Halfblood

Whaaaaaaaat. I LOVED this episode. I maybe a little biased, as AJ is my favorite pony, but c'mon! This episode emphasized AJ's devotion and love of her family, to a point where her plans start to become detrimental! She just that devoted! I've literally waited years for an Applejack song. I loved it . Some have been saying that the lyrics are too simple and boring; no song featured in the show has had any lyrics with super-deep meaning and or intricate writing. They're supposed to be simple, catchy, and serve to get a positive message across, which I believe this song did quite nicely. Seeing all the Apples sing and work together really shows how deep a family's bond goes, especially one such as the Apples! So good. Too good. I love this episode man. Love it so hard.

I liked this episode. Not bad, but not extremely good, just ok, and I like that. Don't get me wrong; there's plenty of things that I though were pretty cool in this episode. First and foremost, I love the Wonderbolt Academy itself. I like the boot camp feel of it, and all the disciplinary aspects of it too. Also, I enjoyed seeing familiar background pegasi like Thunderlane, Snowball, and Cloud Chaser. And Spitfire; I think her portrayal as a Wonderbolt drill instructor was rather nice, suits her well. Pinkie Pie was her usual self, no surprises there, lol. Rainbow Dash, I believe, has shown that she has come a long way since the first season. She's still can be brash and competitive, but (in this season in particular) we have seen her compassionate side (with Scoots last episode), and we have seen her courage reiterated in this episode. Dash, displeased with her partner's methods of completing the exercises, speaks her mind to Spitfire (one of her idols) and proceeds to quit the academy. She willingly quits something that was her dream from the get go, in favor of her admirable morals. That took guts. It all worked out for RD in the end, so that's good. And then there's Lightning Dust. All I can really say is that she was a necessary foil to Dash in this episode. While they shared the same drive and competitiveness, Dust had a clear disregard of the other cadets and only thought of the success of herself, whereas Dashie saw her recklessness being 'rewarded', and wanted nothing to do with it. So yeah. Good character development for Rainbow Dash in this. Always nice to see.

To be honest, I'm almost certain that her family situation is never going to mentioned within the show, just subtly implied that Scoots doesn't have any parental figures in her life/ is an orphan (or just left to the wild, nebulus imagination of the fandom). But, she has RD now! It's almost the same exact scenario with Applejack and Apple Bloom, whose parents' whereabouts have yet to be discussed canonically. I recall Lauren Faust stating somewhere in some obscure interview, while on the subject of the Apple parents, that she always intended AJ and Bloom to be parent-less as the result of some vague tragedy. Like I said, for a kid's show (face it, that's what MLP:FiM is always gonna be at face value) death and child abandonment is such a real and serious subject that it will never see itself mentioned in broad daylight. But I digress. I guess what I am saying is that a majority of the "smaller details" concerning our beloved ponies is pretty much left up to the imagination of the fans.

Oh man, this episode. All my feels. I'm really glad Scootaloo finally got her own episode, and I know I'm not the only one. Throughout the episode, I felt really bad for 'ol Scoots, simply because it was implied that she really doesn't have any relatives. And when Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle bring their older sisters along for the camping trip, knowing Scootaloo didn't have an older sister to share this quality time with, I really felt for her character. I think, in a sense, this episode has showcased Scootaloo as being a very strong individual (albeit a bit depressing too), being able to face her fears and essentially being "on her own", up until RD took her under her wing. Which, by the way, I believe is a subtle way in saying that Dashie is the closest thing to a legal guardian for Scootaloo. Also, I am happy for the role Luna played in the episode. I like to think it's one of her duties as the Princess of the Night to enter troubled fillies' and colts' nightmares and help guide them into facing their fears. It's a very endearing job worthy for Luna, and really adds some benevolence to her character, which lacked in earlier appearances of her. All-n-all, fantastic episode. tl;dr - Scoots is best filly.

I 100% agree. I was actually expecting them to break out the 'ol EoH on Trixie. But, once again, I have been delightfully surprised by the writing for this show.