Hello_Goodbye

Apparentaly, you seem to only hold your own opinion as valid, while tending to disregarding others. Also, believe me; if I could find a more comprehensive poll I would have linked to that. Having said that, Spike at your Service obtained 3 votes out of 876, if you count Crystal Empire as one episode, under normality it should have obtained somewhere around 73 (around 67 if you count Crystal Empire as two), with that kind of sample size you have definitely achieved normality and that kind of variation is strongly significant. Also, there is no 'y' in business.

I'm just going to leave this here and be done with it: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1nhbKtYaxRZozzITbcL7TYkG5EDp7wCtU6kkieYThieI/viewanalytics This is a poll that was run on fimfiction shortly after season 3 finished, asking people for their favorite episodes of each season. Concerning season 3, the three episodes I mentioned were the least liked (Spike at your Service comes in at 0.35% of the vote). If you ever want to read some reviews that are well made and go through the good/bad things the episodes had and try to understand why they could be disliked, I'm going to point you to Dark Qiviut reviews: http://mlpforums.com/blog/91/entry-2256-spike-at-your-service-reviewanalysis/ http://mlpforums.com/blog/91/entry-2817-just-for-sidekicks-reviewanalysis/

I don't think we should get into a long discussion about individual episodes here, and they had their good points and I can see why you might enjoy them. However, can you see how having Spike be so OOC in both his episodes and how Games Ponies Play seemed to stretch on and on might cause people not to enjoy them? The important thing isn't so much whether you liked an episode or not, but if you can see why people might have opinions that are different to yours.

I don't really think that's a fair statement, some of the episodes leading up to the final were also of, shall we say, questionably quality (Spike at your Service, Games Ponies Play, Just for Sidekicks quickly come to mind). The fact that all these episodes were aired closely together may have had something to do with the perception of quality and the reaction to the finale.

I'm not really seeing her growth in season 3, I went through all the episodes and came up with this: The Crystal Empire – Says friends can't help becuase Celestia says so, Spike only comes along at his own insistence (and Twilight would have failed without Spike). Allegedly learns self-sacrifice. Too Many Pinkie Pies – Fair enough, Twlight doesn’t freak out, closes entrance to Mirror Lake with a rock and calls the problem solved. One Bad Apple – N/A Magic Duel – After initially losing, her solution is to try to improve her spell-casting but doesn't seem to succeed, defeats Trixie in rematch by following Zecora’s advice. Sleepless in Ponyville – N/A Wonderbolts Academy – N/A Apple Family Reunion – N/A Spike at your Service – Spots a Timberwolf, run aways, leaves friends behind. Keep Calm and Flutter on – Doesn’t believe Fluttershy can reform Discord, wants her to go back on her promise to not use her element. Just for Sidekicks – N/A Games Ponies Play – I guess N/A? Can’t really think of anything important here. Magical Mystery Cure – Her spell makes her friends miserable, gives up and goes home, only does something about it when Spike gives her motivation.

You shouldn't use a sledgehammer to crack a nut, if the only way they could think of giving Twilight character advancement was to turn her into a princess, I worry that they are either running out of ideas or just don't care that much anymore.

I don't think this has been pointed out (if I has I apologize), but one thing that bothers me is the following. Becoming a Princess in Equestria is apparently very difficult, as Celestia said, it hasn't happened in over 1,000 years. However, Twilight achieves this before any of her friends achieve their 'goals' or 'destinies', which seems very odd. As an example, Rainbow Dash has worked to become a Wonderbolt for, at least, a good part of her life, Twilight has (consciously) worked to become a Princess for none of her life, however she achieves her 'destiny' before Dash. This leads me to one of two conclusions: -Becoming a Princess is actually easier than becoming a Wonderbolt. -Twilight is just that much better at life than Rainbow. Since the first is disproved in-show, that only leaves the second, which I find quite depressing.