• "Once Upon a Zeppelin": Episode Followup - AKA TOP Adventure MOM


    Usually my seasonal followup claiming requirement is ALL THE TRIXIE and IF THERE ARE BATS ITS MINE but a solo Twilight Sparkle episode is way too hard to resist. And with another pony parent personalty reveal to top it off, this is mandatory.

    That or no one else would do it. Slackers.

    You all get to deal with me this time. I'm sorry. I'll try to reign in the cartoon horse shipping but I'm only human. Something about this show makes me feel like a teenager on Deviant Art who just discovered fanfiction.

    Go get a followup or something below.



    MFW all my friends are off playing Divinity 2 and I have another 50 emails and 20 posts to clear and a followup to write ;_;. I bet I'm not the only one.

    I'm kidding, I love you guys.

    But I really want to go play Divinity. 



    I freakin' love Twilight episodes. When it's just her being her adorkably OCD self she shines better than any other pony in the show. I'd almost argue that she was one of the main reasons I kept watching it back in the day. Just to see her mini freakouts and excitement for the mundane.



    And what is with this season and the crazy amount of new background ponies? It's like they added a budget just for crafting them. So many new manes, colors, and styles. Early fandom would literally implode with how much creative matter we are packing into each episode now. Where would we be if we had this kind of variety back then? Would there still be 30 stories about Vinyl and Octavia in highschool/college/music class? 40 stories about Lyra coming out to Bonbon?



    I mean, look at all these. Are they getting names yet? Can you even name this much horse without running out of words to combine without becoming redundant?



    I mean, truth be told some of these kinda just slap a hair style on and pray it works, but others are really well designed.



    Like these two. I have no idea why the left one has an egg for a butt symbol, but both would be completely doomed to an entire, extensive fanon backstory within the week if it was 2013. You can't have a mane that extravagant, colors that complimentary, or eyes that bedroom without getting an overwhelming amount of fandom attention. That egg on her butt would have a Game of Thrones level explanation written and printed within a year. Entire wars fought over the history of eggs on the flank. Backstabbing and intrigue as empires topple.

    Or they'd just make out and be lesbians. That's probably a lot more likely.



    The moms too! All three season 7 ones seem to be competing for BEST MOM and every second of it is overwhelming. At this point I'm completely torn. Pear Butter is like waifu of the year, but Twilight Velvet here would make every single vacation an adventure and Windy's hyper excitement means you'd never have a bad time.



    Also butts. Can't have a followup without butts. That's tradition.

    And whatever that pony belly thing is that everyone draws. You know who you are. I've been exposed to it for years thanks to the hundreds of art pieces we get. Lauren Faust's design triggered "something" in this fandom that likes dat shape.




    The other day we spent an hour going through the most expensive hotels in the world and drooling over staying in them if we were billionaires. I'd stay in this one over all of those. That is some serious luxury right there. They even have a piano. Imagine playing that thing at 3 AM after downing whatever is in that free bottle of green stuff on the left side and driving the entire ship nuts.



    God damn adorable.



    Not so much.



    I mean, it's not like everything in Equestria wouldn't be covered in spit anyway. Two thirds of the population manipulates things with their mouths. They all probably have ridiculous immune systems at this point.




    Honestly, I've seen way worse pony masks made throughout the years by actual licencees working under Hasbro. This doesn't surprise me in the slightest. Merchants DGAB since kids will buy almost anything.



    I went into this episode completely blind and never at all expected the return of this dude. Of all the slice-of-life episodes we've gotten so far, this is probably one of my favorites from a sheer idea standpoint. Themed travel cruise Iron Will is a genius idea.



    I mean... I did really like their designs.

    I secretly want to be so famous that people smash their faces on glass just to communicate with me.



    Marshmallow hooves confirmed etc etc. I think we've done this bit a million times now but someone demanded I include the malleability of Twilight's hoof so there yah go.



    This season has been so meta. 

    Just keep doing it DHX I need more.



    This poor dude. He's got such a massive crush and has no idea how to express it without radiating waves of creepy. I feel like this is how a lot of those human in Equestria fanfics would end up though. We always have anime muscles and pony-attracting-features in those, but in reality we'd just be odd looking hairless monkey things, and so far monkey things in Equestria seem to largely be evil douchebags.


    (HEIL HYDRA)

    Seriously though, if a portal ever does open to our horsewife utopia, please don't be this guy.



    At all.



    Don't ruin it for the rest of us.



    Uhh, anyway lets take a break from all this horselovery.

    Twilight checking on her dad's bingo progress in this scene is really cute.



    A short break though, because Twilight's mom is seriously adorable. Same excitement Twilight has for books, except hers is focused on extreme stunts.



    I mean, it's not like I wanted to stick to a workout regiment for more than a week or anything...*

    *As I hide my 5 protein powder packs, weight set, yoga mat, rollerblades, bike, longboard, stretch bands, pull up bar, ice cleats, workout chair, HOA gym membership, and half filled calendar from all my attempts throughout the last year.



    I'm proud of this couple! Parents are way too protective these days! Kids need to experience some first-hoof barely controllable alicorn baby magic to really get a feel for the rigors of life. No wonder villains just kinda walk in and take over in ponyland every other weekend. The guards probably grew up with helicopter parents and schools with playgrounds made out of cushions just in case. Or to avoid lawsuits. So many lawsuits.



    That moment you realize the cruise you are secretly enjoying all the attention on has quickly shifted over to your daughter. So jealous~  We still love you Caddy. Don't read too far into those best princess polls ❤.



    >You will never take a zeppelin cruise to a giant waterfall canyon

    Why didn't we persue this technology again? Didn't the Empire State Building have a full on Zepplin dock for this sort of thing? I dream of a world where we still have airships floating around everywhere and everyone is wearing awesome steampunk attire. I might actually buy clothes instead of just live off free shirts if that was the case. Modern fashion is so booring.



    TWILIGHT VELVET BREAK









    No words. She's right up there with Windy Whistles easily.





    The original plan for followups was to point out references before someone decided to raise the bar or something, so have some actual real life signatures from David Bowie, Elvis Presley, and Celine Dion!



    Is that a parody of Big Jim Miller's OC on the side? Cause I think it is.



    I'm pretty sure Twilight wins for most soul-crushing cry. Fluttershy may have the upper hand in normal circumstances, but when Twilight does it, you know it's for a damn good reason and so much worse.

    She also does the ear flop thing a lot better. The ear flop is TOO MUCH.



    That and gazing into the distance, lost in thought, with a flowy mane. She does that better than anyone else.


    Wrecked



    EVERY BRONIES' DREAM

    That moment when being creepy then ending it with a heartfelt explanation works out in the end. I just saw an askreddit thread about how people met their significant others, and it turns out this strategy is pretty common. And probably works on horses I guess.



    Aaand then they talked. I don't think I could handle it fandom. That nagging Minnesotan soccer mom accent would slowly drill into my brain until I'd end up in a loony bin. No offense to Minnesotan soccer moms with that accent of course.

    Incoming angry emails



    Somewhere in the back of my mind I was hoping Twilight would just Jedi forse push him off the ship at this scene. Just throw us a big ol' curveball. They were setting up for it and everything. He'd survive of course, but just for that WTF factor. All her fans dropping a reaction like this.



    This whole self-levitation thing was started by Starlight wasn't it? Is she really being groomed as the new Starswirl? To bravely go where no unicorn has ever gone before and spread even more advanced magic across the world? I want this. I want an entire series with this.

    Please don't kill me for mentioning Starlight in a Twilight episode.



    Heartfelt ending go.

    Overall it was one of my top episodes of the season, and that's saying something with Starlight and Trixie are so prevalent throughout. Everything about it just was just completely solid in the Slice of Life department.

    I'm noticing a trend of ending morals focusing on looking after ones' self this season too. That's an interesting shift from all the friendshipping, and also a valuable lesson in the end. 



    But seriously, hit them with a spell to swap their accents to British or something and we'd be in business~

    FOLLOWUP DONE!