#Feats of Friendship

[glapplebloom]

So let’s see how much of a train wreck the rest of the special is...

We begin with basically all the negative energies created yesterday gone. They blame it on the stress but Swift Foot plans to continue to pick on it. That’s when we learn that there was apparently a 4th Tribe, forgotten by time and went off to do their own things with flapjacks and Dead by Daylight  Club Members. The leader of this Tribe, King Thrace, found an island and named it and his people after himself.

So, Thracians are a real thing. I won’t go into details about it, but look it up yourself if you are curious. I’m going to just question the comic, like what makes this 4th Tribe any different from the other three? They look just like Earth Ponies. They have access to no magic. They don’t seem like creatures who can survive underwater. Like as far as this presents itself, it’s some jerk who wants stuff all to himself and doesn’t care for anyone else. 

Swift Foot works to sow the seeds of doubt, like how Yona got two baskets instead of a cart. Luckily for the group, when an Orthos shows up Swift Foot accidentally gives her team the win. In the second challenge, she again sows doubt with the crew by making them do things on their own instead of the true purpose: working with the rest of the teams to create one good bridge. This time it works since everyone failed.

It seems to be working as the Third Feat is upon them as the pressure and Swift Foot is getting to them. And the third feat is dealing with a Chimera. With all three things going on, it's definitely an uphill battle. So much so that Sandbar had to drag Ocellus out of her cage to get her to change into something to stop it. Seeing this, Swift Foot doesn’t understand since she’s working hard to get them to abandon each other but they continue to work together despite the negativity.

Thanks to Ocellus, they win the Third Feat but as soon as they are in a private area, they begin to argue. This continues to the next issue as Fleet Foot begins second guessing herself as we flashback to before she arrived. Basically, with how they act I wonder how they even managed to live as long as they have if they were indeed a 4th Tribe. Her sisters and her father don’t seem to care about each other. I wouldn’t be surprised if any ruler didn’t just kill the previous to become the current ruler.

And just as quickly as the arguing started, it ended as it was revealed Yona’s friends were learning how to speak Yak in private to surprise Yona. Everybody begins to apologize as Swift Foot is won over by the Magic of Friendship. And now united with Swift Foot fully on board the Friendship Express, they now have to complete the final feat: A Hydra. With a solid game plan and Ocellus making her own Hydra, they completed the final Feat in the fastest time. 

All that gave them second place, as Swift Foot decides to leave them all with the idea that she’ll return home to convince them the Magic of Friendship and to Protect her friends. And we NEVER see her or Thrace again... Unless you play the Mobile Game where she comes back to get Starlight’s help to convince her father to accept Friendship. It doesn’t work as we last see King Diomedes double the troops’ drill because he feels something is up.

Starting with the positive, the Artwork is great. Rarely does IDW not deliver on the artwork. It is nice to see more about the Student Six and them interacting with each other. It shows how tight this group is and no creature like Swift Foot was going to do any lasting damage. But the story overall was weak. Thrace has no real importance to the series or even this comic special. Swift Foot is a low rent Cozy Glow, complete with easily won over by the Power of Friendship. And the lore additions make no sense.

How would I do this? Let’s say for starters, Swift Foot tries and fails harder than she does. Her tactics get shot down one after another. Silverstream points out how often the Ponies defeated threats before her people could hear about it. Yona clarifies this is normal Yak tongue (not yakkity yak as the IDW comics put it). How SUPER accommodating the School is for non-Ponies like Ocellus being freely able to transform when she wants to or Gems being plentiful.

And instead of her slowly trying to pry them apart, she is slowly won over by the Power of Friendship to the point that she tells them her true intentions and how she doesn’t want to follow it anymore. To the point that she does the Magic Phone Call to her father to plea with him to not go through with his threat, only for him to renounce her and promise to return.

Only for the Season 10 comics to begin with Blonn Di and Shining Light (Swift Foot’s twin sisters) to show up to give them a warning. There’s a big threat coming and the six creatures easily defeat the Thrace Kingdom. This will eventually lead to the idea of Twilight creating the Friendship Expeditions to go to these new locations to hopefully strengthen their defenses while building up the final threat of this series. But more on that when I get to the Season 10 comics.

Feats of Friendship was a year before they started on Season 10 so it could totally work.

[opbackgrounds]

There's so much to love about this interaction, but I don't think the fact that Luffy's actually listening and asking intelligent questions. It shows how much he really cares about Coby.

[mintypsii]

watched usopp's little arc with defeating sugar and wow it took A LOT for him to turn back after running away to fight them again. but then later he finds out that she's awake and thinks about how he'll lose his memories of Luffy if he doesn't take care of her again, and IMMEDIATELY makes up his mind to shoot her from SO FAR AWAY?

[singsweetmelodies]

your lips, my lips (apocalypse)

"Do you know," Pierre says, thoughtfully, "that kissing is supposed to help with stress relief?"

Pierre and Charles begin a new thing in the 2023 season: making out after each new race. And then also... before it. And then at random times, too, just because they feel like it. And then they do a lot more than just making out. (It all goes about as well as you'd think.)

it just occurred to me that i've never actually made the tumblr post for this one, so here we go now! this is my new WIP project for the 2023 season 🫶 in which i make pierre and charles comfort each other after shitty races (and also vent my own feelings about the matter by writing smut. very therapeutic, that!)

updates: at some point after every new race/before the next race weekend. currently, we are at 4/20 chapters, with the monaco chapter being the latest ❤️

[squidsqwag]

U GUYS R SLEEPING ON THIS TEAM

[endollvors]

So, my document of Bully OC fic has gotten to, a point, and now I have 30k of feelings about him. If you are at all interested in his adventures in emotional manipulation, tell me now.

[lala-blahblah]

i finished watching the uglies adaptation and it was mid...... except casting for shay was so good and i appreciate the racial diversity in casting. Idk I feel like adaptations should only exist if they have a vision for interpreting the source material but i am so so biased bc i wanted a sapphic interpretation of tally and shay

[ponysongbracket]

Lunar Bracket

The Moon Rises

Soldiers of the Night

[dual-domination]

@tazzy-ace Now imagine if Gui Mian had the chance to meet *our* Cheng Xinyan. Shen Wei's protective best friend. Shen Wei's protective older sister, actually (she doesn't accept less).

Gui Mian, powerful ancient entity, indifferent to the affairs of mortals, would finally understand the statement "I have 1 fear"

[futurefind]

//Thinking abt WuWa Sa in a couple of different ways w latest CQ, like:

If Sentinels/benevolent TDs [adjacent creatures] can 'choose' human Resonators to follow their will and gain nonzero powers from them... what about malicious or dangerous ones? What if the 'Oshima curse' is rooted in, for lack of a better term, a 'demonic' TD choosing them as its favorite princesses? Is that why Sa 'fully' awakened only after her mom died? Is that why they both have fire as a secondary element, rather than mono affinity? The same with the curious and staggered Forte vfx?

What if Sasume got caught in the Retroact Rain on a very bad mh day (perhaps traumaversary, but not necessarily; most likely the tail end of day 3 no sleep waiting to crash) and just... doesn't notice because she's so used to running from her ghosts and being haunted by them, it doesn't really click that she doesn't hallucinate least of all to this clarity.

What if she had her own 'flashback bubble' that lets you learn about her past... You go in and learn about the cryptid TD causing sm problems ft a mysterious but plucky young girl giving you tips. She's never in the area when 'problems strikes' but it slowly but surely unravels from a deep mystery and into some of the worst horrors you can think of. What if it's because Sasume wants to share with the other muse, and they want to learn/know about her, but words are hard and showing is much easier than telling :')

[loliwrites]

"Look at Aaron's vein!"

"Ew." 25/∞

[glapplebloom]

Yep, I’m totally delaying reviewing Season 10 for as long as I can. Maybe not the best choice to do that with this.

Twilight Sparkle is planning to host an event for the school known as the Feats of Friendship. Four challenges where groups of seven have to work together to show just how great Friendship is. And because our Student Six is just six, we are introduced to their 7th Member: Swift Foot, the newest exchange student to the School of Friendship. And Sandbar immediately crushes on her...

She’s All Yak, which established the Sandbar/Yona ship, aired on May 11, 2019. The first issue was published August 7, 2019. And nowhere in the story shows Yona being upset with that. I could probably excuse the first issue since who knows how long it was written for, but the second one was released in October. They could have added something then. Oh boy, let’s get back to the recapping...

Now off the bat, the comic is letting you know something is up with Swift Foot. She said she’s from another sunny little village but the background is showing something MUCH different. And it gets on right away with what that is: getting these six groups of friends to no longer be friends by exploiting differences. Sounds like something Cozy Glow did in “What Lies Beneath” that was released on September 22, 2018. Except she did it better.

When Cozy Glow did it, she targeted specific aspects that were pretty much established from the series already. Since they come from places that don’t understand Friendship, she used that to target their friendships. Sandbar has to help since he came from Ponyville. Growing up as a love starved Changeling. Hiding underwater from an Evil King for years. Griffins not wanting to be around others. Dragons being fierce and degrading themselves into doing things. Yaks saying they’re best at everything makes it seems being friends with others not Yaks being a step down. Great targeting points.

Swift Foot, on the other hand, is honestly not based on anything. She targets Silverstream under the idea that they only helped when the Storm King affected them, all the while beginning with trying to remember who was the guy that caused them to hide. Off the bat, within the same issue, Swift Foot’s entire argument falls apart. How do you expect them to know about the Storm King until he shows up? The fact it took her a while to remember his name pretty much shows that knowledge about what happened wasn’t widespread enough.

With Gallus, she specifically targets him being the leader. That’s something only really established in this issue. As far as the series is concerned, they’re about equals. With Yona, she targets about her having to learn the language, something that even the show establishes that there is no specific Yak Language. Their kids speak English when they talk privately. Even Zecora doesn’t really have a language except that brief time in Season 1.

You’re telling me that Smolder doesn’t eat gemstones at school? The same school that sets a room aside for the ONLY TWO DRAGONS IN PONYVILLE to have a fire breathing contest There’s literally a gem cave walking distance from Ponyville and she knows Spike the Dragon. They definitely serve gemstones. And Ocellus, Swift talks about how Ocellus is forced to stay in one form... Yet she has numerous times changed forms in front of them with no issue. This is not something she’s forced to be. This is her default look. This is DC’s Act of God’s level of not getting the point. And Sandbar is too lovestruck to fall for her tricks.

But still, he sees all his friends being upset with Swift Foot’s actions and they go their separate ways. It ends with Sandbar walking Swift Foot back into the Inn where, when she’s alone, reveals she’s evil all this time! And I’m going to stop there because I thought I could review the entire series in one sitting, but I got all ranty and want to save the rest of the story for another time.

But so far, I am not liking the issue. My biggest gripes being continuity issues and being a poor attempt at the show’s specific plot. And why is she called Swift Foot? I keep typing it up as Swift Hoof because Horse Pun and have to go back and change it to Foot. And even ignoring all that, it’s basically a whole issue introducing this character and having 8 pages of her gaslighting characters you probably like depending on how you feel about them on the show. 

I’ll save my rewriting when I reach the end of the series. If that’s next week or the following I don’t know. It’ll depend on how much ranty I get in the next issue.

[genderqueerpond]

the thing about amy/eleven is that they're literally every relation possible all at once --- they're lovers, they're siblings, she's his mother, he's her father, he's her god and her savior, she's his god and his creator; he gives her whimsy and magic and hope and adventure; and after everything she's been through she still loves him and believes that he is good; to him she must be the pure unfiltered concept of forgiveness, she is the literal embodiment of redemption; she is the home he keeps on coming back to and he is the freedom she can never refuse ---

and above all

above all

they are best friends

[sanstropfremir]

lets go girls!

[wishing-stones]

Herro, I'm back (surprise surprise)

Don't imagine FLOWEY (curveball)

OH HEY THE BOY.

Don't imagine Flowey popping up in places he thinks he isn't visible in (flower beds, open fields) to keep an eye on you, and only getting cornered when you catch him climbing into a flower box. Don't imagine how he huffs and puffs and insists that he's just keeping an eye on a potentially dangerous human, because he really doesn't care, but if you fuck this up for everyone, he's going to be mad. Not that he cares about them, either, he just likes actually being able to sit in the sun on the surface because it makes him feel better to directly photosynthesize. And really don't imagine how people who bother you never show up again to darken your door. They might be around town, but... they leave you alone.

[serendipitouscontaminant]

What’s That Supposed to Mean?

Chapter Three: Social Studies

Story Summary: Jacob enters his fourth year teaching at Abbott with no boyfriend, friends who are touchingly but unnecessarily concerned about his well-being, and nothing to stop the tension between him and Joseph fricking Morton from boiling over in a way that’s both utterly maddening and wildly invigorating. (Seriously, what is that guy’s deal?!)

Chapter Three Summary: Zach picks up the rest of his stuff. Jacob starts to get into the groove of the school year and contemplates Morton. Jacob and Morton have a confrontation.

Link