Spleen Squeezin's

rhjunior @ 2013-05-02T08:31:00

2013-05-02T12:31:30Z

The reason for the failure of the publishing industry, summarized:

You see, the other factor for teh crazy moving in and the group losing all contact with reality is to have, at its core a sub group that is completely far removed from reality and that operates internally without any checks and balances. (I suppose numbers and figures SHOULD rationally have operated as checks and balances on publishers but a) the slow instauration of a completely push model made sure that the books they favored sold more than others, no matter how inane. B) any book that failed was ALWAYS the writer’s fault c) the steady creep down of ALL sales in the field was shrugged off as “people don’t read anymore” – the same way that when classical music went un-listenable (totally a word) the drop in sales meant that “listeners are getting dumber.”) Sara Hoyt, "Teh Crazy"

TL;DR version---

1)Editors and publishers live in a bubble, totally out of touch with the real world.

2)Because they're out of touch, they pick awful books, and prefer the worst ones.

3)Because they PUSH those books, those books sell best.... and they demand more of the same.

4)Because they demand more of the same, books overall start to stink on ice.

5)Because their books stink on ice, fewer books overall sell.

6)Because they don't sell well, the editors and publishers conclude everyone else is at fault-- the writers, the readers, etc--- in short, they shrug and say "people don't read anymore."

All my books at Indyplanet.com

2013-04-16T19:38:34Z

For those that missed it, ALL my Nip and Tuck books are available for purchase at indyplanet.com for $9.99 or less. Just go to

http://indyplanet.com/store/index.php?manufacturers_id=7167

To see what volumes are available.

(My other books are available there as well)

Final Volume of Nip and Tuck now on sale

2013-04-04T21:10:50Z

Finally, after nearly 15 years online, I'm bringing the curtain down on my webcomic Nip and Tuck.

As a sort of farewell gesture, the last hardcopy volume- "Nip and Tuck, Vol.3: Curtain Call" is now on sale at ka-blam.com.

http://www.indyplanet.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=8291

100 pages, black and white.... a mixed collection of strips and artwork. 9.99 plus S+H

rhjunior @ 2013-03-28T23:26:00

2013-03-29T03:25:47Z

Medical update: digestive woes

2013-03-08T13:26:27Z

Had to go to the ER last night due to a relapse of my diverticulosis. Very painful, very unpleasant, trust me. I lived however...
Going to be spending the next day or two recuperating with my parents, so will be semi-available.

Happy BDay, Strangewulf!

2013-03-03T18:21:53Z

Hippo birdy two ewe.

MLP review: Magical Mystery Cure

2013-02-16T19:15:37Z

Yes, just watched the season finale. It was well done, artistically, well written dialogue, lots of charming tunes, very nice visually.

I hate it.

After all that waiting and buildup, the episode answers NONE of the questions that fans have been going crazy about, eliminates none of the stated worries--- and what few HINTS there are make all sorts of terrible implications.

She's a princess now. Princess of what?
Does she stay in the castle? Stay in Ponyville?
What of the other five bearers? What does this do to the Bearers of the Elements?
And what the hell was that damn spell that caused everything SUPPOSED to do?
Most importantly, did Celestia MAKE her a princess, or just watch her grow INTO a princess? They actually managed to make THAT vague!

The closest to any sort of hint is the rather UNfortunate implication that anyone who creates a new kind of magic becomes an alicorn prince/princess...and ONLY to those ponies. unfortunate because hey, screw you, pegasi and earth ponies. Hope you weren't planning on a representative government-- unicorns only past the velvet rope.

And wasn't it nice of Celestia to consult with her citizens before coronating her flaky apprentice?

And if Celestia transformed her as a reward, rather than merely midwifing the process... this means Celestia and Luna have been hoarding the secret of nigh immortality to themselves, doling it out to the few ponies-- unicorns, invariably-- whom they deem "worthy." That's ghastly in and of itself.

That also begs the question of where are the alicorn PRINCES? Congratulations on that little bit of backhanded sexism, hasbro.

I furthermore address the fact that they basically took a scholar and a bookworm-- a character who loved science and research for its own sake, who flaked out if anything went awry--- and turned her into "a natural born ruler" and a crown princess who didnt turn a hair at being declared royalty and, oh yeah, SPROUTING TWO WHOLE NEW APPENDAGES, in a single episode. "We're not going to chance Twilight's personality." No, they're just going to ignore it entirely from this point on.

Structure wise, there was too much story in too little time, a problem that has been dogging the writing all season. This SHOULD have been a two-part episode; too much happens and it's all rushed. It's made worse by the fact that there's too much music. I counted FOUR different musical numbers in the first five minutes! They even resorted to dropping everyone into a cold opening, in media res, and STILL didn't have enough time to flesh out everything that happened. Why? Because the characters spend all their time singing the plot points rather than performing them. This isn't "not enough time," it's writing incompetence. Too much happens in too little time and they STILL manage to not answer any of the fans' real questions!

In competent hands the coronation episode could have resolved a lot of issues, moved the character development forward, and given the Hasbro executives what they wanted without cheesing the supporting fanbase off. Instead the episode manages to explain nothing, resolve nothing, please noone, and reveal nothing that the sentence "Twilight becomes an alicorn" didn't.

Oh yeah, and feature some absolutely butt-ugly toy designs.

I give them a 1 out of 5, and that 1 is only for not resorting to even WORSE cliche's and tropes as every corporate burned fan out there feared.

Beautiful Creatures?

2013-02-15T06:37:07Z

In short: Crap.

The majority of the movie is devoted to a ham-fisted display of the disgusting bigotry of West Coast elitists. All the cast (outside of the protagonists themselves) are grotesque caricatures right out of the rantings of a squealing, wet-diapered hollywood Limo Liberal. The only reason this movie was greenlighted was so that a group of hollywood bigots could piss in the face of half the population of this nation. In a more enlightened time these cocaine-nosed piglets would have either been shot full of holes in a duel of honor, or been dragged out of their mansions, tarred, feathered, and ridden out of town on a rail. Either way they would have been little tolerated and less employed.

Even AFTER putting aside the vulgar insults slung at southerners, christians, conservatives, and small-town Americans, what little that was left of the movie was still a gross insult to human intelligence. Hell, it was an insult to the intelligence of any HOUSE PETS sitting in the audience.

To quote another review:
So let me get this straight. In the magical world of Beautiful Creatures, when a “caster” girl turns 16, she is “claimed” by either the “Light” or the “Dark.” She has no say in the matter -- she’s either inherently good or inherently evil, and that’s that. She has no free will. She has no control over her own fate. The claiming is merely the revelation of her unchangeable base nature.

Boys get to choose, of course. Boys are not inherently good or inherently evil, but are masters of their own destiny.

If movies could be not tossed aside lightly but thrown with great force, this would be one demanding that response.

Moving beyond the ghastly premise itself---

The "casters," apparently the writers apparently couldn't make their minds up whether they were trying to write a ripoff of "the Twilight Saga" or "Bewitched meets the Clampetts." The banquet scene was especially excruciating. The only way they could seem to hint at this vast, ancient secret society and its culture was have a few random characters (mostly old women) standing around in bizarre headgear and hairstyles acting eccentric, being blase' when the immediate surroundings start tearing themselves apart in a witch-cousin catfight, and talking about what holidays they don't celebrate ("We don't do Christmas?" Please. Even real life wiccans celebrate it, and call it 'Yule' instead.)

The female lead whom the audience is supposed to sympathise with was the standard whiny nobody-likes-me-I'm-a-weirdo self-absorbed teenage girl , and the male lead was a gormless grinning corn-pone idiot who spent most of the movie cheesing like a monkey and making "witty" remarks to his week-old girlfriend when he should have been running like hell away. For added leftwing hipster bonus points, he's also the narrator of the first half of the movie, making disparaging remarks about the culture, families, history , traditions, and everything else in his home town and moaning in orgasmic pleasure over "banned" books (we'll save that topical joy for another day).

The minor antagonists, two high school Libbies (who barely exist after the first thirty minutes of the movie) are only there to show how stupid, illiterate and bigoted the 'christians' are in this town, are performed with complete incompetence by their actresses and behave in a manner that I can assure you, speaking as a Christian and a person raised in the Christian community, would have gotten their backsides thrashed by their parents in real life for embarrassing them. The main villainess was a "leader of the Christian community" who behaved in a manner that made the Saturday Night Live Church Lady look believable-- she turned out to be possessed by a dead witch, which apologists will use as an excuse to justify her totally unsuspicious deranged Christian-fanatic moonbat behavior...

It even has the trademark teen movie "wacky idiot friend in a bad hat" who hangs on the periphery of everything going on, making additional snarky remarks about his hometown when the male lead is too preoccupied ... he's a cliche' that makes me want to punch the writers in the throat all by himself.

The dialogue was idiotic. The story was banal (poor widdle pwecious snowflake WITH A GRAND DESTINY must overcome terrible forces, like the Libby at school and oh yeah, an ancient curse, to be with her twue wuv whom she has known less than half a school year). The acting was appalling, the reactions of the characters to their situation was snort-inducing, the settings were motivated by the most obnoxious bigotries of the West Coast and all the characters made me want to smack the actors in the face with a plank.

And the name dropping, oh the name dropping. Apparently the creators of this drek are desperate to sell more blu-ray DVDs of old movies and bottles of orange Crush, and think it's the height of wittiness to get in a zinger against Nancy Reagan. Nancy. Freaking. Reagan. Apparently the cultural elites oozing around the sewers of Hollywood still pee themselves in a rage over how they didn't get everything their way back in the 1980s.

My only comfort is the fairly good odds that this disgusting piece of crap movie will turn around to bite the ones who made it right in the junk. Not that I expect them to learn anything from it; hollywood is populated and run by morons who have spent the past fifty-plus years sticking their thumb in a light socket over and over and expecting different results every time.

Regarding my prior post

2013-02-14T16:48:09Z

Honestly, did you read ANYTHING I said?
I was not speaking of societal factors but of the underlying instincts and biology. In pretty much ANY warmblooded species, it is the male that puts on a mating performance; the female's part in the dance is to say "yes I'm female and fertile. PROVE TO ME I SHOULD WANT YOU." Other details are trivialities overlaying that root fact.

And yes, humans are no different. When you're talking about sex. You may not be able to get the Prince Charming of your Cosmopolitan Magazine dreams, but in the crudest carnal terms, any woman, anywhere, can get sex. (Honey Boo Boo's mom, just for starters, has had children by three different men.) Any man can get sex too, but only if he has social or political power in his hands and cash in his pockets. That's whether you're speaking of party girls, gold diggers, or prostitutes... or sensible women looking for a "good provider" (those plunging into romantic delusions to the contrary.)

This is the real issue of modern comics, and other media. Both the male and female characters on the front page are putting on both a sexual display, AND a power display. Feminists USED to admit this, back when they called it "sexual self-empowerment." They stopped calling it that when it proved disadvantageous to their political goals to admit that it's actually women who use sex as a tool of power.

Is there sexism in comic books? No. I'm tired of hearing that. The term "sexism" is a misnomer. "Sexism" implies a political agenda. It's an appeal to the bitter, angry, self-absorbed female-only perspective--- that sex is just a tool of power. And they see it that way, because socially, that is how women USE sex. No, the overt sexuality on display is not a conspiracy to "oppress" you. If men wanted to sexually oppress you, they'd stuff you in a burkha and stone you for "shaming" the males in their family with your wanton ways.

So no, it's not "sexism" in comics. What there IS in comics, is a lot of SEX. It is an issue of morality, not "power." When you make it an "ism" you pit innocent men-- who have no interest whatsoever in oppressing anyone-- against women, rather than against the people (male and female alike) who would abuse prurient content for financial gain.

rhjunior @ 2013-02-13T05:39:00

2013-02-13T10:39:27Z

been brooding on some things.

Like, the issue feminists have with how women are portrayed in comics. you point out to them that MEN are just as over-idealized in the comics, and their reply is "oh right, well, you don't see Captain America or Superman trying to show their boobs and butts to the camera at the same time!".... And you're left floundering. Not because they have an overwhelming truth on their side, but because you can't conceive of how they're not grasping what you just told them.

Because you can't understand how anything claiming to be human can look at men, women, and sex, and not realize that men and women approach sex from different perspectives. It takes either an indoctrinated feminist or an androgynous alien from outer space to not understand this.

First off, let's review some basic biological truths about sex here. I'm talking basic realities for pretty much every warm-blooded species on the planet, and probably the overwhelming majority of vertebrates.

The fundamental rule: In order to mate, males have to prove they're "worthy." Females just have to prove they're female.

You ever notice that the males in most every species are the ones that put on the mating display? They do the funky dance, wave the plumage, raise the mating call, battle for dominance with other males. The female, to the contrary, just has to be present. Occasionally the female has some sort of display, but it generally revolves around indicating that they're in heat. The male, to the contrary, is in a competition to prove he is virile, healthy, competitive, a good provider and protector...

Human beings are no different in this regard. The whole mating dance is complexified by political, social, cultural and subcultural subtexts, but the fundamental rule is still there. It means that men and women view sex differently, approach it differently, have different motivations about it and because of it.
In short, Women perform the social mating dance by displaying their fertility (their physical attributes), Men perform it by displaying their power (physical, political, financial).

Phrased in other ways, in the cynical language of the secular:
Women use sex to get what they want. For men, sex IS what they want.
Women use sex to gain money and power, men use money and power to get sex.
Men have to be "worthy", women have to be "accessible."

All facets of the Fundamental Rule.

Feminist ideology does not recognize or accommodate that.

The feminist, trying to use feminist dogma to interpret the world, cannot see that. She interprets male motivations through female spectacles. She sees a typical comic book cover and doesn't see males and females shopping the same aisle from opposite sides. She sees female characters exhibiting the yin of sexuality, and male characters exhibiting the yang, and concludes that since the male is not doing the mating dance in the "yin" fashion, that the female is the only one being sexualized-- and therefore debased and subjugated to the male.

Perhaps the real issue is feminism's own sexual confusion. Feminism not only interprets male behavior through female motivations (seeing sex as a "power struggle"), but it fails to interpret the feminist's own motivations and perspectives with any sensible consistency. The same ideologues who interpret Wonder Woman's traditional costume as debasing and an effort by males to sexually subjugate women would march down the street in protest if the Editor in Chief at DC comics demanded she be dressed in a modest and frugal New England conservative pantsuit... and accuse him of attempting to sexually subjugate women.

(A brief aside here: which culture is actually subjugating female sexuality to male power-- the one that has women wearing bikinis in public, or the one that beats them as trollops for not wearing a veil?)

Dealing with the intersection between feminism and fandom is to deal with the stereotypically schizophrenic. Feminists sneer at traditional superheroine costumes as debasing, degrading, oversexualizing, pandering---
But when a noted figure in the comics subculture takes note of the teeming masses of tight-body COSPLAYERS flooding the comic conventions in those selfsame 'debasing, degrading, oversexualizing, pandering' outfits, and cynically remarks that they're more likely there just to exploit the influence their physical attributes give them over hopeless nerds than out of any actual comic fandom... well, God have mercy on his soul for stating the apparent.

You see, he broke the unwritten law: Thou shalt never acknowledge the Fundamental Rule.

When you approach it from the perception that, for women, sex is a tool for obtaining power, then a great deal of actions on their part start to make sense, though.

The more I hear feminists whine about the issue, the more I suspect that the reason they are mad about sexually appealing women in comic books (and movies, and elsewhere) is that they are not personally in control of the supply of feminine pulchritude. Comics with shapely females in tight costumes means that a large group of men that they have deemed socially unacceptable (comic book fans) have access to pen and paper boobies without their permission. The schemes of feminism are largely Lysistratean; without cultural control over sexuality (both male and female) they lack the power to scorn, mock and shame men (and contrary-minded women) into obeying them. So long as any corner of culture exists that even SUGGESTS that it is okay for women to be sexy and men to be macho, their power over society is diminished.

Gender Roles?

2013-02-04T17:01:55Z

I've read a few columns, seen a few Vlogs where people are debating whether Bronies-- adult male fans of My Little Pony:Friendship is Magic--- are changing perceived gender roles and stereotypes.

Well, I think that's a bit much for any one demographic to claim, especially one wrapped around a particular single cartoon show. Show me a burgeoning fandom for a dozen or so "girly" shows, and you might have something. What I think is being challenged here is what constitutes good writing for girl's shows.

Just sitting here, mentally going over most of the shows I've seen in my lifetime that were marketed "for girls," I have to admit that they all had one thing in common; they were generally infantilized. A show intended for girls age 10-12 is generally written in a way that, were it for boys or just general audience, would be listed as at least one or two age brackets lower. The colors are more vivid (or canted toward the pink and pastel), the characters more infant-like, their behavior more immature, the dialogue simplified, the plots dumbed down. Even "teen" writing does this; the typical plot focuses of "teen girl" writing revolve around social developmental issues and anxieties that most boys leave behind in grade school or kindergarten (sharing, feelings, popularity-- with the notable exception of 'boys!').

Part of this is attributable to the fact that our society is more protective of its daughters than its sons; fathers tend to view their daughters as being far younger than they actually are. A more cynical mind might also attribute it to the fact that people seem to think that the 'nurturing' gender, the one most likely to spend much of its time raising children, must itself have an IQ of rice pudding. (Little hint: just because Mommy talks baby talk to the baby, doesn't mean she has the mind of a baby herself. And neither does Mommy's ten year old daughter.)

'Friendship is Magic' broke the mold by not talking down to its audience. Despite the cute and fluffy setting, the characters were well-written, the plots engaging, the humor sharp. And while the focus was on friendship, the characters actually had a full spectrum of interests and motivations. It was written as if not toddlers but actual people with intelligence were watching.

TL;DR: I think the real paradigm shift MLP:FiM represents--- at least pre-shark-jump MLP:FiM--- is "What passes for quality work in children's shows."

Fandom Hysterics

2013-01-31T00:01:49Z

In case you missed it, one of the franchises for which I am a fanboy, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, is apparently about to get a dramatic overhaul.... and the fandom is tied in knots over it. I can't say that I'm an exception to the rule, either.

Twilight Sparkle, the main protagonist of the series, is apparently going to be turned into an alicorn and crowned a Princess. This is being hailed as a complete disaster for the show, a 'jump the shark' moment that will basically indicate that anything that made the show watchable is long gone.

To understand where the bronies are coming from on this, you have to know something about the show. The general premise of the show is that Twilight Sparkle, the introverted unicorn apprentice to Princess Celestia, had to leave the royal palace and come to Ponyville to learn what friendship was (and coincidentally save her homeland, Equestria, from the villain Nightmare Moon.) In the course of her adventures she found five new friends, and she and they became bearers of the Elements of Harmony. She now lives in Ponyville, studying "the magic of Friendship" (literally-- the elements in question are Loyalty, Honesty, Generosity, Kindness, Laughter, and Magic-- and are powered by Friendship.) The show from that point on has alternated between slice-of-life episodes with her and her friends, and adventures facing the Villain of the Week, as she and they learn important morals about friendship and life in general.

Among other themes central to the show is how important it is to connect with other people, how important the bonds of friendship are, even ones wildly different from yourself... and the underlying theme that there's more than one way to be a girl (Tomboy or Girly girl, extrovert or introvert, jock or egghead, fashionista or country farmgirl). That you can have different dreams and goals in your life and that you're no less than anyone else for it.

So they're chucking all that in favor of saying that the highest ambition any girl can have is to be a pretty pretty Princess. Even people who are in the show's staff are running around online and in interviews gushing about how "every little girl wants to be a princess...."

The pivotal irony in this is that there are hundreds of fanfics out there-- by these self-same upset fans-- about Twilight Sparkle becoming an alicorn. Her, Her and her friends, and more. You'd think the fans would be ecstatic, right? Well that's just the thing; literally hundreds of different writers have tried their hand at the story, and after going through the throes of Narrative Causality hashing these stories out, are painfully aware of just how hard it is to do a good version of this story-- and just what inevitable pitfalls Twilight Sparkle's coronation and 'alicornification' will cause.

First off, this stinks to high heaven of heavy duty Executive Meddling. Hasbro has been hyping this event for months, shouting about how "one special pony will find her destiny." They're also bringing out an entire line of toys featuring Twilight's ascension. Anyone who has ever been a fan of anything can see the signs of incoming suck. Some CEO somewhere who couldn't write a birthday card signature on their own decided to stick their big fat thumb in the storyline and fabricate an 'event' to sell a few more tons of pastel-colored plastic.

Watching a corporate executive devise decisions for a show you love is like following the new sausage maker to work and seeing him head out to the freeway with a bucket and a shovel.

Another thing has to be made clear: making Twilight an alicorn-- but especially an Alicorn princess-- will almost certainly screw up the dynamic of the show. First thing to understand: There are essentially three kinds of pony-- earth pony (normal ponies, who have a magical gift with plants and animals and the earth), pegasi (who fly, and can control the weather), and Unicorns (who can do magic.) The "fourth kind" are the alicorns-- who are supposed to be a mix of all three and are vastly more powerful than any of them. There are only three alicorns in the cast: Princess Celestia, who raises and lowers the Sun, Princess Luna, who raises and lowers the Moon, and Princess Cadence, the 'alicorn of Love' who rules the distant Crystal Empire.

Twilight is a unicorn. Her friends are pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies. "Commoners," in short. Despite all being gifted in different ways, they're more or less a circle of equals, who face their perils as a team. So as you can probably figure out, turning Twilight into a vastly powerful (and did I mention immortal?) alicorn turns the whole show into "Angel Summoner and the Five BMX guys." (look it up.)

To say nothing of the consequences of making her a princess. Promotional art has her wearing a crown and sitting on a throne. This is not a position from which someone can go on carefree adventures with their circle of non-royal friends. And never you mind that it turns all her friends, which were so vital to her that she opted at the start of the show to stay in Ponyville as a librarian rather than go back to the castle, into the 'little people' she left behind on her way up the ladder. This is the sort of treatment a character gets when the writer wants to end the story, or 'put her on a bus' to get her out of the way.

I could go on for hours about the unfortunate implications inherent in this, too. Like the fact that this means Twilight is going to watch all her friends die. Alicorns are immortal, or at least have lifespans that stretch into millenia--- Celestia and Luna both are thousands of years old. Or that this means Celestia and Luna have the secret of eternal youth, are perfectly capable of sharing it, and are withholding it from everyone else: the moral equivalent of knowing you have the cure to cancer and hiding it from everyone. Or the annoying fact that they are YET to have a single alicorn PRINCE... and the only male royalty shown in the show, Prince Blueblood, is both a mortal unicorn and a complete twit.

But it all boils down to this: we bronies are fans, and we just KNOW that these people are going to take this and utterly screw it up.

The signs were there when Lauren Faust gave up control of the show. Her influence lingered on for two, on the whole, stellar seasons. But season 3 was the death knell. First they only commissioned for a half-length season, filling in the gaps between episodes with reruns. Then the quality of the episodes dropped dramatically... with maybe two or three exceptions, the third season has been mediocre and cookie-cutter (Too Many Pinkie Pies, Just for Sidekicks, Magic Duel), had terrible, trite PC plots(One Bad Apple) or outright awful (Keep Calm and Flutter On). Their track record for season three has led us to expect the worst, and frequently they've failed to live up to even our vastly reduced expectations.

Despite this being the very sort of story many bronies would like to do themselves, we know this is gonna suck.

rhjunior @ 2013-01-28T13:15:00

2013-01-28T18:15:28Z

... As I sat and watched Obama surrounded by little human political shields, three things struck me as being especially hypocritical: 1. Just a few years ago, the president would have supported murdering all of those children by dismemberment. 2. The president would have classified their dismemberment as 'health care' within a comprehensive reform package necessary to preserve the well-being of children, and finally 3. All the children at the press conference were protected from being murdered at that particular moment by government agents carrying concealed weapons. But it got worse as the day went on. ABC News and other outlets began circulating letters written to Obama by children wishing to weigh in on current public policy debates. That's normal, of course. Children always weigh in on public policy debates without being prodded by liberal parents who never left childhood themselves. And everyone knows it makes sense to base public policy decisions on the recommendations of children." --columnist Mike Adams

and the update

2013-01-26T04:14:53Z

For Those Who Keep Wanting To Forget

2013-01-26T04:11:25Z

Star Wars vs. Star Trek

2013-01-25T19:01:05Z

Yes, Star Wars is better.

Plus, no smelly French socialists.

rhjunior @ 2013-01-23T15:15:00

2013-01-23T20:15:52Z

THIS would have been a much better idea for "Keep Calm and Flutter On"

and THIS is why

and THIS is too.

MLP:FiM episode review: "Keep Calm and Flutter On"

2013-01-20T19:20:46Z

Wax your skis, kids, it's time to jump that shark.

As the episode opens the mane 6 (Minus Applejack and Fluttershy, who are busy negotiating a dispute with some beavers who have flooded Sweet Apple Acres) and Spike are seen waiting for the arrival of Princess Celestia and 'a very important guest'... which, if you've been paying attention at all, you know is Discord.

It seems that Celestia got up this morning, had herself a heaping bowl of STUPID for breakfast and decided that after serving less than a year in prison for nearly destroying all of Equestria with his Chaos magic, it's time to try "reforming" him. The ponies selected to do it? Luna, the second most powerful alicorn in Equestria? Cadence and Shining Armor, the alicorn of love and the second most powerful unicorn in two kingdoms, respectively? NO, of course not.

Who DOES get the job? Why the Mane Six of course. Celestia at least has the sense this time to give the Mane 6 the Elements of Harmony in advance, and in the cheapest plot coupon of the century informs them that she "cast a spell on them" to keep Discord from hiding them again. She then picks one pony in particular to oversee Discord's reform:

Fluttershy, the world's cutest doormat.

Thus having dispatched all the safety precautions she is ever going to contribute to the parole of a mad chaos god, she leaves. For lack of anything better to do the girls unite their powers and change Discord back from a statue, at which point he almost immediately starts engaging in petty two-bit magic pranks.

Now this here is the first-- okay, make that SECOND big failpoint of the episode, after. This is Discord, avatar of Chaos, who mere moments after his first release started wreaking magical havoc that screwed up all of Equestria. This time around he's limited himself to petty parlor tricks like the Genie in Aladdin. This would be more believable and would make more sense if anything was done to explain it, like for instance having Celestia inform them that she had stripped Discord of most of his powers or blocked them or confiscated them until his behavior improved. Come on, writers, throw me a bone here!

Anyway, the plot from there is predictable. He spends the rest of the episode being a jerk to Fluttershy, who continues to be nice to him in the repeatedly stated hope that she will win him over, even as he systematically destroys any magic spells that might be used to reform him. Her friends, who still retain some sanity, are throwing fits over this, but she insists on letting him abuse his magic-- and her hospitality-- and her friends-- and her pets-- trying to "be his friend."

Eventually it's revealed that thanks to Discord casting spells on the local beaver population, Sweet Apple Acres is now completely flooded. Discord uses the situation to extort a promise from Fluttershy that she will never use her element on him "to prove she is his friend." She agrees... and he promptly turns Sweet Apple Acres into an ice rink. She promised to never use her element on him. He's free!

And as he celebrates his new freedom, Fluttershy turns her back on him, telling him she's not his friend anymore. At which point he of course has a wondrous change of heart and turns everything back to normal.

And the audience proceeds to puke up its immortal soul.

Ladies and gents, this is the absolute worst. Just for starters it's an absolutely WRONG message to send.

Let's review: A meek timid girl ends up taking an abusive lout into her home. Her friends all try to get her to see reason, but she refuses to hold him accountable because she just knows she can change him, if she really really tries... meanwhile he's wrecking her home, tormenting her pets, and making her life miserable. Seriously, all that was needed to complete the picture was a wife-beater t-shirt, a trailer park and a black eye. But in the end, of course she's right and he's reformed by the power of WUV.

Seriously people? Seriously?

Let's ignore that rather unfortunate implication and move on. This episode has one element in common with another bad episode, "One Bad Apple"-- the antagonist, a bully, who has no reason and no motivation and not a single moral attribute indicative of reform, reforms anyway, after a simple act of niceness. See? All we had to do is be nice to them.

This has been the bass-ackwards thinking behind some of the worst societal disasters since Neville Chamberlain. The worst thing you could possibly teach young children is that the best way for dealing with an out of control monster is to roll over, take the abuse, make nice and play the friendship card.

Yes, I am quite aware that when dealing with small children they should be encouraged to try and play nice together and to extend the hand of friendship to other kids who may be more prickly than they are. Important lesson. But they also need to know that noone in their right mind expects them to put up with being exploited and abused.

The story itself just falls apart. If Discord had been reduced in power so the mane six could control him, I could see it. If Celestia had put more controls on him, I could have seen it. If the Mane Six had actually been able to reprimand Discord with something stronger than harsh words, I could have seen it. If Discord had shown some sort of genuine internal conflict, I could have seen it.

But this is not what's happening here. What's happening is that Celestia is letting loose an unrepentant enemy who could literally destroy her entire kingdom with a snap of his fingers, and counting on him both being reformed by a parole officer with the spine of a chocolate eclair, and being kept in check by a group whose power over him hinges entirely on the unity and willpower of six ponies he had successfully overwhelmed and brainwashed once already. And despite this being the most idiotic arrangement ever, Discord almost effortly does a face-heel turn in the last sixty seconds of the show.

It's a complete mess. Celestia is carrying the idiot ball like Atlas carrying the globe. Fluttershy is Flanderized even more. Discord, formerly a cosmic-level threat, is inexplicably diminished to little more than a juvie hall delinquent.

This third, shortened season has proven conclusively that the synergy they had with Faust is long gone, and the writers are just phoning it in and collecting their paychecks. I give this episode a zero out of ten.

The doctrine of tithing

2013-01-12T14:13:59Z

What the bible says about it.

The history of tithing since Calvary.

(Just so you know, I fully expect chastising emails from my father after he reads this...)

rhjunior @ 2013-01-10T10:26:00

2013-01-10T15:26:00Z

http://www.mrctv.org/videos/piers-morgan-nailed-incorrect-crime-stats-fox-19

rhjunior @ 2012-12-21T08:07:00

2012-12-21T13:06:45Z

Before and After photos of East Germany: Capitalism vs. Communism.

rhjunior @ 2012-12-20T16:25:00

2012-12-20T21:24:57Z

There were four mass killing attempts this week. Only one made the news because it helped the agreed upon media narrative.

Oregon. NOT a gun free zone. Shooter confronted by permit holder. Shooter commits suicide. Only a few casualties.
Texas. NOT a gun free zone. Shooter killed immediately by off duty cop. Only a few casualties.
Connecticut. GUN FREE ZONE. Shooters kills until the police arrive. Suicide. 26 dead.
China. GUN FREE COUNTRY. A guy with a KNIFE stabs 22 children.

And here is the nail in the coffin for Gun Free Zones. Over the last fifty years, with only one single exception (Gabby Giffords), every single mass shooting event with more than four casualties has taken place in a place where guns were supposedly not allowed. ---Larry Correia

rhjunior @ 2012-12-19T22:50:00

2012-12-20T03:49:47Z

School shootings and the media.

SITE IS BACK UP AGAIN.

2012-12-16T22:48:07Z

Yay.

YES I KNOW MY SITE IS DOWN

2012-12-16T03:13:56Z

My host, powweb.com, apparently hasn't processed a payment I sent them yet. It may be Monday before the darn site is up again.

Kind of grumpy at the moment.