Dowlphin

This sounds so perverted, but describes what ails our society, especially since you brought the word depression into it. Actual depression is caused by a world that doesn't care about people's feelings when people see neither fight nor flight as a feasible option to deal with that. Look at how much depression occurs in various societies and then look at their typical traits. More fear, more spreading of emotional misery. Aggression is fueled by fear. It is a short-term workaround, not a solution. It comes at a price. The episode was maybe a bit too clichée to convey that clearly, but I would think that by now the show itself should really have made people learn those basics. Amazing how much people can still compartmentalize. The mind always tries to control, including what it cannot, and when it has grabbed a hold of everything, it wonders why it's still missing something. "Love is peaceful. ... The horror!" Thank God we still have some shows that nourish love. But people are tempted to turn them into just another show, more 'adjusted' to the status quo.

Now would you look at that! Regal brothers re-united!

Interesting. First Thorax episode two eps ago and this one has a similar approach: Mess things up and that fixes the problem. Actually not that rare, actually, if you think about it. Starlight and Trixie themselves weren't the friendship problem this time as severely as Spike. But it was close. But more or less many episodes follow this pattern. When does the first attempt at solving the problem ever succeed? Exceptions from that are a delight to me. Magical Mystery Cure comes to mind. I am so glad they didn't have more time to drag that out. Pretty early it was obvious to me the way to help Pharynx was to give him purpose again. There's a reason he was the only one preserving the old way. A pendulum that swung to the other side needed to come to the middle. No one left behind, so to speak. Beautiful role reversal writing: Thorax used to be in a very similar situation as Pharynx was now. Also, in how in the end Pharynx transformed, this episode expressed a very profound spiritual lesson: From acceptance comes change. P.S.: I'll never get used to ponies walking on three legs while talking with their hoof. The animators should really focus on making them more expressive in other ways if they feel it necessary. It's mindbuck to me every time. Something I'd expect to see in a YTP video and laugh. P.P.S.: Maulwurf - German word for mole. Nice easy pun for a mauling menace.

Will take her a while to be confident.

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At first I was: Camping again?! But then it developed nicely. This was an episode where you can enjoy the foreign culture themes, and I personally especially enjoyed the Asian one; The music made me melancholic about WoW Mists of Pandaria. I feel drawn to that style. That also gave me the thought that if you want to fully appreciate the work that background musicians do (i.e. everybody except Daniel Ingram, heh), you have to watch an episode like this in 5.1 audio and then mute the center speaker. When Dashie got stung hard, I was thinking: OK, how many seconds before it will fully reset? And as we know our animators, her face was perfectly fine only moments later. It's not a big thing, but my activity in Star Citizen lately involuntarily made me think "Better immersion please!" Had no other thoughts about this episode worth writing about, at least at this point. But I can hardly go for prolonged times without a pun, so here is one, heh... Light-version of saving the day. Daylight saving if you will. P.S.: Somehow I very often find myself wanting to rate an episode 3.5, but the poll only allows 3 or 4, neither being an accurate choice, heh.

That's what one can expect from the manestream media. ;-)

I wrote a blog entry about something that just happened in another fan community that reminded me so much of this recent episode:

Great potential for chaos comes to mind, heh.

Has nothing to do with "opposites attract", if you recall how, or more importantly why, Fluttershy and Discord became friends. And in this episode specifically it was not a particular attraction due to opposites, but just that Fluttershy expects Discord to do things his way, to be authentic, and a bit of change every now and then is always nice.

"There's such thing as being too honest, too" - AJ

Wouldn't that have been too formulaic? ;-) I think it was a bit of a surprise twist and an important message. You cannot always expect to change the whole world and your influence can be very relative. There are influences that are overwhelming for anyone and then it might be wise to just take a step back and focus on the positive energy instead. It's an episode conclusion one can meditate on and I find it beautiful. - Also, they hinted that of course they will deal with the situation - just later, after taking a breather. And we can all imagine how that might go from earlier episodes, so we don't need to see it.

Because they're usually following a formula. And although the beginning gave tons away, I still found this episode to develop well towards the end.

We could explain Spike's deviation from his usual character with the fact he's personally affected in this situation. It's easy (and important) to be the calm and composed friend in a stressful situation, so now we know that Spike and Twilight are like so many of us: We give advice but sometimes need others to remind us of it. Good relationship where when one is weak, the other is strong, and vice versa. As for the Changeling "pack", it's explained in the context. They are are group who still resists serving love. They're probably roaming about. Thus, pack. (Or was it in relation to the converted ones? In any case, it makes sense to no longer call themselves a hive since they're no longer serving a queen.)

To make things even more cryptic but with puns, you could express dislike by using the term "Dannie Dorko episode".

That's not meta. We see them just as differently as they see themselves. It's just Ember that has a different perception. Very different from ours. So there's nothing seemingly hidden to point out. I never thought they look similar. (Would also cause problems since ponies have few distinguishing elements due to the show's visual style. So every detail becomes a lot more relevant and present.)

What's even more amazing is that among all the things fans do with their OCs, different mane and tail colors is something I have never seen. (Also haven't seen styling mix yet, AFAIR, neither in show or fandom.) What does universe/dimension/reality entanglement have to do with Schrödinger's Cat?

OK, let's see. A secretly-entertaining-two-guests story. Not sure whether we had that before. Watching it didn't leave me with enough energy to investigate. The problem became visible quite soon, too. In such episodes that can be difficult to watch because so formulaic, especially for a season 7 ep, the little things provide the contrast. Spike exclaiming: "Fighting! Yes!" was very funny, and also Twilight's extreme portrayal towards Ember, or the reaction to the claim she is so much like Starlight. I just personally don't enjoy this story archetype easily. It did advance the character stories though, so that became the main driving purpose. I found it personally disappointing that Ponyville folk is scared of pink fire breath. I mean, seriously, how much nicer can you make a searing wave of air? Sneezing cotton candy? ... OH HEYYYY! IDEA! What I found really good stuff was how Muffin Murderer - I mean Ember - had difficulty telling Twilight and Starlight apart. Might seem absurd to us, but it happens in interspecies relations or even interracial. One is being used to facial features and general appearance of one's own kind and less used to distinguishing detail of others. That might have been hinted at here. Ember has a different perception, calibrated to dragons. Although execution in detail would then leave some questions, since Ember remarks how colorful everything is in Ponyville, indicating that she does have good color perception. Hm, maybe she just has trouble distinguishing different hues of purple. Hmmmm, but Twilight has wings and Starlight hasn't. OK, forget all that, I think she just has an attention deficit. The coffee cup scene and possibly others before in the show indicate that the sun is traveling across the sky, really making me wonder why Celestia has to raise it in the morning if it's moving on its own anyway. I think this is just inconsistency and I find it a bit sad when Equestria is assimilated too much to our world's ways instead of celebrating the differences. (Twilight or Pinkie eating flowers seemed a rare case from long time ago underlining their... ponyness? Equinity? ) The charge scene between Ember and Thorax was so ridiculously time-warped that it has to be called a parody, but it didn't quite click with me. Probably reminded me too much of Naruto, LOL. In essence, the topic of this episode was, again, severe neurosis. Don't we love our neurotic Equestrians? (Must be something in the water, considering Ember and Thorax acted refreshingly natural.) But it also showed how focus on positive outcomes can help with that. The whole complex of lessons that emerged is beautiful though because in order to solve the friendship problem, Spike was prompted to change himself. He experienced the cause first-hand, him being the problem. So the message is that we create a better world by bettering ourselves and that being a teacher also means being a student. And then Ember and Thorax help each other solve their problems, so this episode towards the end severely gained 'meaty bits'. Spike then learned, which should relate him to Discord, that sometimes you can be a more passive influence, less controlling, just a catalyst for bringing about the solution through crisis. Problems are teachers and people can assume that role. That's OK, too. ... As long as you don't make it your purpose in life, right?

Many report getting emotional like that over this episode, while I myself was unphased. But other episodes touch me. It depends a lot on the episode but not too many are that remarkable. Will also depend on relatability and your general state of mind. Sounds like you haven't watched many episodes, so I won't write spoilers of certain examples, and I suggest to just start from the beginning of the show. But sometimes just thinking of some character or something related to the show gives me tears of joy, and sometimes thinking of Pinkie Pie can make me so happy I just laugh. (I am really susceptible to her energy. You might have noticed. )

She's a guitar singer character. In the Witcher universe there's a bard with the artist name "Dandelion" who in the original Polish version is called "Jaskier", which means Buttercup. P.S.: You don't want to hear his real name, haha.

@ImpctR Yeah, there definitely were some extremes and distortions. Not just the "friendship is forever" unless that was meant in an idealistic way, but also the outright glorification of character flaws. Those are not like some powerful glue that created relationships, but they are challenges that strong characters can deal with in order to dig up the gold, so to speak. Flaws don't make a character strong, but a strong character becomes accepting of flaws (including own), and acceptance is a precondition for actually changing someone for the better. Acceptance comes from empathy and understanding, and understanding can come from own suffering or from being influenced by the stories of suffering of other strong characters in your social environment.