Season One Revisit Thread

DerpyFast

So I just saw the very first episode after Faust stepped down as executive producer: Lesson Zero.

On paper, I like the idea of Twilight stressing over not having anything to report. It’s a fun way to play with the formula while setting up the prospect of everyone getting to send letters. In practice, I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, it’s a good representation of “catastrophizing”. My issue is with just how stressed she gets. Here is a list of things that somehow stressed out Twilight less than “being tardy”:

Learning that Nightmare Moon was going to return and not making any progress in stopping her
Nightmare Moon returning
Going into The Everfree Forest
Fighting Nightmare Moon
Watching Nightmare Moon destroy “the only thing that could stop her”
Climbing a mountain
Confronting a full-grown dragon
Confronting a hydra
Watching Discord corrupt Equestria

The only other time we had seen Twilight legitimately snap at this point was when she saw Celestia fly in just as Ponyville was being devoured by parasprites. It feels like this “Twilighting” was established to give Twilight a flaw to overcome. Having watched the whole series, it’s pretty disheartening to know that this is a flaw that Twilight never really overcame, and that she never properly confronted her fear of disappointing her mentor.

I like the moral that you should take your friend’s concerns seriously. Let’s see how well they uphold that.

I remember liking this one when it first came out, but I think that’s mostly because things like Fluttershy “fighting” the bear, and the Atomic Rainboom validated my enjoyment of the show. But even then, I didn’t want every episode to have this kind of wacky tone.

Posted about a year ago Report

Link Quote Reply

user4897

Rewatched Best Night Ever and noticed that At The Gala has a unique chord on the intro, it’s F#7^sus4

Posted about a year ago Report
Edited about a year ago

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

I just saw Luna Eclipsed, and it was good.

It’s weird to think that there was a time before Princess Luna had any kind of established character. Actually getting to see Luna didn’t even seem real at the time. There’s a really funny contrast: the ponies are terrified of her, but to the audience, she comes off as this massive dork. She’s mostly off-putting because she’s stuck in the past. “Fear” and “the past” end up being important themes for Luna’s character, so it’s cool that they were set up here.

It’s a little bit distracting that the ponies still celebrate Nightmare Night and tell the legends, despite personally witnessing Nightmare Moon return. But they’re probably not going to throw out a perfectly good tradition just like that, and it does establish that no one even cares about what Luna did anymore. You’d think Fluttershy would remember that Nightmare Moon had been defeated, but that whole scene is really funny, so I’ll give it a pass. Still think Pinkie should have apologized.

The actual story logic is a bit iffy, but I think it works thematically. In order to be accepted, Luna needs to let go of the past, and she needs to stop letting Nightmare Moon be a symbol of her mistake.

Even as early as this episode, it’s easy to see why Luna is more popular than her sister: she’s an actual character, with insecurities and emotional baggage, but also a sense of humour.

Posted about a year ago Report

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

Sisterhooves Social

Really solid episode with some nice emotional moments.

The Cutie Pox

This one was a slog to get through. You can predict almost exactly how it’s going to play out.

May the Best Pet Win

First song of Season 2, and it was a good one. Some of the gags were alright, but the plot was extremely predictable. I ended up watching the episode on 1.25 speed, and by the end, I wasn’t even invested in her getting a pet. Feels like a premise that was originally rejected.

And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for:

The Mysterious Mare Do-Well

What can you say about Meriwether Williams? She was one of the writers for Band Geeks, considered one of the best Spongebob episodes in the whole series. Knowing what I know about her later episodes, she seems to like mythology. Seems like she’d be a good fit.

So what the hell happened?

The first problem is that the whole story feels very contrived. There were more dangers to Ponyville in this one episode than there were in all of Season One. For each one of those, there was a proper setup and a proper resolution. Here, Ponyville is suddenly extremely disaster-prone. Even the environment itself changes so that Ponyville is suddenly filled with dangerous cliffs. And we don’t really know why. It’s driving the plot, but nobody acknowledges it, it was never set up, and we never get a proper resolution. The accidents just sort of stop happening once the story no longer needs them.

I know a lot of Spongebob episodes don’t really “end”; they just stop once the episode’s humour has run its course, for comedic effect. But those episodes always took the time to set up the premise. In a lot of episodes have reality itself conspiring against Squidward. But Squidward has to bring it upon himself in some way, when he could have just walked away. He chooses to go camping, or to climb into the treehouse, or to drive a wedge between Spongebob and Patrick.

It works in Spongebob because Spongebob is an absurdist comedy. The whole point of stories that teach morals is to use the events to demonstrate the moral. The goat jumps into a pit to let the fox out without thinking about how he’ll escape. This teaches the moral “look before you leap”. It doesn’t work if you change the rules of the story halfway through. Which brings me to the other issue:

The dramatic tension from the rescue scenes comes from lives being in danger, but the story itself doesn’t seem to care. The Mane Six are more concerned with Rainbow’s ego than they are with the weird number of accidents. They don’t even have the decency to throw in a little “especially when lives are at stake” during the part where they deliver the moral. They’re bothered enough to go to the trouble of creating this Mare Do-Well character, but somehow not enough to just talk to Rainbow. That’s one of the most basic writing rules: “have the character do the easy, obvious thing first. That not working is why there’s a story”. “If you have an issue with your friend, just talk to them” is literally a lesson from Season One.

I’ve heard people claim that they did talk to Rainbow. They clearly weren’t talking to her, and she never acknowledged it. So by not replying to this post, you agree that it’s dumb to claim that they talked to Rainbow beforehand. And their plan doesn’t even work. In the end, they still have to explain their message. A message that’s pretty hypocritical, considering how much time they spend patting themselves on the back.

I don’t think the episode would be hated as much if it at least ended with Rainbow and Mare Do-Well teaming up to stop one last disaster, so they can actually apply the lesson and give the story some closure. Can we rest, assured that Rainbow will take her role as Ponyville’s hero seriously from now on? Who cares? It’s especially frustrating, because Sonic Rainboom already shown that when the chips are down, Rainbow can put her ego aside and do the impossible to save others.

The above is why the story fails on a fundamental writing level, but I have a few more gripes.

Why is Pinkie scared of ghosts? I’m not that guy who goes “Um, ackshually, this contradicts what was established in Season Three Episode Five.” But “Giggle at the Ghostie” was the first goddamn song in the whole show, a major establishing character moment for Pinkie, and it played a role in saving the world.

Why does Rainbow have a fan club before she does anything heroic? Seems like something that should have happened after she did a few heroic deeds.

I know that Season One wasn’t fully committed to the fantasy aesthetic, and this is a case of “your mileage may vary”. But they got really lazy in this one. Why does a fantasy town have a hydroelectric dam? Why are ponies using an early 1900s steam crane in a setting where a third of the population can fly and a third of them can use magic to levitate things?

This is by far the worst episode I’ve reviewed in this revisit. If I had to try and fix the episode, I’d do it like this:

Leftover chaos magic is making Ponyville accident-prone, so it’s up to The Mane Six to keep everyone safe until it blows over
Rainbow turns it into a competition
They talk to her about how it’s more about saving ponies than about the competition
When that doesn’t work, they invent the Mare Do-Well persona to try and beat Rainbow at her own game
They also get swept up in the competition, and someone gets hurt
MDW and RD put aside their differences and face the grand finale of the accident storm

Posted about a year ago Report

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

I just saw Sweet and Elite, and it was a real breath of fresh air after the last three episodes.

One of the things I really like about this show is that these aren’t perfect little role models. They’re allowed to have flaws and internal conflicts. After the last three episodes, this is a reminder of what it looks like when a character’s dark side is written with a bit of nuance.

This could have easily just been a story about not lying. Instead, there’s that extra layer of irony that none of Rarity’s big breaks in impressing the elites would have been possible without her friends. The episode just trusts the audience to understand what a hole Rarity is digging for herself, and that she got lucky.

Both “Becoming Popular” and the song for Twilight’s party were bops, and it was cool to see more of Canterlot. There’s an argument to be made that the rest of The Mane Six were being inappropriate, but the show doesn’t have a very serious tone, and it’s funny seeing the snooty elite ponies get taken down a few pegs.

A couple of things are more than a little bit distracting. Nobody recognizes The Mane Six, or remembers anything they did in Season One. Rarity had a perfectly good chance to network with the Canterlot Elites at the Gala, but she spent it trying to woo a prince, when her core motivation in Season One was growing her business. I don’t think we see Fancypants again until Season Nine. It’s a bit strange that Fluttershy can’t sense that an ordinary cat wasn’t actually sick.

I’ve just sort of accepted that G4 didn’t have very strong continuity due to a lack of long-term planning.

Overall, this was a really fun episode.

Posted about a year ago Report

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

I just saw Secret of My Excess, and it was enjoyable.

I think what I like most in this episode is the little interactions between Spike and the side characters. Too often, The Mane Six feel disconnected from the rest of the town, so I definitely appreciate it. It’s a perfectly fine episode, but it’s pretty straightforward, and I have a hard time getting excited about it knowing that basically nothing in the episode ever comes up again. It’s also where The Wonderbolts start to suck.

Posted about a year ago Report

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

I just saw Hearth’s Warming Eve, written by Meriwether Williams, and it was… good?

A lot of people didn’t like this one when it came out, myself included. The less entertained you are, the more likely you are to notice problems. I think a lot of people were just waiting for them to get to the part where Celestia and Luna enter the picture. It doesn’t help that this is the first time we’ve heard of Hearth’s Warming Eve, and we don’t have any context. There are also other things we wanted to know about first. Equestria doesn’t have that much going on culturally, so seeing the founding wasn’t quite the “aha” moment that something like Cutie Mark Chronicles was for The Mane Six.

Having said that, there is something pretty interesting going on with the unicorns. They used to move the Sun, Moon and stars. This explains why Canterlot has a heavenly body motif, and why so many Canterlot unicorns have star-themed cutie marks. My interpretation is that once Celestia and Luna took over moving the heavens, the unicorns gained the freedom to really experiment with their magic. This caused their culture to shift towards an emphasis on artistry and specialized labor, which would explain Canterlot’s culture in Sweet and Elite.

As for the episode itself, I enjoyed it. The story is a bit simple. It seems a bit too straightforward that all it took was three ponies in a cave getting along. You could make a whole series about the three tribes coming together and learning to get along. But it’s not like it’s a bad message; sometimes a few people willing to break down barriers is all it takes. I also really liked the environments and costumes.

Posted about a year ago Report

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

I just saw Family Appreciation Day, and it was good.

Applejack has something I wish each of The Mane Six had: something going on outside of the core group that’s a persistent source of stories, with its own group of characters.

What I really like about this one is the nuance. Granny Smith is just kooky enough that you feel the second-hand embarrassment, but she’s also knowledgeable, and has a cool backstory. In a setting with magic and dragons, the stuff surrounding the zap apple jam feels genuinely weird and supernatural. It’s a glimpse into what earth pony magic could have been. The humour is also pretty good.

The only real issue is that the backstory doesn’t gel with what was previously established. According to Twilight, Ponyville was founded hundreds of years ago, and things get weird if you try and put things on a timeline. Let’s just take Spike’s advice:

It’s a good story, and it would be a shame to throw it out because of a throwaway line in Season One.

Posted about a year ago Report

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

I just attempted to watch Baby Cakes.

Some of the gags were okay, but it was pretty boring, so I skipped ahead to that one scene where it briefly comes alive.

Anyways, The Last Roundup.

The Last Roundup has easily been my favourite Season Two episode so far. As much as I love episodes that really give me a ton to write about, this one was just a ton of fun. It seems like they’re trying to show us the darker side of each member of The Mane Six, and I really liked getting to see this other side of Applejack. Applebuck Season was funny, but this episode felt surprisingly grounded; her failing to win the prize money felt like it carried some actual weight. The cinematography was a lot more ambitious in this one.

I have to talk about Derpy, don’t I? The “Careful Derpy” line still doesn’t seem real. Eleven years later it still hit me like a truck. If the pitch of her voice had been maybe six semitones higher, and her speech had been a little bit quicker, there might not have been a controversy. Derpygate was such a long time ago, it wasn’t even the end of her character, and the japanese dub does it better anyways.

Posted about a year ago Report

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

I just saw The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000, and it was great!

There are multiple points in this episode where I’m questioning why the characters took certain actions. Normally, this might be a sign of bad writing, but after thinking it over, each of the decisions translates to a teachable moment, which encourages the audience to think for themselves. I think it works because the episode keeps things moving, and never dwells on a questionable decision long enough for the audience to get bored or frustrated.

The Apple Family could let ponies reserve cider in advance, so nobody gets frustrated after waiting in line for nothing.

The Flim Flam Brothers offered a legitimate solution, and could have worked out a great deal with the Apples if they hadn’t been greedy. One thing that only occurred to me recently is that after making the 75/25 deal, the Flim Flam Brothers could have just done nothing and run the Apples out of business.

When you really dig into it, it’s a pretty effective scam. The Flim Flam Brothers subtly bait the Apples into making the competition about speed, where they have the advantage. They’re only ones with anything to gain, so that puts them in the position to set the terms of the bet. The terms of the bet are terrible, but by that point, the Apples can’t walk away without losing face.

The first time I watched it, I thought it was weird that Flim and Flam didn’t just serve some of the good cider they made. But in addition to “taking the time to do things right”, the theme of the episode is also “maintaining face”. When The Mane Six asked if they could help the Apples, Flim and Flam couldn’t say no without losing face. If they had to dig through the pile of barrels to find one that contained actual good cider, they would also lose face in front of their new customers.

I loved how we got to see more of Twilight’s leadership and organization. M.A. Larson really is the master of giving everyone something to do without overshadowing the leads of the episode. I’m finding Season Two to be just sort of okay so far, but leave it to Larson to remind everyone what a great episode looks like.

It goes without saying, but the song is an absolute banger, and will be playing on repeat in my head for days to come.

Posted about a year ago Report

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

Just saw Read it and Weep.

When Lesson Zero aired, Equestria Daily banned “Rainbow Dash breaks her wing” fanfics. The show had always had inconsistencies. I just think Season Two is where they really became noticeable.

There isn’t a lot to say about this one. They had no idea what to do with Rainbow Dash’s character after Sonic Rainboom, which is why we’re devoting 22 minutes to a “reading is fun” moral. Not a bad message, but they get it across a little over six minutes in. The Daring Do segments are kind of cool, but they aren’t paced very well, and feel a bit excessive.

Hearts and Hooves Day was okay. I don’t have a lot to say about it.

I tried watching A Friend in Deed.

The Smile Song is still great. But I think I actively hate how Pinkie is characterized in this one.

There was an art to writing Pinkie in Season One. She’s less of a character and more of a force of nature. Most of the humour came from the contrast between her being oblivious, and her being extremely insightful. She’s also the comic relief, meaning that she needs someone else to play off of.

When you just want the main character to piss off, something has gone wrong.

Posted about a year ago Report

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

So I just saw Putting Your Hoof Down, story by Charlotte Fullerton, written by Meriwether Williams.

I didn’t hate it. I was able to get through the whole thing on normal speed.

I think waifu-ism antithetical to the enjoyment of fiction. When you write up your character’s bio, you should have a plan to purposefully contradict everything you’ve written at some point. “Kind” isn’t interesting. “What drives the kind character to be mean” is what makes the character interesting. A lot of people don’t like complexity, because it’s harder to imagine yourself in a perfect relationship with your waifu if you have to contend with her emotional complexity. “Fluttershy’s Dark Side” was on a bingo card for Season Two predictions.

The episode starts with Angel crossing over from “little shit” into “domestic abuser”. Then we saw that it was written by you-know-who, and it was all downhill from there. I think the ability to be a bit of a bully can be a legitimate skill, and I like the idea of getting to see Fluttershy’s dark side. Once she becomes assertive, I like how there’s some nuance to the situations. We get some situations where being assertive makes sense, then we get some situations where it’s an honest misunderstanding and she’s looking for a fight. The offences get more minor as time goes on. The gardener is actively harming her flowers. The two ponies are blocking the bridge for everyone. Then a pony mildly inconveniences her by cutting in front. So there’s some granularity.

I really liked Iron Will. Not only is he a fun character, he acts as the personification of Fluttershy’s mean side. It’s pretty satisfying seeing Fluttershy calmly tell him off. There’s this idea called “integrating the shadow”, where you work things out with the part of yourself that scares you, and become a more complete person as a result. I think this episode is an important step on Fluttershy’s journey.

Having said all that, this episode is off-puttingly violent when it really doesn’t need to be. It’s also a lot more mean-spirited than most episodes. I think I appreciate what it’s trying to do more than I enjoy it as entertainment.

Posted about a year ago Report

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

I just saw It’s About Time, and it was a good time.

I think this episode has the best Pinkie characterization of the season so far; that perfect blend of savvy and oblivious. What makes the episode work is that Twilight is sleep-deprived, so they can get away with her being a bit less sane. The moral is to not obsess over the future, but they balance it out with Spike by showing how you can create problems for yourself in the future.

This episode was my introduction to the idea of the Stable Time Loop, where an effect becomes its own cause. Some people might find it frustrating that Twilight told her past self about the time spells in the first place. I think it’s a testament to her love of sharing knowledge, and to how she’s often her own worst enemy.

If I’m not mistaken, the Gates of Tartarus is the first time they’ve planted a seed for the future in this season.

Posted about a year ago Report

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

I just saw Dragon Quest.

It’s all coming back to me now. I remember going:

“No continuity nod to Dragonshy, and Fluttershy is back to the bad habits she picked up in Putting Your Hoof Down. She knocked Rainbow down, then kicked her in the stomach.

Meriwether Williams wrote this, didn’t she?”

Having said that, I don’t even think this episode is the worst thing ever. It’s just sort of boring. “What it means to be a dragon” and “what it means to be a dragon raised by ponies” are things that should have been worked out in the initial planning phase. What made Season One great was that it was this interwoven set of character studies. Even the bad episodes added something to our understanding of the characters and the world. Season Two as a whole just didn’t have that much to reveal. On its own, the episode is just sort of mediocre, but it also feels like a huge missed opportunity to develop dragons. With what we got, they’re just a bunch of assholes, and it really does seem like Spike is better off having been raised by ponies.

Posted about a year ago Report

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

I just saw Hurricane Fluttershy, and I really liked it.

This is a very straightforward story, so the episode can give the characters room to breathe. Season Two has not been kind to Rainbow Dash, and that’s not even a Meriwether thing.

This episode probably has my favorite Rainbow characterization, because she’s written with some emotional maturity. She’s a tough leader, but she’s also aware of the emotional state of her subordinates, and changes her tone when addressing Fluttershy. She hates losing, but maintains her composure even when it becomes clear that they won’t be setting any records.

And then there’s Fluttershy. The obvious comparison is to “Green Isn’t Your Color”. In that episode, she has no trouble modelling in front of crowds, and her fear of disappointing Rarity is what she has to overcome. I think there are two key differences between the episodes: aside from tripping or missing a cue, it doesn’t seem like there’s a lot a model can do to screw up modelling, and Fluttershy doesn’t seem to have any past trauma relating to modelling.

I vaguely remember people making the “participation trophy” argument years ago. But if she’s making a tangible, measurable difference, then she’s obviously doing more than just participating. Sometimes one person can be the difference between success and failure, and that’s a good message. The other ponies understand that this is hard for Fluttershy, and they want to be supportive. Remember when this was a happy, wholesome show?

There’s also the issue of why Spitfire didn’t jump in to help. My headcanon is that it’s considered rude to interfere with another town’s tornado duty. Plus, imagine how unsatisfying it would be.

Posted 11 months ago Report

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

I saw Ponyville Confidential, and it was good.

I think it mostly speaks for itself. It’s a story about ambition, corruption, betrayal, a rise, a fall, and redemption. The only thing I can’t believe is that a thing aimed at children would garner a fanbase of adults. That’s just silly.

MMMystery on the Friendship Express

Some of the visuals and wordplay are kind of fun. It’s not really that good of a mystery. What’s interesting is that this was before they gave Rarity an interest in Shadow Spade detective novels. Overall, this was a pretty forgettable episode.

And now, the main event:

A Canterlot Wedding

Before revisiting Season Two, if a non-fan asked me about the show, I would have recommended Season One, and then maybe A Canterlot Wedding for dessert. Now, I’m reconsidering that.

This episode is the first time we hear about Cadence and Shining Armor. ~~If this was G5, they would have been established prior.~~ However, I think it works. The fact that we haven’t seen Shining Armor before helps sell the idea that they’ve grown apart; an idea that’s reinforced by the montage in BBBFF. Only having Twilight’s word on what Cadence is supposed to be like helps with the episode’s mystery. Having Cadence be an alicorn isn’t really justified, but I remember reading that having a pink princess toy is the reason we got show-accurate Celestia toys.

The songs are great. The character of Shining Armor was created for this episode, but BBBFF is such a sweet song, and it’s a good way to get us invested. This Day Aria is epic. They don’t properly explore Cadence and Shining Armor’s relationship, but This Day Aria completely sells the emotions.

And then there’s the instant fan-favourite, Queen Chrysalis. She acts as a foil to both Cadence and Celestia, in terms of “love” and “power” respectively. She has a great design, and her wanting to find food for her subjects made her just a little bit sympathetic. The episode is about the fear of those you care about changing or disappearing, so Chrysalis acts as a personification of those fears. She also had an unforgettable reveal, and has the distinction of defeating Celestia on screen, back when that still meant something.

Her plan is brilliant, until it isn’t. She makes an external threat to direct attention elsewhere, then hides in plain sight as she slowly tires out Canterlot’s defenses, all while she builds up power. Any cases of her seeming a bit “off” can be explained by stress, and no one is likely to question her. She uses this to gaslight Twilight.

But once she’s exposed, the jig is kind of up. Changelings feed off of love, so a full-scale invasion by non-disguised changelings in broad daylight doesn’t actually make any sense. Her plan in To Where and Back Again is much more in line with what changelings are about. There’s an interesting idea that she’s more interested in conquest than in providing, but sadly the show never explores this.

I think the biggest problem is that there’s no emotional journey; no arc. The episode sets up this interesting emotional conflict. Then it just channels all of these ideas into Chrysalis, then blasts her with the usual Deus Ex Machina, then everything just sort of works out. It’s also more than a bit distracting that the lesson from Lesson Zero didn’t stick.

When A Canterlot Wedding premiered, it was adored. And why wouldn’t it be? It has great atmosphere, it nails the emotional moments, the songs are great, it has this epic scale that makes it feel like a movie, and it has arguably the most popular villain. The fandom was still in its “this is just like my Japanese Anime” phase (and so was I). So a big, thrilling finale with action and a supervillain was going to be well-received, since it validated the way we looked at the show. But watching it now, the actual writing is not very good, and it’s definitely a case of style over substance. I think Chrysalis: The Concept is better than Chrysalis: The Actual Character.

Posted 7 months ago Report

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

I think if I had to sum up Season Two in one word, it would be “unplanned”. It had some great episodes, but it didn’t feel like it was going anywhere, and I’d probably skip just under a third of the episodes.

The winners this season were Applejack and Rarity. Twilight was pretty good, but Season Two is where they start really downplaying her strengths. Fluttershy is a bit of a mixed bag. I’ve complained enough about Rainbow Dash, so I’ll just say that “Hurricane Fluttershy” gives her some great characterization. Pinkie was really bad in this season.

And now, we come to the infamous Season Three.

Posted 7 months ago Report

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

So I just saw The Crystal Empire.

Part One is really boring. I think you’d be better off just watching the recap at the start of Part Two. This one disappointed a lot of people. When it came out, we still believed that this was a setting with deep lore and robust rules for magic. A Canterlot Wedding was interesting because it took the idea of “A fairytale wedding where a pretty pink princess marries her knight in shining armor”, and subverted it. But it was well-recieved because of the songs, the atmosphere, and Queen Chrysalis. The Crystal Empire had a lost civilization, an evil king, a magic artifact, and a new species of pony. This was their chance to really flex their creativity and give us some real high fantasy goodness.

And they didn’t really do that. Sombra is one-dimensional. We don’t know what crystal ponies actually are. The Empire itself doesn’t serve a clear purpose, and its existence seems more like a liability than an asset. We now know that The Empire never ended up serving any kind of purpose. I would point to The Crystal Empire as an example of how not to do worldbuilding. They introduce a bunch of superficial details, while basic questions about The Empire remain unanswered.

On the character side of things, Twilight didn’t have any goals, so it’s hard to feel invested given her lack of personal stakes.

In Part One, it mostly just feels like they’re killing time. However, the episode does come alive in Part Two. Twilight and Spike exploring Sombra’s castle is a decent adventure, while the rest of The Mane Six keeping the fair going offers some comic relief. I do like that the win condition is more than just “get the artifact and win”.

The actual fantasy writing isn’t great; Dark Magic isn’t properly explained, and the gravity spell was never mentioned before and will never come up again. But it is satisfying seeing Twilight be rewarded for being proactive, and for being good at magic. And for her to remember that she can teleport. She’s been on adventures before, but I think this is the first time she’s had to be mostly self-sufficient. We know that she’s perfectly capable, but this is where she justifies it to herself.

What I really like is that Twilight isn’t torn about failing the test. She assesses the situation, then matter-of-factly tells Spike what needs to be done.

The alicorn tossing is pretty funny, and unlike A Canterlot Wedding, the win condition was set up ahead of time.

Overall, I don’t think it’s great, but there are things I like about it.

Posted 7 months ago Report

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

Too Many Pinkie Pies

It doesn’t have a lot going on. Some of the visual gags are alright. I’m not sure why the spell would be able to banish a creature not created by the mirror pool. That basically makes it a universal “banish” spell.

One Bad Apple

You can get maybe five minutes out of this premise. It needed some kind of B-plot. Babs doesn’t have any character beyond “stock bully”.

Magic Duel

Just when it was starting to look like Season 3 was a wash, M.A. Larson comes to the rescue with this very fun adventure episode.

What’s great about Trixie’s characterization is that it works regardless of how you interpret “Boast Busters”. Trixie antagonized the hecklers, but Rainbow Dash is technically the one who started it. If you think Ponyville was in the wrong, then it’s a little bit satisfying seeing her get her revenge, and most of the malice comes from the necklace. If you think Trixie is in the wrong, then this is Trixie getting her revenge, and the necklace is amplifying her existing malice.

The magic duel itself doesn’t have clear rules, because it doesn’t need them. It’s all about Trixie showing that she’s more powerful. What’s neat is that in “Boast Busters”, Trixie’s stage magic is beaten with real magic, and in this episode, Trixie’s real magic is beaten with stage magic. Rather than a deus ex machina, we get some teamwork and creative problem-solving. Everyone gets something to do.

A few stray thoughts:

Zecora is a better mentor in this one episode than Celestia is in the entire series.

The Alicorn Amulet’s name contains some nice foreshadowing. My theory is that the amulet was created so that it would fall into the wrong hooves and spread disharmony.

Twilight doesn’t seem fully convinced by Trixie’s apology, and Trixie doesn’t do a whole lot to redeem herself before going back to stroking her own ego. They parted ways on relatively good terms, but Twilight still has good reasons to be skeptical of Trixie.

Overall, this was definitely one that the season needed.

Posted 7 months ago Report

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

Sleepless in Ponyville

This was a pivotal episode. It was the debut episode of a new writer. It’s where Luna’s dream powers were established. It’s where Rainbow Dash became Scootaloo’s surrogate sister, and where The CMC sisters started spending time together. It also had some very positive characterization for Rainbow Dash, which is always nice.

Wonderbolt Academy by Merriwether Williams

I don’t think I can properly describe the shitshow we were expecting that phrase to usher in. Merriwether Williams made her debut with one of the most hated episodes in the entire show. And now she was writing an episode called “Wonderbolt Academy”. This is an episode where Rainbow Dash is in the right. That almost never happens. So a Wonderbolts episode where Rainbow is in the right feels like Merriwether extending an olive branch. So there is a risk of seeming impossible to please. How did we get here?

Rainbow Dash was by far the most flawed of The Mane Six. She could be mean, lazy, reckless, and impatient. She crashed regularly, and episodes like Griffon The Brush-Off and Sonic Rainboom implied that she had a bit of a sketchy past. I always thought that The Wonderbolts were supposed to represent what she could be if she overcame her flaws. She was certainly able to set her flaws aside to save Rarity in Sonic Rainboom, and it’s almost like a redemption arc. I’d go so far as to say that this is a logical stopping point for her character.

But the show must go on, and The Wonderbolts started to suck a bit. They ignored Rainbow at The Gala. They were reduced to a visual gag in Secret of My Excess. In fact, Season Two completely forgot that Rainbow wanted to join. They only got worse after this episode.

At is core, this is a good episode. Merriwether Williams wrote a good Wonderbolts episode. It’s a lot of fun watching them do Wonderbolts stuff, and Lightning Dust is a great foil for Rainbow Dash. Pinkie is annoying, but that’s par for the course during this era. The episode is so good, in fact, that it makes me resent the show’s lack of long-term planning.

The Wonderbolts are supposed to be the best fliers. They should just know better, and it should not fall to a newbie to call them out for their lax safety standards. The fact that Rainbow was willing to give up on her dream shows that she has more integrity than The Wonderbolts. This should have been a turning point; Rainbow Dash becomes disillusioned, and uses her leadership to start her own flying group. The ending feels like such a copout, and it makes the whole episode feel meaningless.

Part of me wishes that we had gotten a different episode, where Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust switch places. Rainbow Dash gets kicked out, and has to redeem herself by learning to be a good sister to Scootaloo.

Apple Family Reunion

Not a lot to say about it. There’s a whole bunch of characters that we know nothing about and that we’ll never see again. Not a bad message, but the episode could have been five minutes.

Spike at Your Service

Obviously the premise makes no sense. We’ve basically never seen Spike care about the image of how a dragon is supposed to act, and we know that Spike is perfectly capable when it comes to housework and cooking. I’ve heard that the original premise was supposed to be about Spike and Rarity.

So it’s a bad episode, but they were clearly having fun with it. This one’s a guilty pleasure.

Keep Calm and Flutter On

Dramatic Irony is a literary technique, originally used in Greek tragedy, by which the full significance of a character’s words or actions are clear to the audience or reader, but unknown to the character. After going through the whole series, this episode gains a ton of unintentional dramatic irony, since the audience now knows that:

In one scene, Tirek is able to tempt Discord into betraying Equestria
It was Celestia’s decision to free Discord and to send him after Tirek, so it makes Celestia and Fluttershy look like idiots
If they hadn’t released Discord, Twilight would still have her old treehouse
Discord turns out to be that one annoying friend who never learns from his mistakes
Discord rarely if ever uses his powers for good
Even though we know that Discord consistently fails at basic tasks, it still creates the nagging plot hole of “why didn’t Discord help out”

I don’t think Discord actually shows any redeeming qualities in this episode. He fixes things at Sweet Apple Acres not out of any concern for others, but because Fluttershy threatened to stop being his friend otherwise. And he’s known her for a day. In fact, he immediately breaks his agreement with her.

It’s not a bad episode, but it’s tainted by the knowledge of what it led to.

Just for Sidekicks

Nothing is accomplished and nobody learns anything. A completely forgettable filler episode.

Games Ponies Play

This was a good ensemble episode. I like how they mix things up and make Rainbow Dash the leader. It’s great seeing the side of her that wants to do something nice for someone else. It’s also pretty refreshing to see Twilight not worrying for a change.

I do like the visuals of The Crystal Empire, and it’s pretty rare for them to introduce a new location and revisit it so soon.

Posted 6 months ago Report

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

Magical Mystery Cure

Before we get into it, there’s something I wanted to pay some lip service to. I think it’s worth mentioning that each of The Mane Six explores a set of themes, and they each get their cutie marks at a point where those themes converge.

Rarity is about authenticity and “what’s below the surface”. She gets her CM after seeing the gems hidden within the rock, and turning it into something special.
Rainbow Dash is all about egoism versus altruism. She gets her CM when she discovers how much she loves speed, all while defending Fluttershy’s honour.
Fluttershy is about kindness versus assertiveness, and activity vs passivity. She gets her CM by taking the initiative and choosing to comfort the animals.
Pinkie is about being unorthodox, and about needing the approval of others. She gets her CM when she livens things up at the rock farm, and her parents approve.
Applejack is all about family. She gets her CM when she’s reunited with them.

I guess the idea is that without a meaningful moment of self-realization, a CM and the destiny it represents would seem like this arbitrary thing you’re saddled with. One of the sticking points was how Rainbow Dash’s destiny isn’t weather duty. While this is true, Rainbow was on weather duty when Twilight first met her, and that was when we learned about two things that are core to her character: her speed, and how she’d “never leave Ponyville hanging”. So getting her to deal with the clouds would be an effective way to remind her of who she is.

But does Twilight becoming an alicorn in the way she did actually make any sense?

I’m willing to accept that Twilight was probably going to become an alicorn at some point. But if you asked me to explain the logic behind it, I don’t think I could. It isn’t the culmination of any kind of character arc, and there’s nothing thematic about it. But the episode is trying very hard to make it feel right, and the music goes a long way in helping. I think the specifics of what even happened in this episode are left vague, so that people can project their own justifications onto it. And as long as it wasn’t a dealbreaker, it was easy enough to come up with justifications. Of course, if you aren’t on board, then yeah, it would all feel pretty forced and fake.

My thought at the time was “sure, why not?”. I felt like the show wasn’t going anywhere in Season Two. After three seasons, the show had to at least pretend that it was all building up to something, and that’s basically what this episode was doing. The Elements activated on their own, so I convinces myself that it was “The Will of The Elements”, or something. I had hoped it would give Twilight’s character some actual direction.

People like to say that the big bad Hasbro came in and ruined everything with their executive meddling, but I’m not convinced that’s true. Rarity exists because Hasbro wanted a fashion character, and I still think the showrunners spinning gold out of corporate mandates helped give the show this subversive edge. Like they were making this great show behind the higher-ups’ backs. I think the show lacked a clear vision or long-term plan after Season One, and Magical Mystery Cure was just the first time these problems caught up with the show in a big way.

I remember Season Four being a renaissance for the show. We had The Equestria Games, The Box, and where they were going with Princess Twilight. They were still just making it up as they went, but we at least had something to look forward to.

Posted 6 months ago Report

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

So I just saw Princess Twilight Sparkle. It’s pretty forgettable.

They didn’t know what to do. Not with the setting, and not with Twilight becoming an alicorn. Her “royal duties” were all things she was perfectly capable of in the first episode. They don’t require her to be a princess, much less an alicorn, and they’re not even worth showing on screen. It’s weird that there’s no planning committee for the Summer Sun Celebration, like there is for The Gala. A guard tells Twilight that with the royal sisters gone, Twilight is the de facto ruler. This is something Celestia did not tell Twilight. This would have been the opportunity to show that there was some kind of chain of command, so that Twilight being a princess could mean something within the context of the setting.

Come to think about it, the episode isn’t sure what it’s supposed to be about. It starts out with Twilight not being able to fly properly. Then it’s about “royal duties” and her not wanting to be apart from her friends. Then it’s about her taking charge. Then it’s about the evil vines taking over. Then the idea that Twilight’s friends see her differently now that she’s a princess comes out of nowhere, and is resolved within five minutes.

The writers aren’t consciously thinking about what kinds of powers the characters have. This is yet another episode that forgets Twilight can teleport herself and others. You’d think the “magical connection to plants” would kick in and give Applejack some kind of insight into the vines. For some reason, Twilight’s “alicorn magic” looks like the dark magic from The Crystal Empire. How capable Twilight is seems to depend entirely on what the story needs.

It’s a story that relies to convenience and contrivance. Zecora just happens to show up with a potion that can see back in time. It just happens to need Twilight’s new alicorn magic, and it just happens to show Twilight the exact information she needs. They don’t find the tree through any kind of logical deduction; they just happen to stumble upon it. It seems like the characters only split up so that we can have a scene of them saving Twilight, to show that she still needs her friends. But the only reason they split up is because of the cragadile encounter, which already shows that she still needs her friends. Granted, the scene where Twilight is saved by her friends is meant to show that they still need her too, but they seem to work as a team just fine when they save her.

Celestia says that the tree will “contain all that grows here”, but it’s just the plunder vines that are attacking, and they weren’t planted until Celestia and Luna’s encounter with Discord. It seems like the only reason they needed to return The Elements was to solve a problem that Discord created. And Discord knew what the vines were doing the whole time; he could have snapped his fingers and made the vines go away. Instead, he just let them kidnap the princesses and weaken the Tree of Harmony to the point where they needed to give up The Elements. So The Mane Six were right to accuse him, and he just lies and gaslights them. And then Twilight never thinks to mention Discord’s involvement to Celestia. That might have been useful information in determining if Discord can be trusted.

And then the episode ends with Twilight just randomly being good at flying. She didn’t overcome any obstacles to be good at it, and it doesn’t mean anything. And aside from Zecora’s potion needing “alicorn magic”, and Twilight’s friends sending her back to Ponyville for all of five minutes, Twilight being an alicorn had zero relevance to the plot.

Most of the flashbacks are fine, but we’re missing a lot of context even if you have read The Journal of The Two Sisters. When they find The Tree of Harmony, it’s just sort of there. Beyond the scope of this episode, finding The Elements has no broader implications beyond “they now have a way to defeat Discord”. Discord is also just sort of there. We’re never given a sense of what life was like before Discord arrived and after he was defeated. His defeat has no broader implications beyond “Discord is now trapped in stone”. There’s not even a celebration commemorating
his defeat.

Credit where credit is due, though. The whole sequence with Nightmare Moon is one of the best scenes in the whole show by itself, and it gets even better if you’ve read The Journal of The Two Sisters. There’s a scene where Celestia and Luna have to deal with a dragon. When the dragon disrespects Celestia, Luna describes how “[…] it was like Celestia was on fire. She actually glowed with fury, and her voice echoed in the air” and how “[Celestia] didn’t quite remember everything that had happened […]. As Luna transforms into Nightmare Moon, there’s this sense that she’s dissociating or losing control of something. Seeing the castle be destroyed, and knowing that it’s the castle the The Sisters built together makes the scene even sadder. The line “This is the night you banished her” still gives me chills.

It’s a little bit messed up that the ponies celebrated the defeat of Nightmare Moon, but don’t mourn the loss of one of their princesses. But I think that goes a long way to sell the idea that Luna felt unappreciated. Forget worldbuilding: the story of Nightmare Moon is much better appreciated as the tragic end to a more personal story.

I think this show has negative rewatch value. Instead of noticing all the little seeds they planted for later, you can’t help but notice all the inconsistencies. It’s kind of surreal seeing The Box and knowing what happens and what it contains:

Rainbow Power

If memory serves, it’s a Deus Ex Machina that’s never explained, shows up once and is never mentioned again, and is only needed because Celestia released Discord in the first place.

Twilight’s Castle

Something Twilight only needs because releasing Discord led to Tirek destroying her old home.

The Map

Now, I like The Map. But it’s funny to me that Starlight Glimmer uses The Map to travel back in time and very nearly destroy Equestria, and that this only happens because The Map sends The Mane Six to Starlight’s village in the first place.

I think this episode is a microcosm of the whole show. There are lots of contrivances, it can’t stay focused on being “about” something, you could probably cut it down to a much shorter length, but every now and then, you get something truly great.

Posted about a month ago Report

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

Castle Mane-ia

It started out as a pretty fun little haunted house episode, and it reminded me a bit of Scooby Doo. And the animation and environment design was noticeably better. But at around the 11-minute mark, the premise of exploring a spooky castle starts wearing thin, and you remember why Scooby Doo has a mystery to solve and a monster to catch. So this episode would have worked better in an 11-minute format.

Remember when The Everfree Forest was this dangerous, forbidding place? I remember. It was last episode, when one encounter with the local fauna convinced them to send Twilight back to Ponyville. It really seems like The Everfree Forest is only as dangerous as the plot requires.

This whole episode basically exists tie in The Journal of The Two Sisters. I didn’t end up reading it until long after G4 had ended, but I’m glad I finally did.

Daring Don’t

Daring Don’t is a weird episode. It doesn’t feel like it takes place in the same universe that Celestia raises the sun, or where Rainbow Dash has helped save the world multiple times.

I’m not entirely sure how to engage with the climax of the story. We’re never given any context for the ring-placing ceremony. “800 years of unrelenting heat” sounds bad, but the ponies that live there seem perfectly fine with the ritual. Daring Do basically goes to another land, takes their relics, and causes their building to collapse, and we only have her word that she’s even doing the right thing. Pretty sure “unrelenting heat” is the natural climate of a jungle, and this is a setting where ponies are responsible for maintaining the natural condition of the environment. The episode glosses over any potentially interesting worldbuilding in favor of a surface-level Indiana Jones knockoff. It’s also notable that Twilight, who now represents Equestrian Royalty, just goes along with it and doesn’t question anything. And none of the natives even notice or care that she’s an alicorn.

I guess it just feels kind of surface-level. Season One had a “Cowboys and Indians” episode, but it was about listening to both sides.

Also Twilight remembers she can teleport.

Overall, I didn’t enjoy it as much on a rewatch. I’m glad that they end up deconstructing Daring Do later on. If you don’t care about my complaints, then it’s funny commentary on fanboyism, and the action scene at the end is pretty solid.

Flight to the Finish

It’s rarely a good sign when nothing happens for the first third of the episode. Props to them finally addressing Scootaloo’s disability, but this is an episode that would have benefited from a B-plot. I think this is one of those cases where not addressing it for a long time works in the show’s favour. People adapt to their limitations, to the point where they don’t even think about them. But it still hurts to be reminded of them. I think there’s an all-time great in there, but this really did not have 22 minutes worth of materiel.

Power Ponies

There’s not a whole lot to say about it. I like the character and costume designs, and they probably had a lot of fun making it. It’s kind of distracting that for at least half of the Power Ponies, their powers are just things the characters could already do in Season One.

There’s a lot of exposition for things that will never come up again.

Bats!

This episode isn’t great, but I enjoyed it. It’s trying to be about stuff, and it’s at least interesting to talk about.

The visual storytelling is a bit confused. It would be one thing if the bats were just eating a bunch of apples. But the wilted trees in the background make it look like they’re actively killing the trees. If what Fluttershy is saying about the bats is true: that new and better trees will grow, then you would think that’s something Granny Smith would have noticed. It also seems like Sweet Apple Acres already has plenty of apple trees. There’s a potentially interesting bit of character development; while Fluttershy knows a lot about animals, she doesn’t understand the business of running an apple orchard. There is such a thing as an invasive species, and that might have been an interesting angle. Or if it turned out that they only drain trees that are already past their prime.

This episode makes me miss Twilight’s Season One characterization. She was the skeptic of the group. She was always the one to challenge the convictions of others, and she preferred to do her research and develop an informed opinion before taking action. There was a persistent thing where using her magic would backfire if she used it impulsively or didn’t think things through. None of that is present here. She doesn’t even think back to the last time she used magic to tamper with the appetite of a flying pest.

Also, The Stare is back. That might have come in handy in Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Yet despite its flaws, I had a good time. It helps that this is an episode with some stakes that are personally relevant to the characters. Applejack has by far the best “portfolio” out of The Mane Six. She has stuff going on socially outside of the core group. And despite the fact that all her friends have magic powers, “runs an apple orchard” is somehow the character aspect that’s the most persistent source of stories.

One thing that’s notable is that Meghan McCarthy was incorrectly credited for this episode. It was pretty well-received, but it suddenly wasn’t liked as much once it came out that Merriwether Williams was the one who wrote it. Almost like whose name is on it mattered more than what was shown on screen. If I could find my tinfoil hat, I might suggest that they were deliberately testing to see if our opinions would change based on who wrote the episode.

Rarity Takes Manehattan

So I was all geared up to dislike Manehattan as a location. When you compare it to locations like Cloudsdale, Canterlot, or Ponyville, I don’t think it “fits”. But I do think it “works”. The point of the episode is to take Rarity outside of her comfort zone. The fact that Manehattan feels like such a departure really sells the idea that things “work differently” here; it feels more impersonal and “realistic”.

So far, this episode has the best writing of Season Four. What’s really neat is how it uses favours as a sort of “power scaling”, and it uses this to show that Rarity hasn’t acclimatized to Manehattan. It took Rarity two favours to barely make it in time, and she still has to go last. Rarity can be a bit manipulative, and I think this makes her a more interesting character. However, her ability to manipulate is completely outclassed by Suri Polomare, who uses Rarity’s own generosity against her. So Rarity’s own generosity dead to rights cost her the win at first, and she was only able to get it back by taking advantage of her friends. That’s a really cool way of deconstructing the idea of Generosity, and showing us Rarity’s dark side. But ultimately, she cares more about making things right with her friends than she does about winning.

This is an episode that really rewards you for thinking about the implications. It shows how screwing people over can net you an advantage in the short-term, but it will come back to bite you in the long run. Suri is never getting her hooves on that special fabric again, and she was only able to turn the fabric into a win with Coco’s help. Suri is done. The episode very much plays by its own rules. Rarity accepts a costume-making gig that will keep her in Manehattan for awhile. She commits to it, not even knowing if the private showing will be enough to make things up to her friends. Then, Coco sacrifices her job so that Rarity can have the win, so Rarity gives up her costume gig to Coco. I really like the nuance; the costume gig is a great opportunity for Rarity’s career, but it also means that she has to be away from her friends.

The episode is so good that I don’t even care that no one noticed that Twilight is an alicorn, or that taxis in a world where everyone is a horse doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Posted about a month ago Report

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

Pinkie Apple Pie

There’s not a whole lot to say about this one. It’s just a fun little road trip. Pinkie wasn’t annoying and it’s an excuse to just let the Apple Family members bounce off each other. It even spawned more than a few memes. Plus, the song is great. Overall, it’s a very solid debut episode for a new writer.

Rainbow Falls

I remember disliking this episode when it came out. The main conflict only happens because of a throwaway line about a rule in The Equestria Games, and that one rule ends up hamstringing the potential of the eventual Equestria Games episode.

The biggest issue is that the episode lacks nuance. I kind of hate how they turned The Wonderbolts into the “rich kids who can afford the best equipment” trope. And they care more about winning than they do about the well-being of their own teammates. On top of that, Rainbow Dash is a better flier, and she’s more useful in an emergency. Come to think of it, I don’t think The Wonderbolts show any redeeming qualities throughout the show’s run. They kind of suck, and Rainbow shouldn’t even want to join them.

But there’s two sides to every story, and if The Wonderbolts weren’t terrible, then Rainbow would have no reason to choose her own team other than blind loyalty. I think you’d have a better story if the rest of Team Ponyville brought something to the table in any way. Like if they all had something to offer, and had to turn that into a win. Maybe Bulk Biceps and Fluttershy have some hidden strengths, or Applejack’s baking gives them extra energy, or the clothing Rarity made is in some way useful. Or if there was a line about how Twilight would join the team, but being an alicorn gives them an unfair advantage. But Rainbow is in the wrong because she doesn’t want to completely carry her team.

Other than that, I like Rainbow Falls as a location, even if it’s weird that we couldn’t see a town there in Sleepless in Ponyville. One of the things I noticed is that to get the most out of Season Four, you really had to be in the fandom while it was coming out. Case in point, Derpy’s return was a big deal, but I had completely forgotten that this was the episode where that happened.

Three’s a Crowd

How much you get out of this episode is going to depend on what you think of Discord. I find Discord to be just an awful person in general, so it was nice to see him get his comeuppance at the end. It’s just kind of a shame that they don’t bother developing Cadence as a character. Much. I do like how she has her shield spell, and is capable in a fight.

The episode had good pacing, and it’s sort of fun to play “spot the reference”. It’s a bit funny to think that if you weren’t in the fandom and had never heard of Equestria Girls, then Flash Sentry’s appearance might fly completely over your head.

Pinkie Pride

This episode was so good. It’s just one big love letter to Season One Pinkie. All the background ponies make an appearance, and we see plenty of iconic Ponyville locations, making the town feel vibrant and alive. It’s also a reminder that Pinkie has some depth as a character. Beneath her goofy exterior is a pony who’s deeply afraid of not being wanted or needed. And the songs are really charming. It’s a nice throwback to when Pinkie used to randomly break out into song.

Oh, and some guy named Al voices Cheese Sandwich or whatever. No, it’s actually really cool that Weird Al voices a character. Fans have imagined how great it would be if Pinkie and Weird Al interacted ever since Swarm of the Century. But he’s not even the best part of the episode, and it remains firmly about Pinkie’s character.

This is one of the all-time best.

Simple Ways

It’s not very interesting and there’s not a lot to say about it. Applejack and Rarity making fun of each other is kind of funny.

Filli Vanilli

I wish The Ponytones had been established earlier in the show. It would give Rarity some social connections outside of The Mane Six, and give Big Mac some social connections outside of Sweet Apple Acres. I also wish Fluttershy’s affinity for music came up more often. Because this is an all-around great concept for an episode, and it arises naturally from what’s been established. It remembers an often-overlooked detail: once Fluttershy lets go of her inhibitions, she has a ton of passion. It remembers that Zecora is a healer with an affinity for plants. And bringing back FlutterGuy so she can fill in for Big Mac is legitimately hilarious.

I don’t think this episode is a retread, either. The Fluttershy episodes take the theme of “overcoming inhibitions”, and do a lot of different things with it. Green Isn’t Your Colour is about working up the courage to say no to something you don’t want to do. Hurricane Fluttershy is about having the courage to do something important, even if you don’t want to. This episode is about finding out that you do enjoy something once you get past the initial fear. And if memory serves, Scare Master rounds this out by being about how Fluttershy is perfectly capable of celebrating Nightmare Night, but simply chooses not to.

On a deeper level, her stories are often about kindness versus assertiveness, action versus reaction, or egoism versus altruism, and her struggle to balance these. And they get a ton of mileage just mixing and matching these ideas. Fluttershy is also the most dynamic of The Mane Six; they can show character growth by tweaking how much of a push it takes for her to overcome her inhibitions, and how well she balances these different ideas. A character is not just going to “get over” a core part of themselves in one episode.

This is one of the better versions of “Obnoxious Pinkie”. She’s not charming, but they’re at least self-aware about it, and it serves a purpose to the story. Plus, it’s payback for Fluttershy stressing out Rainbow Dash in Sonic Rainboom.

This one was really good. More like that, please.

Twilight Time

This one’s pretty good. It’s predictable, but I was never bored. We’re fifteen episodes into the season, and this is the first time anyone has cared that Twilight is a princess. And the CMC have never been concerned with popularity before. I’ll give it a pass, because the characters are young. But does nobody go to the library?

I really like Twilight’s characterization. She’s a wise mentor, and she values that role more than her status as a princess. Which is easy to do because her status as a princess doesn’t mean anything, but still. Her pigging out on burgers is pretty cute.

Overall, this one’s fine.

It Ain’t Easy Being Breezies

I like this one on paper. I like the folklore-ish feel of The Breezies. I like how pegasi controlling the weather was relevant. I like that Fluttershy can be a leader when she needs to be, and I love how it explores the way too much kindness can be a bad thing. I especially like the reveal that Seabreeze has a family waiting for him.

I have issues, though. While I never resorted to speeding up the episode, it has some pacing issues and I was getting a bit bored in the middle. I am questioning how The Breezies even survive as a species. They need to make this arduous journey and need the help of the pegasi, who don’t really get anything in return. And it really seems like they could just plant some flowers near the portal.

This one is on the lower end of episodes I would still recommend.

Posted 19 days ago Report

Link Quote Reply

DerpyFast

Somepony to Watch Over Me

This one is just dumb and frustrating. The over-protectiveness comes out of nowhere, and the misunderstandings are contrived. Applebloom and the CMC do more dangerous things on a regular basis.

This is the fastest I’ve put an episode into the “skip” category. However, the writer would go on to work on episodes like The Cutie Map and Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep, so this was just a rough start.

Maud Pie

Maud Pie makes me wish we got more guest characters. You can fill up an episode by just having a new character bounce off each of the existing characters.

I absolutely love Maud as a character, and I’m so glad we got more of her. She’s weird and different, and sometimes a bit off-putting. But in contrast with Pinkie, she’s stoic, and has complete confidence in who she is. So the jokes are never at her expense; it’s everyone else who comes off as awkward. And there’s a lot of subtle nuance to her character. Pinkie has gotten obnoxious, so it’s refreshing to see a character that genuinely loves her.

Deadpan is one of my favourite types of comedy, and this is quietly one of the funniest episodes in the show.

For Whom The Sweetie Belle Toils

I have been looking forward to this one.

So does the premise make sense? The whole idea of The CMC is that they go around and try a bunch of different things, and they’ve put on a big show before. There has always been at least some friction between Sweetie Belle and Rarity. Sweetie clearly put a lot of effort into the play. So the audience not loving it, on top of her not getting a cutie mark, is probably a level of disappointment that she’s not emotionally equipped to handle, and now she’s looking for someone to blame. And when you find someone, you start remembering other reasons you dislike them.

This episode is built around the contrast between what the kids and the adults are working on. Both Rarity and Sweetie Belle are working on the biggest project of their lives. However, the CMC have all the time in the world to work on this project, compared with the adults, who have to miss the play to meet their deadline. The play is this giant ego project, as opposed to Rarity’s need to deliver what the client wants. Lastly, there’s Sweetie’s short-term disappointment contrasted with the devastating effect her stunt would have on Rarity’s career.

I love how the moral is less of a specific life lesson, and more about her perspective changing and her growing as a person. She goes on this spirit journey and starts to gain an appreciation for how hard adults work. For whom does Sweetie Belle toil? Only for herself. For whom does Rarity toil? Herself, her clients, her friends, and her sister. Sweetie Belle has a nice little arc, and by the end, she doesn’t even care about the play.

And it wouldn’t be a spirit journey without a spirit guide. Forget royalty and raising the moon, the whole dream mentor thing is by far the most interesting use for the character, and it has virtually limitless storytelling potential. Alicorns are supposed to be like demigods, and Luna’s omniscience, and ability to show visions of the past makes her feel powerful in a way that actually transcends what mortals can do. I love how Luna’s redemption is less of an arc, and more of a meditation on what she’s learned. Lines like

I understand what you’re going through, Sweetie Belle. I too have a sister who often shines more brightly than me, and with this, I have struggled.

and

Go. Go see what the future holds if you fail to rein in your worst instincts, as I once did.

are just next-level. This is a character who has truly reflected on her mistakes, and wants to help others.

I don’t usually talk about the visuals, but they really went all out for the dream sequence. All of the scenes flow into each other in creative ways, and the little intentional continuity errors help create this dreamlike feeling.

Episodes like this aren’t just good; they’re the reason that, despite all my complaining, I still want revisit the series. So that I can find the all-time greats and write walls of text praising them. Between this and Rarity Takes Manehattan, Dave Polsky has been writing some fantastic episodes this season.

Posted 12 days ago Report

Link Quote Reply

Interested in advertising on Derpibooru? Click here for information!

Ministry of Image - Fanfiction Printing

Help fund the $15 daily operational cost of Derpibooru - support us financially!