Quick "MLP100" thoughts

Spoilers, spoilers, everywhere spoilers. But I am gonna guess many people who saw this saw it in real time.

(Wait. I'll see if I can figure out how to put spoilers below a jump. Okay?)

First, non-spoilery: I liked the episode. I will be happy when they go back to "the real life" of Ponyville (centering on the Mane Six), but this was fun for a change. They incorporated a few tropes from the early seasons and a BUNCH of fan-oriented stuff

I'm sure there will be some fans who are upset because things weren't done the way they wanted them, or headcanons were destroyed, or whatever, but as I said: I liked the episode. I was worried, I will confess, I was afraid the thing was going to be a giant pander bear (see what I did there?) but it really didn't go that far. Or rather, it did, but it went so far as to be in the realm of ridiculousness. (At one point a shark, a literal shark, was jumped).

(Also, I don't go as deep into the fan community as many so there may be a lot of fanservice stuff that flew over my head or that I just figured was the writers being ridiculous)

Here be spoilers:



Okay, after here are the spoilers.


1. Derpy speaks again! I was "hearing" hints of Judy Holliday in her voice though that may have been because I was wanting to hear it (I opined, way back when the whole "The Last Roundup" had the HUGE blow up about her voice making her sound "challenged," that a good way to do a ditzy character (female) without going "there" would be to do something like a Judy Holliday voice - she was an old time comic actress, I know her best from "Born Yesterday" where she PLAYED a ditz but was actually kind of canny). I like the new voice for Derpy but I don't particularly need her to speak again, or even have more than a background role - it was actually more fun looking for her as an Easter Egg.

Oh, and her official name is Muffins. That's fine with me but I'll always think of her as Derpy.

2. Lyra and BonBon speak. And they're friends, though I suppose one could read a bit more into their friendship (they quarrel a bit, not unlike a couple) if one wanted to. (I'm fine with that being left open). Lyra came across as more serious and grumpy than I might have imagined her, but okay.

3. The bigger thing: My jaw kind of dropped when BonBon announced her "real" name was "Sweetie Drops" (heh, nice save there, Hasbro) and she was a member of a SECRET AGENCY that HUNTED MONSTERS. You know, given the fanfiction I posted a couple weeks ago. I guess the idea was sufficiently attractive that more than one person in the world had it. (Though with a different character).

If I were not so grounded in reality as I actually am, I might go: "LOOK. That's PROOF that Equestria is REAL and some of us can tap into what's going on there through our imaginations." But I'm grounded in reality so I'm just going to assume it's a cool idea that someone else had along with me.

(But now clearly Agent T has a colleague! And maybe BonBon kept trying to avoid Treehugger to avoid blowing either of their covers.)

4. Luna and Celestia bickering kind of like an old married couple over "I thought YOU were bringing the present." I will admit I half expected to have Celestia make a "To the moon!" reference. (And dang, they missed a chance there: "One of these days, Luna: Bang, zoom, BACK to the moon!" though perhaps that would have been too out of keeping with sisterly forgiveness)

5. The Doctor. I thought the character was pretty well done but then again I have only seen a few episodes of Dr. Who in my life so many I didn't catch all the tropes. I did get a bit tired of "Great Whickering Stallions!" but I suppose that's like something the real Doctor says.

I will confess that my hopes - having heard a rumor - of Peter Davison (a long time actor-crush of mine) doing the voice of The Doctor - were crushed. (It was apparently Peter New who did the Doctor)

6. A few little callbacks to the earlier seasons, especially the Flower Ponies doing their "THE HORROR!" thing and fainting all over the ground at something minor.  And Steven Magnet was back. (Oh Steven. Oh. He said something that was VERY unwise - namely, that the WEDDING was what was important (Mathilda was calming herself down about the mess-up about the timing by telling herself the marriage, and not the wedding, being what was important - which is very true and is actually advice *I* have given friends who are freaking out over wedding planning or "will my family like it" or whatever*

(*And yes, I get the full irony of a life-long single giving wedding advice, it's just, I've observed a lot of these things from the outside and YES the marriage is what's important, not the wedding, the wedding is mainly you and your intended making an official commitment and everything else, the flowers, the cake, the flameless fireworks, is all extra)

7. Background ponies everywhere, because this is their episode. The jam-obsessed pony showed back up. The Big Lebowski ponies were there. (Fortunately without the F bombs from the movie that inspired them) Button Mash (is he a fan creation? I know there was someone doing Button Mash cartoons and they got a C and D, so maybe the character design was Hasbro's....). Bulk Bicep, who remains my second-favorite boy-pony (after Big Mac). Even a changeling at the wedding (Maybe the Equestrian equivalent saying to "the dog in the manger" is "the changeling at the wedding"?) Featherweight trying to run a printing press.

And there was so much else. (Gummy being philosophical!) I guess I'm almost thinking of this as an extra-canon thing, that it's something that's a bit of a fantasy and therefore out of the timeline of the 'real' series - I think that's how I can work with a few things that rang untrue to me.

8. The gag about "If this is a friendship problem, it'll be wrapped up in about a half hour." delivered by, I think, Sweetie Belle? ("Maybe our special talent is in subtly breaking the fourth wall!")

9. (I almost forgot this): Octavia speaks, British accent (Well, the sort of generalized "sounds British to a US-er accent, not sure it fits with a particular region). She lives with DJ PON-3 (they have a divided house - line down the middle, v. different decorating styles. Hee.). DJ PON-3 does not speak and I admit if they bring her back as a more-featured character in later episodes, I could go with her being of the "Maggie Simpson" variety - that maybe she CAN speak but sees no need to. (The gag going around is "If she speaks now, mute Bronies will be upset.")

I will say I liked the take-home messages from this. (There's an official one, I think, but also a secondary one)

Secondary messages:

1. The wedding isn't important, the marriage is

2. A lot of times when stuff looks all screwed up, if you pull together and work hard, everything can get fixed in a matter of hours.

Main message:

Everypony is the central character of their own life. And yeah, I can see how that could get turned around to be kind of self-absorbed ("The most important person in the whole wide world is you") but I see it more as "Everyone (or "everypony") has something interesting about them, they have something to contribute, and don't ignore or discount them just because they seem less big or important than some." And I know as someone who often goes through life feeling a little insignificant, that's a good thing to remember - that I always have something I can contribute.