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"Sniffle" "Sniffle" I.....I.....I can't believe it. I don't normally ask this sort of question, but did anyone else cry or get a bit misty eyed during or after the episode like I did? Anyway.......the finale. In my opinion, it was a spectacular masterpiece! The songs made the episode what it is, plus with the addition of Princess Celestia finally getting a musical piece really made the finale for me, even to the point I broke down in tears. Yes, I'm not kidding here. That song actually got me to break down down and start crying. Something that has never done in 21 years. The last time this happened was when I watched The Muppets take Manhattan back in 1992 on television and I ended up in an emotional mess at the end by watching the ending scene and was moved by how well it was made. This happened to be the case again this time round. Bravo M.A Larson for a spectacular well written finale. A standing ovation for Nicole Oliver for making me, and many others worldwide cry like I did. That was a spectacular performance, including the song number! And last but not least, a big bravo to all of the production team!

[colour=#000000]Whew! After reporting the news to the Bronies Australia forums early this morning and the news finally beginning to settle in, I thought I throw in my two cents on the whole situation.[/colour] [colour=#000000]First off, my reaction to the news is a bit of a mixed bag. On a positive note, I'm actually proud for Twilight going to the "next level" and becoming a princess. She has come a long way from being a character that some people love to hate due to being annoying and all in season one to becoming a fan favourite today. [/colour] [colour=#000000]But, on the other side of the coin, there are fans (not naming anyone) who are going a bit hysterical and running around in circles like crazy by the announcement.[/colour] [colour=#000000]Although I am a bit concerned about the future of the franchise although a fourth season has been confirmed in the works by DHX. Although the worst that could probably happen is that Hasbro retires the "Friendship is Magic" generation after the season three finale and begin a new 5th generation of the franchise, which in turn marks the 30th anniversary this year. [/colour] [colour=#000000]This latest development and the announcement has some similarities to another situation that happened but with a different show. [/colour][colour=#000000]Many Australian bronies may know of a TV game show that was popular back in the mid to late 80's and early 90's called Sale of the Century with the legendary Tony Barber at the hosting helm for many years. In 1991, Tony left the show and was replaced with Glenn Ridge, a television personality who worked for several regional television stations in Victoria (Australian state) including BCV-8 and GMV-6 in the 80's.[/colour] [colour=#000000]When Glenn first began hosting Sale, there were a few people who hated the host change and boycotted the show from that point onwards. However, as time went on, Glenn began to become accepted more and more as the years passed until the show finally ended it's run in the early part of the 2000's.[/colour] [colour=#000000]This latest development and the announcement has some similarities to the whole "Sale" saga all those years ago.[/colour] [colour=#000000]With this example, it goes to show that some people will actually welcome the change, while others won't. So in summary, there isn't much to worry about.[/colour]

[colour=#000000]To quote my GetGlue post earlier this morning:[/colour] [colour=#000000]"(Sings) Spike is the best dragon ever, there’s more to him than guarding treasure……"[/colour] [colour=#000000]This episode was a fun one to watch, and provided a bit of a breakaway from the "big" episodes so far in this season by adding a bit of humour here and there. One of the moments in the episode for me was when [/colour][colour=#000000]was trying to bake a cake and him singing also added a bit of a "kick" and a few aww moments to the episode. [/colour] [colour=#000000]Speaking of Spike though, he has come a along way since his debut in the first season and has really evolved from a background character that the fans hated with a passion at the start to a all round fan favourite in the last two seasons, and the last few episodes have shown Spike in a new light that I can't put my finger on. [/colour] [colour=#000000]Overall, a great episode all round.[/colour]

Whew! It's been a while between new episodes (and the 2:00am wake up calls) but after almost tempting to throw the remote at the TV again due to Discord getting on my nerves in the season two premiere, I decided to give this episode a chance. Overall, this episode......is absolutely so awesome! The idea of Fluttershy trying to reform Discord into a model citizen was a bit weird for me at first, but in the end it was a perfect fit and it also produced a moment or two, especially the dinner party sequence with a few references and shoutouts to a Disney animated classic film. There was also a few moments in the episode that had me literally shouting at the TV, mainly towards the end of the episode where Fluttershy refused to use her element against Discord and Fluttershy almost going into a full on rage when Discord started to push Fluttershy around. But the moment that made the episode for me was when Discord, after being defeated again was literally in tears. I've never seen a villain literally with tears in their eyes like that and it came as a bit of a shock. That moment in my opinion changed many people's opinions on Discord from being a evil person, to a character that the fans love and respect.

The Otaku Ascended YouTube channel was shut down a few weeks back due to TOS violations from their stream update videos being false flagged, but they are operating out of their backup channel for the time being until the issue is resolved. FiW however has been sadly blocked again after their initial appeal was rejected. The SherclopPones Twitter account posted these tweets earlier tonight discussing the situation: "The Friendship is Witchcraft videos have been blocked on YouTube by Hasbro, even after a dispute. These are dark days for fan content." - Link to Tweet: https://twitter.com/...458740887105536 "We are going to dispute the videos once again, and in the meantime we will create a new account and reupload." - Link to Tweet: https://twitter.com/...459362910765056 At this stage the videos are only blocked to US viewers, but they are now entering the second stage of the YouTube dispute process. If Hasbro rejects the claim again, the Content ID matches become DMCA notices and will result in the account being suspended if there are three copyright strikes. From there, it's a very risky process for submitting the counter notifications.

Thought I give the heads up to those who have downloaded the episode from iTunes that Apple has sent out an email indicating that some copies of the episode may have had some noticeable quality issues and a replacement copy is available to download free of charge. It looks like someone at Hasbro or the Hub has been given a grilling or two over the glitched episodes, and it's starting to look like that the later episodes in this season that may have also been affected may start to get replacement copies.

Exactly! Hasbro would be shooting themselves in the foot if they started going after fan works as it provides the show with the exposure it has been getting. Without it, and the popularity behind the show and the fanbase wouldn't even exist at all. Also as a side note, in most Commonwealth countries, Fair Use is called Fair Dealing and the fair use provisions in those countries work a little differently to those in the US. For example, in Australia, the grounds for fair dealing are: * Reseach and Study * Review and criticism (Episode Commentaries and Reviews often fall under this provision) * "Reporting the news" * Legal Advice * Parody and Satire (e.g. YouTube Poop videos) The Australian fair dealing laws are very complex and confusing, especially when videos are picked up by the Content ID system and a dispute has to be filed. The claimed video in question has to meet either one of those five key points if the original reference content (e.g. the claimed portion) was used.

While I'm not surprised about Hasbro going down this path, YouTube's Content ID system is very biased towards the content holders and appealing disputes is well and truly a nightmare with decisions doing the way of the content owner 99% of the time, and fan works such as Friendship is Witchcraft often get caught up in the tangled mess. I've tried to make videos (not pony related) using Creative Commons licensed or Smartsound soundtracks and 9 times out of 10, I've had videos blocked unfairly and without any recourse of appeal. Also on an unrelated note, from an international fans standpoint, rumour or not, this will have a major impact on those relying on YouTube uploads and with no other legal viewing options available to them. Case in point, the Australian fans get it pretty bad in terms of distribution of the show here. Apart from the Madman DVD and iTunes releases, the local broadcaster Boomerang is finally airing in it's entirety all of season 1 after for many months just playing random episodes. However, season 2 is a very long way from being aired here, and add on top the poor picture and sound quality, plus the PAL speedup on the episodes and the very prohibitive cost of watching show through the only Pay TV provider in the country, and you can see why Australian fans can watch the show through YouTube uploads or going underground and resorting to methods which cannot be mentioned. The main problem is due to outdated business model that the film and television studios still rely on, and also the Hollywood studios trying to stop the digital innovation. Until the current business model is completely rewritten from scratch to cater for this new era of streaming content to devices and same time availability as the US airings, the Australian fans will continue to be shafted in terms of new episodes airing, or made available legally here. I gave up watching episodes on YouTube a long time ago knowing something like this would happen.

Whew! After missing the first three minutes of the new episode (slept in, blame my iPad alarm for not going off on time) early this morning, the new episode was a bit of a 50/50 one in my opinion. I mean, it's nice for Spike to get some airtime and a episode of his own and all, but I felt the episode was a bit rushed and incomplete and moved way too fast story wise, not being harsh on the writers of the episode and all. Although the one positive thing that came out of the episode was the little impromptu musical number that Spike sang. Overall, I wouldn't call this a bad episode, nor a good one. For me, it's a split between not being a bad episode, but also it's not a good one in my books and I consider this episode rating wise as a "in-between".

Well......to quote my check in post on GetGlue earlier this morning: "For a pony who has been part of the franchise for 30 years, in many forms, styles, coat colours and personality traits, Applejack hasn't been getting the attention that she deserves in this series." The new episode really brought out Applejack in a new way, and changed my perceptions about her in a space of 30 minutes from being a bottom of the list character, to a mid-card and in most cases, even higher. There were a few notable moments in the episode that really got me a little weepy, mainly Applejack being literally in tears after the barn was ripped to shreds. But if there was one thing that I can say about the episode in terms of a favourite moment, it has to be Applejack finally singing a song of her very own. I can't get that song that out of my head! Especially when I was trying to get some sleep after the episode at 3:00 in the morning! There was also a Mondegreen (misheard lyrics) moment during the song which saw the HaxMega stream chat room explode. Overall, this episode was great and finally showcased Applejack in her true form.

Whew! After having to avoid the leaked copies of the episode and spoilers for a few days, I finally got the chance to catch the episode live early this morning. (again 2:00am) Overall, this episode was a bit of a OK one for me, but it isn't considered one of my favourite episodes of the season so far. Although it lived up to the hype, there were a few things that got me a bit offside about the episode itself, mainly Spitfire's laid back personality from the last two seasons undergoing a major overhaul with the new voice and military officer style. I wrote a few tweets during the episode, but this one sums up how I felt about the change: "What the? What in the name of Celestia happened to Spitfire?! Drill sarge? Where’s is her personality?!" Apart from that, the side story of Pinkie waiting at the mailbox was pretty well done and added a bit of humour to the episode.

Equestria Daily has just done an article on the audio issues on the iTunes release: http://www.equestria...nes-issues.html It looks like this has become a widespread problem as other users are reporting the same problems as mentioned previously, as there are additional glitches in the audio throughout the episode and there is also a mention of the picture becoming pixelated towards the start. Also as a side note, this isn't the first time that the show has suffered from audio and sync issues. One of the Australian season 1 DVD releases had major sync issues due to the PAL speed up on the episodes.

You're not the only one having the same trouble. I've purchased and downloaded the episode and I'm having the same problem as well. I'm playing the episode through my home theatre system (Apple TV with the optical audio component connected directly to my Sony 5.1 Amplifier unit) and I can clearly hear the cluck.

Wow. I'm having trouble keeping up with which episode is my personal favourite for this season, but this one sure takes the cake! Despite having to wake up at 2:00 in the morning here in Australia to watch the episode live, in summary, Scootaloo. Enough said. This episode had me watching from start to finish. 
Some parts of this episode however got me a little creeped out, most notably the nightmare sequences and seeing Scoots scared beyond belief. Although there was a few light hearted moments as well, especially with Sweetie Belle putting on her adorable face and singing!

 It was also nice to see the softer side of Scoots towards the end of the episode, especially when she was crying, which got me a bit misty eyed as well. 
Overall, this episode ranks pretty high in my favourites.

Wish I could have a TV that size, but sadly pricing for televisions in Australia are very expensive with a 65 inch set retailing for around $3000 to $5000! Plus I would have to move a few things around just to fit in the room! But I managed to pick up the Panasonic 42 inch for around $1500 plus five years extended warranty from the retailer, but the picture quality is outstanding when playing episodes through the Apple TV device with the vivid colour settings turned on.