Ah, it has finally happened. The start of the third season of MLP:FiM, meaning more pony. I have slowly seen this fanbase recovering interest in the series. I know, i know, some people have alredy moved from that and whatnot. But you know what? I don't think this will end anytime soon.

As for the two part special... Spoiler alert below, be warned. Warned? Good. Spoilers end where the quote begins. Sorry if anyone can't quite understand my nonsense comment, and please understand that the following personal comment is exactly that, a personal comment. So take it like that, okay?

OK, so it wasn't anything ground-breaking, but it wasn't lame either. Twilight bursting again into rage at the start... So she has anger management issues? ...Awesome. And then... She freakin' broke gravity! How cool is that?!

But then, there was Luna. I don't see any point of her being on the episode other than please Luna fans (sorry, aforementioned luna fans). I mean, she is cool, anyway, but still.

IMHO Pinkie pie stopped being random to start being ridiculous. The jokes she made were not cartoonish, but bothersome. I kinda hated her until "Griffon the brush off", when i saw she was in fact upbeat and not silly. But... This one was kinda meh and put it in a very tight spot on my book. I hope it gets better.

Then there was King Sombra. I expected a full fledged character, not a black-pest-cloud-thingy. He could really have used some dialogue, more personality... Heck, even nightmare moon had more characterization than him. I didn't find Sombra threatening from the start. The last great MLP villain i saw was Discord, who spectacularly sank the plot of the episodes he was in to a very low, no-return point and then the elements of harmony, with help of Spike, saved the day in a likewise spectacular way... He really got wickedness, awesomeness, even charisma. "Twilight! Look what i did!" plat "Priceless!" That two-parter single-handedly beats this one.

And the ending... Well, okay. They gave chance to spike to be the hero, and not Twilight Sparkle, the main character. That was a fresh and unexpected twist. But they took away Spike's victory to shake away Twilight's fail, again, as for pleasing the fans or something.

The animators know they already have a solid foundation and they shook it on this special, but they didn't push the boundaries a lot. They could have used this to better define other characters, or give interesting plot twists, or change the format like they did on "Lesson Zero", or to show more Silver Spoon or something, but they didn't chose to do so.

___________________________________________End of spoilers__________________________

...Is this real?

On the subject of G3 Pinkie...

I'll have to agree with the comments: this is one of the most clever commercial meme's I've seen.

@AlbertoC I'll quote something a commenter on EQD said (an opinion I agree with):

From what I've seen, most people seem to think the premiere was excellent except for King Sombra. Courtesy of immblueversion from Behind The Voice Actors, here's a really interesting analysis of his character. It certainly changed my mind:

"He did nothing besides roar, scream and snarl, and he barely talked. He hardly showed any personality or clear motivations. He didn't actively plot against the heroes. And he didn't live past two episodes.

But did he really have to?

You see, King Sombra has more of what many MLP villains thus far lack: presence. It was his presence alone that made sure the Crystal Ponies remained miserable. It was his presence that kept them from remembering where the Crystal Heart was, or going to the one place it was hidden because they were too scared of him. Just by being there, Princess Cadance was left to suffer for days on end, even with her beloved Shining Armor by her side.

And even then, he still tried to make sure the heroes didn't have their way. He took away Shining Armor's powers, causing Princess Cadance to suffer even more. He left traps that those without the courage and wits to stand up to them could not pass. And even though he wasn't always physically present, his influence remained, and it left a very heavy impact on everyone who dared to stand against him. He also managed to do what no other villain on the show has done before: make Twilight swallow her own pride as a means to defeat him.

From everywhere he went to everywhere his name was merely mentioned, he caused nothing but pain and suffering. And not a single one of us knows why.

And yet there are those who have called him 'wasted potential,' just because he barely talked or took action, had no clear characterization, and didn't live up to any of our lofty expectations. But I'll be fair; even I expected him to be Sauron as he was before he was slain by Isildur, not Sauron as he appeared in the whole 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy.

Sometimes, less really is more. That is why he is, to me, a far greater villain than any of us could have ever anticipated."

He goes on to say:

"Now that I think about it, each of the major villains thus far represents a different 'element to writing a good villain' and, in a way, makes up for what the others lack in those regards:

Nightmare Moon: Good backstory, makes her more sympathetic.

Discord: Good personality, makes him more fun to watch.

Queen Chrysalis: Good motivation, makes her actions mesh better with the plot.

King Sombra: Good presence, makes his threat more apparent."

No matter how you look at it, Discord, Nightmare Moon, and Chrysalis (by the way, I'm vectorizing her right now) were just sort of there at the moment, for the moment. With Sombra, you have this well-done lingering feeling of him being "everywhere," yet we never actually see him as himself until the end. Could he have had some interaction? Yes. Most importantly however was his ominous presence, something the other villains don't capture quite as well.

BTW, @Everypony: Like the new username?

Well @AlbertoC, that was an interesting read. I must say that you make a couple of valid points. I just rewatched it again and I liked it more then than when I first saw it. _{Though that could be chocked up to the fact that the first time I saw it I had been interrupted multiple times and never saw it through in one sitting.} And don't you worry, Silverspoon will show up eventually.... I hope anyhow.

@GuardianKing and there is that Gak thing again.... I still have no idea what it all means. And I find the new username alright.

All I can say is that I want this. It just looks so awesome and perfectly detailed.... but I probably never will. Oh well, one can dream. XD

Well, cant hurt to try it i guess, i mean...this thread is incredibly long....

@SilverLeviathan That's the spirit. Let us know what ya think now ya hear.

I'd have been more impressed if Sombra hadn't been about as dangerous as a severe bout of flatulence.

Seriously, what did he do? He inconvenienced a unicorn that wasn't using his magic to do anything anyway, scared a bunch of bummed-out ponies and roar.

That's about it.

It's sad to see a villain with potential simply get thrown to the side like that.....or should I say, left on the outskirts.....

Well, unless there is more in store for him, I guess we'll have to rely on the community to fill in the gaps.

Gak is like some sort of silly putty thing. It was popular in the 90's, I think, and somehow, it's making a comeback.

What started the Gak craze was not 1, not 2, not 3 but FOUR Gak commercials played in succession. The livestream chats went nuts, and soon enough, it became a one-time meme which is beginning to die out quickly because of how overused it was.

(Megaman Zero 2 anyone?)

@SeriousLuna

So much win in that post.

@Discostew The community could probably come up with a bunch of cool back stories and stuff to flesh out his character a bit more. I still think that this would have been a perfect opportunity for a movie treatment to give the writers enough room for character development.

@Sylverstone Ah... that makes perfect sense now, thank you. It's like that Magneto thing back when the season 1 final was being streamed or whatnot.

@SeriousLuna Image overload!!!

And have a little more art. I found this one quite refreshing with it's simple painted style and atmosphere.

@Applejacklove - awww, what beautiful Pinkie Pie art The colors look so calm and relaxed

Time for a NEW VECTOR PEOPLE!!!

This time, may I present thee to your Royal Evilness: Queen Chrysalis!!!

I don't even know how long this one took me anymore... Way too long though. Didn't bother drawing her wings, and the canvas cut off her horn.

Anyways, I'm so not in the mood to do Celestia. Have you seen her mane?! ALL. THOSE. COLORS! AND THOSE GRADIENTS!!!!! **faints**

I think after this, I'll complete Episode 3 of Crusader, and go draw Morpheus out. Oh man, still need to find a reference for his hairstyle... THis is going to be one heck of a long journey...

That's really good, SeriousLuna

@Chrysalis - I'm not the only one to notice that then.... Though I am told Discord was given no date for how long he was imprisoned in stone. Spike as Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged Seto Kaiba, clever and it is about time Pinkie Pie meet Physics and lost.

@RetroBrony91 Glad you like it. It just feels so different from all the other fanarts I see that have alot of stuff going on.

@Chrysalis Another name change? And another good job there.

@Aqueous Oh, so that's what the Spike one is from.

And this animation is pretty well done. (mostly because it was partly animated by *Yudhaikeledai, who has done the Thinking with Portals pony series. He always does such a great job. )

Today I have made yet another "What if [insert character here] was a pony?" MS Paint/Pony Generator fanart. The Artist is one of my favorite movies of all time, and possibly one of the best movies ever made, imo (don't know about anypony else) So I wanted to make a fanart contribution by making main leads George Valentin and Peppy Miller ponified through the Pony Generator; everything else was added and done by MS Paint. I wanted to try to be as faithful as I could, especially doing black and white. I'm glad I made it, and it looks about as good as when I pictured it in my head before making it:

So, what do you think?

@Applejacklove

That Pinkie Pie image is just amazing. It's the kind of way I'd imagine Pinkie Pie to look after she's done being crazy for the day, though I'm sure I'm not the only one to think that. What's more amazing is that the person did it in 30 minutes.

The DOTA 2 video, while having some really good animation (I loved the Portal videos), seemed a little over the top to me. Maybe it's because there's too much happening.

@RetroBrony91 Neato! I've never seen the movie, but regardless, this has a very timeless quality to it. (Like the Matilda and Cranky Doodle flashback scene.) Well done.

@Discostew 30 minutes? Wow! I didn't even read the description... Thanks for reminding me to do that now. I wish I could be that good. Oh well, gotta practice a bit I guess. And your right, the video is a little cluttered. I still can't wait for the final Portal one.

@Applejacklove - thank you, that's what I was aiming for
Well, g'night, everypony!