The My Little Pony: Frienship Is Magic Thread

[Happygun]

Sweet merciful jeebus! That was great episode! Arguably better than all the previous episodes of season 3 combined! Lesson Zero quality!

Instead of listing the good parts (which would take too long) I'll just list the very, very few bad parts.

-Seeing Trixie abuse the citizens of Ponyville (particularly Pinkie) was actually kind of painful to watch.
-Fully grown horses from Saddle Arabia? More information would have been nice! World building!!!
-The ending...a little too saccharine AND removed what could have been an excellent recurring villain.

No more spoilers (yet). If you haven't seen it, see it NOW!

[Kris@WLP]

Not quite as much fun as Lesson Zero, but very good and very tight. No padding, and funny as hell.

[Kris@WLP]

[Happygun]

[Kris@WLP]

[Happygun]

[bar1scorpio]

Clopfics now filling with AppleColt material...
Pinkie has no mouth and she must Oompah...
THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE DOES NOT TRUST THE WHEEL!

[Ganthan]

Post episode speculation time.

Is the Alicorn Amulet possibly a horcrux? If so then is King Sombra gonna pull a Lord Voldemort and come back from the dead?

If Alicorns are able to use age spells then that would explain their immortality.

Is Saddle Arabia part of Equestria or is it in another part of the world entirely?

[Monfang]

[Happygun]

...Man I wish there were an officially licensed JRPG/Western RPG MLP: FiM games just dark enough to be fun but not too dark to feel divorced from the series.

[Kris@WLP]

[Happygun]

[Ganthan]

You know, with all her various critter friends (and the STARE), Fluttershy could potentially be the most powerful pony of all the Mane 6.

[Happygun]

Sleepless in Ponyville - Episode 6, Season 3

Wow! Another home-run episode!

There was a much tighter focus than the previous one. Excellent character development, lots of funny moments, and a somewhat hackneyed but very relevant and valuable moral (it's great that the writers don't shoehorn a letter to Princess Celestia into every episode any more; it makes the lesson(s) feel forced). Plus, Scootaloo finally takes center stage!

The real surprise was the appearance of Princess Luna, who, for once, is the one who dispenses wisdom rather than digesting it. Although some fans might object I, for one, welcome her newly established role as the Warden of Dreams (she IS the Mare of the Night...the Night-Mare); it makes sense that she'd watch over her subjects at night while her sister watches over them during the day. Fanfic opportunities ahoy!

"After that faithful encounter with Princess Luna, Scootaloo would be inspired to go on to join the Nightguard - the mysterious, bat-winged pony soldiers comprising Luna's elite personal bodyguard."

Princess Luna vs. Freddy Kreuger

So...she watches ponies while they dream. Does this include wet dreams? And here I thought Princess Molestia was the perv.

[Ganthan]

I guess Apple Bloom was right to call Scootaloo a chicken.

Luna can enter other ponies' dreams?! Oh snap, son.

[Monfang]

Though out the episode, I kept saying 'Change the fanon!'

[Kris@WLP]

I wasn't as fond of this one as the rest of you were. The moral, quite bluntly, was poorly done, and Luna's appearances in particular were so heavyhanded that you could hear the anvil clinking. The "let's do anything but sleep" bits were old hat and felt more like padding than entertainment. Also, points lost for there being way too little reaction to Rarity's blatant abuse of Sweetie Belle as a beast of burden. (OTOH, interesting that we see that Sweetie is stronger than Scootaloo; maybe it really isn't that big a deal for her.)

It's intriguing that Scootaloo obviously has her own magic spell- Summon Scooter (with helmet).

I'm kind of mu about the scary stories business- I for one have NEVER found anything enjoyable about being scared. Ever. I still loathe most horror movies. (Sam Raimi and the classic Romero flicks don't count, as they're too dumb and silly to be in any way frightening.)

[Happygun]

OK, let's get it all out. What are your top three MLP:FiM episodes?
Me:
1- Lesson Zero
2- Luna Eclipsed
3- Sweet and Elite

[Kris@WLP]

[Happygun]

Wonderbolt Academy - Episode 7, Season 3

As some of you probably know, this episode was leaked several days before the official release. I avoided watching it until Saturday, though. Spoilers are one thing, but opening your presents before xmas just isn't cool.

Not an outstanding episode, but still pretty good. Nice bit of world building in it; the Pegasus martial tradition obviously survived in the form of the academy. The military bronies (and there are a LOT of them) probably got a big kick out of this one. The moral was predictable but at least it wasn't hackneyed.

Believe it or not, I have a bit of sympathy for Lightning Dust. Up until she went overboard with the tornado she was just playing the game, albeit too hard. Part of the blame lies with the academy for failing to rein her in, balancing drive with discipline. Her summary dismissal at the end was justified, but think it could have been avoided if Spitfire saw she was pushing herself TOO hard and warned her off.

Also, Pinkie was obviously off her meds this episode.

[Ganthan]

I dunno. Wonderbolt Academy just didn't make me giggle, smile or go "Whoa" as much as the other episodes of this season. It was by no means bad, it was just a little bland compared to the flashy set pieces, sanity questioning silliness and epic character building we've had so far. I was still impressed by Rainbow Dash's growth as well as her ability to compress clouds so densely that non pegasi could land on it.

As far as my top three episodes, I originally didn't want to do something like that until Season 3 was over, but screw it. I'll go ahead and give 'em.

1. Lesson Zero. Yeah, kind of going along with the crowd on this one. Twilight Sparkle gone full Gollum? Atomic Rainnuke? Rarity summoning her fainting couch at will? A town wide riot over a doll? And topping it all off, the ending made it so that every episode afterwards no longer has to end in Twilight sending a letter to Princess Celestia. What's not to love?

2. Party of One. I love all of the Pinkie Pie episodes. Every one. This one has to be my favorite if only because it has Pinkie BREAKING from her usual exuberant attitude and entering a psychotic depression mixed with temporary disdain for her friends. The thing that made this episode truly special and impactful in my eyes (perhaps only mine) was Pinkie accomplishing probably what is one of the most difficult things to do in friendship: Admitting you were wrong, getting over your heartache, and forgiving and forgetting her friends' lies and deceit ON THE SPOT.

3. The Cutie Pox. It feels weird to put this one on my Top 3 because it isn't really the story of the episode itself I liked. It's the intro. As if the idea of ponies going bowling isn't weird enough on its own, the background pony bowlers is what makes it worthwhile. Thanks to this episode, I can now begin any counterargument to the claim that My Little Pony is intended only for children by saying, "Do you think that The Big Lebowski is suitable for children?"

[Ganthan]

Apple Family Reunion

Next to Twilight Sparkle, Applejack seems to get a lot of screen time in the show; whether among the Mane 6, as a support character in a budget episode, or sometimes just in the background for a bit. This is the first time she's really truly got an episode all to herself that I can recall, far more so than even The Last Roundup. Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Spike appear for a few seconds each and Pinkie gets one line in. The rest is all Applejack and her family.

This was another excellent episode with lots of Apple family members showing up both new and old. Some criticism could be leveled at the predictability of the problem and just how thick AJ has to be to not notice it until it gets bad, but honestly the same criticism could be given to half of the episodes anyway. Another nitpick is Granny Smith commenting about having a reunion every 100 moons (however long that is) ever since the Apple family first arrived in Ponyville. If you'll recall from Family Appreciation Day, Ponyville wasn't even founded when Granny Smith arrived with her family. Perhaps that can be explained due to her family being called the Smiths at that time. Otherwise there was plenty of extra characterization given with some of the other family members, especially Babs Seed.

Perhaps this is just the socially liberal part of me talking, but I was somewhat surprised at the lack of pegasi or unicorns at the reunion. We know from Baby Cakes that all of the pony races can interbreed and even carry recessive genes down through the generations. In fact, we saw Caramel Apple dating a pegasus in Hearts and Hooves Day.

Yes, I know. I know. I probably shouldn't be overanalyzing a kids show for continuity errors.

[Kris@WLP]

[Kris@WLP]

I haven't watched the episode all the way through yet. I like the first part with Granny reminiscing, and I fast-forwarded to the end, where I found the song... pretty awful, actually. As in, six-year-old lyricist awful.

It'll take some work to get through the middle part, since I really dislike the "well-meaning person piles failure upon failure" storyline. (Yes, I also hate Mr. Bean. Rowan Atkinson is a great comedian, but his most famous character does little or nothing for me.)

[Ganthan]

No offense Kris, but perhaps you're just a bit too sensitive to what you perceive as poor writing. I can't recall any time where I've wanted to actually stop watching something part way through, especially if it's a show that I otherwise like.

As for your dislike of the "well-meaning person piles failure upon failure" trope, is this attitude going to show itself through Lee Stebbins in some way?