Yeah, he's a little shit.

Right at the end of that one I found myself wondering whether she'd forgotten to use The Stare on him that whole time.

That aside, I rate that ep. NEVER APOLOGISE WHEN YOU CAN CRITICISE!!!!!!111

---

lol, opsec doesn't apply to fanfiction. -Aaron

PRFYNAFBTFC
CAPTAIN OF MFS SAMMY HAGAR

Fluttershy confirmed for best pony. Good to see her finally turn the tables on that asshole Angel bunny.

Abusive Angel Bunny ಠ_ಠ

Fluttershy is best pony, but again, we already knew that. Good episode and I really enjoyed the dynamic between Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie. Based on the preview, I thought that Iron Will was going to end up being the antagonist and Fluttershy would have to stand up to him, so I was pleased when Fluttershy ended up over assertive and Iron Will was relatively reasonable. World building, background characters, et cetera.

Have some easter egg image spam:

Pipsqueak. Lyre buckle on Bon Bon's saddlebag.


Derpy misses out on asparagus and has a muffin buckle on her saddlebag.


Lyra/Bon Bon antics. (Speaking of Bon Bon, another new voice?)


Derpy is unphased by Iron Will.

Amusingly just as everyone got done telling people how nice and unmean everypony in MLP is... everypony becomes an asshole for purposes of plot.

It wasn't anything special, I'm reminded of comments for things like The Last Roundup and the Flimflam episode. First it was predicatble, fluttershy becomes unshy overdoes it finds balance between episodes. Won't be mentioned again. Second like I thought it was too long on build up and the resolution came too quickly.

And that assertiveness training wasn't assertiveness training. It was just aggressiveness. Assertiveness is getting your point across and being firm without assholishness. The princess letter sort of made this point but not really.

And who knew all it takes is one self help session for a pony to completely overcome their shyness?

My idea is that Fluttershy is such a doormat that she insistently just used everything Iron-Will said because he told her too.

---

"There is no such thing as coincidence in this world - there is only inevitability"
"I consider the Laws of Thermodynamics a loose guideline at best!"
"Set Flamethrowers to... light electrocution"
It's not enough to bash in heads, you also have to bash in minds.
Tired is the Roman wielding the Aquila.

As mentioned I like that "Iron Will' wasn't a 'bad guy' but just a normal motivational speaker. I was worried that he was going to be yet another "Trixi" or "Flim & Flam" just out to hustle the ponies. So that was a welcome surprise.

Also this confirms yet another sapient race in Equestria along side: Gryphons, Dragons, and the various other quadrapeds. And now we have Minotaurs as well. It makes one reflect on the nature of the other races. How many there are, if they have their own civilization and cities, or are more tribal in nature.

---

Praying is another way of doing nothing helpful
"Congratulations, you get a cookie. You almost got a fundamental English word correct." Pick
"Outlaw star has spaceships that punch eachother" Joviwan
Read "Tales From The Crossroads"!
Read "One Wrong Turn"!

My headcannon says that this was her self-helping herself to vent her massive, built-up-over-the-years frustration on everypony that she could.

Angel was indeed a bad little bunny in this episode. I usually like him, but him just WANTING that special salad (which a rabbit would have to take apart into bite-sized bits anyway) is so.... gah. Rabbits in the wild rarely get fresh fruit to begin with!
Then again, I like to think that he was upset because Fluttershy didn't notice that she gave him cucumber slices and not apple slices. Rabbits do not like cucumber, especially we tend to treat them. He was still a little shit for the cherry-thing though.

I just love the amusing little details they sometimes put in. Like the fact that Iron Will's brochure has a pop-up of himself, his Jonny Bravo posing and that he has this little basket (holding it in a feminine way) for grocery shopping.

I did not like how Rarity "stood up to herself" by essentially sort-of-seducing the nerdy-pony. It came across a little bit creepy.

EDIT: There is also the bit disturbing thing about how Iron Will's lessons seem to be geared towards aggressiveness rather than just assertiveness.

Yeah that has been echoed on other forums that it is a case of not being "assertive" but just being angery.

Of course the reason for that is naturally, if it WAS normal assertiveness, then there would not be the same type of conflict, and thus no story ;P

---

Praying is another way of doing nothing helpful
"Congratulations, you get a cookie. You almost got a fundamental English word correct." Pick
"Outlaw star has spaceships that punch eachother" Joviwan
Read "Tales From The Crossroads"!
Read "One Wrong Turn"!

So he's a bad motivational speaker. Those don't exist in real life!

Loved the musical references as well. Apparently didn't get all of them, as I've never seen The Incredible Hulk and when Fluttershy realizes that she's the monster, that parody plays.

I liked how Iron Will acted pretty reasonable despite his aggressive/assertive nature (the scene where he rips the boards off of Fluttershys house and then knocks politely on the door itself was a nice touch. Seems like Iron Will knows how to give off an aura of aggressiveness without getting violent).

However, it just occured to me that alot of the other ponies in town turned into assholes in this episode... just around the time Iron was giving his assertiveness seminar. My personal headcannon is that minotaurs have a sort of agressive or boisterous culture where Iron Wills teachings wouldn't be out of place. He came up with his lessons and went through Equestria teaching them. However, his teaching methods and lessons don't fit as well there but are popular. He may have put on a few shows recently and taught his aggresivness/confidence to alot of the townsponies, unintentionally turning them into jerks.

So, some of the jerkish behavior we see in this episode could be from ponies using Iron Wills advice out of context. Ponies who got pushed around by the jerks then attend the show to become more assertive and the process repeats.

Fluttershy is the first pony Iron Will encounters who wasn't "100% satisfied" with the result. Ponies before her either became assertive and liked it, or weren't assertive enought to admit they didn't like it when Iron Will asked for his money.

So the funny thing is that Iron Will may be totally reasonable and willing to accept when things don't turn out how he wants, but he could be unintentionally causing problems regardless. His lessons may well be useful in the minotaur culture, but in Equestria results in ponies acting like aggresive or entitled jerks, but he never noticed it until Fluttershy spoke up and by extension when Pinkie and Rarity confronted her on her new behavior. So Iron Will really needs somebody to tell him his lessons weren't as perfect as he himself thinks they are (and would probably be willing to adjust if he got proper usefull feedback).

Also, he seems like a decent non-evil counterpart to Fluttershy. He's got animal assistants, has an appearance of confidence and aggressiveness while being reasonable underneath (while fluttershy is shy outside with confident underneath), and he seems to spread aggressiveness or assertiveness while Fluttershy is the Element of Kindness. Iron Will may genuinely believe that everyone needs to be confidant and assertive to get through life but without proper feedback and balance he's just spreading aggression.

It would be nice if Fluttershy started sending letters to him to teach about kindness/friendship to get his own lessons balanced out.

Also, it looks like minotaurs and diamond dogs are the only races we've seen so far who are lifelong bipeds with hands. Griffons and dragons have claws but walk on all fours as adults. Plus, looks like goats are intelligent enough to act as assistants even if we don't see them speak. They were wearing those headsets, but it could be that Iron Will understands their bleating and just gives them verbal instructions through them. That's pretty cool regardless.

---

Fry: No! They did it! They blew it up! And then the apes blew up their society too. How could this happen? And then the birds took over and ruined their society. And then the cows. And then... I don't know, is that a slug, maybe? Noooo!

Futurama: The Late Philip J. Fry

Actually, Iron Will might very well be the greatest and most sucessful villain so far. His assertiveness training causes some ponies to become aggresive jerks like Discords mind powers, he never made any false claims that could bite him later like Trixie, he can keep his cool better than Gilda did, he has WAY better business sense then the Flim Flam bros, his willingness to accept defeat over his '100% satisfaction guaranteed' claim pretty much guarantees that he won't be getting into any escalated situation where he gets run out of town, sent to the moon, or turned to stone, and it seems the most effetive way to halt his master plan of spreading aggresiveness and strife across Equestria is to simply explain to him how that's a bad thing and provide a more reasonable course of action.

---

Fry: No! They did it! They blew it up! And then the apes blew up their society too. How could this happen? And then the birds took over and ruined their society. And then the cows. And then... I don't know, is that a slug, maybe? Noooo!

Futurama: The Late Philip J. Fry

I liked how Iron Will acted and sounded just like Hercule/Mr. Satan in the Funimation dub of DBZ, in fact I'll be surprised if he wasn't played by Chris Rager. Fun Fact: At least one idiot seems to think he sounds like R. Lee Ermey, given that Ermey's Wikipedia article has him listed as the voice of Iron Will.

I'm surprised there's no outrage about Derpy not being the mail delivery pony for the town, I'm pretty sure that gained fairly high acceptance. Though I suppose she could have had the day off, since we see her shopping in the market. Anyone have a rough time span for this episode taking place? I'd say a day or two at most, though there was that whole bit where she decides to become a recluse, so as to not hurt anyone, where we see the sun set and the season seemingly changes to fall. I'm thinking that was more something done for dramatic purposes though, particularly since we had the whole Running of the Leaves in Fall Weather Friends.

We had already seen other ponies doing mail delivery - in The Last Roundup, for instance.

Shadow6 mentioned that Bon-Bon had a new voice in this episode. I had just finished watching clips form the cider episode and found this:

There are two Bon-Bon's in the same scene! Is it possible she had a twin?

---

"There is no such thing as coincidence in this world - there is only inevitability"
"I consider the Laws of Thermodynamics a loose guideline at best!"
"Set Flamethrowers to... light electrocution"
It's not enough to bash in heads, you also have to bash in minds.
Tired is the Roman wielding the Aquila.

I got the impression that was more of a telegram or some other kind of courier, not standard mail. Looking back, their uniforms are also different. Admittedly, I may be scrutinizing this a little too closely.
Last Roundup
Putting Your Hoof Down

I'm fairly sure we've had that issue happen in the past, and that you shouldn't read anymore into it than a simple VFX goof. I also believe Bon-Bon has had different voices before, probably due to not having set voice actors for the background ponies who have a only a line or two in a couple of episodes scattered throughout the season.

It was a parody of the 1980s self-help craze, which featured plenty of horribly cheesy seminars and cassette tape series with catch-phrases of exactly that tone. I was quite amused, although it seemed way over the heads of the target demographic.

I am sure some of those guys who put in a lot of effort comming up with fanmaps is now going "Oh Crap" and editing in Minotauristan or whatever.

Zor

---

HAIL ZOR! WE'LL BLOW UP THE OCEAN!
Heros of Cybertron-HAB-Keeper of the Vicious pit of Allosauruses-King Leighton-I, United Kingdom of Zoria: SD.net World/Tsar Mikhail-I of the Red Tsardom: SD.net Kingdoms
WHEN ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE ON EARTH, ALL EARTH BREAKS LOOSE ON HELL
http://zortropolis.myminicity.com/
http://zortropolis.myminicity.com/ind
http://zortropolis.myminicity.com/tra
Terran Sphere
The Art of Zor

It's possible that minotaurs live in the same lands as griffons, living kind of like how pre-windigo ponies used to. The griffons handle the weather and add flight to any military endevors that are needed while the minotaurs can work with animals and provide farming and infrastructure in the land.

Griffons appear to be omnivorous (Gilda ate an apple and one can assume she can eat meat) so the minotaurs could be running farms to grow plants for herbivores and possibly meat animals for the griffons (or they raise all kinds of animals and just sell the Angel Bunnies of the world).

Hmm... if minotaurs act like shepards to less intelligent animals and have a reason to sell ones they don't like to griffons, that could explain the ability for cows and sheep to speak while still being farm animals.

Minotaurs live in a land with intelligent predetors in it and provide protection to the various animals. Any animal that doesn't work for minotaurs has to deal with the griffons alone. So the minotaurs train the animals to help out, cows milk themselves, sheep graze as commanded, goats help out with stuff, etc. Any animal that acts like Angel Bunny or just doesn't help out runs the risk of getting sold to griffons (or banished to outsite minotaur care which is the same thing). So, there are alot of somewhat intelligent animals out there who are smart enough to speak and do as their told but not enough to form their own societies (without getting eaten by predetors).

It seems quite likely that any flying races we see could form expansionist military cultures that control areas and demand tribute from grounded races (having their less combat inclined members control the weather and run deliveries and such). Grounded races in turn might not have to change much except pay their tributes and stay in line. So any areas of the map marked as "Griffon Lands" could contain all manner of races and cities that aren't really griffon populated. Ponies are probably unique in that they are one species with different races who can fly or do magic while the humble earth ponies are the grounded race who does alot of the work.

So yeah, the staff could probably bring in all sorts of intelligent species and fans could just say they came from lands vaguely controlled by the griffons.

---

Fry: No! They did it! They blew it up! And then the apes blew up their society too. How could this happen? And then the birds took over and ruined their society. And then the cows. And then... I don't know, is that a slug, maybe? Noooo!

Futurama: The Late Philip J. Fry

Teaser for the next episode "It's About Time", from the Hub:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... igWjESBpsg

---

"You ask stupid questions. You overreact to just about everything. You hyperventilate... and shouted something along the lines of "GET THE SUPREME COURT IN HERE AIQBFIOUAFB!" when it didn't really warrant. All that seems to pour out of your mouth is stupidity. I'm sorry mang, but it's true. And don't even apologize. Don't even cry. Just...please. Just shut the fuck up and don't say anything. That way you won't say any other stupid shit."

-KhorneFlakes' criticism of my posts on forum, one which I would take as a reminder to myself not to act like an idiot.

Wait ... you mean the Snake Plissken Twilight I've seen in a few bits of fanart isn't the result of the fevered imagination of the internet?

War is cannon now?

No. Because this episode is not a season finale or season opener, chances are that Future Twilight's appearance is probably a result of a string of bad luck caused by present Twilight getting paranoid about what she would do that could cause the 'bad future' Twilight to appear, overreacting to even trivial things she meets and actions she does, which results in the events happening to begin with; in essence, a 'self-fulfilling prophecy'. The ultimate reason might be utterly trivial.

Bad futures do not occur over the course of a day. But it could had been one awesome premise.

---

"You ask stupid questions. You overreact to just about everything. You hyperventilate... and shouted something along the lines of "GET THE SUPREME COURT IN HERE AIQBFIOUAFB!" when it didn't really warrant. All that seems to pour out of your mouth is stupidity. I'm sorry mang, but it's true. And don't even apologize. Don't even cry. Just...please. Just shut the fuck up and don't say anything. That way you won't say any other stupid shit."

-KhorneFlakes' criticism of my posts on forum, one which I would take as a reminder to myself not to act like an idiot.

I meant cannon in the sense that she considered it a possibility, not that it was actually the reason. You can't very well have Epic Pony War as a potential explanation without the concept of war existing in the first place.

---

And also one of the ingredients to making a pony is cocaine. -Darth Fanboy.

My Little Warhammer: Friendship is Heresy - Latest Chapter: 7 - Rainbow Crash

How did you upload that video? I tried to, but it just ended up with a faulty link.

Anyways, how is your work coming along?

---

"You ask stupid questions. You overreact to just about everything. You hyperventilate... and shouted something along the lines of "GET THE SUPREME COURT IN HERE AIQBFIOUAFB!" when it didn't really warrant. All that seems to pour out of your mouth is stupidity. I'm sorry mang, but it's true. And don't even apologize. Don't even cry. Just...please. Just shut the fuck up and don't say anything. That way you won't say any other stupid shit."

-KhorneFlakes' criticism of my posts on forum, one which I would take as a reminder to myself not to act like an idiot.