Bhending the Rules

I really wish I could be around the forums during the weekend, when most of these episode discussions are going on. As it stands, I spend my weekends either working or sleeping and can never get here to check out the forum reaction and chime in until Monday morning. Pity.

I'll have more to say in video form soon, but I'll say this much now: this is an awesome episode, and I'm glad the fandom agrees with me for the first time in several weeks, because this is likely going down as one of my favorites of the series.

It wasn't the greatest episode ever but this season so far except for the premier has been full of meh episodes and one really horrible episode that everyone likes for some reason (Tanks for the Memories). I did like it though, Troubleshoes actually being a world class klutz instead of a dangerous criminal was a rather interesting twist. The CMC convincing him to be a rodeo clown was well intended enough though the question is what is he going to do when he is off the clock?

 

I doubt the townspeople are going to find it so funny when he ends up accidentally destroying things then. The more I think about it though the more I think that him and Derpy would be adorable together, and of course there maybe should be another episode down the line where he learns to control his inner klutz a bit better to where he is able to keep it on stage.Also one other purpose that rodeo clowns serve that this episode forgot to mention was to distract out of control animals such as bulls for example when they got out of control so that injured or incapacitated rodeo cowboys could be safely taken out of the situation and get any needed medical attention. Troubleshoes rescuing a performer in trouble would have been a great way for to him to earn the respect of the town and would make a great fanfic or possibly episode actually.

I'm as confused as you are about the reaction to Tanks for the Memories. And I probably always will be. XD

Appleoosa's Most Wanted isn't going to go down as one of the best episodes by any means, but it was a welcome return to form. 

Yeah, that's the thing - despite some other forum members' suggestions that I should "turn my brain off" and just enjoy the show, I don't feel like I could just "turn by brain off" when watching the show, even if I wanted to, which I don't, really.

It's good that you don't do that. Your brain controls the respiratory and cardiovascular functions vital to sustaining life. You would die.

Before anyone jumps in to say that that's not what "turn your brain off" means... I know. I'm giving that suggestion the dismissal it (imo, of course) deserves.

I gotta say, to me, at least in Rainbow Falls; Rainbow Dash faking an injury to avoid making an extremely tough and potentially life-changing decision seemed a lot more plausible and believable than Dash concocting a bizarre plan, practically going insane by triggering winter early, blatantly ignoring the implications it could have on Equestria and its citizens. It was dangerous, delusional and incredibly selfish.

 

It was pure and utter desperation, brought on by her apparent devastating attachment issues and/or depression. I feel bad for her for that, and I feel the pain through her emotions, but her plan was just so completely implausible and nonsensical. To what extent could her emotions cloud her judgement? Was it really enough to cause her to sabotage the natural seasonal cycle? That's the question the viewer has to answer for themselves.

This is the part that really bothers me... she DOESN'T ignore the consequences of her actions. She isn't being irrational, or acting rashly or thoughtlessly, or acting only on emotion, as others here have asserted. If she was, I probably still wouldn't like the episode, but I could at least accept it. But she's not. She quite clearly has thought this through, and knows that what she's doing is wrong. The episode isn't even ambiguous on this point, as Dash spells that out in the song. And yet for some reason, even knowing that, she goes through with her harebrained scheme anyway. She knows about the destructive potential of her actions, and she doesn't care.

At that point, Rainbow Dash loses any and all sympathy I might have had for her. Those are the actions of a villain, straight up. If I watched this episode and didn't already know Dash was a protagonist of the series, I would have assumed she was a villain. And when I can't sympathize with her situation and actions, the emotional connection that is essential to the episode's resolution is... dang, I can't even call it broken. It's pretty much just missing.

**For those of you throwing this ad hominem around, I'm not one of those people who legitimately feels making Fluttershy cry is inherently a bad thing just because she's Fluttershy. I'll play along with that line of thinking, because it's fun. But it's all based on context. 

It saddens me somewhat that anyone should feel the need to make that particular clarification. Making someone cry is just generally a not cool thing to do.

On a tangentially related note, so is virtually everything that Rainbow does in this episode. 

It kind of makes me happy to see that a lot of people on this discussion thread were able to enjoy this episode. I've been trying to come up with something nice to say about it, and for now that will have to do. It's all I've got.

I'll probably have more to say about this in some form later on, but right now I'm just stunned. I thought for the longest time that Rainbow Dash would never be the focus of an episode worse than Mare Do Well, but today it became necessary for me to revise that assumption. Even though I could tell which parts were aiming to be funny/emotional, most of the time I had to try really hard to not cringe. Just... wow. I am absolutely shocked.

I was personally ostracized by my entire school from Elementary to the beginning of High School. I won't go into too many details, but let me make it clear that I know what bullies are, and I know what they can do.

 

It's your own personal opinion how you feel about the subject, and I wouldn't take that from you. But there are opinions different than yours, and I find it entirely possible to like a character, and not condone their actions in the slightest. Which is why I can say Diamond Tiara is my favorite character, even though, like you, I hate bullying (with a fiery passion).

 

Anyways, i'm not mad at you guys, but I don't feel this conversation is going anywhere productive (to this thread), and i'm not sure either of you want to continue this. If you do, you can always PM me, but if not, I think we can agree we've de-railed this conversation long enough...

Just so I'm clear, Diamond Tiara is one of my least favorite characters in the show, but I certainly don't "hate" her in the same way that I hate what her actions (sometimes) represent, or that I would hate a real person who acts like she does. She's just a fictional character, and a cartoon one at that in every sense of the word.

And like someone else said, the god of chaos reformed. Well, more like "moved from Chaotic Evil to Chaotic Neutral". So she might come around at some point. Who knows?

I don't think I've ever really hated a character (save King Sombra, but I think everyone hated him for poor development lol), but I did not like the Mane six minus Pinkie Pie in the way they treated Maud Pie. I felt they were being a little selfish, personally.

I was right there with them, because Maud was SUCH A KILLJOY. For a while, it felt like the lesson of the episode was going to be that not everyone can be friends (a worthwhile and important lesson that we all have to learn at some point), but unfortunately the episode copped out and came up with a solution that doesn't. Work. At. All.

Regardless, it's not selfish to not want to be around someone that you don't enjoy being around. That's normal and perfectly reasonable. It would be selfish for someone to insist that someone who doesn't enjoy their company set aside time for them to be around. Which, to be fair, Maud doesn't do. Twilight's the one who ultimately solves the problem. But still.

Brad. Lack of backstory, used only and solely as a plot device and unites multiple cliches and stereotypes in a show I fell in love with for challenging them. Also, his rise to become a princesses personal guard and another's "love interest" is way too fast for any decent character, and even novice writers will see the Gary Stu under him.

I loved Rainbow Rocks, with the exception of Flash/Brad. I really wish they would have actually given him a reason to be in the movie and made him a good character, but... no dice. Hopefully they do something interesting with him at some point.

Jeez, that's harsh.  Not saying you're wrong about any of the facts(except maybe Silver Spoon), necessarily, but... yeesh.

It can only be considered harsh until you've dealt with someone like Diamond Tiara. That scene from "Flight to the Finish" spoke to me in a very personal way (it's my favorite episode of season 4), because I got the DT Treatment as a kid and for very similar reasons. (Let's just say my right arm is a little... short.)

I've heard stories of people being driven into crippling depression and/or suicide by people acting like that. I wasn't, but that isn't stopping me from being angry for those who were.

Eventually most of the little brats who engage in that sort of behavior grow the buck up and realize what a cruel moron they were being, but some of them don't. They deserve nothing but contempt.

Gotta say, I'm kinda surprised to see Luna haters come out for a topic like this. But here they are. The only response that deserves is as follows:

The OP specifies that the question is for the Mane Six, and my answer would just be no. They're only hateable if you're choosing to ignore certain aspects of their character. For every negative quality each of the Mane Six has, they have about a half dozen positive ones. And the negative ones are only focused on because we need to have a Problem of the Week for them to solve.

As far as the minor characters go, I'll echo most of the sentiments I'm seeing here, but I will say I think Silver Spoon should be cut just a little bit of slack. It seems pretty obvious to me that Diamond Tiara is the leader of that duo and SS is the follower. I have a feeling there might be more to her character that we haven't seen yet, which is something I can't say for Diamond Tiara.

Hope Rarity gets at least one episode this season, doubt it will happen though. Lets see how much they butcher her this year and prepare for the hatestorm that will sweep over the fanclub soon.

Well, THAT pessimism escalated quickly. XD

The Mane Six are all going to get their own episodes. Probably more than one. That's how it's always been in 26 episode seasons, and I see little reason to believe this one will be any different in that regard.

I liked this, I liked this a lot.  This season's already got a very fresh feel to it; the writer's are exploring the philosophy behind some of the magic in Equestria, namely the magic of friendship, we've got a season-spanning villain for the very first time (and a normal pony, no less, albeit a very powerful unicorn), and already some new background ponies have been brought to the fore of things.  I'll have a full review of the season premiere up in a little while, but right now, suffice it to say that I am very optimistic about this season's potential and direction.  Ya done good, DHX, ya done good. 

 

My first impression is a bit more mixed on the episode itself, but I agree it could be setting up something very interesting. I'll watch it again before posting my full thoughts and voting in the poll here, but we may very well need to wait and see how the whole season unfolds before we can fairly judge this episode.

Uh, yeah... Starlight? Twi stared down Tirek when he had the power of LITERALLY EVERY PONY IN THE WORLD PLUS DISCORD.

You are out of your league. By a magnitude too large for words. XD

They even ruined muffins... MUFFINS!!!!!!!!! 

I'm sure Goku from DBZ Abridged is just as livid as you are. XD

More like EVIL DEMON SPAWN!!! 

I WAS thinking something else, for the record, but this board is PG.

Forcing Fluttershy to out the ones who mentioned the vault... that clever little devil...

I'll be honest, I really don't like what I saw out of the first half. Maybe it gets better in the second half, though. I'll write about it at length later.

I'll be looking forward to seeing that. I'll probably do the same.

Solid first episode. Hopefully part 2 sticks the landing...

So, in the game Munchkin, there's a card that lets you thwap a cultist upside the head and make them not be a cultist. That might come in handy in this village.

Why hello there, season 5 villain #1.

Personally, I'd be back in Ponyville arguing hoofball stats with Spike and Big Mac. 

Hype train? I AM THE HYPE!!!

Down to less than 20 minutes now. And all I have to say is, 

I know I posted this  awhile ago but look the smile on Rainbows face  

 

 

 

 

 

Ah, yes. Dashie, like Rarity, knows one of life's universal truths.

I can imagine!    How's the packaging on those?  Random question, I know, but one way I often measure in my head the quality of a DVD or Blu-Ray package is how nicely it's put together, especially for something like an ongoing movie or television series.  I'm interested also to hear if Hasbro, uh, "ponied up", so to speak (HA, GET IT???  ) for the DVD releases.

The pictures from the post above should give you a pretty good idea of how they look. I like the cover art. The packages themselves are pretty standard for TV show season collections. Nothing exceptional, but they do the job.

The only show I collect that really goes above and beyond in that regard is Doctor Who, though I'm sure there are probably others that I haven't discovered yet.

I agree that physical copies are nice, but unfortunately they're not always an option for all of us, at least in the near future.  I would've found a way to watch the episodes even if they'd left Netflix, but since my family has it it's been really nice and convenient for rewatching MLP.  In a perfect world I'd be able to get a physical copy of any media near and dear to my heart, but I'm just a grad student with a fixed budget who has to pick and choose when it comes to what I spend the extra cash I have for entertainment.  That usually goes to either video games (and the last new game I got was the rerelease of Halo for the Xbox One) or something Batman related.  Maybe someday I'll get physical copies of MLP, but right now, I'm happy with watching it on Netflix. 

Very true. The four seasons of MLP are all on Amazon, but right now they'd cost about $110 for all of them. I know all too well that not everyone has that kind of cash laying around. But for those that do, I'd say it's definitely worth it. It sure has been for me. 

*insert witty description here*

AJ be all like "Whatevs, I am SO LOADED right now". XD

I LOVE the BBC Sherlock. The whole cast is fantastic and all of the episodes are incredibly well-written and directed. The episodes are hour-plus, but they never feel that long and always leave me wanting more. That's one heckuva show. Oh, and it helps that the dialogue is amazing.

"I'm asking you if you've seen Isaac Whitney, and now you're showing me a knife. Is it a clue?"

"Go. Or I'll cut ya."

"Oh, not from there. Let me help. Now concentrate. Isaac. Whitney."

...

"Right. Are you concentrating yet?"

"You broke my arm!"

"No. I sprained it."

"It feels squishy. Is it supposed to feel squishy? Feel that!"

"Yeah, it's a sprain. I'm a doctor, I know how to sprain people. Now where is Isaac Whitney?"

XD