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Saturday, December 30, 2017

Book 1: Imprisoned / The Spirit World (Winter Solstice pt. 1)




*inhales deeply* BOY - 


We open with - here's another reminder that these are just kids; Sokka returning from foraging for food and found a handful of nuts and rocks.

They spot a boy earthbending in a nearby quarry, when Katara greets him, he runs off and collapses some boulders behind them.


Monday, December 25, 2017

#100: The Greatest Showman


In a sentence:
The fake origin story of P.T Barnum is met by a thunderous storm of 'who cares', with scattered applause of 'why do I care'."

Friday, December 22, 2017

Film in 2017


So 2017 is nearly at an end. How does it stack up?

I like it less than 2016 - but not by a whole bunch. I missed many of the "great" movies like Logan, Wonder Woman, and Baby Driver - they did little to interest me.

This year had quite a lot of films that flew under the radar - maybe they weren't the best, but I liked them a lot.

So, let's go.


Monday, December 18, 2017

Book 1: The Southern Air Temple


Fun fact; This is the only episode in the series that does not have it's title card against a plain white background.





So Aang was a little caught up in the excitement of waking up, making new friends, and fighting the Fire Nation to fully realize that he was asleep for a hundred years, and that everyone he knows is dead.

Oops.

Thursday, December 14, 2017

Book 1: The Boy in The Iceberg / The Avatar Returns


This is Avatar; The Last Airbender, one of the greatest shows Nickelodeon has ever produced.

And it's time to rewatch it.

Since these are twenty minute shows with an overarching plot and story, I'm aiming for two posts a week. I'm using the fan-remastered HD look that looks kind of funny for the first few episodes but straightens out, but you can buy an official HD version on Amazon and iTunes!

No, I will not touch that 'movie'.




Monday, December 11, 2017

Chapter 4: The Last Five Episodes + (Mostly) Entire Series Review


Thumbelieveable was technically supposed to be before the Faybelle and Melody episodes.



A cancelled school field trip won't shrink Nina Thumbell's thirst for adventure! She's ready to show her friends a wildly fun side of Ever After High that they've never seen before.


Saturday, December 9, 2017

MORE Most Anticipated Movies of 2018 and Two Kind of Apprehensive Ones


Previous; Here.
(Ironically, four days after I posted that, we got our first inkling of The Nutcracker ... and it looks quite nice!)

Once again, in no particular order;



A WRINKLE IN TIME
MARCH 9TH, 2018

Now I have never read the titular novel, but making the lead half-black to be palatable to white america and putting so many people of color in these fantasy roles, also this is the biggest budget movie a Black Woman filmmaker (Ava Duvernay) has ever had to work with, so I want this to succeed, and when it does, it's going to be glorious.


Friday, December 8, 2017

Chapter 4: A Tale of Two Parties / Piping Hot Beats


These recaps are going to get horrendously shorter. There's really not much to these last few webisodes besides 'Uh ho, switcharoo or subversion of expectations!'.

A Tale of Two Parties starts us off with a new song and a new intro!


Ashlynn and Holly attempt a daring costume change in an effort to attend two theme parties on the same night and avoid Faybelle's wicked curse. 

You'll notice that said intro replaces Briar with Cedar. Only one token at a time, I guess.

(This is a little delayed because I thought there was only one more post to go instead of this + the finale. My bad!)

Monday, December 4, 2017

Top 5: Most Anticipated Movies of 2018



In no particular order


BLACK PANTHER 

16 FEB 2018

Black superheroes with the Marvel brand behind them? (I don't think BLADE had the Marvel name on him) Yes, please! In such tumultuous times as these, it's needed more than ever to show awesome portrayals of people of color, in this case, black people, on the big screen. And it being part of the MCU means everyone is going to see it.


Thursday, November 30, 2017

December 2017 - January 2018

Since we're almost done with recapping Ever After High, let me tell you what I plan to do in the future;


  • December 11th is Golden Globes Nomination Day. I'll talk about that.
  • I have a very long "2017 in Film" review post in progress.
  • I am taking a very important test at the end of January, so expect maybe scattered updates for a while.
  • I am...considering doing the same kind of watchthrough for Monster High. Thing is, it will probably be a lot more condensed into storylines, as the episodes are much shorter and easier to parse. 
    • The available movies can also be included in this. 

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Chapter 4: Moonlight Mystery / Wish List

This "season" only has nine episodes. The new characters get two token traits at most and are tossed aside.


Tired of having to tap her toes on the sideline of her favorite class, Justine Dancer and her friends 'til THE END set out to solve the mystery of her disappearing dancing shoes!


This is Justine Dancer, Daughter of the Twelfth Princess, and shock of shocks, I think this is the only time we even see this girl in the visual media. She has a prominent role in Fairy's Got Talent, though She doesn't know what her destiny is to be, says the narrators. Wouldn't it be...to be part of the new set of The Twelve Dancing Princesses? 

& yes, the return of introductory title cards. The only people who didn't get them were Holly, Poppy, Blondie, Alistair, Bunny, and Faybelle. Consistency? What the hell is that?

Thursday, November 23, 2017

Chapter 3: Tri-Castle-On and Ch. 3 Review

If you're asking "Well, where's Way Too Wonderland? And Courtley Jester?" Well, good question.

I skipped them.

WTW has zero lasting impact on the series.

Apple tells Raven that being evil "Isn't in her destiny", but because Apple considers her wants and needs above everyone else, that quickly changes back to the status quo too.

So why bother? I'll give you an image of Webisode Courtley and be done with it, because I do think she has a super cool design;


I had forgotten about her until I started this again. This design is all sorts of kickass. Courtley comes to Ever After High and isn't even delegated to backgrounder status. You just never see her again.

Doll wise, she was the beginning of a very odd trend, where Mattel would stick a large, golden sticker that said SPECIAL EDITION DOLL on dolls that were inaccurate and underwhelming just because they were special one-shots.

Last episode of Season 3, Onward.

Monday, November 20, 2017

Chapter 3: Croquet - Tastrophe / Save Me, Darling! / Rosabella's Animal Rescue

I skipped the Bunny and Alistair episode because I don't care, you don't care, and if you do you can always go watch it yourself.


With Raven and Apple at a total standstill, it’s up to Lizzie to help determine who will be the next yearbook editor… Wonderland style!
You may have noticed Hunter's new outfit in the previous (well, our previous) episode - he, Lizzie, and Cerise were in a three pack that nearly no one got, exclusive to Target - Tri-Castle-on. And that about sums it up, moving on to the episode!

Saturday, November 18, 2017

The Incredibles 2 Teaser Trailer


I mean, we've waited for how many years at this point? What else is there to say besides YEAH!

Friday, November 17, 2017

Star So Far; Star Vs. The Forces of Evil Season 3A


Two weeks in November, started the first Monday and ended ... the Thursday before Justice League. I'm not good with dates.


This honestly kills me every fucking time.

Star vs. The Forces of Evil is my favorite currently airing cartoon. I was born too late to be in the hey day of the magical girl genre - seriously, Sailor Moon began airing 9 months before I was born - but it's always something I thought was neat.

I wrote most of this before the season concluded, so there's going to be some edits.


Chapter 3: Fairest on Ice / Heart Struck



Poppy and Duchess find themselves in the most hexciting skating event to forever after grace the pages of an Ever After High yearbook. 

They're really digging the timeskip here - last episode, it was fall, and now welcome to winter. I'm going to resist the urge to point out every time my backgrounders show up. No promises.

They're at a snow lodge conveniently located like ten miles away from the school.


Ashlynn is spinning and dancing on the ice - this was actually a line of dolls. Ashlynn - who was pretty beautiful, Poppy - who was okay, and Duchess - who was outstanding.

They were unofficially Walmart exclusives, and had very poor distribution at that.


Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Chapter 3: The Legacy Orchard / Sugar Coated





The Ever After High students uncover a magical orchard destined to help them share their stories with future fairytales.

The story starts out with Cerise being better than the boys yet again.

git gud


It's the beginning of the school year, according to the narrators. So I guess everyone's in their third year now, as the books call the first year the Freedom Year, when you can take whatever classes you like, and the second one the Legacy Year. So maybe this is Destiny Year or something.

The titular orchard is cleverly shaped like a book;


And this is where....the yearbooks are kept. I'm glad it's not as old-school as dusty books in the library, but I'd be more impressed if I could see how my parent lived out their story instead of old photos.

There's a graphic novel that kind of harkens back to this; The Class of Classics. The designs of the characters were pretty cool, but the art didn't fit.

The books float down from the trees - each tree is the yearbook of a different class.




So there should be around 250 trees, as it's actually stated somewhere that the Brothers Grimm established the school back then. So how did the fairytale families happen before then? Were there perhaps stories that died out because the descendant didn't keep safe and got dysentery or something?


The yearbooks look more like a newspaper than anything.

So Spring Unsprung happens sometime between Thronecoming and right now, because that's where you're introduced to these two; Alistair .... Alistair .... um, I think Wonderland - and Bunny Blanc.



Bunny looks like she has a seriously bad case of sunburn, and they're boring. Oddly, there's another character who is way too damn pink that shows up.




I didn't realize that we saw, well, more of Tiny in this one. Cool.

Soon, the field trip is over, and Giles asks if everyone had fun; which they did.




Bonus preview of Rosabella Beauty. She's not introduced in a special, but she does get a greater bit in the limelight with Epic Winter.



Oh, Corrine is back! Where is Ophelia? Or Roland and Avalon? 
Why am I more concerned about the backgrounders than named characters?



Milton says that at the end of the year, this class will plant an E-Corn to grow into their own yearbook. First, that is a madly clever play on words.  He asks for volunteers to get pictures of the student's activities, and Raven and Apple volunteer.

I forgot about this particular collection of webisodes. It's less a storyline and more less subtle ways of advertising various lines, including Sugar Coated, Fairest on Ice, and School Spirit. They're not awful though.

It doesn't set up or establish anything besides that - kids read books that we see the inside of once, and it's not even anything interesting. A line could have been dropped like  "Whoa, The Class of 1834 was nearly wiped out by the Plague!" or something.


Briar's like "It's not like i'm your best friend or anything, bitch."


And once again.....Faybelle is left out.


Sugar Coated



Raven sends Maddie’s cooking class into total chaos after her spell to save the bake sale goes awry.

Slightly unrelated; One of the comments says "Perfectly Imperfect? A MONSTER HIGH REFERENCE!"

That refers to MH's second theme song, Madison Beer's We Are Monster High. Which wasn't bad. Whenever I remember it exists, it becomes an earworm. But sorry, sis, it has nothing on the Fright Song.

It's time for the bake sale!


I'm going to imagine that Avalon was talking to her friend, Mr. Spectacles here, and let him cut in line. Also, Corrine is here to see if Ginger made Goose-shaped gingerbread cookies.

 I've always liked that pale grey dress girl too. She looks like something moon related...hey, the Malagasy word for moon is volana. How about Vol Lunita? With Vol being a title from her native lands.

The treats are very popular, and a crowd rushes Maddie.


Ophelia is here too! The gang's all here!

They're running out of gingerbread houses at an alarming rate. Frankly, I'd buy one and share it with my friends. Bonus; I really like the darker coloring on Maddie.



Also .... They have mostly modern day technology but toss coins around like it's the fantasy 1500s. Do they have like, Mirrorpay? Cryptocurrency? Paypal? 

Ginger is baking with Cedar and Holly, both people with the capability to be highly flammable.

Oh, there's Apple and Raven, arguing between perfect shots for the yearbook and imperfect but real shots.



These are some of the better later outfits in the series.

There's only one gingerbread house left - but Raven offers to do a duplication spell - which rightfully terrifies Apple.


For once, she's right.

But Raven does so anyway, with everyone else hiding behind an oven except Ginger. The curse goes awry and the gingerbread people come to life and go rogue.


No tertiary sexual characteristics....mostly.


Ginger steps in with "We cannot have disorder in the kitchen! If you are here, you are here to help!" and everyone straightens out and helps. To be fair, they were there to be made and eaten. Are they still going to be eaten? 

Everything goes well....except Raven and Apple are still going to quibble about pictures.




Saturday, November 11, 2017

Chapter 3: Bog Bash / Faybelle's Choice


This pair is the last of the Through the Woods storyline. What a bummer, I've had fun!



A grumpy forest troll threatens the girls’ ever after, but Poppy’s makeover skills just may save them. 

I think this is the first time in the series "A makeover!!!!!!" solves the problem. 


Blondie trips over an Imp disguised as a stump, who promises to take them to a party....but she's in leagues with Faybelle.






I felt like you needed to see that.


Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Chapter 3: Date Night / Driving Me Cuckoo








Raven and Dexter overcome their wicked nerves to enjoy an enchanting first date at multi-hex theater.

Date night....in the forest.

Not really, but the Woods Girls have set up camp in Purgatory Woods, and Ashlynn encourages everyone to think of something more pleasant. "Boys!" says Blondie, which is what Cupid was trying to avoid.

Ashlynn tries to be nice, and say that maybe the date won't go well....


Sunday, November 5, 2017

Chapter 3: Just Sweet / Through the Woods / Baking and Entering





Before heading to the multi-hex for their first date, Raven seeks advice from Blondie on how to calm her pre-first-date jitters.

I never understood why people who are friends would be nervous to hang out with each other as a date. Isn't that how romance starts, as friends?

Then again, humans are stupid and not logical.


Why are you booing me? I'm right!

Thursday, November 2, 2017

Chapter 3: An Hexclusive Invitation / Chosen With Care

Finally, the best segment of webisodes in the series. I wrote about Faybelle a while back, so I'll skip the introduction.



When Ashlynn receives a spellbinding invitation to the Blue Moon Forest Fest, Ever After High’s newest villain, Faybelle Thorn, starts to brew up trouble.
I was going to complain about "newest villain", because it's a little odd with the time line, but with more thought to it, they might be right.

Faybelle is the daughter of the Dark Fairy in Sleeping Beauty - for all you Disney kids, that's Maleficent. 

She's clearly not intended to be a magically immortal being here, although fairies are said to live long lives. In all honesty, both girls should not be at school at the same time - Sleeping Beauty goes to sleep for a hundred years at around sixteen. Briar is maybe fourteen in this show, as are most of the girls, but Beauty gets cursed as an infant. Unless they put both kids in a cage like some illegal wrestling until a wee Faybelle cursed a baby Briar, Faybelle is supposed to be an adult when she curses an infant Briar.

If Briar wakes up later and goes back to school to continue her education, she might still be at school with a Dark Fairy, but it wouldn't be the one who cursed her. Obviously this could be modified in the world of Ever After - after all, the Thorn family has a hard time getting invitations delivered, who says Faybelle can't interrupt Briar's sweet sixteen and curse her then.

To be absolutely fair, nothing says that Faybelle was the one to curse Briar. Her mother very well could have done so, and Faybelle will just have to wait another hundred years and nine months to curse Briar's child.

Whatever, onto the webisode!

Monday, October 30, 2017

Disney Release Dates 2018 - 2019


 Okay, this is a little late. Read; about a month and a half late. But it's still news, since none of these dates have come to pass / the entire point of this blog was to be movie-oriented, not just about kid's media.


Chapter 3: Ginger in the BreadHOUSE / Ashlynn's Fashion Frolic

Welcome to Chapter 3, the first and only chapter that actually gives us several multi-episode storylines, ties it into dolls released at the time, and it quite entertaining and good to boot!

In a few episodes. But now, we have another character to introduce, the second in our Dark Forest Girl Trio; Ginger Breadhouse. I have a feeling they could have gotten more creative with that name, but she is quite adorable.

Ginger is a girl (baked from a cookie?), the daughter of the Candy Witch who aims to eat Hansel and Gretel, who we will also meet this webisode. She likes to bake and cook for people, but many people distrust her because of her heritage.

In the book Kiss and Spell, Ginger's cooking show, Spell's Kitchen, is trying to survive in the ratings - if they don't go up, she loses her spot in the broadcasting room.

She also gets a bit of attention in Faybelle's book - their mothers are allies and, as children, they were quite close.

Also; Dark Forest reminds me of Redwall, although there it's a euphemism for the (good) afterlife.


Sunday, October 29, 2017

Soundtrack Sidetracked: Disney's Descendants 2


Disney's Descendants came out in July of 2015, to about as much acclaim as a Disney Channel movie can get that's not called High School Musical.

Simply put, the sons and daughters of certain villains are chosen to go to Auradon Prep with the children of heroes and good princesses. It has (had?) webisodes and books.

Sounds familiar (& more competently distributed, maintained, and diverse) to a certain Mattel property, doesn't it?

With any property like this, Disney will push one of the stars to be the Next Big Thing. Here, it's Sofia Carson, who plays Evie (the blue girl). Disney loves reusing it's stars though - Dove Cameron (Mal; The purple girl) stars in Liv and Maddie as...both of them, and China Anne McClain was the lead in ANT Farm.

(China voices a completely different character than Uma in the animated show.   My friend just informed me that her sister voices Freddie in the show now. I have no idea when that happened. If there's one thing this franchise royally messed up with, it's the continuity between mediums. There's plenty of characters with dolls and webisode and book presence that have no mention in the movies.)

Interestingly, quite a few characters ended up being written out - there was a son of Aladdin and Jasmine who was even cast and costumed but never made it into any film, a daughter of Rapunzel, and Audrey, daughter of Aurora - The Sleeping Beauty.

She was actually the "antagonist" of the first movie. I say that, lightly, because villain is too strong. Audrey was simply upset and confused at a bunch of uncouth kids showing up to her doorstep without even trying to fit in or learn...and then her boyfriend falls for the lead? Hoo boy.

She doesn't appear in any capacity in the sequel. I think they say she's on a carriage ride through a forest for the duration.

I'm not here to recount the stories of either movie to you too deeply - it's so nonsensical and foolish that I'd have to refresh my memory to be accurate - but they are both very good fun, goofy times.

Why am I looking at the soundtrack of this instead of the first movie? Well...I only like two songs from the first movie - Evil Like Me and Rotten To the Core. Technically, it's just one, seeing as the latter is a cover of one of the songs by Sofia Carson.

There were also songs that didn't make the final cut - covers of Poor Unfortunate Souls and Kiss the Girl, from The Little Mermaid.




Personally, I'm not fond of them. I think if they let China do a simple cover of PUS (ha) instead of embellishing it with modern day noises, it would have been pretty good. This? No.

Actually, I don't think any covers of old Disney songs make it into this movie.

The first one...blessed us...with a very strange cover of Be Our Guest. Perhaps the director heard our confused cries and gratefully let these stay on the soundtrack but out of the film.

So, with all that said, let's go. I'm going to try and do these in the order they appear - but the soundtrack involves songs that were webisode-exclusive, and I've got to remember what those are to avoid them. The only one worth listening to is Rather Be With You anyway.

The first song - and first song released period for this soundtrack - is by far my favorite. Premiering an entire three months before the movie or the rest of the soundtrack, here's Ways to Be Wicked;


Thursday, October 26, 2017

Chapter 2: Best Feather Forward + CH. 2 Ending Thought

Best Feather Forward is the last episode in Chapter 2.



Duchess Swan believes she's destined to fail her Muse-ic Class project--until Humphrey Dumpty lends a hand.


Humphrey Dumpty is very excited to break some eggs - kill his relatives, I guess - and make an omelette, until he drops them down the stairs.



Kings Horses and Kings Men: New phone who dis.

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Chapter 2: Thronecoming / And The Thronecoming Queen Is...

On this very special school holiday, life is turned upside down when a Royal and Rebel switch sides… and the Storybook of Legends goes missing.
Thronecoming! Possibly my very favorite of the specials. In the doll world, this was another 'super expensive froofy dress' line, and frankly I loved every bit of it. I had Cupid (I still have those cool wings though), and still own Raven and that gigantic book playset with the Briar. Every so often I will take it out, unfold it, and stage pictures, because it really is just amazing.

This one clocks in at almost a full hour, and we're treated to the slightly extended theme song. Fun fact, for the final special, Epic Winter, I'm pretty sure they replace it with that 'Power Ballad' Power Princess Shining Bright.


Sunday, October 22, 2017

Chapter 2: Duchess Swan's Lake / Cerise's Picnic Panic / Kitty's Curious Tale +1 more


Another three-fer of a post because the next post...is Thronecoming! My favorite special!




Duchess Swan enlists the help of Ashlynn Ella and Hunter Huntsman to save her beloved Enchanted Lake from pollution.


I like this episode for a lot of reasons;

  • Duchess
  • Ashlynn
  • Reaffirming that Ashlynn is the nature princess and Hunter swears to protect wildlife too.
  • The fact that a problem isn't solved by Apple for once.

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Rec Center: YouTube


This is not an entirely Ever After High centric blog! Just for now it is...

My Youtube likes can be easily sorted into a few categories;

  • Movies and / or Animation (Trailer reviews and news)
  • Gaming (Mostly Reviews and retrospectives)
  • Information
  • Cooking
  • Other
Well, 'other', anything could be other. I have many, many subscriptions, but there are some channels that I always tune into. Also, some of these channels are a bit multi-oriented, and I'll note those.


Thursday, October 19, 2017

Chapter 2: Apple's Princess Practice / Lizzie Shuffles the Deck

Here's a better episode for all the girls involved.





Apple White may be the fairest of them all, but there are more than tiaras and tea parties in the typical day of this busy Royal.

AKA: "Please stop hating one of the two people this franchise is built on when we made her really unlikeable because we want your money."

One of the comments at the source wonders when we will see Apple with her glasses. Yes, in the story books and her diary, she mentions needed glasses, but refuses to wear them because it will ruin her ~perfect image and that's all she tries to be.

Never mind the fact that other people wear glasses, like Rosabella, and they're reasonably cute and stylish. "Glasses make you weird and nerdy, girls!" What another nice message that both the visual and written medium fails to resolve.

Also, contacts don't exist in this world?

Monday, October 16, 2017

Chapter 2: Maddie's Hat-Tastic Party / Lizzie Hearts' First Fairytale Date

Surprisingly an episode pair where I like the Maddie one and hate the Lizzie one.



When Wonderland Grove needs a boost of wonder, Madeline Hatter decides to throws a tea-riffic tea party to recharge this magical spot.


Hat-Tastic Tea Party where only a few dolls got dresses - Apple, Briar, Cerise, and Cedar got standalone dolls, and Maddie got a playset.


Sunday, October 15, 2017

Chapter 2: Poppy the Roybel / O'Hair's Split Ends

Introducing the blandest characters that Mattel never stopped trying to force on us, Holly and Poppy O'Hair, the twin daughters of Rapunzel.

Holly is the younger one who wants the Rapunzel destiny [long hair], and Poppy is the older one who doesn't [short hair]. That's supposed to be a secret. It was probably going to culminate into something, but just like Cerise's secret, ha ha, I can't believe you thought EAH had some sort of follow through.

This is when people started to realize how insanely same-faced most of the white girls were. Besides hair, and even then only slightly, there's not a whole lot of distinction between Apple, Blondie, Poppy, and Holly. Especially in their dolls. Note their eyes here - kind of a very very pale green. Their dolls all have teal-ly blue eyes. Hmm.

I'll give credit where it is due; They do try a little harder with Holly than Poppy. She knows she's going to be in a tower for years, so she's a writer. She's got an agent and everything, and has rewritten her classmate's destinies and put them on her blog. Poppy just cuts hair. Maybe they thought her wearing pants and having short hair was personality enough.

 Surprise! They were wrong.


Saturday, October 14, 2017

Chapter 2: Rebel's Got Talent / Once Upon A Table / Blondie Branches Out

I'm putting three together because

A) The next pair introduces characters that we won't be rid of will play a role until the series' death.
B) I'm not even bothering to review one of them very seriously because you can see the conclusion a mile off.

Rebel's Got Talent
(They really like calling back to reality shows)



Raven Queen and Sparrow Hood go head-to-head in a wicked awesome guitar duel at the annual school talent show.

Raven auditions to Grimm, who asks her "What evil act are you going to perform?"

Because she's the token goth, she's musically inclined.  Wouldn't it have been interesting if she wanted to be a writer instead of Holly? That truly takes 'I want to write my own destiny' to a new level. Holly could have created love ballads or whatever, but her One Trait is cool too.

What if she killed a student who didn't have a serious destiny? Would Grimm care?


She starts playing a pretty cool guitar. The song is weak though, and Grimm agrees, though he tries to trot out "YOUR DESTINY" shit and she stops him, pointing out that she's still here after rejecting her destiny.

Grimm says well, anyway, too bad, Sparrow has already signed to play the guitar, who slides onto the stage to be obnoxious, until Raven glows with magic and comes close to losing her temper...which Grimm likes, and lets her play her guitar.


Friday, October 13, 2017

Chapter 2: The Beautiful Truth / Mirrornet Down



When Cedar Wood™ enters the Royal beauty pageant, she inspires Apple White™ to spellabrate the true meaning of beauty.
Ashlynn is sitting with her new Rebel friends, and asks if anyone wants to go shopping after school. When the others agree, Cedar jumps in - she can't, because she joined the Royals Beauty Pageant, but she didn't tell anyone because she thought that they thought it would be silly. "But I love being awesome, empowered girls!"

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Chapter 2: Class Confusion | Apple's Birthday Bake-Off



When Raven Queen™ decides to sign up for Princessology, Apple White™ decides to flip the script and sign up for Home Evilnomics to spite her roomie. Though, she may get more than she bargained for...
One of the few times these girls actually go to class. And where Apple is likeable. Double feature!

Sunday, October 8, 2017

Hanazuki Full of Treasures

So I saw My Little Pony. The movie.

Actually the goal was to see Ninjago but the crowd was too rowdy, so I snuck into MLP.

I got there a minute before the actual presentation, and it had a cute short in delightfully wild colors and a little girl with a little rabbit thing, dodging a dragon and finding a jewel and saving the day.



It's called Hanazuki, subtitled Full of Treasures, and there is apparently merchandise. Amazon is showing me a giant collection of....charms? And a handful of plushies. They're a bit too simple design wise to be full fledged dolls, but I'd have liked to see something.

There's a webshow that started in, get this, January of 2017, and this is literally the first i'm hearing about it, in front of a pony show.

It's very reminiscent of Star Darlings, except less stereotyped and obnoxious.


Saturday, October 7, 2017

Chapter 2: True Hearts' Day [All Parts]

The first real special and not extended webisode. 

Spring is in the air at Ever After High, and following their true heart's desires is the only thing on students' minds. Or it was, until C.A. Cupid came across The History of True Hearts Day book and rallied the students to spellebrate the long-lost True Hearts Day holiday.


Welcome to Spring! The season of romance! And brief character catch-up introductions!

  •  Ashlynn and Hunter are in the forest! 
  • Apple is walking around being admired by every boy within arm's length.
  • Another girl is behind her and gets ignored by everyone except a goat. 

Friday, October 6, 2017

Introducing Chapter 2 + Blondie's Just Right

Welcome back to Chapter 2 of our Ever After High retrospective.



I want to point out a few things;

* I will watch the specials that I can find easily. 90% of the time, I do not own Netflix, and truth be told, the later specials don't matter anyway besides looking nice and going to different places. Dragon Games is kind of an exception to that, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

* Some episodes are listed in a bit of an odd order between sites, both on the wikia (which is a good resource) and Mattel's actual upload. With the exception of some episodes with clear chronology, it doesn't really matter.

Here's the episode listing;

Chapter 1: Replacing Raven + Ch. 1 Thoughts

I completely forgot about this episode, hence why it's not with The Day Ever After. But at least there's a review of the season! 


Raven decides to find a replacement for her in Apple's story, and a random member of the Three Little Pigs shows up


Unsurprisingly, this is the first and last time we see this character for more than ten seconds. His plan to be evil is accompanied by vocally going "DUN DUN DUN" as he does harmless things like switch condiments. There's even a failed attempt at chemical warfare by filling balloons with 'dangerous gasses' like...helium. 

Apple is disheartened to see that Raven is being nice to her again, and insists that they're supposed to be Frenemies so she can have her perfect destiny.

Now the pig has been caught in the mass of harmless balloons and decides to abandon "evil" to be a balloon enthusiast.

Raven sums up my reaction pretty well;


There's nothing here. 

But here are my thoughts on Ch. 1 as a whole...


Thursday, October 5, 2017

Book Look: Fairy's Got Talent (Really, it's a Character Spotlight) - Faybelle Thorn

We interrupt the crawling through the visual medium to talk about one of the books in the series, my favorite book in the series; Fairy's Got Talent by Suzanne Selfors.


And why is it my favorite? Because not only is it entertainingly written, it focuses on my favorite character in the EAH World; Faybelle Thorn, Daughter of The Dark Fairy in Sleeping Beauty.


Monday, October 2, 2017

Chapter 1: The Tale of Legacy Day



This one is three times as long as the regular webisodes!....which means it clocks in at slightly more than six minutes.

And much rejoicing was had in the streets.



See? She's happy.

Sunday, October 1, 2017

Chapter 1: Catching Raven

Episode 12, I'm having this be a separate entry because the next one is The Tale of Legacy Day, and that's quite a big turning point in our story.



Honestly this was a pretty bad one to do a separate page on. It's not bad or good, it's just there.

Dexter wants to ask Raven to a party but is nervous, and Cupid drops hints that she'd go with him, but he's a doofus, and practices asking out other girls instead.

Briar is asleep which, same. I know it was just practice, but was he going to ask her to her own party? Also, as someone who has never gone to a party, do you need a date to go to one?

Maddie thinks he's speaking riddlish with his weak delivery of "Did you fall from heaven, because you're an angel." which, also same.

He gets kissed by a troll? Okay.

While sitting on a balcony, Raven comes up....and asks him to the party as a friend, he accepts, falls off the balcony, and kisses Cupid in thanks.

I can appreciate that Dexter wasn't "Oh woe is me, she only sees me as a friend," and is happy to go with her anyway. I also like that  Cupid doesn't try to sabotage his efforts. There's also not really any forces against him saying "You can't date a rebel!" - I don't remember any in the printed media either.

All in all, the episode simply exists.

Saturday, September 30, 2017

Friday, September 29, 2017

Chapter 1: Here Comes Cupid / The Shoe Must Go On





For those not in the know; Charlico Agathorne (Yes, that was her given name but they never used it in either canon) Cupid was supposed to be bridging gap between Monster High and Ever After High.

Problem was, she wasn't quite an established character in the MH-verse. She debuted in Why Do Ghouls Fall in Love, got one doll that would go on to be ridiculously expensive, was maybe in two Monster High webisodes (I clearly remember one with her, Frankie, and Abbey and a school project about the weather, seriously, is this high school or not), and pushed to a brand that most parents thought was a knock-off of MH anyway.

I know there was build up to a legitimate crossover movie - you can find storyboards on youtube - but there really should have been some establishing special, with clear, established characters visiting EAH and then leaving Cupid over there. The teaser website (I distinctly remember 'Village of Book End' being one domain that lead to the site; They seem to have been taken down in every capacity) was beautiful and atmospheric, and involved Frankie, Clawdeen, and Draculaura expressing good wishes to Cupid in her new adventure.

Cupid was never a character I cared too deeply about, though I did like both outfits she wore.

Chapter 1: Maddie In Chief / Briar's Study Party



Semi-Exactly what it says on the tin.


Pictured: A girl I've always called Persephone Plum, but really gets no name or character.

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Chapter 1: Stark Raven Mad / True Reflections



Technically, The Tale of Legacy Day is the second to last episode in Chapter 1. So, we can simply move on to Chapter 1 itself and work our way down there. We're going to keep doing two episodes at a time. Luckily, they're only about two minutes long.


  1. Stark Raven Mad
  2. True Reflections
  3. Maddie-in-Chief
  4. Briar's Study Party
  5. Here Comes Cupid
  6. The Shoe Must Go On
  7. The Cat Who Cried Wolf
  8. Cedar Wood Would Love to Lie
  9. Catching Raven
  10. The Tale of Legacy Day
  11. The Day Ever After
  12. Replacing Raven

The Beginning: Apple's Tale: The Story of a Royal \ Raven's Tale: The Story of a Rebel



Since this is basically one episode made into two, we're going to look at both at once.

  1. The World of Ever After High
  2. Apple's Tale: The Story of a Royal
  3. Raven's Tale: The Story of a Rebel
  4. The Tale of Legacy Day



Tuesday, September 26, 2017

The Beginning - The World of Ever After High


The Beginning is before the actual first storyline and outlines everything up until the end of what is called Chapter 1.
  1. The World of Ever After High
  2. Apple's Tale: The Story of a Royal
  3. Raven's Tale: The Story of a Rebel
  4. The Tale of Legacy Day
No other chapters get this benefit, but in fairness the conflict is more or less non existent after Chapter 1 anyway.

Ever After High Retrospective - Welcome (Back?)


I'm going to be revisiting the storyline of Mattel's all but defunct Fairy Tale spinoff, Ever After High.

The Wikia has a list of every cartoon posted on the franchise's official Youtube page, stopping with individual episodes, as Mattel has been putting up two-hour long blocks of random clips for the past...year? It's a sad comedown.


Avatar: The Last Airbender live action

   Spoilers for a 19 year old show and a 50 hour year old show.'   Things I like: Having Azula in the first season was seen as a content...