SilverStarApple

There's no easy way to say this, but that episode was absolutely, completely and utterly dreadful. It was utterly awful, and a strong contender for the worst episode of this entire show. At least Boast Busters TRIED to do something somewhat original, even if it failed utterly. At least Bost Busters attempted do be something more than shameless and shallow pandering. This episode? It rips off the "Classic" (Overused) plot where two idiots give up something they love to get something to complement the thing the other would love, like giving up a pocketwatch to get a violin bow, while your GF gives up her violin and crappy bow to get a pocketwatch chain. In the end, both lost what they loved and are miserable. The moral of this story? Gifts suck. Now, there is a list of ponies in this show that need to learn some friendship. To learn what gifts are and how they work. To learn how to be a good sister. Pinkie Pie IS NOT ON THIS LIST! If there was a single pony, or any sentient creature ANYWHERE ON THE PLANET EQUESTRIA IS ON that knows how gifts work, it would be her! But of course, if you (Or rather, the writers) knew that, or bothered to read the notes the past writers left them, they wouldn't have shoehorned this stupid side-plot into a Rarity episode and made it the real plot, while shoving Rarity's Location Hunt into the dirt. A scenario like that has tons of comedy potential, IRL apartment-hunting references, and of course, the obligatory "Nowhere is perfect and everywhere is terrible. But if you work hard, you can make your own perfect patch of heaven!" message. Instead, Rarity was forced onto this plot so ridiculously cliched I remember The House Of Mouse doing this plot with Mickey and Minnie Mouse as part of a clip-show Christmas Special thing. And to wrap up loose ends, Rarity was just handed the perfect location and the fallout of the Terrible Gifts Plot is negated when Maud gets Pinkie's party cannon back. Why does this stupid episode exist? Why does it feel like it was thrown together at the last second? Because it was, and for one reason. Maud. The favourite character of everyone that likes bland one-note kuuderes with Robot-Type Hollywood Autism, happily projecting onto the blank slate whatever that loser loves most of all, whether it's "She's super calm and would say 'I do' on the altar with the same flat voice she'd use to say 'We're out of milk. You should go get some'." or "She only shows her true emotions and sensitive side around those she truly cares about. Like me, because she'd totally love me if she was real, right? Right? My personality can't be incompatible with hers if she doesn't have one!". This episode was thrown together because the executives wanted the Maud fanboys to cheer and love the new episode and eat it up despite its factory-synthesised no-effort no-logic no-work no-passion no-inspiration nature. And those fanboys did cheer. So many pointless scenes only existed to show Maud in all her Maudiness, with no world-building to explain why major cities in this world suck almost as much as human cities and only small villages have love and friendship. I remember people saying the show went downhill and jumped the shark when Alicorn Twilight was introduced, or when Episode 100 was released, or when executives forced toy sales to take priority over the show and the vision its creators had. But no. THIS is when the show went downhill like a brick falling from a window and badly damaging my faith in MLPFIM as a whole. This episode was only created to appease the Maud fanboys, and it has no substance or worth beyond that. I'm going to watch the Dragon episode now, even though it's probably going to invalidate the Dragon Ash arc I'd planned for my fanfic. And do you know what? I don't really care about that. I just hope the episode's good enough to restore my faith in MLP.

Who are those last few, besides Princess Flurry Heart? Also, you forgot Erroria.

It's possible that she may have a problem. And also the ability to have Spike mine rare gems for free and transport them back to her home, where she can sew them into gem-coated outfits and sell them to rich idiots. All that money at little to no cost would likely add up very quickly.

You can still show your soldiers as competent without needing to get them dunked upon by every villain ever just to make your heroes look competent. These redshirts only seem to exist to be Worfed, and it's never impressive because we know it's coming.

Obviously. I was asking for in-universe explanations, a simple "It needs to be that way because of the writing" is boring. Eeyup. It's not really an anarchy, more of a- Oh. You said it first. Yes, the cities having autonomy isn't anarchy. Celestia and the others rule over Canterlot and the country as a whole, but each town has its own people who rule the place and take responsibility for its day to day decisions. If there's a drought in city Z, that place's ruler gets yelled at, or has a duty to yell at whoever's fault it is, not Celestia. As for militias, seraphs (My browser refuses to accept Cowboy Town Boss as a real word), and other heroes, that's due to Equestria lacking the unnecessary laws forbidding heroism that only exist to make the police the final judge and only controllers of justice, and make them look good because there's nothing to compare them to. We see them getting rekt in the battle. The actual effective fighters are all protagonists and minor characters. I want to say no to this, because this show isn't usually the type to stick a weak male sidekick on a cool female character to make her seem cooler in comparison or whatever. Then again, remember Brotherhooves Social, when Rainbow Dash said to Big Mac "I won't take it easy on you just because you're a stallion"... are males discriminated against in Equestria even more than they are in this world? Are female horses better/faster than males? Is it because herds IRL are often ruled by mares and the matriarchy is strong there? Or does Rainbow Dash just have a subtle female>male prejudice when it comes to physical stuff, due to being a Pegasus and how often the stupid "Females are faster, lighter, and more agile in the air, while males are stronger, have bigger wings, and can fly longer and break through stuff in the air without needing to be zipping around at top speed to do so" thing that keeps showing up in fanfics? Yeah, that makes sense. I know a few people online in the military, and it's more "Do what your boss says and nothing more. Yes, even if you think you can secure the objective better than what your glory-hound idiot boss tells you to do. This is Advance Wars and you are his Infantry, if you move without him telling you to move you will be deleted and replaced with another one".

The royal guards suck, and lose every battle they're in in canon. They canonically lost the capital of the country WHILE ON HIGH ALERT in under an hour, and only won thanks to a Deus Ex Machina boom from Shining Armour and Cadence. And in the War Equestrias, we don't see any canonical royal guards from this world. Ever. Except in the sombra war world, where they're in non-combat military police roles and the real fighters are the protagonists. So... why do the royal guard suck major eggs?

They're either going to make her a vehicle for generic adorable moments, a hollow shell filled with nothing but burbling and being petted... A thing to be kidnapped by Chrysalis, A superpowerful laser-blasting baby, a generic machine of destruction that destroys stuff and is generally a metaphor for how much of a life-changing life-disrupting event giving birth is, Or they'll slowly have her fade into the background while providing a reason why her equally merchandise-driven parents do the same.

Yeah, it has. Also, you're not the only one that'd like seeing Giraffes. I bet they'd be cool. I just hope they don't go the Deer route, Deers suck.