Expi, Analysis

Expi, Analysis is the tenth chapter of the second season, and the twenty-second chapter overall. It was published May 24, 2021.

An Old Friend?
Expi logs onto the Friendship is Magic forums one day, and notices a post created by one of the site’s most popular analysts. While Expi enjoys reading his work, she thinks about how this particular user feels familiar to her, and after reading, goes on his profile to find it’s Quinton - one of the people in Gracie’s circle of friends she knew prior to ditching them. Expi is initially weary of him, mostly due to sticking with Gracie during their argument, but decides to message him.

Quinton responds to Expi’s message telling her he is who she thinks he is and appears happy to talk to her. Expi asks him if he still holds negative thoughts about Sonrisans, to which Quinton responds telling her he never held those thoughts, and only chose to stick with Grace due to them being ‘friends’, albeit later on severing his own ties with her.

Expi then tells Quinton she enjoyed reading his work, and Quinton thanking her while also commenting on Expi’s previous works - suggesting she should do her own analysis of the series. Expi thinks about this and chooses to do so.

Expi’s Analysis
While watching the next episode of Friendship is Magic with Mariko, she decides to write down notes in a journal. Mariko questions this, but Expi tells her about people who analyze Friendship is Magic and her intentions to do so herself. After her work day, Expi tries to begin writing her analysis... when her mind goes blank. Mariko suggests looking at other people’s reviews to give her an idea of where to start - to which Expi agrees. Expi does so, but notices her thoughts on the episode differ from what others say - leading her to feel worried that people won’t like her opinion on it. Still, she finishes her review and posts it.

But after posting it, she receives no feedback, and continues to worry about what other people thought of her review. Expi begins walking back and forth from her room to the kitchen until Mariko stops her - telling Expi that she shouldn’t let what other people think about an episode influence her own opinion. She insists Expi shouldn’t get stressed over what other people thought, and Expi continues to make dinner.

After finishing, Expi and Mariko to watch more Friendship is Magic - but before doing so, Expi checks to see if she got any responses one more time. Still getting nothing, she messages Quinton, who shares his disagreements with Expi - which Expi incorrectly interprets as criticism. She goes back to sit with Mariko.

Analysis Burnout
Expi then does an analysis on the next episode they watch - with reactions this time being more positive and falling in line with other people think. Expi ends up getting more responses and reactions this time around, leading her to look more into what other people thought and writing reviews around that. This ends up leading Expi to become more burned out on analysis and becoming less interested in watching Friendship is Magic. Mariko notices this and asks her about it - telling Expi that she shouldn’t continue writing analysis posts if she doesn’t enjoy doing it. They finish the episode, but Expi doesn’t initially write about it. Instead, she finds she actually did get some responses that she didn’t notice on her first post - that were more positive than she expected.

Meanwhile, Mariko makes her own account and looks through Expi’s reviews. She notices that Expi appears more negative in these analysis posts than she did talking about the same episodes with her. She leaves a “like” on her first post, and messages Expi telling her that she should be more honest about what she thinks and don’t let others influence her own thoughts (while also talking about episodes she has more to say about).

A Good Review
Expi then watches and reviews one of her favorite episodes - being honest about her thoughts and things she felt no one really noticed about it. Mariko reads through her review before Expi posts it, expressing that she did a good job. After posting it, Quinton responds, also agreeing she did a good job of analyzing the episode and providing points. Expi and Quinton then go on to discuss the episode with each other.

Characters

 * Expi
 * Mariko
 * Quinton
 * Gracie (mentioned)

Trivia

 * This is Quinton's first appearance since Expi's New Friend, and also the first time his design is shown.
 * This chapter was originally meant to be written and published in April 2021, but was pushed back due to ExpitheCat being "swamped" with school.
 * At one point, this chapter went under the working title of “Expi the Journalist.”