I'm obviously not going to be able to participate in the liveblog. But if I don't, then I will.
Anyway, if I do not do the liveblog, can one of you worthy folk please keep the log and post it in comments below? If I do make it, I'll post it here myself.
I ended up doing both! Liveblog below the cut!
<froborr> Go!
<@Sylocat> Oh, Spike
<Whiteeyes> Load damn you load!
<froborr> Heheh, take that RD's ego.
<Whiteeyes> "Point taken."
<@Sylocat> Pinkie...?
<Whiteeyes> AJ got it right, it's not a different way of smiling and waving.
<@Sylocat> Flash?!
<@Sylocat> Oh yikes
<Whiteeyes> Twilight has a point, she hasnt done much as a princess.
<@Sylocat> The fans will NOT be happy about him
<@Sylocat> Ah, so THIS is who those nobleponies were in Equestria Games
<Whiteeyes> I remember these guys from the Games!
<froborr> Oh, that was him, wasn't he! Thought the voice was familiar.
<Whiteeyes> THAT WAS IT oh Spke beat me to it.
<froborr> Are you slightly behind Whiteeyes? Want us to pause for 10 seconds?
<@Sylocat> Yeah, the fanbase utterly loathes him
<Whiteeyes> Nah, im good.
<Whiteeyes> brb
<@Sylocat> Oh yikes...
<@Sylocat> Who is he supposed to be?
<froborr> I don't really know.
<froborr> Duke of something.
<froborr> Maretania?
<@Sylocat> Hey, she's the Princess of Books
<@Sylocat> Ooh, musical number
<froborr> Yeah, I liked that comic.
<@Sylocat> They went all-out for this one
<froborr> Yeah, solid animation bump.
<@Sylocat> Ooh, Celestia gets to sing!
<froborr> I wonder if there's an aurora every time she sings.
<froborr> Also: Twilight/Luna parallel, I see you.
<@Sylocat> And of course she's going to get her "castle" thanks to the castle of the sisters
<@Sylocat> Wow, this is an elaborate number
<froborr> Yeah.
<@Sylocat> Oh, are we about to meet the villain?
<Whiteeyes> Back.
<@Sylocat> Please be Tirek, please be Tirek...
<@Sylocat> Or not
<Whiteeyes> Good thing about having it on Ipad, I can take it with me
<@Sylocat> WHAT?!
<froborr> =)
<@Sylocat> Did he say Tirek?! This is Tirek!
<froborr> Not just Tirek.
<froborr> Explicitly the *return* of Tirek.
<Whiteeyes> MAGIC EATER!
<Whiteeyes> The CUTIE MARK IS GONE!
<@Sylocat> HOLY ROADAPPLES
<@Sylocat> Does this mean G1 is canon?
<froborr> It's really hard to say.
<Whiteeyes> THE BOOK!
<@Sylocat> Whoa, that was Star Swirl the Bearded
<@Sylocat> Ooh, are we going to see Tartarus?
<Whiteeyes> Skorpan!?
<Whiteeyes> How much G1 would there be?
<Whiteeyes> Season 2 escape, so...less than a year?
<froborr> Yep.
<@Sylocat> Ah yes, that look they gave Fluttershy
<Whiteeyes> Fluttershy is right, give him a chance! He's good now!
<@Sylocat> Yep, that castle is going to be her "kingdom"
<Whiteeyes> If you're all jerks to him, of course he'll be a jerk back.
<@Sylocat> Is he wearing a Tom Baker scarf?
<froborr> No, he was dressed as Mary Poppins.
<Whiteeyes> Marry Poppins!
<@Sylocat> General MacArthur?
<@Sylocat> Ah yes, Mary Poppins
<@Sylocat> Oh yikes, Princess Discord
<@Sylocat> That will be the new meme
<@Sylocat> Ooh, the box
<Whiteeyes> RD was kinda jerk there.
<@Sylocat> Wait, Discord WANTS her to open it?
<@Sylocat> What's he up to?
<Whiteeyes> Discord, see he's being nice in his own way!
<froborr> I seriously love not-actually-evil-just-a-manipulative-jerk Discord.
<Whiteeyes> Even Flutttershy isn't buying that one.
<@Sylocat> Oh jeepers
<Whiteeyes> Did Discord just mark the keys for them?
<@Sylocat> Yep, he even used labels matching the colors
<Whiteeyes> Discord is best tricster mentor.
<@Sylocat> Toucord
<@Sylocat> Ew
<@Sylocat> Ah, of course they know each other
<Whiteeyes> Discord pwns.
<Whiteeyes> Yeay Fluttsershy!
<@Sylocat> And the world of fanfiction did tremble
<Whiteeyes> Tirek is perfectly manipulating this.
<froborr> He really is. Makes sense, he is the senior villain.
<@Sylocat>
Oh, will this be Discord's ACTUAL redemption? He falls for Tirek's
silver tongue, but has to learn that it actually does mean something to
him?
<Whiteeyes> Discord, think about it, this would make Fluttershy cry!
<@Sylocat> Eeyup, he marked the keys for them
<Whiteeyes> See, her picture is one of your three possessions in the world!
<Whiteeyes> We don't need all the flashbacks!
<@Sylocat> Ah yes, the clip show episode
<froborr> At least the clips are really short.
<froborr> And it probably is worth reminding the target audience about this. Baby's First Season-Long Arc.
<Whiteeyes> Do we need to see the clips? Twilight is telling us what they are!
<@Sylocat> Pinkie interrupts the flashback
<Whiteeyes> Okay, they only did two.
<@Sylocat> She really does have the Fourth Wall power, and she knows the audience will get bored
<@Sylocat> So she interrupts
<Whiteeyes> KEYS!
<Whiteeyes> And then AJ spent hers...
<froborr>
I really like that they verbally acknowledged that part of it was
teaching someone else about the element, I was worried that would be
left just lying there.
<Whiteeyes> Pinkie, leave boneless alone...never mind
<@Sylocat> Ooh, 3D
<Whiteeyes> Okay those keys look awesome!
<Whiteeyes> Magic = Friendshp is the moral again.
<@Sylocat> Eeyup, Discord sold them out
<@Sylocat> And he looks more like his old self
<Whiteeyes> NOT LYRA!
<@Sylocat> Yeesh, this is a creepy one
<Whiteeyes> Twilight, none of you except Flutershy really were friendly with him.
<froborr> It would have been funny if getting her power drained caused DH's eyes to straighten out.
<Whiteeyes> No, Derpy!
<Whiteeyes> So, EArth Pony Strength Power is canon.
<@Sylocat> ...How the heck does that work?
<Whiteeyes> Take a quick break?
<froborr> k
<@Sylocat> How long?
<Whiteeyes> Eh just a couple minutes to discuss that ending.
<@Sylocat> Start at half past, or sooner?
<Whiteeyes> Half past sounds good.
<froborr> Half past sounds good.
<froborr> We'll resume from the 22 minute mark.
<Whiteeyes> So yeah, thoughts on part one?
<froborr> I will be mostly quiet in this discussion, since I've seen part two.
<@Sylocat> It was... whoa
<@Sylocat> I thought it was surprising when they namedropped Firefly
<froborr> Did they?
<Whiteeyes> I am so disapointed in Discord, I thought he knew better.
<froborr> I missed that!
<@Sylocat> I didn't seriously think they'd gotten Tirek back as well
<@Sylocat> Yeah, in "Testing, Testing, 1,2,3," it's said that General Firefly founded the Wonderbolts
<froborr> Oh, right.
<froborr> I thought you meant in this episode.
<Whiteeyes> Then again as I've always complained, nopony else ever treats him nice besides Fluttershy.
<Whiteeyes> And then Twilght goes "But didn't our friendship mean anything?"
<Whiteeyes> And you can just hear AJ's airquotes wheever she says "friends" about him.
<Whiteeyes> Reap what you sow!
<Whiteeyes> I am feeling ranty today aparently.
<froborr> Well, but by the same principle, he's an obnoxious jerk pretty consistently.
<Whiteeyes> Yes, it's almost as if he's never had a friend and is learning how to be one.
<Whiteeyes> He even bookmarked it for Twilight!
<Whiteeyes> DISCORD IS BEST PRINCESS!
<@Sylocat> He expressed disappointment that he hadn't ruined Twilight's and Cadance's visit
<froborr>
No, he has done nice things for them, most notably the book. But he is
also actively malicious toward them for his own amusement.
<froborr> That's not "hasn't learned how to be a friend yet," that's "isn't really interested in being friends."
<Whiteeyes> He's like a kid punching people because he's bored.
<@Sylocat> And that's a bad thing
<@Sylocat> 2 minutes
<froborr> What kind of kid does that!?
<Whiteeyes> The boed kind that hasn't learned that it's not okay to do that.
<@Sylocat> There's only so much you can teach a kid who doesn't know it's not okay to punch people just because he's bored
<@Sylocat> 1 minute
<froborr> Yeah, that's kind of basic human empathy.
<Whiteeyes> Not everybody gets that.
<@Sylocat> Here... we... go...
<@Sylocat> (as the Joker would say)
<froborr> Well, sure, but that's not the fault of the people around the kid.
<@Sylocat> Click
<froborr> I like the Previously On music.
<Whiteeyes> So...when was Tirek sealed away anyway?
<@Sylocat> In G1, that's when
<Whiteeyes> He was sealed at least after Discord so he knew that Discord had been sealed.
<froborr> Man, Discord rubbing his hands together in Fluttershy's window is WAY creepier now.
<@Sylocat> Well, given that Firefly took him down, and Firefly founded the Wonderbolts after the NMM incident
<@Sylocat> Eeyup
<Whiteeyes> Twilight, guard all our shit against the evil super being!
<@Sylocat> Wait, he knows about Cadance, but not Twilight?
<froborr> Yep.
<@Sylocat> And Discord didn't tell him?
<@Sylocat> Oops, she's about to get shimmery eyes, isn't she?
<froborr> Cadance is apparently quite old after all.
<Whiteeyes> Celestia "No getting your super save the world friends to help" Celestia's plan is brilliant!
<@Sylocat> Or this is another test
<Whiteeyes> SPIRIT BOMB!
<froborr> Well, with the Elements of Harmony gone, there isn't much her friends can do to help.
<@Sylocat> Yeesh... Twilight's gotta take on all of that?
<@Sylocat> Ah, so Discord's playing Tirek as well
<froborr> Twilight absorbed the Spirit Bomb to go Super Saiyan!
<Whiteeyes> Okay, Twilight, hide somewhere people won't be able to find you!
<froborr> So the black mark on Luna isn't part of her cutie mark.
<@Sylocat> That answers one fan question
<Whiteeyes> Okay Twilight, don't screw up!
<@Sylocat> Duh...
<@Sylocat> So, Twilight IS going to give this power back when it's over, right?
<@Sylocat> Wow, Twilight's changing the time of day even faster than Discord
<@Sylocat> Discord's having a crisis of conscience
<Whiteeyes> So, how did they beat Tirek ast time?
<froborr> They said, his brother helped.
<Whiteeyes> No Twilight, don't lie like that.
<Whiteeyes> Teleport!
<@Sylocat> Wait, where ARE the others?
<@Sylocat> Oh, that's where (one of them) is
<@Sylocat> And she thought flying was rough before!
<Whiteeyes> NOT NOW!
<@Sylocat> She's overloading
<Whiteeyes> I hate "I have to do this alone" plots.
<Whiteeyes> PONY BALLS!
<@Sylocat> Whoa
<@Sylocat> He tossed them into paintings, like in Super Mario 64
<froborr> Tartarus!
<@Sylocat> Oh no... is THAT the last key?
<froborr> I love the sandwich sword.
<Whiteeyes> I haven't touched that one yet!
<@Sylocat> So, Discord has to know that Twilight's not actually there
<froborr> Him melting the stained glass is hardcore.
<froborr> NO FLUTTERSHY DON'T CRY
<@Sylocat> Oh yikes, the fandom wants to clobber Discord right now
<Whiteeyes> Fluttershy, you probably feel as bad as I do.
<Whiteeyes> Ironic echo!
<@Sylocat> Well, at least Tirek will have trouble finding her
<@Sylocat> Or not
<Whiteeyes> Oh boy, at least she saved the owl.
<@Sylocat> Oh, it... is... ON.
<froborr> Yeah. Bye-bye library.
<Whiteeyes> KAMEHAMEHA!
<@Sylocat> Tirek is going down so hard
<Whiteeyes> KAIOKEN TIMES TEN!
<@Sylocat> Now this is a dark one
<froborr> This is a pretty brutal fight, yeah.
<Whiteeyes> Holy geeze it is Pony Ball Z, I was just kidding!
<Whiteeyes> Don't do it, that's a really bad idea!
<froborr> Except that if it were Pony Ball Z, this two-parter would have been a season long.
<@Sylocat> Tirek is going down
<@Sylocat> Hard
<@Sylocat> Oh yikes, he said the "as you wish" line
<Whiteeyes> Discord key time!
<Whiteeyes> GOJIRA!
<@Sylocat> It's fitting that it belonged to Tirek's brother
<froborr> Yeah.
<Whiteeyes> Tirek kicked his own ass, the best kind of ironic defeat!
<@Sylocat> And here comes the Rainbow Power toy line, am I right?
<Whiteeyes> RainbowPower!?
<Whiteeyes> MY GUESS WAS RIGHT!
<@Sylocat> They've been showing ads for it since... YIKES
<Whiteeyes> I guessed this sense the season premier!
<@Sylocat> Oh sheesh those look horrible
<froborr> Twilight is the only one that doesn't look like ass.
<@Sylocat> It's only temporary, right?
<Whiteeyes> The toys look better.
<Whiteeyes> OH NO.
<Whiteeyes> THE TOYS LOOK BETTER.
<froborr> Should we be worried that the ONLY cell with someone in it in Tartarus is Tirek?
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<@Sylocat> Mom just said, "What about the library?"
<froborr> Meanwhile the rainbow wave passes through the CMC. They look hopefully at their flanks... nope.
<Whiteeyes> And they change back, thank God.
<@Sylocat> ...A new library?
<Whiteeyes> Best palace.
<@Sylocat> I tought she was gonna live at the Castle of the... ikes
<@Sylocat> wow
<Whiteeyes> You can see it from Ponyville.
<froborr> Yep. Castle of the Two Sisters was a red herring.
<FoME> It was in a flower. What do flowers do? They make seeds.
<froborr> Yep!
<@Sylocat> Ah, she gets her own Council room
<froborr> And I actually think it's on the site of the library, though I'm not sure.
<Whiteeyes> Council of Fiendship! Super Friends!
<@Sylocat> Well, the library did get destroyed
<Whiteeyes> Song?
<froborr> Meanwhile, at the Hall of Friendship...
<Whiteeyes> Song.
<@Sylocat> There were only two songs?
<Whiteeyes> Feels like this should be a series finally.
<froborr> Hey, there were none in the Discord and Sombra two-parters.
<@Sylocat> I was expecting Tirek to get a villain song
<@Sylocat> Uh, the Crystal Empire had three songs
<froborr> Not so much a finale as a relaunch.
<froborr> ...
<Whiteeyes> Discord Celestia?
<froborr> Oh yeah, it did.
<FoME> One last hurrah for that color scheme.
<@Sylocat> CELESCORD?! MY OTP!
<@Sylocat> Celestia x Discord!!!!!!!!!!!
<Whiteeyes> NO FLUTTERCORD!
<@Sylocat> BEST. EPISODE. EVER.
<Whiteeyes> It as awesome.
<froborr> It wasn't Maud Pie good, but it was good.
<FoME> I am now imagining Tirek vs. Maud Pie.
<froborr> Maud Pie wins.
<Whiteeyes> Only if there are large rocks around.
<FoME> Well, obviously, but the collateral damage is horrifying.
<froborr> Specifically, she does nothing while a host of angels appear from nowhere and take care of the problem for her.
<froborr> ...I now actually kind of want to write Paradise Regained with Tirek and Maud.
<@Sylocat> Because she is our lord and savior
<FoME> And Pinkie is her messenger? Angels were originally eldritch abominations...
<@Sylocat> Speaking of Milton, I'm currently rehearsing Shaw's "Don Juan in Hell"
<Whiteeyes> Sooooo...why didn't Celestia hld that Magic for a mega-fight with Tirek? Twilight seemed to be doing pretty good.
<froborr> ...I'm not familiar with the play, how is that "speaking of Milton"?
<FoME> Once blasted in the horn by a love parasite, twice shy?
<@Sylocat>
In it, the Devil (whom I am playing) talks about Paradise Lost,
referring to Milton as one of the "two of the greatest fools who ever
lived, an Italian and an Englishman"
<@Sylocat> (the Italian being Dante)
<Whiteeyes> Oh yeah, there's a reason angels traditionally introduced themselves with "be not afraid"
<froborr> So yeah, I was right about what was in the box: positions of leadership and teaching for all of them.
<froborr> Wasn't expecting Spike to be included.
<froborr> Ah, I see.
<FoME> He even gets a little throne, which is more than can be said for Luna.
<Whiteeyes> Yeah, Spike gets a throne.
<froborr> Eldritch, yes. Abomination, no. They were sublime, not grotesque.
<Whiteeyes> You got here pretty late FoME.
<FoME> Right. Sorry, I tend to associate the words.
<Whiteeyes> I am looking forward to the MtG cards from this.
<@Sylocat> I dunno, the way angels are described in the actual Bible, they sound pretty darn grotesque to me
<froborr>
That's okay, my editor caught me out doing something similar in vol. 2.
I refer to Scrooge McDuck's sense of "innate superiority," because I
associate the words, but there's nothing innate about it. He believes he
earned it, not that he was born with it.
<Whiteeyes>
Let's see, a pillar of rire with a halo of burning eyes, a six winge
man with three faces, two of a lion and one of a man, wheels of fire
made of legs, yeah angels were not pretty.
<froborr> Really? I think they mostly sound awesome.
<Whiteeyes> Well, yeah they are. They are kick ass forces of good. They just aren't pretty little kids with dove wings.
<FoME> Figures I only get the nerve to join one of these at the end of the last one. :P
<Whiteeyes> Aww, FoME, these are fun!
<Whiteeyes> You should oin in next year.
<FoME> I definitely will.
<froborr> That's my whole point, Whiteeyes: they're eldritch, btu not abominations.
<froborr> Yes, join us!
<froborr> ...I should find some other show we can do these for for the rest of the year.
<@Sylocat> Rick and Morty?
<Whiteeyes> Log Horrizon?
<froborr> I know not what these shows are.
<Whiteeyes> Aphilosophically and social comentary focused anime
<Whiteeyes> That's also got action.
<froborr> Well, I think I'm vageuly aware of Rick and Morty. I think it's an Adult Swim original series? So I steered clear...
<Whiteeyes> i watched a couple episodes. It's really not my things.
<froborr> Wait, it's Dan Harmon?
<froborr> That's... potentially interesting.
<@Sylocat> Eeyup
<Whiteeyes> So, does anyone else think this was the best Season finally to date?
<@Sylocat> It might very well be
<froborr> ...do you mean best season finale, or that it ended up being the best season in the end?
<froborr> Thought actually my answer is the same for both: yes.
<Whiteeyes>
Season 1 was meh, Season 2 felt lie it had a rushed ending, Season 3
was a controversy sparker of forest fire level, so yeah, as far as
finallys themselves go, this was great!
<FoME> It was... erratic. It certainly had the best episodes.
<Whiteeyes> And it wasn't the damn GGG.
<Whiteeyes> That was just disapointing.
<froborr> I have liked all the season finales, but I do feel like they've gotten consecutively better as they went.
<Whiteeyes> The GGG just didn't feel like a finally, it elt like a regular episode that just happened to end the season.
<Whiteeyes> It asn't a bad episode, but damned by faint praise, you know?
<froborr> Well, it wasn't meant to be a finale. The Discord episode was.
<froborr> Which makes me wonder what two episodes were added last-minute to cover the gap...
<Whiteeyes> Huh..I wonder too....quick, insert your most disliked episodes!
<froborr> Actually, S4 has exactly the structure that the original S1 plan called for:
<FoME>
Weren't "The Ticket Master" and "Look Before You Sleep" going to be
lumped together, back when they planned two cartoons per episode?
<froborr>
Slightly more adventure than we got, half-arc season, big social event
as the second-to-last episode, starting and ending two-parters about
ancient evils returning.
<Whiteeyes> They were?
<Whiteeyes> ....oh my God S4 is best S1.
<froborr> Heck, this is the first I've heard that they were ever planning two shorts per episode.
<Whiteeyes> Same here on that front.
<Whiteeyes> FoME, source?
<FoME> I could be wrong. Probably am. I thought I read it in one of Faust's deviantArt comments.
<@Sylocat> First I'd heard of it too
<FoME> Years ago, at that. Yeah, let's just disregard crazyface over here.
<froborr> Oh, it's entirely possible. I don't actually know that much about the show's production history.
<Whiteeyes> It was probably scraped early on, but I could see it being considered early on.
<Whiteeyes> Shows like this have to question what to do with those dieas.
<Whiteeyes> *ideas
<froborr> So, any final thoughts on the ep before I copypasta over to the blog?
<Whiteeyes> Is it better for one long episode, or two shorts? Both have their pros and cons
<froborr> I think for this show, the longer format works better.
<FoME> I blame the Rainbow Power design on the Tree of Harmony being a tree.
<FoME> The only thing it knows how to do with color is attract pollinators.
<Whiteeyes> Tirek's powers should have been evil dark rainbow colored...and PONY BALL Z YAH!
<froborr> FoME: Interesting. Explain?
<@Sylocat> Trees aren't known for their fashion sense
<froborr> Oh. Lol.
<@Sylocat> Well, some trees are...
<Whiteeyes> Tree fashion, definatly the cause of all the design problems.
<froborr>
Anyway, I think the longer format works better for a show that isn't
going for wackiness as its main aesthetic. It allows for a slightly
calmer pace, more room for subtler forms of characterization, that kind
of thing.
<Whiteeyes> I agree.
<FoME> Indeed. Assuming I'm not misremembering, that's what Lauren fought for.
<Whiteeyes> Brony fandom probably would never have spawned in a world with shorter skits.
<froborr> While something like Adventure Time, say, definitely works well as 11-minute eps.
<froborr> Okay, copypastaing.
<Whiteeyes> Adventure Time has a mor meta plot that has made we shed pools of liquid pride.
<Whiteeyes> I still cry whenever I watch "I Know You".
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<froborr> Oh, I'm not saying it lacks characterization or emotion!
<froborr> I'm just saying it's frenetically paced in a way that works well with the 11-minute format.
<froborr> Adventure Time maintains a constant high level of energy. MLP is a bit calmer and slower.
<Whiteeyes> It's like the Ice King is her grandpa suffering from Alzheimers! It's so sad!
<froborr> Yes, I know. They've done an AMAZING job with Ice King.
<Whiteeyes>
Yes it is, and as such has as a result more nuance per episode per
character, rather than slwly dishing it out over the seasons.
<froborr> I can no longer think of the Cheer's theme without tearing up.
<Whiteeyes> Yeah, what they did with Ice King was amazing.
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