RagingTwilight

Only thing we can do at this point is submit this 'rumor' to people actually involved with the show, or even Hasbro itself and ask for a response. Only they can tell us whether it's a hoax or not. It is Reddit, so I'm inclined to believe it's a hoax. Either way, the idle speculation I've seen concerning this rumor isn't helpful, instead throwing gasoline onto the fire. We all love this show and seeing posts like this will get any of us jumpy.

As soon as I saw the name "Corey Powell" appear, I started to worry just a bit about this episode. Not only for the episode, but for the writer herself. If this episode is a good one, she will be showered with praises by the fandom. If, however, it is not, she and her work will be scrutinized to exhaustion, as another episode writer's work from last season was. Now that it's over though, those worries were once again misplaced. There were a couple of things that I didn't care for, such as Sweetie Belle's off-key singing (I thought it was established that she could sing well) and Rarity being stuck up again. However, these things were not enough to keep me from enjoying the episode. To start off with, I loved the idea of the camping trip - especially that it involved the sisters. For me, this kinda foreshadowed that Rainbow Dash would become a sister of sorts to Scootaloo. And then, a callback to one of the previous episodes (I love these) and the first ghost story is told. Scootaloo tries to act tough, pretending she isn't scared and is in fact so scared she can't sleep. The nightmare scene was fantastic, frightening and full of intrigue (I think I saw a certain princess of the night in the woods.) Scootaloo tries the play tough and pretend everything is all right, which slowly starts to become more apparent to the other campers as the episode progresses. And then when they find the cave and set up camp - the best part of the episode, in my opinion. Scootaloo falls asleep and in the midst of her nightmares, a certain princess of the night appears and reminds her that she has to face her fears. At first I didn't like Luna's new-found power, as I felt she didn't really belong in the episode, but now that the episode is over I can't help but be thrilled that Luna has now been given additional (and possibly unique) powers. Can Princess Celestia visit ponies in their dreams? Also, her role in the episode was quite clear. But perhaps the most heartwarming moment is when Rainbow Dash rescues, then confronts Scootaloo and Scootaloo finally admits she's been scared. She was simply trying too hard to impress Rainbow Dash from fear of being seen as a coward and uncool in Rainbow Dash's eyes. To see Rainbow Dash comfort Scootaloo and "literally" take her under her wing...almost brings tears to my eyes. But, the warm and fuzzies don't stop there. In the one before last scene where they all race off to the Rainbow Falls, we have Rarity finally deciding to have fun by enjoying a race with her sister, and, Scootaloo flying? Unfortunately no, but seeing Rainbow Dash lift her up tugged on my heartstrings a bit. All in all, another enjoyable episode. Corey Powell did a good job for her first episode, and I hope we will see more from her in the future. While this episode had its bad parts, the ending was fantastic and wonderful, completely nullifying all of the weaker parts.

I've never really considered the events of each episode to take place in the exact order they're shown anyway, so this hasn't really changed anything from my perspective. But, like many have noted, Twilight's lack of spell power is better explained now.

This is a personal opinion, but if I had to pinpoint one possible reason why Sombra is disliked is due to his lack of personality. Every other villain in the series has/had an established personality, complete with character flaws. (You can skip over this paragraph if you like, some posters have pointed this part out already.) Discord is a trickster who loves to troll make trouble and create chaos. Chrysalis is sinister, yet overconfident and quite vocal. Nightmare Moon's personality is a bit harder to describe, but we were provided with a backstory to work with. Other minor antagonists had noticeable personalities as well. Iron Will is a typical boorish workout guru doubling as a salesman. The teenage dragons spike pal'd around with for awhile were, well...teenagers. Trixie is a showboat and boastful. There's a couple more in there, but...you get the point. Now, to Sombra. We are provided a backstory on him. However, it isn't as extensive as Nightmare Moons (we know who she used to be, and that she got jealous of her sister for example.) King Sombra's story is vague, providing little information on his personality. Where does he come from? Why is he so obsessed with crystals? So, a vague backstory combined with few spoken dialogue leaves very little left that we can relate to. If you were asked to describe King Sombra without using his name, appearance, events in the episode, etc. how would you describe him? The only encapsulating word that comes to mind for me is: Evil. And I think that's all King Sombra was supposed to be; he's not a sophisticated character and should not be in my opinion. A Sauron-esque villain as several have already pointed out. And for the record, I think he served this role adequately. Perhaps expectations were too high for poor King Sombra. Unrealistic expectations are a common reason it seems for disliking things, and I think this is the case for Sombra. http://template93.deviantart.com/art/Old-villains-Dislike-King-Sombra-338335178 Yep. Poor King Sombra.

As excited as I was for this episode, I was also extremely nervous. After seeing the leaked screenshots and episode previews, I knew that this episode, if done improperly, could possibly turn people away from the show entirely. I was afraid that it was simply a 'fanservice' episode, with nothing but a ton of blatant brony fan references and nods central to the plot itself. Leading to the episodes, I noticed quite a few comments about how the show is simply pandering the the brony crowd now and that this season is the worst because of it. But then I watched the episode... This episode, while obviously rushed in a few areas (easily could have been a two-parter,) was still paced really well in my opinion. We're greeted with a darker scene where a cloaked Trixie acquired the Alicorn Amulet from an old antique dealer(?). While I would have liked more information on how he acquired the amulet himself, it is not really important to me. Also, I wonder if Trixie sought the Amulet's power simply to extract revenge on Twilight, or she was simply looking for a way to become a better magician and was corrupted to the point of revenge by the amulet? I tend to think the latter, as it seems that Trixie was very much under the influence of the amulet upon arriving in Ponyville. I'd say these open questions are for the fanon to decide. Now, the premise of the episode was quite obvious just from the synopsis: Trixie returns to Ponyville (for revenge, why else?), duels Twilight Sparkle and then Trixie defeats and banishes her from town. And here is where I was first impressed with the writing: when we think of 'duel,' we typically think of the ole' wild west duels where the goal was to kill your opponent. In the episode, however, we're treated instead to a duel full of comical spells. This really worked well with the overall tone of the show and it pleased me that M.A. Larson and the other staff members involved went in this direction instead of making Trixie and Twilight inflict direct harm on one another, even if it had been slapstick. If they had taken this approach, that would have been closer to possibly being fanservice! And so, about 5-7 minutes in (rough estimate), we have Twilight banished from Ponyville and Trixie is now self-appointed Generallisimo of Ponyville. Twilight seeks out Zecora for her assistance. And here's the second part about the episode I loved: Zecora. I have felt that throughout the series, she is one of the wisest, yet under-rated characters. It was nice seeing her in a pivotal role in training and guiding Twilight. Well really, it was just nice seeing Zecora again. This post is already way too long, so I'll just spend the rest of it pointing out other things I enjoyed. For one, I found it humorous that Pinkie Pie's mouth is literally deleted, thus she is unable to talk for the rest of the episode - something she does a lot of! As for Fluttershy, it's nice seeing her utilized in a pivotal way again; I was worried we wouldn't be seeing much of her this season. As for Trixie, while she was evil, I also found her comical at times. Tickling Applejack for one was absolutely hilarious, as well as her continued interaction with Snips and Snails. As for her apology at the end, I do not feel it came from nowhere. Maybe it could have been conveyed in a more meaningful way, but it did seem sincere. After taking the necklace off, she probably came to her senses and the gravity of the situation probably weighed her down. I would have enjoyed a scene maybe where Twilight writes to Princess Celestia and while she's writing her letter, scenes where we see Trixie reluctantly begins to help the townspeople clean the mess she made, then see the town slowly accept her. However, they probably didn't have enough time to put this in, plus with Princess Celestia's pending visit it may not have made a lot of sense in the first place. So, I will finish up this post on one last point. As soon as it was revealed that Trixie would return, it should have been quite obvious why she would return. As soon as the necklace was revealed, it should have been obvious that it was central to the plot. So while the episode plot may have been predictable, the episode itself was not. I wonder how many people actually predicted that Twilight wasn't casting those spells at the end from the onset of the episode? This wasn't revealed for me until I realized the necklace was fake and that she probably wasn't doing any of the magic. Most like my probably thought she'd either get more powerful and defeat Trixie or use the Elements of Harmony. Also, while there were a ton of references, most were quite subtle and in my opinion and I do not feel that references are necessarily a bad thing so long as they do not become central to the plot. So my point is this: there is nothing wrong whatsoever with bringing a popular character back for another episode. If one wants to call that 'fanservice,' so be it. This was a truly amazing episode that was well-written, with solid characterization and a good moral lesson at the end. Don't write off this episode simply because you feel that having Trixie in another episode is 'pandering,' or that referring to the amulet as the 'Alicorn Amulet' is the show's way of pandering to the 'Alicorn' crowd and bastardizing the 'Winged Unicorn' fanfics. Certainly not flawless, but a pleasure. I shall watch it a couple more times at least. And then, get ready for Scootaloo next week.

To be perfectly honest, I think sometimes we have an over-active imagination when it comes to possible brony 'shoutouts'. For example, how do we know the alleged 'shipping references' are actually shipping references and simply not placing two characters in the same situation either by coincidence or just because the writer wanted to? How do we know Pinkie Pie having fingers is a reference either and not just something funny? For non-obvious ones like these, I am quite skeptical. Nevertheless, whenever there actually is a shoutout (Derpy, for instance,) I have no problems whatsoever provided it doesn't go overboard.

I don't really mind most of the minor animation errors, such as many of the ones pointed out by Whitehawkepaunch's videos, namely those that appear only on one or two frames. I also don't mind minor inconsistencies (i.e. Discord's horns sometimes facing the wrong way, Twilight's scar on the wrong side of the cheek, Iron Will's Microphone switching sides, Twilight spitting out a different color apple than she ate, to name a few.) However, it does bother me whenever there are noticeable wingless pegasi (namely Rainbow Dash), hornless unicorns (though I don't really care if they're background characters,) and/or completely disjointed or mal-formed characters (imploding Noteworthy, Celestia's oversized hooves, Swan Celestia and missing tails, for some examples). While overall the animation is great, I would be happy if once the series is complete they'd re-visit some of these episodes and correct the more egregious animation errors in a sort of "remastered" release, although I can't say whether or not doing something like that is actually feasible. Just wishful thinking on my part.

I had to watch this episode a second time before I started to really enjoy it. Good episode, though I wish the writers wouldn't try so hard to 'explain' jokes to the audience, such as the one about the spot below the lamp. We saw in a previous episode where Scootaloo had an epiphany, jumped up and hit her head on the lamp with an idea. They don't need to explain that "this is the spot where we get good ideas" and then later follow up with "see, this is a good spot to think up ideas!"; we would have gotten the reference without the Sweetie Belle pointing that out again..It's kinda like the guy who tells a joke and then follows up with "it's funny, isn't it?" The joke would have been funnier without the follow-up. As for the moral, I do like how the episode highlights a wrong way to deal with a bully. But what if Applejack had not told the CMCs about Babs in time? I'd say the CMCs got lucky; things could have been much worse. But yes, Sweetie Belle, life is quite ironic. And veggie salad.

To be perfectly honest, I would in my head-canon simply go on as if they're still there - especially if I felt that the way the character was taken out was pointless. I may still watch the show, but view it as some crazy alternate universe were things don't work like they're supposed to.

Honestly, I can't say a single episode drew me in. One day, a couple years ago, whilst surfing Youtube for some YTP, I noticed that some of the videos contained colorful ponies. Now normally, I'd just ignore them and move on, but...something about them piqued my curiosity.So, I one day decided to watch the first couple episodes. Now, at the time, I had no idea that the show was popular with guys around my age, at least for more reasons than just YTP material. I wasn't wowed by the first couple of episodes, but I was still somewhat impressed that a show I thought was just for little girls could be so well-made. And so, I kept watching...and watching...and watching... If I did have to pick a single episode though, I may have to say either Boast Busters or Dragonshy, as it was after these two episodes that I began watching several episodes at a time, even neglecting some of my schoolwork. In other words, these episodes are what finally drew me into the show.

I've been playing this game a couple of days now on my Sony Tablet S running Android 4.04. Game plays smooth overall, but I'm still running into some issues with Gameloft Live and the Social feature (application crashes.) But if you want to add me, the nickname is RagingTwilight - same as my username on here.Hopefully the Social feature bugs on Android will be fixed soon. I'm lv.24 now, and I hope to get Trixie next!

I never had high expectations for him in the first place, so I was satisfied overall. I remember when I first saw a picture of King Sombra months ago, he just didn't grab my attention. He certainly looked menacing, but he seemed to be lacking something the other main villains have. To be honest, I don't think there is much that could be done with him to begin with, save for possibly expanding on how he came to power, but I don't really care enough to want to find out. Nevertheless, the fear of impending doom worked for me and I really enjoyed the season premiere, despite the uni-dimensional villain. The episode needed a villain, and he served that purpose - for better or for worse. The focus on the show has always been the Magic of Friendship and happiness; too much emphasis on a villain this dark may have been pushing the envelope.