RainShadow

Not including season 4 yet my favorite episode is probably Magical Mystery Cure. I can't be entirely sure about my choice, but it's definitely one of my top 3, and it's the one that jumps out at me the most. So why do I like this episode so much? Overall, it was just so extremely enjoyable and emotional to watch. It tied together all of the seemingly separate and individual episodes in the past 3 seasons and gave them a purpose, and made the entire series before it feel more united and epic. Every episode, every lesson Twilight learned led up to this episode, and many were featured in it. Besides that, the musical aspect played a huge part for me. I love musicals, and this episode pulled off the musical formula so well, albeit in a much abbreviated timeframe. Each of the songs was different, and each drove the story forward. Without this being a musical, it wouldn't be possible to accomplish what it needed to in the timeframe. "I've Got To Find A Way" is still in my top 3 songs in the series. And I have to meantion Celestia's scene. This was one of the best and most emotional scenes and songs in the series, and was pulled off flawlessly. Heck, I think this scene alone made the episode for me. It was just so well done, and single-handedly tied the entire series together. There's a lot more I like about it, but these are the main things. This episode was a fantastic way to conclude one of the main story arcs in the series, and paved way for more in the future. I can watch this episode over and over and it doesn't get old. ... I haven't really thought about season 4's episodes yet, although I like a lot of them. However, Princess Twilight Sparkle may have topped Magical Mystery Cure for me. It was very, very well done. Haven't thought about it enough yet to make that official though!

Frankly I don't really care that they didn't really go into the subplot of why they broke up. I think it's pretty obvious why: as the school years went on, Sunset Shimmer became more power-hungry and mean, as shown in the photos of her receiving the crown every year. However, I do wish they utilized Flash's previous relationship with Sunset at least somewhat in the movie. It was just mentioned by Rarity and then nothing really came of it. I overall enjoyed Equestria Girls, but this was definitely one of its flaws.

Yeah-- definitely take the book with a grain of salt. It looks like it's just a prequel to the movie and not actually a novelization of it. Not to mention the writer of it has nothing to do really with the movies creative staff, so the quality of the writing really should be compared to the of the movies either. I'm going into this movie with no opinions positive or negative. I didn't want it, but it's here and I'll give it a chance. The first short was pretty good. Pre-judging the movie based in the right shorts that will be released would be more logical than judging it based on this. The shorts have some of the same staff that will be working on the movie.

I really enjoyed this short. I love shorts such as this which tell a story with no dialogue, and just through action. Of course, this is made all the more hilarious since it is Vinyl, and everyone is just waiting for her to speak. Like "dubstep"or not, that backing track here was very well-produced and fun to listen to, and Daniel Ingram proves once again that he can take on pretty much any genre of music. That's one of the more enjoyable things about the EQG universe--it allows them to experiment with some music that really would't fit into the Equestria universe that well. Direction, storyboard, and animation-wise, this clip really shined. Especially considering this is just a short. Director Ishi Rudell and storyboarder Carrie Mombourquette did a fantastic job creating scenes that matched the music so well, and really got you into the groove. Not to mention, this also marks the return of Cindy Morrow as writer, after taking an absence from season 4. Ishi is the director for "Rainbow Rocks," so I'm definitely interested to see what she will bring to the table for that. Add to that these eight shorts are supposed to be sort-of prologues to the movie, which will connect to it in some way, and it's peaked my interest. Overall, this short was simply fun to watch.

I really enjoyed this episode, and while some seem to have a problem with Haber's eps, I've rather enjoyed them all. The stinger was enjoyable and set up the future problem well. We get some insanely cute AJ and another interesting flashback into Granny Smith's past. We see how fond the memories Granny has of these times are, and how much she dislikes not having the courage to enter the water again. This makes it understandable when she buys the tonic later. Next, we get to Flim Flam's re-introduction. I've seen some people complain how suddenly they are now playing Conmen, when before their machine actually worked. But I argue they were still conmen in the "Cider" episode. Keep in mind, they are introducing a machine to the town which could make cider out of Apples, and the machine does work well. However, Flim and Flam don't actively work to grow quality apples, and obviously have no interest in doing so. So what do they do--they bring their equipment to towns with an Apple supply, whip the town into a frenzy about having limitless cider, and reap almost all of the profits. But those apples just don't come from anywhere, they have to be grown and cared for by the apple farmer. This apple farmer has to put a lot of time and money into growing these quality apples. So, they back the apple farmer, in this case the Apple family, into a corner by showing their customers how much more cider their machine can produce, force them into a contract where the farmer gets almost none of the profits, and then utilize their apples at an unsustainable rate. The apple grower can't keep up with the demand given that they are making almost no money, and go out-of-buisiness. The Flim Flam Bros use the rest of the apples, maximize their profits, and move onto the next town. So: The Flim Flam brothers sell a ton of cider and receive almost all of the profits with almost no expenses for growing the apples, and then they just move on to the next apple supply once the apple farmer can't support their farm anymore. The apple farmer can't do anything because they cannot run the machine themselves--it requires Flim Flam's magic. This is totally a con, and matches up with the con in "The Music Man," which this episode is a homage to, quite well. In conclusion, it makes sense that once their cider business was ruined by the Apple family, they'd move onto another con that required even less effort on their part. The song here is another fantastic one, and borrows just enough from the previous one. My favorite part of the song was definitely the lyrics. Take some time to listen to them, as they are some of the best of the show. I love the almost subtle threatening nature of the line "you might slip and fall, break or sprain something here tonight." However, its the little parts of the lyrics that let us, the viewer, know their true intent that I like. Such as the over-general (and hilarious) line: "luckily for you we've got that thing you need" or the following line "It's just what the doctor ordered...I'm sure." Plus, the fantastic rhyming and alliteration when the brothers are going through all of these different ailments. Haber and Ingram really did a fantastic job here with the lyrics. And yeah, citizens of Ponyville are whipped into a frenzy again by Flim and Flam, but you could argue that many of the people here weren't at the cider event before, as these are a different group of injured ponies we haven't seen in the show before (even if many are reused background characters). And yes, this kind of stuff happened in the past, and continues to happen IRL, so it happening in Ponyville isn't odd. Flim and Flam are just masters of words. Now, I want to jump to probably one of the more controversial topics from the episode: Applejack and how she is portrayed. Personally, I though this was one of the best Applejack episodes and one of her best portrayals in the series. AJ has the tendency to be the "pillar" of the Mane 6, acting as the level-headed voice of reason in many episodes. So it's always great to see one of her episodes where she struggles with something. And in this episode we see her struggle with something we haven't really seen her struggle with before: her element. That's what I've liked best about this season--the key episodes where we see each of the Mane 6's elements tested, with them learning about the negative consequences their element can sometime have, and in the end teaching their element to another pony as they learn something about it themselves. I love the concept. I don't know why people seem to be so up-in-arms about AJ struggling with honesty in this situation. Just because it's her element, doesn't mean she can't struggle with it and have further development with it sometimes. All of the other Mane 6 have struggled with their element at some point in the show's history. Rainbow Dash has had many episodes where she struggles with loyalty, Twilight has learned a ton about friendship and magic over the show's course (she didn't even want to make friends in the first episode), Fluttershy has had episodes where she was unkind, Pinkie had episodes like "Party of One", and one of Rarity's main faults is how self-centered she can sometimes be. In the end of these episodes, however, they always come back to their element and stand true to it. And this episode is no different. AJ's honesty is challenged, she struggles with it, and in the end her honest nature prevails. I think this was one of the most believable element struggles of the series too. I've seen a few people mention that they think AJ is out of character because she doesn't tell Granny the truth and that AJ always puts family first. I agree: one of the most, if not the most important thing to AJ is family. But that's exactly why she is having trouble with honesty here in the first place! Granny is happier than she has been in a while here, and it's all due to this sham tonic. Applejack is legitimately concerned, as shown at the end of the episode, that by telling Granny the tonic is fake, that she will suddenly lose the placebo effect that gave her this new confidence. Her concern for Granny's happiness is so great that it causes Applejack to not tell her, and the Ponyville citizens, the truth about the tonic. Of course, her lie (and I don't really think it was a lie, but more she was just withholding the truth) begins to spiral out-of-control, with the Flim Flam brothers smartly taking advantage of it. But Granny Smith is still extremely happy, and it's becoming contagious to the rest of the Apple Family. AJ is between a rock and a hard place. But when this placebo effect causes Granny Smith to have too much confidence in her abilities, AJ realizes that her dishonesty is actually going to wind up causing more harm than good, and her element prevails. This was a fantastic test of honesty, and a believable one. AJ learned the hard truth that sometimes honesty can hurt, especially those closest to you. But even lies with the best intentions can build up and have extremely negative consequences. This is an extremely good and relatable lesson for the audience. Yes, Granny trying to jump into an extremely small water pool is a little crazy, but she's done this before with a shallow pool (albeit a little bigger) as a young mare, so with this new-found over-confidence its not completely out there. Plus, between this and AJ's bungie rope--keep in mind this is a cartoon and follows cartoon rules and physics a lot of the time. Sometimes you have to remember that. Overall, this is probably Haber's strongest episode yet, and I personally feel he's written AJ very, very well in his three episodes so far. We got a song with some great lyrics, an enjoyable and relatable story, and an actual challenge for Applejack's honesty--and it only took until season 4! AJ best pony: confirmed.

The movie is complete. Done. Ready to be released. I'm sure season 4 is moving into animation phase now, if it hasn't already. Keep in mind also, it is way more than possible for the production of the movie to happen at the same time as season 4. DHX produces many, many animated series, and Top Draw does as well. While Meghan, Sibsy, and whoever else were writing/storyboarding/etc EQG, that was not stopping all of the other season 4 writers/crew from working on the new season. I think the longer delay for season 4 was potentially more likely due to waiting for Hasbro to okay another season, and less EQG. MLP had been strategically renewed for 65 animation-standard episodes early on, so work could start much earlier. The greenlight to continue past that threshhold into season 4 may have come later in the game than greenlights before, thus pushing production back. Not to mention, season 4 is back to being 26 episodes over 13 of season 3, leading to again a longer production time.

John, I believe, is just worried about a worst-case-scenario situation. And while I understand his points & concern, I think it's way to early in what we know to be leaning straight to worst-case, or straight to best-case for that matter, IMO.

Everything we've been told "officially" so far states that this will not affect the show, I guess take that for what you will. But I believe it will not. The whole plot that we know of so far is pretty one-shot and status-quo. Someone steal's Twilight's crown, she goes into another dimension to get it back, gets it back and returns to original universe. Crown back, status quo restored. Maybe a reference in the beginning of the season we can potentially ignore, but I don't see anything in the plot so far that would be cannon-shaking. Just the normal something stolen, got it back plot.

Let me quote a few things from that second link that lead me to believe none of it (some paraphrased since I can't copy/paste the text): A lot of the second post there is just obvious speculation based on solid evidence we know about--the "My Little Pony" 66 minute thing on Top Draw's website a while ago was EQG. No duh. What? This statement is so ridiculous I don't even know where to start... Thanks for clarifying, This is pretty much obviously implying that the Mane 6 all change into human form and need to go clothes shopping to fit their new bodies. The trailer and plot we know about completely proves this false. That statement sealed the deal for me not to believe these posts. Maybe it won't for you, but I find it very, very hard to believe that the actors, writers, directors, animators, etc. would not be trying to do their very best for this no matter what subject matter they were presented with. The rest of the posts are just mainly "holy crap it sucks, btw I work for Hasbro" posts that anyone could make... Edit: Accidentally a word

MLP-conservative. I have to say though: whether EQG is tolerable or terrible in the end, you should not automatically assume you will have to turn into an "old-school Brony." That's implying that all future non-EQG content will all-of-a-sudden be crap due to the movie, which I do not believe will happen. Maybe I'm just being one of those overly-optimistic people here , but I just do not see this movie having an adverse effect on all 26 episodes of season 4.

And that's all fine in dandy, IMO. People should be able to say "I do not like this; here's why based on what we've seen so far... etc. etc." But, don't go around saying people that disagree with you, or are at least waiting it out, are incorrect or in denial? That's absurd.

I'm actually more tempted to leave the fandom since this seems to come up with every freakin' episode and news update about the show.... Seriously though: I think, just like Princess Twilight and everything else before it, people will eventually get over it, move on, and either potentially enjoy or accept it. And no, if people decide to "leave the fandom" because of this, I do not care. I still love the show, might enjoy Equestria Girls (gotta at least give it a chance), and am looking forward to an awesome 26 episode season 4. And that's all that matters to me.