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Dark Qiviut

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  1. Dark Qiviut
    In January 2012, I graduated from a four-year college Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Technology in Communication Design (the graphic design module with bits of entry-level web development and Flash animation). Despite the near-perfect GPA, my search for a graphic design position flat-out sucked, and it went absolutely nowhere. Hell, I didn't even get an interview.
     
    After two-and-a-half years of trying and failing, I decided to pursue a Master's in web and multimedia. I'll still dabble at graphic design, but I'm also expanding my experience on Website-building and become more advanced.
     
    Weeks are flying by, and despite devoting plenty of time on my big projects, I still feel the need to devote more. Therefore, until the semester ends (around December 20th), I'll be cutting down my time here starting tomorrow morning. Chances are you won't see my submit a post until then. I may post a blog or status, and you will see my name in the active users section below here and there, but it'll be much less for a while.
     
    My schoolwork comes first, and I need to buckle down. Till then, see ya 'round!
  2. Dark Qiviut
    After seeing Feld0 at BronyCon, he wondered when I was going to post my review for the Poniverse logo (both the original and revision) that I promised to publish. The following is my review.
     
    Overview
    This logo's intended purpose is to integrate multiple networks into one supercommunity. "Poniverse" is a portmanteau of "pony" and "universe," so a theme of "universe" follows in the signature (the term to describe the trademark-wordmark combination). The trademark is a stylized "P" in the abstract shape of a pony's head (the oval being the pony's eye). Surrounding the head is an abstract galaxy, rotating at high speed. In the revised version, the trademark is separated from the wordmark, and a graphic symbol encompassing the trademark are multiple circles (satellites) surrounding one huge hub (a star or galaxy), indicating how several networks are merged into one.
     
    Josefin Sans Light, a sans serif type style, is used to make the logo the central focus. The typeface uses simple, organic shapes akin to the show. To make the supercommunity more easygoing for multiple audiences, the "p" in "poniverse" is lowercase, capturing the casual, light, happy-go-lucky nature of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and its respective networks. Lastly, the revised wordmark uses cyan — a very light, pastel blue compared to sky blue above it — combining the feeling of corporate, loyalty, and fun in one hub.
     
    Trademark
    A lot of elements signatures have is called a trademark, which is the main symbol that defines the brand. Examples of trademarks include:
    NBC's peacock
    Chevrolet's bow tie
    Toyota's stylized "T" (made up of three rings: the customer, the company, and the big ring wrapped around the "T" for unity)
    Dunkin Donuts's coffee
    Baskin Robbin's BR (which hides the "31" for "31 flavors")
    CBS's eye
    The Pepsi smile
    Microsoft's four colored windows.

    Some companies only use the trademark like:
    Apple's bite of the apple
    Nike's Swoosh
    Starbucks Coffee's mermaid
    McDonald's golden arches.

    Poniverse's trademark is two galaxy clouds of dust swirling clockwise, positioning in a form to where it looks like a "P." However, there are several issues with it.
    It doesn't look like a "p." While it's supposed to be abstract, there's abstract and then there's going too abstract to the point where the Prudential rock looks like a triangle instead of a rock. When I first saw it, it looked like the galaxy was designed to where it looked like a squished "O." It also doesn't help when the human eye looks from top to bottom instead of the other way around. Just flip the vision, and it suddenly looks like a "d" instead. This accidental double meaning hurts the abstract trademark's message. More definitive shapes are recommended.
    The pony head looks way too squished. When you look at ponies from their bases, you notice that each part of their anatomy is consisted of circles, triangles, ovals, and rectangles (minus the eyes, mane, tail, wings, etc.). A pony's head consists of one circle (or egg from frontal view). However, this pony's head looks like a rectangle, gave it really rounded corners, and then rotated it a few degrees clockwise. The head looks inorganic and doesn't fully scream "pony head."
    The lines that make the abstract "p" are way too close to Nike's Swoosh.
     
    Here's the Swoosh:


    Rotate the Poniverse trademark, and you'll get this:
     

     
    People can and will catch that if it stays around long enough. I noticed it the second the winners were announced.
     
    Wordmark
    To make the wordmark (the distinctive lettering for the signature) connect with the trademark yet not disturb the eye, the typeface Josefin Sans Light is selected. It has a lot of qualities similar to other great Art Deco typefaces like Futura, Kabel, and Avant Garde, but with minute differences in stroke, angles, and weights to make it unique.
     
    The choice fits wonderfully. When viewing the trademark, you notice how heavy it looks. Each shape is very thick and easily visible whether big or small. Josefin Sans Light is a beautiful contrast in the form of light anatomy. Even in a small size, I still notice the typeface's anatomy. Furthermore, the size of the type compliments well with the trademark. It's also a great choice making "poniverse" lowercase throughout, making the entire wordmark readable and mentally accessible for a general audience. And as My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic uses mostly simple shapes (for both the characters and atmosphere like the houses and mountains), Josefin Sans Light is extremely in character.
     
    That said, while the typeface, size, and weight work, it still needs some cleaning up. Here is a small demonstration.
     

     
    Look closely at black lines in between each character. That indicates the space between each character. Space in between each character is called kerning (while the total amount of space for each word, line, sentence, paragraph, or document is called tracking), and good typography in logo design pays close attention to the kerning so each letter looks even as you read it.
     
    Each space in between the characters is irregular. For the first example, the "o" in "poniverse" leans too much to the left, leaving a big gap between the "o" and "n." There's also a little too much irregularity between the characters from the "o" to the second "n"; extra polish would clean it up. However, the tracking in "net" is tight, showing inconsistency in the typography. When it's one line like "poniverse" or "poniverse.net," either keep the tracking loose or tight. Don't do both.
     
    Graphics
    Besides the trademark, there is one main graphic: the circles behind it. One big circle (basically a star or large planet) is surrounded by several smaller ones (planets or moons), either via overlapping or approximate distance, sending a message that several smaller communities is operated by one gigantic hub.
     
    The message of the big supercommunity operating smaller communities is clear in itself, but there are two big issues.
     
    If you want to see it, review the Skype icon here:
     
     

    The background graphics for Poniverse look way to similar to Skype. A big circle encompasses the "S," and two smaller ones orbit around the main hub or caller. For Poniverse, you have several small circles orbit Poniverse.
    The blue color, which symbolizes loyalty, is also too close to the Skype logo, which also uses a brilliantly sky blue.

    Suggestions for Improvement
    Clean up the kerning and unify the tracking. Instead of using two sets of spacing, use the same amount of space throughout. If you want the space between each character to be crowded, make it crowded. If more open, leave it all open.
     
    To see if the space between the characters look evenly distributed optically, alter the size for the wordmark. Look at it in a big point size like forty-eight, sixty, or seventy-two points or higher and at a small size like eight, ten, and twelve.
    Choose a brand new background symbol. Currently, the bright blue and coordination of perfect circles give unsuspected audiences an impression that the logo ripped off the Skype icon.
     
    An idea is a galaxy (with some hubs on either side), for they're one of the most recognizable masses in the universe and the trademark plays off one in the form of a spiral.
    Choose a brand new color for Poniverse. Currently, when I see that light cyan, I think of Skype, which is a communication company. Try to think of another color besides cyan, and there is a very wide palette. Suggestions include:
     
    a. Scarlet — a calm red. Symbolizes empowerment, brightness, defiance, and enthusiasm.
     
    b. A soothing green like emerald or jade — make it too light like lime, and you make it look like it's unprepared.
     
    c. Orange — a bright, warm orange, which can enhance socialization. However, this may cause problems: AT&T uses orange to both honor Cingular Wireless (the company AT&T bought) and accentuate its globe trademark.
     
    d. Brown — warm and creates a sense of security depending on its saturation. Be careful not to make the brown look like chocolate brown, or people will instantly think you're a candy bar organization.
     
    e. Purple — luxurious, but also wise, creative, and exotic.
     
    f. A deeper blue — darker and not light like cyan, but retains the same messages.
     
    -----
     
    Don't be afraid to not combine colors to capture the feeling of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Poniverse itself, creativity, inspiration, and majesty.
     
    If you're going to use a blue in the same range as cyan, my suggestion is twofold:
     
    a. Dull it with a little bit of magenta or black so the color isn't as bright.
     
    b. Use it as a secondary color. In the official logo, cyan is the primary. Maybe you can use a sky blue as the color for the wordmark.
    Redraw the trademark. A stylized "p" in the form of a galaxy is a great idea, but the triple messages and the way people view compositions risk confusing people and muddling the trademark's symbolism.
     
    For the stylized "P," how about making the spiral galaxy look a little more like a "P"?
     
    If you haven't done it, take your revised signature and see it in black only. Black is neutral and bold, which forces you to view the logo from a compositional standpoint (the trademark, wordmark, placement, and logo/typography relationship), the foundation for any great logo. If you review it in color only, then your brain gets tricked into thinking the best way to show off your logo is to tweak the color. Once you have the composition complex, then add the color.

    The Poniverse Revised Logo: Step-By-Step
    I have some suggestions for the revised logo, but instead of telling how to do it, I'll show it step by step process, from the black vector to the completed graphics. Click the "spoiler" to view them and the explanations.
     
     
     
     
    -
    This is a trio of suggestions with some minor differences. Each signature contains both the trademark and wordmark. Josefin Sans Light is still being used, but cleaned up with some semi-wide tracking to make it accessible big and small better. The wordmark is placed both below and to the right of the trademark, each one containing the ".net" address and without. Plus, each signature is in black to review the composition before advancing to color (which I'll show next).
     
    But the big difference is the galaxy. Poniverse's official trademark has been altered to where it officially looks like a "p" instead of a combination of a "p," "o," and "d." The trademark has three variations.
    The "p" is sliced into two separate pieces. The bottom of the bowl is separated from the top with the intention of the eye connecting the rest of the letter. Two small arms make up the outer edges of the spiral galaxy.
    In the second and third, the "p" is connected from the bottom of the bowl to the rest of the letter. The only difference between the two latter options is the extra arm below the bowl is missing in one of them.
    Instead of a squished head, the inner-body is a perfect circle, commemorating the organic shapes of the letterforms, pony's bodies, and atmospheric graphics. There is an oval eye, slightly slanted, as most of the pony's eyes are an oval shape.
     
     
    -
    Another suggestion, in color, is below:
     
     
     
     
    -
     
    However, each example uses one color for the entire signature. How about using more than one to see if the colors contrast nicely?
     
     
     
    -
    Now you see how the logo is coming together more. With a combination of colors, you send more and more messages as to what Poniverse will feel and tell to your audience.
     
    Now, of the colors presented here, we can begin narrowing them down. So far, the ones that work most are purple, navy blue, lavender, and periwinkle. Emerald and bronze are on the border. Scarlet, brown, and black don't work.
     
    Purple and navy blue are creative, bold, and full of life. Purple is one of the most complex colors because it hosts multiple emotions. Navy blue is still blue, but it doesn't stick to the cyan scheme, where people will immediately think of Skype. Furthermore, it still stimulates creativity, passion, and will to work at your best.
     
    The newest colors in the edition are lavender and periwinkle, which are tints. Periwinkle is the lighter tint and is more to the blue hue, while lavender is darker. These colors are warm, comforting, and a bolster for creativity, but aren't as bold as the darker siblings, giving the trademark its much needed focus. Plus, the pastel colors still remind people that this is brony- and MLP:FIM-related.
     
    As you work with the colors, you begin to develop the color palette: the main and secondary colors used for the Poniverse brand. (The brands within Poniverse can wait temporarily, and then the colors can be slightly adjusted depending on Feld0's and Poniverse Staff's desires.) Part of the palette will be on the main logo and graphic symbol for Poniverse.
     
    Now you can begin thinking about the colors on the border.
    Bronze is a medal used commonly in the Olympics, with gold and silver above them. Bronze is more of a dirty gold in appearance, but it can lead to an impression that they're very relaxed and don't set a standard for creating a great supercommunity. Therefore, you can eliminate bronze (along with gold and silver) for the main logo.
    Emerald or jade is about wisdom, purity, and generosity. But when you think of Poniverse, you think of pony and universe. Emerald, like green, is more earthy, and we're trying to attract a wide audience from multiple cultures, not just one. Emerald is a more singular color, so emerald/jade won't work for the signature.
    At this point, you now have four colors: two dark, two light. But now you have to think which colors best symbolize and promote the Poniverse brand in the form of the logo?
     
    This leads to the next spoiler below.
     
     
    -
     
     
    -
     
    The revised logo has several options, but one thing is consistent: either purple or navy blue for the trademark.
     
    The signatures with the blue trademark have various shades of lavendar in the wordmark: light, medium, and dark. The ones with the purple trademark have two shades of lavender and dull blue in the wordmark (a new color into the mix).
     
    But scroll down, and you'll see pairs of logos where the trademark is paired with a dual-colored wordmark, where "poniverse" is in lavender or periwinkle and ".net" in a dull blue. The difference makes it differentiate, but also blend with the "poniverse" portion of the wordmark.
     
    However, my senses tell me the two colors in the wordmark don't work.
    It makes ".net" appear tacked on and has no purpose other than telling people, "Hey, I'm a Website only."
    ".net" is stuck on an island rather than actually be a part of the overall signature.
    With that, I can cross off the three-colored signature.
     
    Also, the dull blue doesn't fit the message Poniverse is trying to achieve. Instead of trying to be a proactive community, the blue looks gray and implies a morbid mood. So the blue goes, leaving behind the four colors again. However, the light blue as a spectrum may still be used as a secondary color to accentuate the trademark.
     
     
     
    This leads me to the stage where I suggested to combine the galaxy-like graphic with the trademark and wordmark. Click on the next spoiler to access it.
     
    -
     
     
     
     
    With the graphic symbol structure finalized, I can drop in the color combinations that are located below.
     
    -
     
     
     
     
    -
     
    Above are a group of suggestions of what the colored graphic symbol-trademark-wordmark logo relationship would look like when stacked. The primary color options are navy blue and purple; the wordmark options are a light blue, a light lavender, and a dark lavender. I brought back the blue for the wordmark to balance the rest of the secondary logo without it being so bright and hindering the hierarchy, yet not so dull to confuse the audience's impressions.
     
     
    -
     
    But what about an option where both the graphics and wordmark are positioned across?
     
     
     
     
    -
     
    Two of my favorite colored options are located below.
     
     
     
     
    -
     
    After this tedious step-by-step process, my most favorites are the following:
     
    http://i107.photobuc...l-5A_Page_1.png
     
    http://i107.photobuc...l-4A_Page_3.png
     
    http://i107.photobuc...l-5A_Page_2.png
     
    http://i107.photobuc...l-4A_Page_4.png
     
    -
     
    For the top two, navy blue is the main color to stimulate creativity. While it's a very cool color, it's also the one that sends messages of sincerity, trust, confidence, and will to communicate. To provide contrast, lavender provides the inspiration, three-dimensionality, and life to the audience. When the trademark and graphic symbol are merged, the trademark is dropped, using the white background as the color.
     
    (The white trademark you see in front of the galaxy graphic apples to all of the other trademarks. I chose my most favorite of the bunch, but whichever one you like most applies to you.)
     
    As for the bottom pair, it's in reverse, with purple as the primary and sky blue/azure as the secondary. Purple is the most complex color, but with it shifted more to the magenta side, it symbolizes life, creativity, and imagination. With the purple clean, it doesn't muddle the message. Sky blue is a very calm, comforting color, inspiring the audience to be creative despite not being the central focus.
     
    Why the contrast?
     
    Several reasons:
    Poniverse is designed to be a powerful, fresh, willful supercommunity. One of bronydom's strongest points is the ability to socialize via social networking. The word-of-mouth advertising from one brony to another spread the messages of not only the show, but the brony community altogether, too. Poniverse is a hub to unite as many supercommunities as possible without having to separately join each one, from forum-browsing to uploading music and so on. It's an extremely bold idea, and the two main color options are presented very boldly. You have a bold message, hence the bold primary trademark colors.
    Meanwhile, Poniverse is centralized behind the theme of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. One of its strongest elements is the bright, pastel, warm colors. The lavender and sky blue retain the messages the original, bold colors provide, but it's softer and pastel to remind people that this is a brony/MLP:FIM supercommunity instead of merely a supercommunity in general.
    The two obvious contrasts provide a balance. You have the bold trademark colors as well as the softer, brighter pastel colors. When you have the logo consisted of one color throughout regardless of strength, then the logo becomes extremely overwhelming and uninviting. You make everything one tone/hue/saturation, you risk muddling the overall message and may make people choose something else. When you have two contrasting colors, you can marry the entire logo as one instead of risking the two separate parties divorcing.
     
    If you want one official example, look at the NBC peacock with the NBC wordmark below it. The six feathers (representing the six separate departments at the time of the logo's release in 1986) are the main colors of the rainbow. The black wordmark balances the composition out.
     
    The contrast in the final Poniverse logo ideas balances the parties and strengthens the composition. Blue and purple are next to each other on the color wheel and help guide the eye rather than taking one very sharp, bright color like red and slapping it into the composition.
    When it comes to the composition with the galaxy graphic symbol, the elements being stacked on top of each other allows the viewer to see the logo scaled in multiple sizes while providing more effective real estate for other mediums like letterheads, business cards, envelopes, print ad campaigns, and apps. When the signature is across, it takes up a lot of room and real estate regardless of size. You can have the logo be about an inch high, yet six to eight inches across, and that's a lot of room. However, the stacked format puts the signature in a near-perfect square, which allows the designer to scale it in multiple sizes without losing the identity.
     
    If anyone's curious, here's a sheet with the logo (with the graphic symbol) scaled in multiple sizes, starting from one big size to the smallest possible without it being unrecognizeable.

    Conclusion
    Poniverse is a supercommunity with the purpose of congregating several smaller communities under one hub. It is a bold idea that we haven't seen before in the brony community, which means a bold logo that encompasses everything into one. The stylized "P" in the form of a galaxy is an excellent idea, but design issues in the trademark, color, and graphic symbol jumble the message. The critiques in this review and process to make a revised logo hope to fulfill Poniverse's bold, creative, imaginative messages to the brony community and beyond, while not replicating another company's logo design.
  3. Dark Qiviut
    Mister Rogers' Neighborhood is the crown jewel of family television. Beginning in 1968, Mister Fred Rogers tackled a variety of issues that affect so many people over the years, from war to fear of school to death to divorce. Many of these issues children face are extremely real, and Mister Rogers's sincerity and soothing voice is so welcoming to people of all ages.
     
    The Neighborhood of Make-Believe is a segment of pretending, but they're also not afraid to address so many conflicts. This one deals with Daniel Striped Tiger wondering if he was a mistake, a question every single one of us can relate to so much.
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Iump3t1urY
  4. Dark Qiviut
    Anderson, the writer of the Christmas 2014 EQG issue, took part in an interview here. (It's featured on EQD with plenty of drama.) The most notable part is this:
     
    In other words, Ted Anderson, who was written to be fired by IDW (and an issue I fervently called out upon on here and EQD), is said to still be on the job.
     
    My thoughts?
     
    To say I'm royally pissed off is an understatement. My anger at Equestria Girls is nothing compared to my anger and disappointment towards IDW now.
     
    IDW, you had a really great chance to make a right. Ted Anderson submitted two fancharacters of people known to hate bronies and stereotype them: David McGuire and especially DragonDicks. The latter is a misandrist who's known to use Fluttershy to caption her hatred for men and advocate violence against males. Ted Anderson claimed to feel apologetic, but then goes behind your back and openly supports DD's criminal politics. Previous e-mails confirmed he was fired, but then the other e-mail turned out to be true.
     
    Contrary to popular belief, it's very possible to be very sexist towards your own gender. Ted Anderson's actions following the controversy were extremely sexist towards men. They objectified men. By objectifying men, Anderson was objectifying women simultaneously. Sexism hurts everyone, including the people who believe aren't affected. DragonDicks's blatant misandry is actually just as sexist towards women as it is to men and people altogether. Also, his comparison about how blacks have the ability to crack an anti-white joke is incredibly racist because two wrongs don't make a right. If it's just as wrong for whites to crack an anti-black joke, it's just as wrong for the reverse.
     
    IDW, if you truly valued any respect you had with your customer base — no, if you truly respected women, men, and everyone in between — you would've terminated your relationship with Anderson. His sexist attitude and blatant disregard of his buyers should never be tolerated no matter who you are. Anderson's actions are worse in this regard due to the fact that he advocated bashing of the very customer base that helps buy his work, and many of your customers are parents of very young kids. But now it's quite apparent you don't give a damn about the brony fandom and instead vie to work with an author who openly admitted to manipulating his customers.
     
    I haven't read an FIM IDW comic since the fiasco, but I wanted to. I wasn't gonna touch any of Anderson's comics because they go against the core values of Faust, FIM, ALL of MLP, and myself. Now, you can kiss this reader goodbye for good.
     

     
    Source: Regarding the IDW My Little Pony Comics
  5. Dark Qiviut
    A while back, I introduced this thread with a rewrite of Magical Mystery Cure, from a self-contained finale to a two-parter. (If anyone has a rewrite concept of any episode or Equestria Girls, feel free to post in my thread.)
     
    On YouTube, while rummaging through a DA commentary section of Magical Mystery Cure being listed as an animated atrocity by one of MrEnter's commentators, I found a comment linking to a user named Looney Brony. In it are two videos called "Let's Make It Better: Magical Mystery Cure."
     
    Watch them below:
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1_R461xee4
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZIu_Qs4kY8
  6. Dark Qiviut
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvzjjgpm1cY
     
    Back when I was a kid, I loved Barney & Friends. Until I was around thirteen, it was easily one of the show in my "I'll Watch" library. Even today, I'll still pop over to YouTube and watch a few of the classic episodes, including Barney & the Backyard Gang (its predecessor). Just a few hours ago, I downloaded the whole musical album from B&tBG's Barney in Concert.
     
    Is the show any good? No. The characters are too flat. The songs tend to not be well-sung. There's really no storyline. It was very basic to a huge fault.
     
    But sometimes, there is gold in the pyrite, and this is easily one of them, Season 1's The Sister Song. Sung by on-screen sisters, Luci and Tina, it's a classic and by far one of the best songs in the show.
  7. Dark Qiviut
    Ten years ago, the Curse of the Bambino was still living in Boston lore. The year before, Grady Little's blunder in leaving in Pedro Martinez cost them the lead, the AL pennant, and Little's job.
     
    Fast-forward one year later, and the Yankees led three gamed to none following a 19-8 slaughter. They were three outs away from completing the first LCS sweep since 1995 (Braves over Reds), the first ALCS sweep since the 1990 A's (against Boston). NYY's closer, Mariano Rivera, who came in for the eighth, was on the mound, and Kevin Millar led off the ninth.
     

     
    The fortunes turned. A rare walk from Rivera. Dave Roberts pinch-ran and barely stole second. Two pitches later, third-baseman Bill Mueller tied it.
     
    It stayed tied until the twelfth. Paul Quantrill (their seventh-inning man, but was relegated to the back of the 'pen from overuse and was literally on fumes) faced David Ortiz with one on.
     

     
    Needless to say, Boston never looked back.
  8. Dark Qiviut
    Do I need to say this again? FIM is not exclusively "for little girls" like G3, G3.5, or Tales. It's a show for EVERYONE and is written for EVERYONE! The same demographics as Disney's animated films, Pixar, and Harry Potter. Saying FIM "it's for little girls" when it factually isn't is an insult to every single person who watches and adores this show.
     
    In fact, it's also a major insult to Faust herself. Don't believe me? Read this famous screenshot of a reply by Faust to an anti-brony:
     

     
    So, people who claim FIM is "for little girls," get it RIGHT. You're doing nothing except reinforcing blatant sexism towards men and women by spouting the blatant "it's for little girls" lie.
  9. Dark Qiviut

    One year ago today

    By Dark Qiviut,

    The grand slam that brought the BoSox back in the series.
     

     
    It was also the first postseason game-tying grand slam in the eighth or later.
     
    You can read more about the event here.
  10. Dark Qiviut
    Equestria Daily reported on the Anderson dramaseen on Round Stable, MLP Forums, /mlp/ (Horse-News), and so forth, and the news has spread around the fandom that writer Ted Anderson has since been fired as of yesterday.
     
    What I have below are concrete thoughts on the drama and Anderson's dismissal. They were on here and EQD combined and tidied.
     

     
    Anderson doesn't deserve any sympathy for what he did, and he completely deserves to be fired.
     
    David McGuire is a bit more obscure (in my perspective), but he has a history of hating bronies as a people himself, as noted by Horse-News and @@Wind Chaser in his blog.
     
    Dragon Dicks/Cuteosphere is much, much worse. She's supposedly older than I am, and she's known to hate male bronies simply because they dared to like the show, advocate misandry, promote the fraudulent "Down with Molestia" charity that PinkiePony operated, and profit off anti-man hate art. "I hate all boys" in Fluttershy's voice is possibly her most famous because it resulted in the caption art responding to her sexist trash. But she's done others like "Literally anything before bros" — obvious brony-bashing — printed on a T-shirt (the same shirt Anderson wore in his now infamous picture) and "Boys are scum."
     
    If he cried ignorance on the whole thing and plugged them in because he liked the style, then maybe IDW would've let it slide. (Doubt the fandom would because he admitted to plugging them in freely in his Tumblr.) But Ted Anderson admitted at least twice to not only agreeing with DD's misandry, but also supporting her and David McGuire's vile opinions.
     
    (Click "spoiler" to view the images")
     
     
     
    Then to make it worse, the new one found on EQD:
     
     
     
    What he said in the first two screenshots are some of the dumbest comments I ever read because it's just as possible to be sexist towards men. But to make things worse, he then pulls the idiotic analogy of how it's not racist for blacks to mock whites for their way to drive. That's just as dumb because it's just as possible for blacks to be racist to whites as a way to support DD's so-called "satire." Ted, "satire" doesn't make it funny, and dressing it as such only weakens your argument further. Thankfully, I never feuded with DD, but I've seen them from the sidelines; her attitude is everything but satirical.
     
    By including those cameos, gloating about them, and openly siding with their bigotry, to quote @@ghostfacekiller39, he flipped off every single brony who bought his comics, read them, and praised them. On top of that, he mocked every parent (brony or non-) who bought IDW's FIM comics so they can read them with their kids. Through these three screenshots, he admitted to hating the brony fandom and manipulating everyone here to make a living, and it's morally criminal to use others. On top of that, per what @@Nuke87654 posted here, there's the possibility that Anderson signed a contract preventing him from utilizing third-party material as inclusion or inspiration for his work. If this is true, then he not just violated it, but blatantly disregarded it for the sake of inserting some of his unneeded politics into a professional product.
     
    His antifeminist, misandrist garbage goes against everything FIM, Faust, and Bonnie Zacherle stood for. Sexism is a form of bigotry, and DD and McGuire shamelessly represent sexism towards men. The last screenshot openly implies how much he'll tolerate racism towards whites, a backwards mentality that should alarm everyone! There should be no tolerance to bigotry, period, because it affects EVERYBODY even when they're not firsthand. Bigotry has no place in society. There was plenty of drama because people in and out of the fandom were rightfully offended by the implications of those two background cameos and Ted Anderson's support of two well-known bigots, and it was right to call him out and threaten to boycott against IDW.
     
    You screw with your consumers (and deliberately disobey a contract you signed with your employer, if confirmed), you're going to lose your job. It's that simple.
  11. Dark Qiviut
    For those who haven't watched it, a little backstory. In Series 1, Henry the Green Engine had been feeling sick for some time, sometimes starting really slowly or not starting at all. It turned out the shape of the engine isn't designed to use the traditional coal on the Island of Sodor, which was degrading in quality. The other engines at the time (Thomas, Edward, Gordon, James, and Percy) had much bigger fireboxes; Henry's was small and couldn't make heat, requiring TFC to buy Welsh coal. Henry started to perform much, much better, leading up to this episode.
     

  12. Dark Qiviut
    My previous review of Duck and the Slip Coaches was "unofficial" because I wrote it as an essay without formatting it in my journalistic list. This is the official review for the episode. Most of the content remains the same, while others will be altered and added.
     


     
    Duck the Great Western Engine is a character with a tumultuous TV history. Back when he was introduced, he immediately became one of the most popular characters because of his capability to arrive on time while maintaining an extremely loyal, prestigious personality. He treats punctuality on The Fat Controller's railway with immense respect and is proud of being Great Western. He took all the lessons he learned on the GWR and transferred them to the Island of Sodor in Series 2, where he became of its leading characters. But since Series 8, his spotlight was dramatically decreased in favor of focusing on eight core characters. He made his return in Series 17 for the first time since the twelfth series and starred in The Thomas Way. Series 18 makes sure he stays in spotlight, beginning with Andrew Brenner's Duck in the Water and following it with this one, Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler's Duck and the Slip Coaches, an episode so good, it easily competes with Thomas the Quarry Engine for best S18 episode thus far!
     
    Strengths:
    Per the title, this episode features a rather important element on the old Great Western Railway, the slip coaches. Duck describes exactly what slip coaches are and why they were very useful on the Sunshine Line. To paraphrase the link, Wikipedia, and aforementioned episode itself, slip coaches allow the conductors to uncouple the express coach without forcing the train to stop and spend several minutes letting passengers embark and disembark. Back then, railway companies were very competitive, so slip coaches gave them a trump card by continuing the train while leaving the slipped coach behind.
     
    What made it clever was the sepia flashback: Instead of HD, it was in SD, sped up and splotchy occasionally to make it look like a genuine tape along with the clicking sound effect to create the illusion of an old-fashioned recorder. Because of the GWR's mid-Nineteenth-Century history, the creative decision made Duck's flashback much more credible and genuine.
     
    In the very early series, coaches and other rolling stock were sentient whether they had a face or not. Following the second season, almost all rolling stock stopped speaking with few exceptions, especially the express coaches. Old Slow Coach temporarily revived the concept in Series 5 before she was dropped from the lineup, as well. DatSC revived the concept of sentient coaches by giving them faces like Annie and Clarabel — ones of matching color instead of the traditional white "mold" — and the ability to talk. But instead of all females, two of them are male, becoming the first male coaches in the franchise's sixty-nine-year history. To capture the essence of the RWS, the coaches have a haughty attitude with an old-fashioned tint in their voices, hinting to old-time fans they take railway realism seriously. And wonderfully rendered, too, by giving them their trademark chocolate maroon and cream colors. (Quite possibly a tribute to the autocoaches from The Railway Series, perhaps? ) A lot of effort was put into them, from the coloring to the mechanics to the actual faces. Hell, there are varying facial figures to separate them beyond just the voice such as the noses.
     
    And since we bronies tend to give characters unofficial names, I agree with halfbaked8 there: Let's give the slip coaches unofficial names! To start with the trial, how about naming them based on the voice actors?
     
    • Coach #1: Jon (VA'd by Jonathan Broadbent)
     
    • Coach #2: Becky (VA'd by Rebecca O'Mara)
     
    • Coach #3: Steve (VA's by Steven Kynman)
     
    If anyone can think of better names (perhaps ones that fit the context of where Duck, Oliver, Toad, and the RWS coaches ran), do so.
     
    And please, more stories with them in it. They're such a clever idea that only having them appear once would kill their potential.
    James's role as antagonist works to perfection once more. He remains in character, yet has motives reflecting back to the early bird days on Sodor. Over the past several years, James was flanderized into plainly a narcissist when there are other facets in his character like arrogance, importance of doing his job, jealousy, selfishness, and the want to be one step above everyone else.
     
    As one key element revived for the Thomas Renaissance is instilling consequences for doing something stupid and/or dangerous stunts, it makes plenty of sense to fill in James as Duck's foil once again. Like Duck in the Water, he gets really annoyed and does something stupid. Unlike DitW, he really wanted to play a trick on Duck and make himself more important than anyone else. His desire to plagiarize was the catalyst for him to really screw up the importance of the slip coach, and it made plenty of sense from a narrative context.
     
    Unlike the previous episode, there was no repetitious pattern. After one bad mistake (warned by Duck the night before and the very next morning at Bluffs Cove), TFC gave Duck his coaches.
    Speaking of Duck, the good ol' GW tank engine was very in character. He reminisces the good ol' days on the GWR and is proud of it. Since he learned and grew up there, it made plenty of sense to tell stories about his past adventures. Like what I wrote earlier, because slip coaches were important, having the mature Duck pull them makes him a more accomplished tank engine and character altogether. Someone who can talk to other engines and help them learn while succeeding in those jobs himself.
     
    Because the flashback and Kynman's excellent voice acting revealed how much he loved working with them, him saying "cooee" upon seeing them for the first time in apparently decades and "slipees" at Bluffs Cove make plenty of sense. Hell, much more than anyone saying "steamie" as a word of endearment!
    Once more, mostly top-notch comedy. TFC getting his top hat caught by the inner tube was great for the circumstance and broke the serious, weary atmosphere at Knapford. Then you had Duck's dry glare to James and subtle bite in his voice at Bluffs Cove as he explained to Sir Topham Hatt how much he knew these slip coaches. Finally, there's little bits of fanservice with "What a bad railway it was" and "fuddy duddy."
     
    Heck, even the cheeky joke with Emily being shut out worked well the first time around. To explain the context, Series 7 introduced Emily and wasn't given plenty of script time to develop her character. That season, she was written as a secondary character at most except her debut in Emily's New Coaches. When HiT Entertainment bought the rights to the franchise, they decided to create a core of eight leading characters.
     
    From the interview with Sam Barlow:
     Afterwards, Duck was cut out of production and only made sporadic appearances in Series 12. Once the series fully transitioned into CGI, he didn't make another reappearance until last season (Henry's Hero, The Thomas Way). The comedy is a very obvious tongue-in-cheek piece of fanservice to the Duck/Emily debate, something that's divided the Thomas fandom in some capacity. And even better is how the narrator said nothing; doing so would risk making the comedy act like a mean-spirited attack to the older and newer fans.
     
    But pay attention to what I wrote earlier: "worked well the first time around." I'll get back to this later.
    There are two morals in this episode.
     
    The first is blatant: "Don't take credit for anyone else's ideas." Since James stole Duck's innovative concept, he was definitely going to be taught a lesson.
     
    The other is underlying: "Don't be too cocky over things unfamiliar to you." Same logic applies, except James ignored Duck's warnings partially because he got all puffed up in the smokebox.
     
    But both are so well woven in the context of the narrative, neither become so intrusive. Heck, even Thomas's appearance felt natural because he showed up in places that were natural to his environment: Tidmouth Sheds and Knapford station (towing Annie and Clarabel).
     
    After I submitted my last review of this episode to the Sonic Stadium Message Board, a friend of mine from here PM'd me about the episode, so I'll talk about the first moral. Unlike what the brash red engine did to Duck, one hundred percent of the credit goes to him for it. The biggest component to this series is how HiT's writers really take railway realism seriously, and Railway Consultant Sam Wilkinson deserves plenty of credit for keeping the team in line most of the time (especially here). Yet, what makes it such a fantastic modern classic is the extra layer of relatability that added depth to Duck's character. Once more, the Great Western tank engine loves the slip coaches and really wants the Island of Sodor to successfully run the railway. It's such a genius notion of punctual movement on the railway, and the GWR engine deserves plenty of credit for it. But for someone as egotistical as James to steal Duck's idea, take credit for it, and be proud of it, a momentous occasion devolves into absolute disappointment.
     
    And who can blame him? It absolutely sucks to have your genius idea plagiarized by someone. Sure, James believes he can perform as good as Duck, but seeing how much Duck's memories piss him off, it was great for him to feel like he one-upped someone. Yet, since he has no clue how to operate the slip coaches, he risks making what should be a great way to get everyone's guests at their destinations punctually a first impression disaster. As what my friend said, James's plagiarism of Duck's idea of bringing the slip coaches to Sodor was not only destined to fail, but also be looked down upon if he royally screwed up. Especially since Duck didn't deserve the sorrow. And since Duck's such a relatable character, it can strike anyone who yearns to bring something create hard. As a creative person myself and someone who graduated with a Bachelor's in graphic design, the plagiarism affects me, too, without even realizing it. Don't be surprised if anyone else who watched this episode gets this same feeling of anger and hurt.
     
    This is why James's dish of karma is so great — He deserved it BIG TIME!

    Weaknesses:
    Albeit nitpicky, there's the obvious post-production error at Animal Park. When Edward tooted, Thomas's horn came out. Small, but surprising, and it created the moment where I personally got the biggest laugh. XD
    When TFC arrived at Tidmouth Sheds the first time, James rolled down to him to tell him about the slip coaches. Instead of rolling down the tracks like he was in absolute control of himself (despite seeing his driver behind the window), it'd be better if James whispered to TFC. That way, the approach to his crime would become more plausible.
     
    So why aren't I calling it out when they woke up the next morning? Because everyone's awake, you can create the perception that all six engines had their crews already in their cabs.
    One thing about HiT's Thomas stories is how the pacing sometimes gets rather slow and the writer has to pad it to fulfill the runtime because everyone's tallllkiiinng llliiike thiiiss or pausing too much. Although there's no padding, the slow talking made the episode feel a little bit slower, although it isn't so noticeable. Duck and the Slip Coaches lasted eight minutes and forty-five seconds, but it might've been better if it was only seven to seven-and-a-half minutes long just to speed up the middle the sequences a bit.
    I'm talking about this now, for that's the episode's biggest problem.
     
    The first time Emily got shut out, it worked really well because the fanservice can easily be disguised as her being late to the sheds. But the joke happened twice, the other to conclude the story. There, Emily did arrive to the turntable, but before she could get on, Henry raced by and entered the remaining vacant berth, leaving her shut out once more. No matter how much any of you laughed, this joke doesn't work this time. Emily didn't deserve to be shut out the second time because she did absolutely nothing to make the narrative provoke itself into writing it. HiT wrote the joke to continue the gag and please the older audiences. When you segregate the audience, you're not writing fanservice anymore. Instead, you're writing fan pandering, and it's one of the worst ways to do it because the joke's mean-spirited.
     
    I can hear some of the replies now.
     
    a. "You're writing this because Emily was the female character." Regardless if anyone uses this reason, that's a shameful strawman since I didn't mention sexism anywhere here. It's not the fact that it happened to specifically Emily. It's the fact that it happened to anyone. If it was anyone else (besides James, which I'll get to later), I would call it out just as vociferously. Hell, if the joke had Duck arriving first and then Emily swaps his place to conclude the episode, I'll give it the same treatment; perhaps I'll give it stronger criticism because of how much James put him through.
     
    So why am I calling out?
     
    Because it's an empty joke. It's unnecessary. Good jokes need to have proper context. When you write gags just because, then the humor becomes forced. And forced mean-spirited humor is a complete no-no when writing good comedy. If it's mean-spirited, make sure the character deserves it.
     
    b. "It's just a joke." Remember one of Disappearing Diesel's morals?This is actually one of Thomas's biggest problems, both in the show and Railway Series. It has a penchant of teasing other characters via dialogue and narration, whether they deserve it or not. Sometimes, the teasing can get a bit insulting; and even worse, the writing tends to condone it.
     
    Unfortunate implications exist. In my three-part ten best and worst FIM episode list and my grades for FIM media, I came down REALLY hard on episodes with big unfortunate implications like The Crystal Empire, Dragon Quest, and One Bad Apple. Some of the jokes from TtTE back then weren't okay because the context sometimes was too unnecessary regardless of the scale. If it wasn't okay then, it's not okay now, period.
     
    In short, once was fine due to the context. Repeating it made the fanservice too contrived and out of character for the show.
     
    c. "Just ignore them, because they're taking it too seriously." *sigh* No product is safe from criticism. Like it or not, Brenner and crew aren't perfect. In fact, the three worst episodes last season are (in order):
     
    i. Now Now, Charlie! is the worst one last season. The concept of safety on the rails and road is used as a pointless backdrop over Charlie roaming around to find help (when his driver should've alerted a signalman to close traffic and then call the Sodor Search and Rescue Centre there) and the Boy Cries Wolf cliché.
     
    ii. Although it's extremely well-liked, Gordon Runs Dry is objectively terrible. A hole in the boiler is actually extremely dangerous, for it can cause the boiler to warp and possibly explode in the humid heat. Also, cabs have gauges to detect anything funny, and the driver and fireman would've immediately checked Gordon to see where the rock hit him. If it was damaged, Gordon would be shut down to keep the passengers safe. Perfecting Gordon's and Thomas's characterizations didn't save it from being a near-failure.
     
    iii. The Afternoon Tea Express is merely poorly written for its convoluted storytelling, broken continuity, and overreliance on telling instead of showing.
     
    People critique and criticize because they give as much a damn as the people who praise it. They like the show and want to see it do well, too.
     
    Now, is the accusation of Emily being shut out sexist? No. Despite the massive criticism of the show in editorials from a while ago, there's no context to pinpoint sexism, even accidental, and saying otherwise is stupid.
     
    But to say the ending joke isn't mean-spirited is, to put it bluntly, stupid, as well, for the reasons provided. That criticism is very justified. Much more so than the defenses.
     
    BTW, don't dare claim kids won't get it to cover its shortcomings, because you're falling for the "it's for kids" fallacy. A fallacy people in the Thomas fandom (and Sodor Island Forums, the basis for this callout) called out during the Miller era. A fallacy I bluntly called out several months ago. If you're going to call out the same flaws then, do the same during the Thomas Renaissance. Otherwise, the pot calls the kettle black.
     
    d. "How to make it better?" Like what I wrote earlier, make the joke work better contextually. Make the humor karmic. Why not have James wait instead? But before he gets on, Emily puffs onto the turntable and into the vacant berth instead. The joke would work because James was a massive pollution box in the episode, and he suffered the embarrassing consequence of being removed from coach duties. The humor would be karmic because he deserves to not share his spot in the sheds, and it would put the Emily/Duck jest to bed permanently.
     
    Now, despite this long essay, is the end joke that mean-spirited?
     
    Not. Even. Close.
     
    In fact, as a brony, there are many FIM episodes where its quality dropped because the jokes got way too mean-spirited and sometimes made the characters insanely unlikeable.
     
    Which ones?
     
    Well, Dragon Quest, Putting Your Hoof Down, The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000, Filli Vanilli (one of season four's worst for this reason), Owl's Well That Ends Well, and Boast Busters.
     
    The worst kind of fan pandering I've seen are the brony references in Equestria Girls, the Grumpy Cat cutie mark in Rarity Takes Manehattan, and — the worst of them all — the Honey Boo Boo bashing in the Celestia Micro comic.
     
    Compared to those, this is nothing, and it doesn't hurt DatSC's quality all that much. But because it's written without provocation and empty, it is a problem nonetheless. Since it happened at the end, it does matter somewhat. As a critic, it'd be really irresponsible to handwave the flaw.

    Duck the Great Western Engine is a very popular character in the Thomas series. Because of his three-dimensional personality, ability to be triumphant, and extreme dedication to TFC's railway, there's a very good reason so. When he and several other popular characters got shafted, it hurt the fanbase, especially since it was confirmed that Emily replaced Duck on the Steam Team. But the last two seasons treated Duck with plenty of respect, and there's a lot of great railway realism to help hone the series back into its roots. It's not perfect, but it's getting there thanks to the whole team and especially Railway Consultant, Sam Wilkinson.
     
    At this point, Duck and the Slip Coaches is a magnificent catalyst to the massive improvements this series has made over the past couple of years. With an innovative idea, a brilliant inclusion to expand the world of railway realism (slip coaches), a great moral, and a very relatable Duck, the flaws aren't close to hurting its quality. If you're a big Duck fan and yearn for unique history of the Great Western Railway, Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler's modern classic is a definite competitor to not only many of the best pre-HiT episodes, but the best Railway Series books, as well!
  13. Dark Qiviut
    Thomas the Quarry Engine has some easy competition for best S18 episode!
     
    This episode features a rather important element on the old Great Western Railway, the slip coaches. Duck describes exactly what slip coaches are and why they were very useful on the Sunshine Line. What made it clever was the sepia flashback: Instead of HD, it was in SD and sped up to make it look like a genuine tape.
     
    James's role as antagonist works to perfection once more. He remains in character, yet has motives that reflect back to the early bird days on Sodor. Duck's stories bothered him, and he was in over his funnel once more, causing him to plagiarize and really screw up the importance of the slip coach.
     
    There's no Rule of Thirds. After one bad mistake (warned by Duck the night before), Duck was given the coaches.
     
    Speaking of the slip coaches, one element of the series from a long time ago was allowing the coaches to speak even though they didn't have a face. (This was dropped mostly after season two, but Old Slow Coach temporarily revived the idea.) This episode revived the concept of sentient coaches by giving them faces like Annie and Clarabel and the ability to talk. But instead of all females, two of them are male, becoming the first male coaches on the Island. To capture the essence of the RWS, the coaches have a haughty attitude with an old-fashioned tint in their voices. And wonderfully rendered, too, by giving them the maroon and cream colors. A lot of effort was put into them, from the coloring to the mechanics to the actual faces. Hell, there are varying facial figures to separate them beyond just the voice such as the noses.
     
    And since we bronies tend to give characters unofficial names, I agree with halfbaked8: Let's give the slip coaches unofficial names! To start with the trial, how about naming them based on the voice actors?
     
    Coach #1: Jon (VA'd by Jonathan Broadbent)
     
    Coach #2: Becky (VA'd by Rebecca O'Mara)
     
    Coach #3: Steve (VA's by Steven Kynman)
     
    If anyone can think of better names (perhaps ones that fit the context of where Duck, Oliver, Toad, and the RWS coaches ran), do so.
     
    Duck was very in character. He reminisced the good ol' days on the GWR and is proud of it. Because he obviously loved working with them, him saying "cooee" upon seeing them for the first time in years and "slipees" later make plenty of sense. Much more than anyone saying "steamie" as a word of endearment!
     
    There are two morals, one underlying and one blatant: "Don't take credit for anyone else's ideas," and "Don't be too cocky over things unfamiliar to you." But both are so well woven in the context of the narrative, neither become so intrusive. Heck, even Thomas's appearance felt natural because he showed up in places that were natural to his environment: Tidmouth Sheds and Knapford station (towing Annie and Clarabel).
     
    Once more, top-notch comedy: TFC getting his top hat caught by the inner tube, Duck's dry glare to James at Bluffs Cove, "What a bad railway it was," and "fuddy duddy."
     
    Heck, even the cheeky joke with Emily being shut out worked well. To explain the context, about a decade ago, HiT plugged in Emily as part of the eight-train Steam Team to include a lead female character. Unfortunately, Emily was only introduced in Series 7 and hadn't gotten plenty of script time to develop as a character. HiT's decision, though, meant one of the most popular main characters in the show (Duck) got shoved to the sidelines*. Duck only made sporadic appearances in the series afterwards. After Series 12, he didn't make another reappearance until last season (Henry's Hero, The Thomas Way). The comedy is a very obvious tongue-in-cheek piece of fanservice to the Duck/Emily debate, something that's divided the Thomas fandom in some capacity. And even better is how the narrator said nothing; doing so would risk making the comedy act like a mean-spirited attack to the older and newer fans.
     
    *Duck was supposed to be one of the core characters. But HiT meddled because they wanted a strong female role, so they replaced him with Emily instead. From the interview with Sam Barlow:
    One obvious flaw (albeit nitpicky) is the obvious post-production error at Animal Park. When Edward tooted, Thomas's horn came out. Small, but surprising.
     
    Secondly, it'd be better if James whispered to TFC instead of rolling down. That way, it'd be a tad bit more plausible in the approach.
     
    Finally, the pace was a bit slow. Duck and the Slip Coaches lasted eight minutes and forty-five seconds, but it might've been better if it was only seven to seven-and-a-half minutes long just to speed the middle up the sequences a bit.
     
    To go back to the positives and end the review on a high note, after I submitted this review for the Sonic Stadium Message Board, a friend of mine from here PM'd me about the episode, so I'll talk about the first and most obvious moral, and one hundred percent of the credit goes to him for it. The biggest component to this series is how HiT's writers really take railway realism seriously, and Railway Consultant Sam Wilkinson deserves plenty of credit for keeping the team in line most of the time (especially here). Yet, what makes it such a fantastic modern classic is the little extra layer of relatability that added depth to Duck's character. The Great Western Engine has a love for the slip coaches and really wants the Island of Sodor to succeed in running the railway. It's such a genius notion of punctual movement on the railway, and the GWR deserves plenty of credit for it. But for someone as egotistical as James to take credit for Duck's idea and be proud of it, a momentous occasion devolves into absolute disappointment.
     
    And that's the thing. It absolutely sucks to have your genius idea be plagiarized by someone. Sure, James believes he can perform as good as Duck, but seeing how much Duck's memories piss him off, it was great for him to feel like he one-upped someone. Yet, since he has no clue how to operate the slip coaches, he risks making what should be a great way to get everyone's guests at their destinations punctually a first impression disaster. As what my friend said, James's plagiarism of Duck's idea of bringing the slip coaches to Sodor was not only destined to fail, but also be looked down upon if he royally screwed up. Especially since Duck didn't deserve the sorrow. And since Duck is such a relatable character, it can strike anyone who yearn to bring something create hard. This is why James's dish of karma is so great — He deserved it BIG TIME!
     
    So, if you're a big Duck fan and yearn for unique history of the Great Western Railway, you're going to really love this one! Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler's modern classic definitely competes with the pre-HiT episodes and The Railway Series.
  14. Dark Qiviut
    Author’s Note: This is Part 3 (#2-1) of DQ's list of best and worst FIM episodes. Click here for Part 1 (#10-7). Click here for Part 2 (#6-3).
     

    Second-worst: Bridle Gossip
     
    Good Gravy Marie, did so much go wrong.
    Nearly everyone (minus Zecora and Spike) was out of character. None of the Mane Six had any likeable traits, all falling for stereotypes or stupidity beyond what they were capable of, even then.
     
    Applejack: The most grounded of the Mane Six suddenly turns extremely irrational and judgmental, reinforcing an element from Boast Busters that barely missed out of the bottom ten.
     
    Rarity: In what would later become one of the most thoroughly dimensional characters in the whole show, she has the gall to insult Zecora’s stripes. By doing that, she not only reinforces the “stuck-up bitch” stereotype typically found in background archetypes she holds, but also inflicts subtle racism by not liking her based on what she looks like.
     
    I know many bronies will say season three was her worst, partially because she was a background pony for the most part. Yet they couldn’t be any more wrong. Suited for Success, A Dog & Pony Show, Green Isn’t Your Color, and The Best Night Ever made her look really good. Unfortunately, Look Before You Sleep, Boast Busters, Owl’s Well, Sonic Rainboom (although was actually justified here and isn’t here for other reasons), and especially this one brought out some of her worst portrayals in the entire show. That’s why season one was her worst season.
     
    Pinkie Pie: A complete disregard of continuity up to that point. She welcomed Twilight in the pilot and tried to approach Gilda to make her a friend. Then in BG, she’s so easily influenced by racist gossip, she believes Zecora’s an evil enchantress who does evil dances. And this doesn’t happen in the prologue only; she hammers that inane concept in throughout.
     
    Rainbow Dash: A reinforcement of one of her most unlikeable traits: barge in first and ask questions later.
     
    Fluttershy: A background pony who was basically there to take part of the Flutterguy joke (which is quite hilarious).
     
    Twilight Sparkle: She was the most unlikeable of the six, and it’s this episode where her character took the most damage. I’ll get to this part later.
     
    Apple Bloom: Well, she was in character for the most part… But that ended when she left Applejack for dead in the middle of the Everfree Forest. That was stupid of her at least and criminal at worst. It wasn’t cool and certainly not funny.
     
    But let’s just say they weren’t out of character. The ReMane Five were unlikeable from the moment they showed up, and behaved worse and worse. When Twilight Sparkle slowly and later believed the gossip the ReMane-ing Five spewed despite hammering in the opposition prior, the credibility of her character and word was nullified. Because FIM’s about making (the main) characters likeable, BG’s integrity is shot down. It also doesn’t help when you were supposed to laugh WITH the Mane Six and feel sorry for whatever predicaments they were in once affected by the Poison Joke.
     
    Ironically, the atrocious characterization wasn’t the worst part of BG.
    The moral (along with the storytelling leading up to it) was terribly written.
     
    Firstly, remember what I wrote earlier when I posted TMMDW as the eighth-worst episode:
     This is the “other.” The Mane Six were so stupid and incompetent, Zecora had to tell them to their faces in the final three minutes. To repeat myself, one of the best ways to help people learn is to be involved in the conflict and then use their brain power to work their way out of it. Having the lesson be uttered bluntly to them when they no clue prior is a terrible way to teach. Considering the base demographic, it makes the episode look worse because of how impressionable kids can be. In itself, that’s terrible teaching, and the story talks down to the audience.
     
    Secondly, there’s ZERO subtlety. When the camera showed the audience the Poison Joke in many ways (the close-ups, Zecora’s cryptic rhyme, and the Mane Six blindly crossing it), it was dang obvious they were about to be a major contributor to the plot. You didn’t need the script to “twist” it and tell us it was the Poison Joke’s fault. Because this episode follows the clichéd racism plot of misunderstanding one another, it’s so obvious to the point of painful.
     
    But the lazy storytelling doesn’t end there. The second Spike handed Twilight the library copy of Supernaturals, it was quite obvious what the moral was going to be: Don’t Judge the Book By Its Cover. This is where AKR’s hideous writing of Twilight bites her hard on the ass: When the supposedly intelligent unicorn blatantly shoos the cover and shortened title, TS becomes a complete moron and makes the viewer suspicious that she might believe the gossip.
     
    Yeah, one of the biggest things to note when critiquing stories is to not judge the destination, but the journey. But if the journey is so obvious, DHX is treating the audience like idiots, especially children and newcomers of all ages. You rob the episode of tension and make the whole conflict both anticlimactic and contrived whenever the writing becomes so predictable. This is the very first episode to follow such an academically hurtful method of learning, and four others followed it, two of them — Equestria Games, MDW — on this list. (The others, Spike at Your Service and Somepony to Watch Over Me, didn’t qualify.)
    Typically, predictability hurts the episode when it’s this down to the letter, but when there is very sensitive subject like racism, you must show better care for the storytelling.
     
    Because of its sensitivity, it’s VERY important to show and not tell. It’s ESPECIALLY important when you’re addressing racism for a product whose base demographic is children (who typically have their guardians watching beside them). There’s so much exposition and the moral’s so forced, its validity of its sensitivity is reduced, if not moot. Season one had a lot of blunt exposition in its crappy episodes. Bridle Gossip is the worst of the worst here, expositing as much as possible and keeping its storytelling of it safe, altogether cheapening the quality of the story.
    The subject of racism was used as a cheap gimmick for the moral. Whether anyone likes it or not, Bridle Gossip’s biggest theme is critiquing the dangers of racism. Back when I read the history of the fandom, BG was one of its first controversies. After observing the episode critically, there’s a very good reason why.
     
    Worldwide, racism has a very long, complicated, gory history. Europe’s history of tolerating racism has been on the news for decades now, especially when the racists boast their bigotry in soccer stadiums. Although the voice against the racism has gotten louder, it hasn’t dissipated thanks to its tolerance.
     
    North America is no exception. Christopher Columbus and his settlers slaughtered thousands of Native Americans and committed genocide. Needless to say, Christopher Columbus’s crimes are equal to that of Hitler’s; and the fact there’s a holiday under his name is both embarrassing and disgusting! Racism hasn’t gone away despite long, winding roads to equality, and the racism is much less overt now. If you want to know what I mean, check the Voting ID laws, redistricting of voting territories in states like Florida, and why there’s such an outcry against them.
     
    When anyone becomes racist, it’s because they hate the other race(s), not because they’re afraid of them. Bridle Gossip oversimplifies its long and complicated history to shunning Zecora because she’s scary. In other words, it follows the old tale of white folk (the ponies) shunning the black folk (Zecora) out of fright. Because the conclusion of the episode revolves around a misunderstanding and learning to not be afraid of difference, this parallel absolves the white folk (ponies) of being at fault for their racism towards the black folk (Zecora) and makes the subject — and episode’s conflict — extremely hollow. When the episode delivers a one-size-fit-all conclusion to racism, the episode becomes very deceptive and lies to the audience in the process.

    Because of the subject matter, you need to handle it VERY carefully. If you’re tackling racism, tackle it head on and do it well without tagging a moral that can complicate things. Bridle Gossip really screws up this subject, thus making it not just the worst episode in season one, but also the second-worst in the entire show.
     

    Second-best: Sisterhooves Social
     
    Whenever an FIM episode gets an A+, it must do about everything right. The writing. The sound. The voice acting. The production. The comedy (if applicable). The implications. The payoff. EVERYthing! Little to no huge hiccups ought to break the immersion of the episode. Only two episodes earned this grade. Sisterhooves Social is one of them.
     
    One very common cliché in entertainment today is portraying siblings as rivals if not enemies in their episodes. Why that’s the case? I don’t know. Perhaps because shows like Dexter’s Laboratory used the sibling rivalry trope to their advantage, and other shows tend to copy it. But that’s just assuming, so don’t quote me on that. Sisterhooves Social — the best episode of season two — bucks the trend and portrays it realistically.
     
    And this is where it succeeds. The portrayal of siblings isn’t clichéd in the slightest. In fact, it spits the cliché in the face. Sweetie Belle’s and Rarity’s personalities are fantastic and human. Unlike Toils, there’s an actual excuse for Sweetie to stay in Rarity’s house: Their parents will be away, so Rarity’s responsible for taking care of SB while they’re gone.
     
    (BTW, on a headcanon level, you can tell their parents hugely influence Rarity’s goals, as they’re very casual.)
     
    The conflict is extremely real. You can tell how much Sweetie Belle and Rarity care for each other, but because they see and think so differently, there’s plenty of friction. Sweetie Belle does whatever she can to help Rarity, but when she does, it always goes wrong, so Rarity sees her help as a nuisance.
     
    It has some of the best instances of “show” in season two, particularly when Sweetie Belle had enough of Rarity’s criticisms. In a few seconds, an array of emotions was spilled to the audience, adding layers of depth to her character. Those little extras carried through for the rest of ShS.
     
    When analyzing season one, one of its biggest weaknesses was not giving the Cutie Mark Crusaders much personality beyond the archetypes. Season two really explored their characters (although Scootaloo didn’t have her moment until Sleepless), and Sweetie’s is the one to really be developed. You can see, hear, and feel her way of thinking.
     
    How she wants to help.
     
    How hurt she felt when Rarity gets upset with her.
     
    How she wants Rarity to join the Social.
     
    How thoroughly bitter and angry she was when Rarity bashed the Social.
     
    How much Sweetie just wants Rarity to be a sister and have a great time being with Rarity.
     
    It’s also Rarity’s best episode, but in a way that eventually showed her to not be in a completely positive light. Was she right to be upset? Yes. But that doesn’t excuse her actions. The episode doesn’t excuse Rarity’s behavior (which was in character), and Morrow’s narrative punishes her in each corner. After Sweetie sees AJ and Apple Bloom team up, Rarity gets hit with the karma stick. It’s one of the few episodes in this series where the most obvious story contrivances helped the story rather than hurt it.
     
    What’s even better is how it tells the audience saying sorry isn’t always good enough. Episodes like Suited for Success demonstrated this really well when the ReMane-ing Five had to prove their remorse by finishing Rarity’s Gala dress, teaming up with Opal to lure Rarity out of the Carousel Boutique, and bringing back fashion critic Hoity Toity. Sisterhooves Social is another when Sweetie Belle dismissed the remorseful Rarity. In real life, anger and injured emotions don't subside simply by saying sorry. SB wanted her to know she was still furious with her and never to pull hurtful shit like that again. Through the context of the episode, Rarity was punished, and the punishment fit the crime.
     
    The perfect way to heal the wounds was to disguise as Applejack — with AJ's help — for the Social. They didn't win, but they got something more important: a closer bond and fantastic, in-character character development for each. Sweetie Belle and Rarity re-bonded, and the episode ended.
     
    Sweetie had every reason to be mad at Rarity, and Rarity deserved the consequences she received for her attitude. But none of it approached out of characterization or unlikability. It was realistic and beautifully executed, and both became better characters as a result.
     
    Despite being a secondary character, ShS is also the best episode starring Applejack. Like what Batbrony said in his review, she’s the perfect role model for Rarity as far as being a good older sister is concerned. Obviously, both of them grew since Look Before You Sleep, and their similarities and differences bounce on one another. Despite being rather quirky, the “apple pie formula” metaphor is one joke that really works because it cleverly simplifies how being a sister is about both trial and error and giving and taking rather than peering through tunnel vision. Applejack gave Rarity the necessary clues to learning her lesson, and Rarity used it in practice by selflessly disguising herself as a dirty Applejack to complete the race.
     
    If there’s one really noticeable flaw, it’s how the change in eye color never got a mention. Applejack’s eyes are green; Rarity’s are blue. Sweetie never identified Rarity at all by that, only her horn and cutie mark. While it’s very possible for a horse to hold his or her breath for some time, I’m not sure Morrow, Renzetti, or anyone truly researched it. If there were either technology enough for Rarity to wear green contacts or Sweetie lampshading it via an explanation such as being in a competitive mood to not realize it sooner, then it would’ve cleared it.
     
    Nevertheless, the rest of the episode holds so well, it doesn’t actually matter. In what is the first episode to not star Twilight, it’s also the best season two episode (and the best one Morrow wrote). There aren’t many jokes, instead focusing on the emotional tug between Rarity and Sweetie Belle. That direction really strengthened Sisterhooves Social and enforced Morrow’s capability to capture the feels of a scene.
     

    Well, that’s all for numbers two through ten. I called out the episodes that were both the best as well as the worst, what makes them qualify for those spots, and why they’re placed where they are.
     
    The number-one best episode is not a long shot; you pretty much know what it is. You just don’t know why.
     
    The number-one worst episode? If you followed my comments on here and Equestria Daily, you have a clue why. If not, you’ll know by now.
     
    So to begin on a sour note, the worst episode of the show!
     

    Worst: One Bad Apple
     
    Cindy Morrow, the same writer who wrote some of the best episodes in season two (including Sisterhooves Social), doesn’t exactly have a very good track record. Three of her episodes are on the worst list. Owl’s Well and Putting Your Hoof Down (which she didn't write) are arguably horrible equally, and you can flip-flop them at a dime…something I did while writing this list.
     
    But OBA is the worst of them all, and it’s a shame because there’s so much potential.
     
    So what did it do correctly?
    “Babs Seed.” The song, not the character. Possibly the best song in season three.
    Many funny references, including A-Team and Dr. Who.
    As “Babs Seed” played in the background, Babs Seed, DT, and SS stalk the CMCs, who want nothing to do with Babs. This is one correct way to show the consequences of bullying.
    The CMCs are in character.

    But that’s where it ends. This episode goes beyond a train wreck. It’s one so horrendous, it needs to be put back on the drawing board, revised, and republished with a much better approach to bullying. Some idiots believe the pre-censored Derpy is offensive when it really isn’t, but OBA is objectively way more offensive than the pre-edited version of The Last Roundup.
     
    So…what went wrong?
    It’s also the main reason why Flight to the Finish isn’t on either list: Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are flanderized as flat, one-dimensional bullies, nullifying the character growth from past seasons. If you’re going to make the context convincing, don’t hammer in caricatures to get the message across. It cheapens the whole presentation and risks becoming insulting.
    Applejack and the rest of the Apple family are incompetent because the bullying resulted in AB sleeping on the floor. To have Apple Bloom sleep on an unkempt pile of hay in the far corner of the room instead of next to it with only a magazine or newspaper to cover herself would raise eyebrows to anyone, much less her peers. They know Apple Bloom very well and wouldn’t ignore peculiar situations surrounding her for no good reason. Chances are they could've shown up at some point to see how both of them were doing in Apple Bloom’s room, and in the morning interrogate them. If not, they would’ve shown up in her room when they’re not home, witness the chaos, and then converse with them.
     
    If any one of Apple Bloom’s guardians had a Celestia-given brain, they would’ve investigated the matter immediately. Does it mean they’ll find anything? No. But not getting involved is irresponsible of them and really hurts the Apple elders’ credibility, especially Applejack, whom AB’s so close with. To say it’s out of character of them is a gross understatement.
    The pace in itself is sloppy, going way too fast. Take the time to address the issue of bullying. Don’t rush it to finish the plot.
    Pinkie Pie’s characterization is painful, and she was only there for a couple of minutes. Blatantly ignoring the CMCs’ urgency and then crying out, “VEGGIE SALAD”!? Really?
    Babs Seed is a flat dud. With no personality beyond being a bully as a response to being bullied, she’s as much of a vehicle as the out-of-character Disasterly Duo. Her shown motive by glancing at them and the CMCs before joining them isn’t convincing because she becomes a bully way too quickly. There’s no true conflict. Morrow and the rest of DHX tell the audience there is one without proving it.
     
    Throughout, Babs retains a very sadistic smirk. In fact, a moment midway shows Babs remaining self-conscious despite bullying the Cutie Mark Crusaders, but it doesn’t work at all. For the majority of OBA, she retains a smug smile like duct tape plastered on a racecar. Another episode where facial expressions influence an episode, Sisterhooves Social, really contrasts Babs’s for one big reason.
     
    In one of SS’s scenes where Sweetie Belle goes through multiple expressions, they accentuated the scene’s already tense mood and made the dialogue much more powerful. In a few short seconds, Sweetie’s pain over Rarity’s yelling cycled itself.
     
    One Bad Apple relied on Babs’s smirk throughout. By haphazardly switching it up into being an “I’m-regretful” bully, she looks eviler instead.
    Far too often, the script excuses Babs’s bullying. Using a lazy writing technique by having Babs hide her bare flank is one.
     The script scapegoats Babs’s physical sadism on her situation back in Manehattan. Well, that’s no excuse. If anything, her actions only look WORSE, since Babs knows how being bullied affects her and wants other innocents to feel it, too. Instead of solving the problem, she contributes to the problem.
     
    Plus, what Applejack said above emphasizes how incompetent she was in the episode. Because the only reason Babs is in Ponyville is to get away from the bullying, it would've been very important for Applejack to tell Apple Bloom, Sweetie, and Scootaloo about it. Basically, watch what they do and say around her because the bullying may’ve hurt her psyche. Make her feel welcome and not uneasy. After all, if she didn’t tell them ahead of time, then One Bad Apple’s original script collapses.
      In both exchanges, the Cutie Mark Crusaders excused Babs’s bullying. They didn’t want to tell Applejack because they feared to be tattletales (despite Sweetie suggesting multiple times), which is understandable. Her pushing them around all week ate them up. Feeling they had nowhere to go, they wanted to fight back because they were absolutely sick and tired of it. So they decided to defend themselves without thinking ahead.
     
    Now, the method the CMCs chose — how they fought back — wasn’t correct. But there’s a difference between explaining and justifying those actions. The booby-trapping wasn’t an excuse, but they had a good reason to defend themselves against Babs and tell her to not bully them ever again. The lack of justification was the method. There’s a really big difference between a previously bullied kid bullying innocent kids and the bullied kid taking a stand against their tormentor in response to being constantly stalked, harassed, and assaulted up to this point.
     
    One Bad Apple falls for the cliché of “defending yourself and fighting back against a bully turns you into a bully.” Even worse is how the cliché is played straight. Morrow’s writing is thoroughly lazy in this episode, and she doesn’t hide its laziness and disregard for plausibility.
     
    There are many episodes where characters don't suffer adequate consequences for very poor behavior. One Bad Apple is one of them. Babs Seed tormented the Cutie Mark Crusaders by wrecking their float, having them run away each time, stalking them throughout town, physically assaulting them, evicting Apple Bloom from her bed, controlling the clubhouse, and forcing them to hide out in Sweetie Belle's house. Pretty much all of it without the one-dimensional Disasterly Duo aiding her. While she got the scare of her life via the tampered float, it's downright asinine to say Babs shouldn’t have been punished as a result. She landed the best possible outcome everywhere she went, while the CMCs were left worse for wear. It’s an episode where she definitely needed to be punished, but she didn’t.
    The two biggest morals are also the worst in the entire show because they’re not just wrong, but also dangerous.
     
    The secondary moral is already what I described: The CMCs said that because they wanted to take a stand against a bully and prove they’re not afraid, they were being bullies, too. Sometimes you must fight back because sometimes fleeing doesn’t save you from injury or death. For example, if an armed bully puts a kid in a corner, what the moral is saying that by fighting back, you’re as big a bully as the armed bully. If you see an armed bully, then you should tell an adult…but if an armed bully is attacking you, then you may need to fight.
     
    So what if the kid must fight? What if the bully brandishes a weapon like a knife, gun, screwdriver, mace, or closed fist? Well, because his well-being and life are on the line, he may have no choice but to fight. But wait! The secondary moral says, “If you defend yourself against a violent bully, you're just as bad him.” So, out of embarrassment and shame, this'll make some him not want to fight the bully; if and when he does, he’ll feel incredibly guilty because the episode explicitly states it’s a bad idea. Anyone who comprehends the implications of bullying and has done whatever they can to curb it (including standing up to him so he doesn’t hurt you again) should feel disgusted that this moral, much less its implications, exists.
     
    As for the main moral?
     Pay attention to the bold. What Applejack (and the script) said is, “Come to an adult, and your bullying problem will permanently go away. You won’t have to worry about him or her bullying you anymore.”
     
    One big problem: Applejack was INCOMPETENT! How could you solve the situation when she does nothing to curb Babs’s assault? Do I need to beat the dead background pony once more?
     
    It gets worse: One Bad Apple paints the egregious lie about how there’s one definite solution to all your bullying problems to children and parents of. Yes, telling a grownup is the first thing to do when bullied, but bullying and drama thereof almost never end there. Like a person’s fingerprint, no two situations of bullying are ever the same, and none of them are solved identically. Even if telling a grownup about being bullied does solve it, you could have your friends and other adults shun you or perhaps become just as bad as the bullies if they side with the bully instead of the bullied.
     
    There’s no extreme case of bullying, either. So many stories of people who have or had suffered from the effects of bullying are out there, and the adults in their lives couldn’t or wouldn’t do anything to curb the problem. Hell, some have been driven to suicide due to their peers being unable or doing nothing to stop the bullies.
    If you want to disguise the dangerous moral as effective, then have Applejack tell off Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon for insulting the Cutie Mark Crusaders right in front of her. Instead, she just stares them down angrily while Babs protests herself.

    Bullying is a very complex issue, and what helps makes this episode so vile is how kids (and parents) are told otherwise. One Bad Apple deserves to be bashed and censored because the concept is contrived, lackadaisical, and alarming. Morrow tells a very flawed, convenient, and transparent narrative with extremely broken logic and morals. It’s an insult to the bullied and bullycide victims out there.
     
    If you want to communicate the subject of bullying, research it and then show it while treating your audience (and its complexities) with respect. OBA spits in the face of the bullied and families of those who killed themselves from bullycide. This is a tricky subject, and OBA factually fails! Miserably!
     
    What’s very unfortunate is this was Morrow’s first aired episode since Hurricane Fluttershy, which also dealt with the consequences of bullying (and a factually great episode, unlike this piece of garbage). Unlike OBA, HF showed how dangerous they can be: The fillies’ constant taunting broke her psyche and gave her stage fright. Fluttershy’s shyness evolves into something much deeper, and she worked hard to confront those demons and helped the pegasi create the tornado.
     

     
    So with all that anger out of the way, without much fanfare, here is the best episode of FIM!
     
    Best: The Best Night Ever
     
    To repeat what I said before, in order for an episode to achieve the highest grade I can offer, it must be so well executed. Sisterhooves Social is one of two to earn the A+. This is the other.
     
    So before I explain why, let’s bring up the one main flaw of this episode: It doesn’t feel like a definitive season finale. As the script told the story, it felt like it wanted to tell more. When the credits rolled, it makes the audience want more. And that’s true, ’cause season two’s opener, The Return of Harmony, was supposed to be the season one finale, only to be pushed back. But that doesn’t truly affect TBNE to such a degree, and it’s so miniscule, you can overlook it.
     
    Aside from that, everything went right!
    Of all the writers FIM has or had, the one who can really pen the best pacing is Merriwether Williams. No matter how good, average, bad, or terrible the episode can be, the pacing will usually be in the “strengths” portion of the sandwich.
     
    As far as individual episodes are concerned, TBNE has the best pacing of them all. Each sequence is appropriately timed and flows from one scene to another flawlessly. If you take a look at another ensemble episode later in the series, Trade Ya!, there’s much more focus on the FlutterDash dynamic than TwiPie and Rarijack combined. TBNE gave each of the Mane Six enough screentime to see their dreams prepare to come true, only to get crushed because they got something else in return.
     
    In short, this episode has by far the most solid plot, and its impeccable pacing is one key reason why.
    Each of the characters reacted very well and were all both in character and likable entirely. The setting was pretty obvious.
     
    Spike’s wish to be with Twilight and the others.
     
    Twilight’s desire to be with Celestia (as a big Twilestia brony, TBNE is ship bait for me ).
     
    Rainbow Dash breaking away from her tomcolt façade whenever she sees the Wonderbolts.
     
    Applejack’s cart of apples in order to help Granny Smith (now where did that canon bit go after this? >__>).
     
    Pinkie’s desire to make others happy by recreating the party.
     
    Rarity finding Prince Blueblood Douche (I’ll get to him later).
     
    Fluttershy wanting to spend quality time with the animals at the Canterlot mall.
     
    As you watched the episode, you had a feeling things were going to go wrong. Why? Early in the episode, there were three hilarious subversions: the Cinderella parody, Applejack telling Rarity none of the mares wore clothes, and Spike being left behind after At the Gala. The only question was when. At first, things went well, but that changed when the atmosphere started to become very ironic and expectations slowly crashed down. As the Mane Six try to resurrect their dream for the best night ever, their nightmares worsened.
     
    Their crushed dreams weren’t rushed, either. Each scene took enough time to flow and establish the conflict. It wasn’t exposited to the audience. AKR, Faust, and crew took their twenty-minute running time and ran with it! The audience saw their dreams “come true” in one scene and later devolve little by little into a hilarious nightmare.
    Canterlot’s castle received a lot of worldbuilding. Like Sweet & Elite in season two, the episode expanded the formal approach to the Gala. The elite from various populations in Equestria rendezvoused to the annual event. Like Ponyville, it’s very social, but very upper class with severe expectations to behave professionally.
     
    The Mane Six in Ponyville come from another setting. Sure, Twilight and Spike relocated from Canterlot to Ponyville, but they spent one season learning lessons up to this point, and they adapted to Ponyville’s way of life. Unlike S&E, the collective elite aren’t treated as one-dimensional stereotypes, but rather ponies who wish to have as much a good time as anypony else. The only difference is they know what to expect out of the Gala, unlike the Mane Six.
    You can’t make an episode the best of them all without some really great production, and one of them is the sound. Will Anderson was in top form. Each score he orchestrated fits the scenes so well. You saw the dreams start, and the score reflected that. You saw the dreams wear off, and the score reflected that. DHX cooperated with each segment, and there was a hell of a lot of effort to get it all done correctly.
     
    Along with the sound are the songs. The big one, At the Gala, reflects the Mane Six’s ambitions for the best night ever, hence the episode title. Stephen Sondeim’s Ever After clearly inspired Ingram and Steffan Andrews to orchestrate the song and foreshadow the clever irony that commenced the second it concluded, and AKR’s genius lyrics helped formulate the conflict.
     
    On its own, At the Gala is a work of art and one of the best songs in season one. Not once did the meters clash with the music. Each flowed to the next. The presentation of both the song and choreography was very, very solid. You got the fantastic animation presenting the grandiose realization of the Gala, and everypony else responded in kind. Despite the Mane Six being the prominent singers, the background stallions and mares shared their roles equally by anchoring their own dreams and emphasizing the Mane Six’s. More cleverly, the transitions to introduce each Mane Six are creative and represent each character’s archetypes. The most prominent are Rarity’s (the raising of the horns as if becoming a future princess) and Twilight’s (Celestia cloud-hopping to create a star arch, a clear reference to the modern Walt Disney Pictures intro).
    Over the season, the animation improved. To repeat from earlier, it initially looked pretty decent with some questionable utilization and lack of polish. But the last half refined the animation much better with less glitches and better cooperation with the script (the lone exception Owl’s Well, which fails for its terrible writing more than anything).
     
    This episode’s animation is among the best in the entire show and easily competes with the likes of seasons three and four. With the exception being the constant reusing of character puppets to fill in space, to say it’s well done is an understatement. The mechanics are polished. The scenery is pornographic. The atmosphere correlates perfectly with how each character moves, acts, and responds. On a technical level, it’s among the best in the entire series.
    The comedy is phenomenal, and each joke works SO well. And it’s especially great when it subverts antifeminist tropes.
     
    The mousey horses? Hilariously ugly, and it works depending on whom. The characters find it uglier than us. Someone finds it uglier than the characters. Or both the audience and the characters find them equally ugly.
     
    Opal clawing the mice? You knew this was coming. And what helped was how much it foreshadowed the tumult at the Gala.
     
    The plausible, yet exaggerated wishes from the Mane Six during At the Gala? A more hidden piece of comedy and not entirely one to laugh, but it’s a contextual joke that fits. Especially when they leave Spike behind.
     
    But the best jokes come during the Gala and when they feel miserable. Fluttershy has an awesome angry face, and her Wizard of Oz reference and evil laugh work brilliantly. Pinkie’s Hokey Pokey parody is so Pinkie and magificent both narratively and on its own.
     
    Of course, there’s the star “couple” of Rarity and Prince Blueblood. The supposed Prince Charming is actually a vain jerk, and his behavior around Rarity is so over the top, it’s funny. It’s even funnier when Rarity tolerates it and only gets angrier and angrier during the episode.
     
    Lastly, who can forget these moments?
     

     

    When you analyze all four season finales, The Best Night Ever is the tamest. There’s no emergency, real-life danger, bombastic brawls with so much at stake, or end-of-the-world plot. FIM was supposed to follow the original G1’s roots and contain adventure-centric plots, but Hasbro altered it to slice of life (similar to G3). Magical Mystery Cure is slice of life, too, but has the feel of an epic plot, only to be squished down into a rushed self-container.
     
    The Best Night Ever stays true to the slice of life foundation that made so many other S1 episodes memorable. It’s not epic, but it doesn’t try to be. It makes you think it’ll be epic, but it’s quelled bluntly and hilariously by satirizing the classic fairytales that plagued feminine products. TBNE plays along with those expectations to its advantage and brings the audience along with the ride by making the whole setting explicitly character-driven.
     
    One of the show’s biggest problems is how the premieres and finales shifted from Friendship Is Magic to Twilight Is Magic. There’s more to FIM than Twilight. The others matter just as much as Twilight, and each person has varying opinions of the characters. One big reason why some bronies really despise Magical Mystery Cure (and one big reason why it’s a bad episode regardless of how much any of you enjoy it) is how Twilight’s placed on a much higher pedestal than her friends. The other characters had worked just as hard as her and remained proverbial sidekicks.
     
    Yes, TCE, A Canterlot Wedding, Princess Twilight Sparkle, and Twilight’s Kingdom have them doing something. But there’s a very big difference between doing something and DOING SOMETHING! Each of the Mane Six is equal, and one of the biggest subversions of FIM — especially early on — is the context of one character overshadowing others. Episodes/films such as MMC, Twilight’s Kingdom, and Equestria Girls don’t subvert the context of making one character more important than the others. They embrace it, and none of the openers and finales after Return of Harmony masks it, Twilight’s Kingdom being somewhat of an exception.
     
    Unlike the other three finales, this is FIM in its purest form. The concept of Twilight or another of the Mane Six overshadowing the others is spat on. Not once did a character steal another’s spotlight. Each of their conflicts carries equal weight. There’s no pedestal for Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, or whoever. They were all very important, and none of them were above anyone else. This subversion was implicit throughout season one despite Twilight being shoved in to have her write the lesson; TBNE explicitly communicated this memo by its equal amount of time developing the encompassing parodies.
     
    TBNE doesn’t tell you Friendship Is Magic. TBNE IS Friendship Is Magic.
     
    Because it’s so tame, the Mane Six equally share the spotlight, and it doesn’t follow the traditional bombastic roots of openers and finales, TBNE is, to tell you the truth, the boldest of all four finales.


    My Little Pony has a history, some good, most really terrible. Friendship Is Magic’s challenge is to deliver quality entertainment that not only meets the expectations of good TV, but also surpasses them. To prove there’s more variety for people young and old to watch, namely parents of young girls.
     
    Does it succeed? Absolutely. Like what I wrote to a commentator in one of my more recent rants, as a feminist, this is the most important pro-feminist cartoon since The Powerpuff Girls. Unfortunately, no show is perfect, and some episodes are less polished than others. Many episodes are very good if not great, but many range from bad to awful. DHX has a track record to write great stories, but they can publish as many good ones as possible to improve FIM’s track record and invite more bronies along the ride.
     
    P.S.: If you notice, Equestria Girls (which I hate more than Rainbow Falls and even G3/3.5) isn’t anywhere on this list. I left it off because it’s a movie and not an episode. This list is about episodes only.
     
    But if I did include it, where would I place it in the worst-of list? Honestly, I’m not sure. Because it’s more broken than Rainbow Falls, it’d be fifth at least. Currently, it wouldn’t be any worse than third (below Bridle Gossip and One Bad Apple and above Dragon Quest).
     

    To complete the guessing game, here are the lists, starting with the F episodes from worst (One Bad Apple) to best:
    One Bad Apple
    Bridle Gossip
    Dragon Quest
    The Crystal Empire
    Rainbow Falls
    Putting Your Hoof Down
    Owl’s Well That Ends Well
    The Mysterious Mare Do Well
    The Show Stoppers
    Equestria Games
    Boast Busters
    Daring Don’t
    May the Best Pet Win!
    Somepony to Watch Over Me
    Games Ponies Play
    Spike at Your Service

    Finally, the best episodes, starting from The Best Night Ever to the worst A- episode (the A- episodes are in italics):
    The Best Night Ever
    Sisterhooves Social
    Party of One
    Pinkie Pride
    Testing Testing 1, 2, 3
    Lesson Zero
    Suited for Success
    Sleepless in Ponyville
    For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils
    The Return of Harmony
    The Cutie Mark Chronicles
    Wonderbolts Academy
    Winter Wrap Up

  15. Dark Qiviut
    Author’s Note: This is Part 1 (#10-7) of DQ’s list of best and worst FIM episodes. Click here for Part 2 (#6-3). Click here for Part 3 (#2-1).
     

    Over here, I listed the grades of every single episode in the show at this point. If you followed it, several grades have changed over the past couple of months since I first submitted it, some for the better, others for the worse. To repeat from there, one of my biggest pet peeves in reviewing is to reduce the episode to a grade or score: Those who read or watch it will only skip to the score and scoot elsewhere. It’s the biggest reason why I never grade or scorecard anything in media. Even after this exercise, I’ll still forever hate it.
     
    Nonetheless, there are two big reasons for this:
    Reduce the overarching quality of the episodes to a point beyond my own biases (or as much as possible).
    Create a best/worst-of list with the reasons why.

    The latter is the biggest reason. The grades are an exercise to determining their overall quality up to a single point regardless of bias. In other words, an exercise to determining their quality objectively. Take all the valid strengths, weaknesses, and overall influences. Reduce them to one single academic grade, and then rank them from best to worst.
     
    Right now, I’ll give you my current ten favorite and least-favorite episodes in order, starting with my ten least-favorites:
    Rainbow Falls
    Equestria Games
    Just for Sidekicks
    The Mysterious Mare Do Well
    Owl’s Well That Ends Well
    Somepony to Watch Over Me
    Flight to the Finish
    Hearts and Hooves Day
    Sweet and Elite
    Bridle Gossip

    And my ten favorites:
    Testing Testing 1, 2, 3
    Magic Duel
    Sleepless in Ponyville
    Pinkie Pride
    Party of One
    The Return of Harmony, Part 2
    Winter Wrap Up
    Suited for Success
    The Best Night Ever
    Pinkie Apple Pie

    Many of the episodes you see on both lists won’t be featured in the bottom and top tens. Flight to the Finish, an episode I hate, wouldn’t crack the bottom thirty. In fact, it’d possibly crack the top twenty-five: Despite the one-dimensional antagonists, it approaches the outcome very maturely and with a magnificent payoff at the end.
     
    At this point, these are the episodes with a grade of “F”:
    Boast Busters
    Bridle Gossip
    The Show Stoppers
    Owl’s Well That Ends Well
    May the Best Pet Win!
    The Mysterious Mare Do Well
    The Last Roundup (edited) (As I’m only focusing on the uncensored versions, this won’t qualify; if I was, this’d be the second-worst episode for obvious reasons.)
    Putting Your Hoof Down
    Dragon Quest
    The Crystal Empire
    One Bad Apple
    Spike at Your Service
    Games Ponies Play
    Daring Don’t
    Rainbow Falls
    Somepony to Watch Over Me
    Equestria Games

    And now the episodes graded “A-” or higher (the A-minuses are in italics):
    Winter Wrap Up
    Suited for Success
    The Cutie Mark Chronicles
    Party of One
    The Best Night Ever
    The Return of Harmony
    Lesson Zero
    Sisterhooves Social
    Sleepless in Ponyville
    Wonderbolts Academy
    Pinkie Pride
    For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils
    Testing Testing 1, 2, 3

    To put it in simpler terms, I’m a very hard grader. Hell, most of my B’s would be A-minuses (or even A’s) depending on the brony analyst you’re watching. (Conversely, many of them would grade Apple Family Reunion a C, C-, or D+, while I gave it a B-.) The reasons why I grade so harshly is twofold:
    There’s a standard DHX imposes on the audience and itself. Part of its mission statement its to deliver quality family-friendly entertainment within an era full of really bad cartoons to an audience to prove parents, especially ones of young girls, that quality exists. Despite many shortcomings, they never relented this mission.
     
    As a critic, I’m obliging to follow that up by reviewing them through similarly tough standards, as well. Family shows have very low standards collectively, and if anyone’s going to want to change that, then harsh standards must be placed. Far too many people want to try to tell me, “I’m taking it too seriously.” I already called out the lazy “it’s for kids” excuse (and the population that uses it). I’m keeping my foot down and putting those standards out there for everyone to see.
    Anecdotally, the best classes I ever took graded my work very harshly. The hard graders pushed me to work beyond my own expectations, and I exited the classes with a lot more knowledge and respect for not only the fields, but also the professors who taught me. The Senior Project is my proudest (and best class I took, in my opinion): Of the seventy who took it, I was only one of four to get an A. If you can tell, those tough standards ebb on me.

    If the episode gets an A, then it must truly hit the mark. It must be the cream of the crop; it must be done well. If plenty of in-the-middle — or at least a couple of really big — problems hold the episode back logically, morally, or narratively, then your grade will suffer, and the episode’s quality drops.
     
    This is why popular episodes like Twilight’s Kingdom, A Canterlot Wedding, Green Isn’t Your Color, Sonic Rainboom, Hurricane Fluttershy, Magic Duel, Flight to the Finish, or Rarity Takes Manehattan will not qualify for the “best of” list.
     
    Now, the question: Where do they — the best and worst above — fall? What episodes will fall out of the bottom and top tens?
     
    Before I go on, a few warnings:
    Despite being as objective as possible, it won’t be perfect. There will be some form of emotional attachment either on the positive or negative end. If it’s positive, the text will rave and praise these episodes and the content within. If not, then it’ll be criticized hard, and I won’t pull back any punches.
    This list is subject to change. Season five won’t come until at least around Thanksgiving, and any of those episodes could take place on these lists at some point in the future. More importantly, any of the episodes I did not fail already could be included in this list someday.
     
    For example, I’m still seriously considering failing Ponyville Confidential and MMMystery. If I do, how will that affect the bottom ten? We’ll have to wait and see.

    Instead of doing the typical lists, I’ll pair the numbers up, starting with the tenth-worst above and then the tenth best below it, followed by ninth-worst/ninth-best, and so on. Because of the humongous quantity of text, it’s split into three parts.
    Part 1: #10-7
    Part 2: #6-3
    Part 3: #2-1

    Each part will be linked in a foreword atop the blog, a note down at the bottom, and this small list here.
     
    So, let’s begin!
     

    Tenth-worst: Equestria Games
     
    Friendship Is Magic’s version of Truth or Square, only much shorter and much less worse. The biggest reason this episode fails is how it not only doesn’t live up to the hype of the Games, but also blatantly spits on the expectations set up by both the continuity and advertisement. Fifteen months of build-up for the Games gone in a snap just to focus on a very marginal Spike episode. Yeah, sure, the rest of the Games arc sucked, but that doesn’t give the teams of DHX, Hasbro, or The Hub the license to ignore it until the contrived climax. I could ignore the hype and focus on the stuff shown instead, but that’d be insulting to not only the grand narrative of the overarching plot, but also the audience expectations leading to the Equestria Games. Expectations the show relied on up to the episode.
     
    And, yes, you heard me right. It’s not a good Spike in the slightest. The exposition was blunt and spewed out within the first five to seven minutes. Spike’s characterization took a nosedive following his in-character stage fright, starting with the daft concept of mentally lighting the torch. To make things worse, he became an even bigger butt of jokes by botching up the Cloudesdale anthem when he knows damn well he wasn’t completely prepared for this kind of task. He never truly earned his way to redeem himself, either; the climax and buildup were set up so he can arrive by chance to save everyone. If you’re going to try to have a character redeem him or herself, don’t write the laziest idea possible. And actually have him learn the lesson rather than having him be told it to his face.
     
    And the best way to tell how lazy this episode was how the Games added nothing to not just the episode, but Spike’s confidence conflict outright, too. Because the ponified Olympics was so far in the background, the setting could’ve been anything, and you wouldn’t have to change a thing to the conflict beyond three points. The setting was window-dressing for an unrelated conflict and moral.
     
    If you want to see an expanded analysis/review of the episode, head over here.
     
    Equestria Games is the episode where overarching plotting under Meghan McCarthy officially jumps the shark. If she’s going to lead the team into another for season five, then she and the rest of DHX need to do a much better job developing one that’s more coherent and better written in general. Quite frankly, every S4 arc sucked; this one sucked the most.
     

    Tenth-best: The Return of Harmony
     
    It’s the only two-parter to qualify anywhere close to the “best-of” list. (Twilight’s Kingdom is closest with a B-.) The pilot gave an interesting start, but it’s hurt by some really bad storytelling. ACW is full of massive holes in logic, plotting, and intelligence, making the episode much weaker than most people believe. Twilight’s Kingdom is McCarthy’s best two-parter, but it’s full of the same issues, yet the conclusion is more satisfactory.
     
    Here, so much stuff worked. The comedy hit their mark. The characterization hit the mark. The purpose of having the Elements of Harmony hit its mark, and Larson made it very clear why the Mane Six (under a clear state) held the jewelry, not anyone else.
     
    What about the Discorded ponies? They were unbelievably, unpleasantly funny. Each of them mirror who they don’t want to be.
     
    Rainbow Dash: Rainbow Ditch
     
    Pinkie Pie: Grumpy Pie
     
    Fluttershy: Flutterbitch
     
    Rarity: Greedity
     
    Applejack: Liarjack
     
    Twilight Sparkle: Twilight Quitter
     
    But it wasn’t because they immediately quit. Discord slowly yet surely manipulated them, convincing them into becoming Discorded ponies, and they became more Discorded when they became crueler. The only reason Discord couldn’t manipulate Fluttershy is to reference her becoming willfully incorruptible and more sure-minded, a concept subtly referenced in Keep Calm and Flutter On.
     
    But the best part is Discord — the best villain in the show. He wasn’t evil for evil’s sake. His goal was pure and continuous: the ability to recreate chaos whenever he wants. He could throw a punch, but like what Batbrony once said, Discord feels he’s above that and prefers to play mind games instead. His characterization was completely hilarious; he was never in the same place twice and had an ego bigger than Montana.
     
    But besides that, what makes him such a credible villain is the ability to take his wit and hilarity and spin it into something much, much darker. He may not be as imposing as Tirek, but it’s silent and slow. His slitherin’ words, ambitious personality, manipulation, and capability of keeping his goal fresh make him more convincing, menacing and evil than any other FIM villain.
     
    There are two reasons why it’s on the bottom of the top ten:
    Act 3 of Part 2 is really rushed. After all the buildup, you have everything solved very quickly through a DEM (Twilight’s memory spell) and an anticlimactic climax. Of course, plenty of it makes up for it somewhat, like Fluttershy’s “That…big…dumb…MEANIE!”, and the clever “New Hope” reference.
    Discord’s introduction and backstory have very little substance. Here it is in its entirety:
     The backstory’s so simple, without the foreshadowing from the prologue, it would’ve been much more noticeable than it truly is.


    Ninth-worst: The Show Stoppers
     
    There are episodes that risk destroying a character’s reputation. The Show Stoppers is one such example, and I’ll talk about this a little bit more later. Stare Master got off rather well with their obnoxiousness (although there, it was written as a negative, so that wasn’t an absolute flaw).
     
    TSS dials their personalities backwards by making them not just oblivious, but completely stupid. Their talents were revealed no less than two minutes in, and the episode obnoxiously plasters that massage wherever it could, partly for humor. But it isn’t in those montages exclusively. That message was blatant via the poorly choreographed talent show, the poorly written song to go with it, and their obliviousness after the friendship report was written.
     
    Like Snips and Snails in Boast Busters, The Show Stoppers accentuates their obliviousness into implausible levels. Stupidity this extreme isn’t funny. It’s as crass and unintelligent as flatulence humor.
     
    By shoving their talents in so early, their journey becomes a waste of time to the audience’s point of view, and the show plays The Waiting Game since then. Your audience isn’t going to be so patient for so long; there’s a reason why several bronies are wondering when they’ll get their cutie marks and why some got rather annoyed at the false close-up in Flight to the Finish. The game is repetitive and tiring, and all it does is age TSS even more and make it look worse. You can make a guess why Twilight Time (the second-best CMC episode) altered their direction by expanding their potential into other fields.
     
    Of course, there’s Twilight being shoehorned. But compared to how dumb Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo were, Twilight’s appearance was nothing. Combine everything to how the episode ended with back to where we started (minus the completion of the clubhouse), it becomes poorly written filler that sets back the Cutie Mark Crusaders and enforces a really terrible first impression for the child characters.
     
    If there’s a saving grace to this episode, it’s how The Show Stoppers risked ruining their reputation. In season one, the characters offered little to separate one from the other minus their voices. Even though they’re kids, they’re so oblivious to the point of annoying and redundant. Fortunately, future episodes fought back and made them much more likeable, like Sisterhooves Social, Sleepless in Ponyville, Flight to the Finish, and Twilight Time.
     

    Ninth-best: For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils
     
    Season four was easily Polsky’s best season as FIM writer. Toils was his apex, and it’s the last A- episode in the top-ten.
    The conflict is very believable, and when you look back and think about it, it’s such a genius idea. Through all the tension, even without SB blurting out the “fifth birthday” comparison, Sweetie Belle had obviously lived under her bigger sister’s shadow for some time and was becoming sick of it. When Rarity’s fantastic dresses overshadowed the play she worked hard on, it was as if her work became null. So it made plenty of sense for Sweetie to ignore the consequences of her actions and destroy the headdress. She was wrong for her actions, and the script punished her for that, but she was presented very sympathetically despite being in the wrong.
    Plenty of script space is dedicated to coming up with a believable approach to the conflict and then boiling over. Polsky doesn’t dump the conflict in the first two minutes. There’s actual tension in this episode thanks to the buildup in both the writing and sound.
    Rarity’s strengths and (by association) a very discreet flaw are highlighted. Rarity is extremely generous and goes beyond the call of duty to make others happy, making the dresses better than Sweetie wanted thanks to her very strict standards of quality. *glares at some other season four episode* Simultaneously, she loves being praised and isn’t afraid to show off an ego perhaps bigger than Dash’s given the right context. Because those strict standards and vanity accompany her, she’s oblivious to the accusations of greed for the spotlight despite never being the case. You don’t see this flaw to her character because you don’t think about it; it comes off as natural, so it’s easily overlooked. But then critically consider the context — you’ll wonder how long it took for DHX to put it on display.
    Minus one moment where a new puppet would’ve worked, the animation during Sweetie’s nightmare was well done. The transitions were atypical, but worked brilliantly because this all takes place in her dreams; reality bending is justifiable here. Plus, they were all very smooth, allowing the episode to flow from one scene to another without becoming forced. It sets up not only the moral, but the eventual “tough love” consequences Luna and Sweetie’s conscience imposed on her.
    Speaking of the consequences, her nightmare is one of the best cases of “show, don’t tell” in the show’s running. Rather than letting Luna tell Sweetie what they are, she and her conscience foisted them directly and had her linger and torment more-than-likely hyperbole. Then again, seeing as Rarity can be a big drama queen, her outcome and reaction aren’t as farfetched as we might think.
     
    (BTW, excellent twist of the Christmas Carol. )
    Polsky and crew cleverly tied in Luna’s actions presented in both the pilot and Princess Twilight Sparkle to this episode. It makes Luna’s plight much more personal and relatable, as she suffered long-term consequences for her jealous rage. For those who are sticklers to continuity, it establishes credibility for the moral conceptually and thematically. Without that relatable connection, “don’t jump to conclusions/don’t let anger influence you to do something you might regret later in life” would become very weak.
    OptimisticNeighsayer makes a great point with the title. “Toils” cleverly foreshadows what type of conflict Sweetie Belle faces and how she must solve it. Initially, she toils for her selfishness and will to be just as equal as Rarity albeit handling it poorly. After realizing her grievousness, she toils for Rarity, told her what she wanted to do, and rectified the wrong.

    The biggest reasons it’s down at ninth, though, are these:
    It doesn’t establish the limits to Luna’s dreamwalking powers. Sleepless in Ponyville didn’t make it very clear by introducing them out of nowhere, and they were expanded even more here. You have to be very careful with how much you can extend Luna’s dreamwalking powers before it becomes overpowered and morally questionable.
    The beginning of the episode exposits Sweetie telling the audience how much she worked on the play. Fortunately, they made up for it with the strong conflict.
    The DEM of Sweetie trespassing Shores’s studio to retrieve the box.
    Two plot holes: Sweetie knowing the hidden stitch despite not being there to hear it, and Sweetie letting AB and SL in through the same door Lockdown guarded.

    Nonetheless, the good more than outweigh the bad, and Sweetie Belle grew exponentially as a character here. It was in character, tense, hilarious, and thoroughly phenomenal. Here, Twilight Time, and Rarity Takes Manehattan proved how great a writer he is despite his shortcomings. More of these and less of Daring Don’t, EG, and Games Ponies Play, the better.
     

    Eighth-worst: The Mysterious Mare Do Well
     
    Back when I first watched it, it was the first episode I hated, and I still hate it. There are several reasons this one’s terrible.
    The worldbuilding is extremely contrived. What was basically a small town or village expanded into some random death trap just to serve the plot.
    The storytelling is extremely repetitive. Everything is divided into the Three Strikes Formula.
     
    Dash saving lives? Three strikes.
     
    The others showing her up? Three strikes.
     
    Dash doing stupid things? Three strikes.
     
    Dash chasing the MDW? Three strikes.
     
    It’s insultingly formulaic and makes the pace both too fast AND too slow simultaneously.
    The characters are all VERY out of character. Rainbow Dash was OOC because she turned into a bragging dumbass. (If this was supposed to show her being incredibly insecure, this crap did a damn bad job at that for flanderizing her. If you believe otherwise, you’re fooling yourself.) The ReMane-ing Five were out of character for blatantly antagonizing her and becoming extremely vindictive during a time where Ponyville is dangerous to live in. (Via the approach to the conflict and moral, the script and ReMane Five treated their lives as a game!) Scootaloo — who was devoted to Dash at the time — was out of character for jumping the bandwagon so quickly.
    This episode suffers from Boast Busters Syndrome.
     
    In BB, Trixie was written as the antagonist, and we were supposed to root for Twilight and the Mane Six altogether. But Trixie was performing before a crowd and embellishing her talents to create illusions. Rarity, AJ, and Dash were out-of-character, antagonistic idiots and got some much-needed humble pie, only they didn’t learn anything from it. Trixie unnecessarily lost her home and the ability to create a living, which only happened to drag this thin plot out to twenty minutes. Instead of making Trixie antagonistic, she looked sympathetic amongst the “Mane Six” who were as smart as flies.
     
    MDW suffered from this same problem. DHX treated Dash as the antagonist, but the Mane Six deserve as much of the blame as (or more than) Dash for being so out of character. Also, Dash had reasons to brag: She was saving lives, and she was finally receiving recognition for what she did.
     
    Unfortunately, this isn’t the last episode on this list to hinge on this tired flaw.
    The moral itself is poorly written. Because the base demographic is five-year-old children, one of the best ways to let it sink in is to let the characters learn it for themselves. Mare Do Well accomplishes the opposite. Rainbow Dash was too dumb to learn the moral on her own, so the ReMane-ing Five told her to her face in the final two minutes or so in the episode.
     
    a. That’s terrible teaching. Rainbow Dash never learned her lesson one bit. Learn by example. Show, don’t tell.
     
    b. Because it was told to her, that lesson will travel through one ear and out the other in the eyes of the audience. Make the lesson stick by having the character learn it through the process.
     
    c. The Aesop is broken. Rainbow Dash was told to show more humility in her accomplishments. Well, then, why did you have to act like major hypocrites throughout the whole conflict, particularly in the Sugarcube Corner scene? Also, why didn’t you, I don’t know, go and ask Dash to tone it down a tad, because her ego was rubbing them the wrong way?
     
    (There’s the argument that Dash would’ve ignored them, after all. A little advice: If you have to assume Dash would ignore them, then you’re operating on headcanon to plug in holes. When this happens, you have a glaring plot hole in front of you.)

    Like Mare Do Well, four others told the moral directly to the audience. All of them have F grades, and two of them are on this list. Equestria Games is one of them. Guess the other.
     

    Eighth-best: Sleepless in Ponyville
     
    Also known as the best episode in season three. Several things worked really well. The gags were hilarious, especially the G3 reference. Every character was in character, and they all were given a near-perfect amount of time for exploration. (Rarity was the closest for her tit-for-tat gag to Sweetie Belle, but it didn’t cross it.) If you’re into the skillset of animation and background visuals, SiP is pornographic; the sharp perspectives and evil yellow eyes in Act 2 cross into Nightmare Fuel territory thanks to Scootaloo’s fears and subconscious playing mind games.
     
    The pacing? Easily the best of season three minus Wonderbolts Academy.
     
    But the best part? The ending where Rainbow Dash agrees to be Scootaloo’s mentor. To quote from my SiP review:
    Four things bog it down:
    Rarity’s nonchalant attitude towards Sweetie’s slapsticky struggles from pulling the cart. Sure, it’s in character of her, but part of FIM’s purpose is to make the main characters likeable. This teeters into a part of Rarity’s character that could make some dislike her and view her as petty. If you’re looking into liking Rarity, this may not be the episode for you. (A thoroughly worse episode, Spike at Your Service, makes her more likeable.)
    A lack of clarity behind Luna’s dreamwalking powers and Rainbow Dash’s realization that Scootaloo was in danger. the composition gives a clue, but it’s too vague, treating the rescue as a DEM.
    Lack of realism when starting a campfire.
    Applejack’s dangerous suggestion to sleep in an unsupervised cave in the wild during the night.

    This is the only episode in the whole lot where you can definitely drop it to an A-. While it’s hyperbolic to call it one of the worst episodes of the show, the story definitely needs more refinement. But what’s good does really well, and it’s those fantastic pluses where it barely deserves the A.
     

    Seventh-worst: Owl’s Well That Ends Well
     
    The first Spike-centric episode, and did his potential for an episode starring him screw up immediately.
    The “Who” joke is incredibly forced and got old very quickly. It failed when it started. It fails now. It’s the Wilhelm scream of FIM. Cut that crap out!
    This whole episode is one gigantic cliché uncorked. It’s the “he’s-jealous-because-he-feels-he’ll-be-replaced” cliché, only to have Spike feel uncharacteristically jealous of Owlowiscious. It’s a cliché rarely done correctly, and it wasn’t done correctly here. If you want to write a jealousy story, at least deviate and make it both in character and plausible without making one character look bad.
     
    …So why the hell did Green Isn’t Your Color air FOUR episodes ago?!
     
    In that one, Rarity began to feel very jealous of Fluttershy because she was inadvertently overshadowing Rarity’s hard work. However, she felt very bad, because Fluttershy was her friend, and she was happy to see her succeed. So when she tried to screw her, Rarity got screwed. All it needed was for Fluttershy and Rarity to admit their feelings about the whole charade to end Rarity’s jealousy. (It’s not in the top ten because the B plot of Twilight and Pinkie elongated the conflict far more than it should, robbing the episode of some focus.)
    Spike is out of character. Not for covering up the burnt book, but his actions into wanting to get rid of Owlowiscious. Twilight made it clear that the new assistant was just that. A “junior assistant” to help out Spike. And he reacted rather apprehensively instead of relieving. Then the paper-thin plot plods forward into making him antagonistic beyond what he was capable of at the time.
     
    On the other hand, his apprehension and jealousy were justified, which makes him in character simultaneously. Firstly, Owlowiscious shows up out of nowhere and borrows Spike’s role, one he’s damn proud of. To make it worse, the Mane Six’s attitude towards the owl was unbelievably petty: They knew Spike since the pilot, but the ReMane-ing Five never met Owlowiscious. If you’re that impressed so early for one character and not another, your trust for one another gets severed.
     
    The script abuses Spike, and he doesn’t deserve it one bit. OWTEW suffers a lot from BBS by turning Spike into an antagonist and Owlowiscious a protagonist. Instead, it makes you feel sorry for Spike instead because the lazy comedy is at his expense.
     
    (By the way, don’t dare bullshit me that Spikabuse is okay here because previous episodes made him a buttmonkey. Two words: It’s not. The Spikabuse in those episodes factually makes the Spikabuse in Owl’s Well look worse for the reasons outlined above.)
    And the final excuses nails Owl’s Well’s coffin shut. If Twilight wanted Owlowiscious to be her nighttime assistant, then how come seventy-five percent of the story takes place during the day, and why does Owlowiscious torment Spike? It makes Twilight out of character, pushy, petty, and stupid. Not to mention breaking the conflict and Aesop.

    With the exception of Secret of My Excess and Inspiration Manifestation (to an extent), every single Spike episode is bad. OWTEW is a particular brand of awful, because it all but ruined Spike’s potential for future episodes. It tries to be funny, but it’s too mean-spirited, and Spike doesn’t deserve any of the punishment. If it was written far better, then there could’ve been a much better impression of Spike as a thorough character. Instead, the engine all but died, and DHX has to rely on him being a secondary role to shine (e.g., Lesson Zero, Equestria Girls, Simple Ways).
     

    Seventh-best: Suited for Success (Lauren Faust’s favorite episode)
     
    Contrary to Putting Your Hoof Down, Charlotte Fullerton’s best episode perfectly exemplifies how to create fans of a certain character. Here, it’s Rarity, and it’s this episode where her Element of Generosity is not only put to the test, but excels when needed, too.
     
    Firstly, this demonstrates a really delicate, but nice nod to The Ticket Master, only expanding and improving the overarching plot (which doesn’t get put back on the forefront until the finale and only hinted through the conflicts and morals in between). Opalescence makes her debut, too, and right away, the cat has an attitude, but she means well and is quite likeable.
     
    But other stuff works well, too.
    Art of the Dress. Need I say more about it?
     
    …Ohhhhh, all right.
     
    The lyrics are divine. Not only are the meters well written, but they’re very in character of the worldbuilding, conflict, ReMane-ing Five, and Rarity. Each organic line respects Putting It Together, the musical number Art of the Dress honors.
     
    This is also the episode that really takes advantage of FIM’s early use of flash animation. You can tell the storyboarders and animators had a lot of fun creating the music video and putting it into life. Through the interesting cues of the animation and scene transitions, it keeps the viewing experience very fresh now as it was back in 2011.
     
    There’s very great commentary towards the executive meddling (and freelance) system. Most of DHX is a collection of freelance writers; they do a lot of work beyond both FIM and Hasbro and complete their work for other clients. Each of the ReMane-ing Five behaved like the clients they all experienced. Personally, as someone who’s been taught of the design industry (and I’m going back to get a Master’s in this field to expand my experience), it makes Rarity very relatable, especially as her generosity (and the ReMane-ing Five’s bad behavior) temporarily derailed her career.
    Speaking of the animation, it’s easily some of the best in the show, not just season one. Compare this to Winter Wrap Up, Look Before You Sleep, and Boast Busters. The animation quality in those three are quite low. Suited for Success exceeded those expectations and put forth a bunch of effort into getting it as refined as possible at the time.
     
    According to Digibro’s analysis video of this episode, he watched DVD commentary, and he said Faust storyboarded the final fashion show to get it the way she wanted. I don’t have the DVD to watch the commentary, but I thoroughly believe it. Because Faust’s intentions for this series was to subvert expectations and concepts seen in previous female-oriented broadcasts, SfS sticks to those goals very well.
    The ReMane-ing Five learn their lesson and grow from their experience. They were demanding, and it was quick to point out how they were wrong with taking advantage of Rarity’s generosity. They meant well and don’t cross into being out of character, but they were definitely antagonistic. To see them humiliated was poetic justice, and having to regain Rarity’s trust the hard way was beautiful. They made a dumb mistake without being out of character, suffered the consequences, and rectified the errors of their ways.

    If there are a few things that hold it back from ascending, it’s these two reasons:
    The original fashion show appears on really short notice. A little more foreshadowing would’ve settled that part of the conflict more organically in the episode. By having Hoity Toity and the fashion show pop up out of nowhere, the plot point and conflict itself become partially artificial.
    The suddenly demanding attitudes of the ReMane Five are semi-uncharacteristic. Not in a way that’s out of character or unlikeable. But they met the standard personalities of the clients to a “T.” It didn’t exactly mesh with their personalities all that well, making the contrivance very noticeable.


     
    Click here for Part 2 of DQ's list of FIM's best and worst episodes. Click here for Part 3.
  16. Dark Qiviut
    Link to the blog.
     
    And here are three articles: Eater, EpiCurious, & Gawker
     
    ———
     
    Okay, I know most of us LOVE deep-fried food. Of course, there's the chips/fries, chicken, turkey on a stick, potato chips, plantains, dougnuts, beignets, calamari, and spring rolls. But then there's the funnel cake, Twinkies, Oreo, pickles, Mars bars, and ice cream.
     
    But deep-fried BUTTER is the icing on the cake! X__X
     
    Or should I say, batter on the arteries.
  17. Dark Qiviut
    Remember this?
     

     
    During the 2003-'04 offseason, the Red Sox were rebuilding part of their roster. After letting manager Grady Little go for obvious reasons, they signed various players, including Curt Schilling and closer Keith Foulke. One other player they were going after was Alex Rodriguez, the then Rangers shortstop and AL MVP (currently the last to win it despite playing on a last-place team). The Rangers wanted to trade him to clear up some of the team salary, and the Red Sox nearly got him, only for the Players' Association to veto it because it meant he had to have his salary reduced. Then, Aaron Boone suffered a season-ending knee injury, creating a hole at third base. The Yankees took advantage and traded Alfonso Soriano and Joaquin Arias to Texas for him, and A-Rod transitioned to third base, where he still is today.
     
    Boston fans didn't take it too kindly, so when he played at Fenway Park for the first time, he got heavily booed and then got laughed at when he whiffed at Tim Wakefield's knuckleball.
     
    But the big game came on July 24th. After an hour-or-so rain delay, the two teams played. The very series before, NYY swept Boston at Yankee Stadium, the series memorialized by
    . Coming into Boston, the Yanks had an eight-and-a-half-game lead over Boston, and in the first of three, they overcame Kevin Millar's three home runs to win, 8-7, capped off by A-Rod's game-winning RBI. 
    On Saturday, July 24, 2004, the Yankees got to pitcher Bronson Arroyo early, taking a quick 3-0 lead.
     
    Then, in the top of the third, with a 1-1 count and two out:
     

     
    The result: a full-fledged basebrawl between Jason Varitek (who's no stranger to starting fights) and Alex Rodriguez. And it was pretty ugly by today's standards. You had punches flying, separate piles spilling further away from the middle of the diamond, and blood. Schilling was right in the middle by throwing a couple of haymakers to Rodriguex's cranium. While A-Rod was on the bottom of one pile, Boston's Gabe Kapler, Trot Nixon, and David Ortiz (who was appealing a five-game suspension for throwing a temper tantrum at an umpire the week before) scrapped with the Yanks' Tanyon Sturtze (their starting pitcher for that game).
     
    The image, courtesy of J. Rogash of Getty Images, is iconic in Red Sox lore, symbolizing how Boston fans were absolutely sick and tired of losing to the Yankees. Sick of how much they were able to spend. Sick of their "entitlement." Sick of seeing them win twenty-six titles while Boston hadn't won one since 1918. When Boston fans see that photo, it reminds them of how much they couldn't stand the Evil Empire, and it personalized their move to the top.
     
    As for the brawl itself, there were four ejections:
    A-Rod
    Jason Varitek
    Yankees' Kenny Lofton (for being overly aggressive during the brawl and would later be fined by MLB)
    Boston's Gabe Kapler (for punching and tussling with Tanyon Sturtze, who suffered a gash in front of his left ear)

    The Sox then rallied, getting into their fragile bullpen and crawling back to within one run in the middle innings. In the bottom of the ninth, they trailed 10-8 with Mariano Rivera on the mound. A rally began, and Trot Nixon nearly tied it with a two-run shot, but it was enough to advance Garciaparra to third. But they still pounded Rivera, who subsequently allowed an RBI single by Millar.
     
    Then, with one out and one on, third-baseman Bill Mueller came to bat.
     

     
    Boston would take the next game to win the three-game set, and Boston would later trade Garciaparra and others to boost up their then terrible defense and running game (trades that proved dividends in their run to the 2004 title).
     
    Today, the Red Sox are one of the more successful franchises. Since A-Rod was traded to the Yankees, they won one title, and he won two AL MVPs, but he's since become a major black mark in the franchise. Meanwhile, Boston won three championships, and they're defending their crown this year. Most Boston fans mark the A-Rod-Varitek brawl as the turning point of the franchise and rivalry altogether, and the iconic image is the symbol of this shift.
     
    P.S.: Happy 50th birthday to Barry Bonds, who would go on to win his fourth consecutive NL MVP in 2004 (his seventh and last of his career).
     
    ———
     
    References:
    http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/red-sox/alex-speier/2009/07/24/red-sox-independence-day-remembering-brawl-walk-and-cha
    http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/07/24/ten-years-ago-today-the-alex-rodriguez-jason-varitek-brawl-changed-the-narrative-of-the-sox-yankees-rivalry/

  18. Dark Qiviut
    The picture you see above is a dacquoise from America's Test Kitchen, a cake very famous for being both delicious and tedious. Typically, it takes a long time to make (anywhere between two to four days), and you need to follow the steps very carefully. You have the meringue, chocolate ganache, and time to let all the custard absorb and become somewhat spongey. Of course, there's adding the sugar to make the cake nice and sweet as well as allow the meringue to become half-hard and half-soft. Because it's so labor-intensive, it's not sold that much; when it does, one slice costs a lot of money.
     
    Recently, I watched an episode on America's Test Kitchen (a half-hour-long program found on several PBS stations, and I highly recommend the cooking show for you all to watch so you can get a grasp on how to make these foods) instructing how to make chocolate-espresso dacquoise. (Personally, I'd make it without the coffee because coffee tastes like expired lead to me.) You can watch the how-to video right here.
     
    One thing I love to do in my time is prepare home-cooked meals with my mom. When we go to a restaurant and taste something unsatisfactory, we get a little peeved and decide to make it even better by ourselves. (There's a reason why one of our knives has "I can make it better" engraved on one side of a blade! ) Dacquoise isn't sold in many NYC restaurants today (The Modern in Midtown being one of the few, which I won't go to because it's way out of my price range), and I want to make it personally.
     
    I think we're up to the challenge. >)
  19. Dark Qiviut
    I posted this in my status and will repeat it here.
     
    I LOATHE it when "autism/autistic" is tossed around as an ableist slur. "Autism" isn't something to laugh at or insult. There are thousands and thousands of people young and old with autism and other mental deficiencies. Many can cope, but others sometimes can't. For the latter, when they struggle, it can be HELL.
     
    When you're using "autism" as a slur, you're resorting to bigotry. You're bullying people by using "autistic" as a pathetic slur. There are a lot of kids who contemplate suicide because they feel their autism causes them to not function so well in society, and tossing it around as an insult so casually will only make them more trapped. If you want to make your opinion be credible, never throw that word as an bigoted insult. It's disgusting, and you lose all credibility if you do.
  20. Dark Qiviut
    Before the Iron Man, there was an Iron Horse.
     
    From the mid-1920s through the 1930s, no baseball player emphatically represented baseball (outside of Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio later) than Lou Gehrig. As the first baseman for the Yankees, he was one of the biggest hearts of the 1927 Yankees' Murderer's Row. In 1927, he batted .373, hit 47 home runs, and knocked in 173 RBIs, winning the first of two MVPs (the other in 1936). In 1932, he became the first player in the Modern Era (and in AL history) to hit four home runs in one game. And in 1934, he won the AL Triple Crown (but not the MVP, which belongs to Mickey Cochrane, the Tigers' catcher at the time).
     
    During his career with the Yankees, his numbers were amazing. His lifetime batting average was .340 (his complete slash line being .340/.447/.632 with 493 home runs (twenty-three of them grand slams, the most in history until Alex Rodriguez broke it last September), 534 doubles, and 1,995 RBIs. His 185 RBIs in 1931 remains the American League record.
     
    But what made him extra special was his capability to play every single game, something only a rare breed of players can do then and now. June 1, 1925 was the day his iconic steak began.
     

     
    Afterwards, he played game after game through aches and pains, including "supposedly" broken fingers.
     
    In 1938, he played in his 2,000 consecutive game.

     
    1938 saw a small decline in his performance, but doable nonetheless. But in 1939, after a horrid spring training, he performed badly, going 4-28 with only one RBI. On May 2, 1939, he took himself out of the lineup, ending his streak at 2,130 games (which wouldn't be surpassed until 1995 by Cal Ripken, Jr.).
     
    Unfortunately, he would never play again.
     
    One month later, after a trip to a Mayo Clinic, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a rare and incurable motor neuron disease, on June 19th, his thirty-sixth birthday.
     

     
    Seventy-five years ago today, during a double-header against the Washington Senators, Gehrig was honored before a crowd of around 61,000 at Yankee Stadium. Along with the 1927 Yankees and several dignitaries (including Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia) in attendance, he had several gifts, two of them being:
    The retirement of his #4 jersey retired, becoming the first player with that honor.
    Quoted from this website:
     
    Moved by the warmth from everyone around him as well as fear, he almost didn't speak. Initially, he was going to be escorted back to the dugout with manger Joe McCarthy. But after the crowd chanted, "We want Gehrig!", McCarthy nudged him to the microphone.
     
    He spoke to the crowd:
     

     
    Here is the full text:
     
    On December 7, 1939, the National Baseball Hall of Fame elected him into Cooperstown through a special election as a result of the disease. On June 2, 1941, seventeen days prior to the second anniversary of his diagnosis, Gehrig passed away at 37 years old. The following month, the Yankees dedicated a monument to him in center-field beside former manager, Miller Huggins (which would later be joined by Babe Ruth in 1949; Mickey Mantle in 1996; Joe DiMaggio in 1999; the 9/11 victims and rescue workers on September 11, 2002; and George Steinbrenner in 2010).
     

     
    Bibliography:
    http://moregehrig.tripod.com/id12.html
    http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gehrilo01.shtml
    http://lougehrig.com/about/news/07-02-14.html
    http://steelyankee.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-luckiest-man.html
    http://www.biography.com/people/lou-gehrig-9308266
    http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/mlb-first-basemen-recite-lou-gehrig-s-luckiest-man-speech-in-honor-of-75th-anniversary-070214
    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/04/the-stacks-the-day-lou-gehrig-delivered-baseball-s-gettysburg-address.html
    http://www.baseball-almanac.com/feats/feats4.shtml
    http://bleacherreport.com/articles/296823-triple-crown-winner-lou-gehrig-no-mvp
    http://www.myyesnetwork.com/go/thread/view/82290/29142761/This_Week_in_Yankees_History_May_27th-June_2nd
    http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-mystery-of-lou-gehrigs-farewell-speech-1403889963

  22. Dark Qiviut
    In other words, best princess. XP
     
    (This image isn't mine.)
     
    What makes her likeable? Plenty.
    Her fantastic design and colors. Of all the ponies, she is the one that stands out the most. With most of the others being bright and pastel, her colors are very pure and mostly dark. Almost every single color is a shade of blue — mane, fur coat, shoes, and cutie mark. By blending the colors together, she looks very calm, cool, and quiet. Combined with her jade eyes (which represents wisdom and generosity), the incredible balance in her character design makes her both regal and approachable.
    She has the status of underdog. In the Western world, underdogs are admired. People want to see the underappreciated succeed. Princess Luna's past is very relatable, because many of us have been in situations just like hers. She wants to live beside Celestia, but she was honored much more than Luna, resulting in the jealous rage that caused her to spend a millennium in prison.
    She's adorkable. Twilight isn't the only character to look adorkable (which, BTW, is now accepted in the Collins dictionary).
     

    She is a three-dimensional character with a very mysterious beginning. Part of her popularity stemmed from after she was reverted back to her normal state, but she didn't appear again for the rest of the season. Therefore, the fandom started to fill in ideas that helped plug in many facets of their own identities onto her, some of which came true in Luna Eclipsed, her breakout episode. In LE, she tried the best she could to adapt to current society, but was unable to because her past mannerisms are archaic and scared so many ponies. Throughout Nightmare Night, she had to grow and become accustomed to Ponyville and all of Equestria today. With the help of Twilight Sparkle, she loosened and had fun, including giving Shadow Dash some much-needed payback.
    At the same time, she still tries to prove her worth. One of the littlest, yet most important details of her character came during the first act of The Crystal Empire, Part 1. As the two sisters stared out the window, she wanted to volunteer in helping keep the revived Empire safe. Just through that conversation, she obviously felt she had unfinished business and wanted to reestablish her worth as Equestrian princess the right way.
     
    This was backed up during the beginning of Princess Twilight Sparkle, Part 1. As they watched Luna raise the moon, Celestia and Twilight conversed the following:
      She actively leads to prevent others from walking down her path long ago. In Sleepless in Ponyville, Luna told Scootaloo to talk to Dash about her insecurities and ask if Dash can mentor Scootaloo. But that wasn't the only time she went into nightmares. She connects her journey as Nightmare Moon to Sweetie Belle in Toils and tells her to not let her jealousy-induced rage influence her to doing something she may forever regret.

  23. Dark Qiviut
    Now that I published my rant on the "it's for kids" excuse along with official reviews for Twilight's Kingdom and FIM's pilot, it's time to release some ideas for upcoming reviews. Note that this isn't a schedule, but a direction to what reviews I'll write next.
     
    Below are lists of FIM episodes I'm considering reviewing. Note that just because they're there doesn't mean I'll do them. But I'll definitely do some of them.
     
    Season 1:
    Boast Busters
    Dragonshy
    Bridle Gossip
    Winter Wrap Up
    Sonic Rainboom
    A Dog & Pony Show
    Green Isn't Your Color
    Party of One
    The Best Night Ever

    Season 2:
    Return of Harmony
    Lesson Zero
    May the Best Pet Win!
    The Mysterious Mare Do Well
    Sweet & Elite
    The Last Roundup
    A Friend in Deed
    Hurricane Fluttershy
    Ponyville Confidential

    Season 3:
    Too Many Pinkie Pies
    One Bad Apple
    Spike at Your Service
    Games Ponies Play

    Season 4:
    Princess Twilight Sparkle
    Daring Don't
    Bats!
    Pinkie Pride
    It Ain't Easy Being Breezies
    For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils
    Testing Testing 1, 2, 3


     
    Other reviews or analyses I plan to write:
    FIM — Season 4 Review
    A defense of the FIM analysis community
    Thomas & Friends — Series 17 Review
    A list of flaws either plaguing or had plagued FIM
    A Top 10 worst and best FIM episodes list

    And I may revise my EQG review at some point, too.
  24. Dark Qiviut
    Sometimes to spare some time, we like to write initials or abbreviations for various episodes. If doing it do much, they clutter, yet they are done so we don't have to write the same title as a whole over and over again.
     
    So I'm putting out a list of the episodes followed by their initials or abbreviations. Most are what I've seen, but some of them are my own. You're free to use them if you wish or create your own to improve the list. Enjoy!
    Friendship Is Magic: FIM or FIM1/2
     
    Part 1: FIM1
     
    Part 2: FIM2
    The Ticket Master: TTM
    Applebuck Season: AbS
    Griffon the Brush Off: GtBO
    Boast Busters: BB
    Dragonshy: DS or DrS
    Look Before You Sleep: LBYS
    Bridle Gossip: BG
    Swarm of the Century: SotC
    Winter Wrap Up: WWU
    Call of the Cutie: CotC
    Fall Weather Friends: FWF
    Suited for Success: SfS
    Feeling Pinkie Keen: FPK
    Sonic Rainboom: SR
    Stare Master: SM
    The Show Stoppers: TShS (to differentiate the episode from The Smile Song [TSS]), ShS
    A Dog and Pony Show: AD&PS
    Green Isn't Your Color: GIYC
    Over a Barrel: OaB
    A Bird in the Hoof: ABitH
    The Cutie Mark Chronicles: TCMC (Pay attention to the "T" in the beginning)
    Owl's Well that Ends Well: OWtEW, OW, O'sWtEW, or O'sW
    Party of One: PoO or Po1
    The Best Night Ever: TBNE


    The Return of Harmony: RoH or RoH1/2
     
    Part 1: RoH1
     
    Part 2: RoH2
    Lesson Zero: LZ
    Luna Eclipsed: LE
    Sisterhooves Social: SiSo, SiS, or S2
    The Cutie Pox: TCP
    May the Best Pet Win!: MtBPW!
    The Mysterious Mare Do Well: TMMDW, MMDW, or MDW
    Sweet and Elite: S&E
    Secret of My Excess: SoME
    Hearth's Warming Eve: HWE
    Family Appreciation Day: FAD
    Baby Cakes: BC
    The Last Roundup: TLR
     
    The Last Roundup (edited): TLR-E
    The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000: SSCS6K or S6K
    Read It and Weep: RiaW
    Hearts and Hooves Day: H&HD or HaHD
    A Friend in Deed: AFiD
    Putting Your Hoof Down: PYHD
    It's About Time: IAT, I'sAT, or IaT
    Dragon Quest: DQ
    Hurricane Fluttershy: HF
    Ponyville Confidential: PC
    MMMystery on the Friendship Express: MotFE, M3, or MMM
    A Canterlot Wedding: ACW or ACW1/2
     
    Part 1: ACW1
     
    Part 2: ACW2


    The Crystal Empire: TCE or TCE1/2
     
    Part 1: TCE1
     
    Part 2: TCE2
    Too Many Pinkie Pies: TMPP
    One Bad Apple: OBA
    Magic Duel: MD
    Sleepless in Ponyville: SiP
    Wonderbolts Academy: WA
    Apple Family Reunion: AFR
    Spike at Your Service: SaYS
    Keep Calm and Flutter On: KCaFO, KC&FO, or KC
    Just for Sidekicks: JfS
    Games Ponies Play: GPP
    Magical Mystery Cure: MMC


    Princess Twilight Sparkle: PTS or PTS1/2
     
    Part 1: PTS1
     
    Part 2: PTS2
    Castle Mane-ia: CM-ia or CM
    Daring Don't: DD't
    Flight to the Finish: FttF
    Power Ponies: PoP
    Bats!: B! or Bats!
    Rarity Takes Manehattan: RTM
    Pinkie Apple Pie: PAP
    Rainbow Falls: RF
    Three's a Crowd: 3aC
    Pinkie Pride: PiP or PiPr
    Simple Ways: SW
    Filli Vanilli: FV
    Twilight Time: TT
    It Ain't Easy Being Breezies: IAEBB or IAE
    Somepony to Watch Over Me: StWOM or StW
    Maud Pie: MP
    For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils: FWtSBT or SBT
    Leap of Faith: LoF
    Testing Testing 1, 2, 3: TT123
    Trade Ya!: TY!
    Inspiration Manifestation: IM
    Equestria Games: EG
    Twilight's Kingdom: TK, T'sK, TK1/2, or T'sK1/2
     
    Part 1: TK1 or T'sK1
     
    Part 2: TK2 or T'sK2


    My Little Pony Equestria Girls: EqG or EQG
    My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks: EqG-RR, EQG-RR, or RR
    Music to My Ears: MtME
    Guitar Centered: GC or G-C
    Hamstocalypse Now: HN
    Shake Your Tail!: SYT!
    Pinkie on the One: PotO
    Player Piano: PLP or PLPi
    A Case for the Bass: ACftB or CftB

  25. Dark Qiviut
    Do you wish for My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic to end with a great, big bang? It already happened once before in Meghan McCarthy’s A Canterlot Wedding via its sentimental BBBFF, the fantastical comparison and contrast between the real and fake Cadance in This Day Aria, and its action-packed hilarity between the Mane Six and changelings. McCarthy’s résumé of two-parters is extended this season with Princess Twilight Sparkle (the premiere) and Twilight’s Kingdom (the finale). Discounting Testing Testing 1, 2, 3, the finale itself reintroduces Twilight as the central character for the first time since PTS, leading through a two-parter full of adrenaline, emotion, obvious writing shortcuts, and a rather fulfilling conclusion.
     
    Strengths:
    The abundance of Derpy. ^__^ Plenty, but not overbearing.
    The battle is absolutely intense and is easily the best part of the finale. Given the very strict content rating (TV-Y) and Hasbro’s reputation of keeping it safe, DHX could’ve badly botched it and turned it into something extremely monotonous. Instead, it told a story. A great story. A fantastic story.
     
    If you remember Dragon Quest, one of the scenes was the transition as Spike migrated. He travels in hopes of keeping up with his fellow migrating dragons, starting and stopping and taking any means of transportation. While DQ — don’t even think about it — was a train wreck, that transition used no dialogue and was easily the best part (one of the best scenes in season two, I might add) and saved it from being worse than it is. If Dragon Quest was confined to simply a quest with as little dialogue as possible, you could’ve told a grand story.
     
    Why do I say this?
     
    Tirek vs. Twilight had no dialogue, and it was extremely well told. Without the dialogue overshadowing the action, Top Draw and DHX concentrate on showing the battle’s intensity through its choreography, special effects, Anderson’s background tracks, and animation instead. With it, you get two things:
     
    a. Tirek’s villainy (and he’s one evil fuckermother) from his strength is shown and validated.
     
    b. Twilight’s goal of showing loyalty to Equestria, confidence, and those she cares takes place within her mind, especially after her home of four seasons gets destroyed.
     
    I’ll get to that la— Oh, what the hell?
    The Golden Oaks Library’s destruction is one bold move the sadistic bastards at DHX imposed on the audience. And god-fucking-dammit, wasn’t that grand. The main purpose of destroying the library is how, like I mentioned just moments ago, it's her home. Like what a famous song from the famous musical Promises Promises declared, a house is not a home. The library is possibly the most iconic landmark from a storytelling perspective. Think about it. The central character in the show lived there since the pilot, and there are so many fantastic moments like Twilight finding the Guide and fighting with her discorded friends as they refused to cooperate, drove her mad, and initiated a nasty catfight.
     
    And did it initiate emotions? Although not from me personally, it definitely worked because all of Twilight’s memories are suddenly gone. No way to recover from them. And if using continuity from Trade Ya!, the destruction (and near-death of a weary Owlowiscious) hit her really hard, as it SHOULD.
     
    Moreover, it marked one of the last steps needed for Twilight to complete her transition from common unicorn studying in Canterlot to one of the regal princesses in Equestria. Despite my major criticism of Twilicorn (and quite frankly, I still am against it due to extreme lack of utilization and recognition), it would’ve been really dumb to revert her back to the unicorn she was pre-Magical Mystery Cure.
     
    The destruction of the Golden Oaks Library and subsequent Castle of Friendship seals this. In other words, reviving the library would be very dumb because it’ll age T’sK very quickly and nullify her status. You progress her development. Keep it!
     
    (By the way, this response has nothing to do with the petition floating around online. The petition is pure trollbait.)
    Without question, Tirek is the most imposing villain, which he ought to be due to his foundation from G1. If there was one way to describe him, it’s Sombra done right. Unlike Queen Chrysalis and Sunset Shimmer (whom McCarthy relied on being uncharacteristically stupid to be defeated), Tirek’s villainy hits all the right notes. Not only is he evil, but a combination of evil and cunning. One of his biggest advantages is his ability to play mind games. Conceptually, it creates a really menacing villain.
     
    a. His excellent first impression helps, too. While the valley scene is rather cliché in itself, it executes the right notes. Firstly, besides being a subtle nod to Magic Duel (and for those who focus a lot on continuity, Twilight’s Kingdom‘s continuity is pornographic!), the musical score is incredibly menacing, foreshadowing the terror that crept in the night moments later. Secondly, the wind and clattering of the can continued the transition, as all of us met Voldemort’s long-lost cousin, who later silently chanted avada kedavra and sucked the talent and goals out of unsuspecting unicorns. More importantly, it presents Tirek’s imposing, businesslike evil early without making the threat contrived. Overall, that scene was extremely creepy for the right reasons and easily the best in Part 1.
     
    Also, if focusing on Jayson Thiessen’s Twitter, you can confirm that Tirek is The Pony of Shadows rumored from the end of Castle Mane-ia.
     
    Why?
     
    Look at these three screenshots from its end.
     

     

     

     
    Now concentrate on Tirek’s frail state:
     

     

     

     
    Notice any similarities?
     
    Yellow eyes.
     
    Identical cloak design.
     
    Identical furrowed eye design…
     
    Really sneaky, DHX.
    Ingram’s musical score for both You’ll Play Your Part and Let the Rainbow Remind You fit very well with the scenes each represented. YPYP concentrates on Twilight’s current purpose as Equestrian Princess (thus becoming part of the Quarteticorn both physically and mentally), thus the focus on a Broadway-esque, royal mood from discouragement to optimism. On the other hand, LtRRY concludes the arc on a very upbeat rhythm, as Twilight finally finds her purpose and role in Equestrian society, one she — in HER words — CHOOSES to have.
     
    (By the way, that was a very clever lampshade of Magical Mystery Cure’s broken plot hole. )
    Discord pre-alliance was very hilarious. The prankster was up to his tricks again by driving them all mad, fitting their agitation so much. On the flipside, his tricks fit the clever references, from Patton to Mary Poppins. His personality plays off very well with Tirek, for they’re both foils. Tirek takes things seriously, while Discord also takes things seriously, but with plenty of comedic flair.
     
    Also, despite not being self-contained, Discord’s betrayal was foreshadowed during his three previous episodes (PTS1/2, 3aC), as he drove the ReMane-ing Five absolutely nuts with his physics-defying logic, riddling, lack of specifics, and mocking. Although he was friends with Fluttershy, he never got along with the others nor behaved like he wanted to be friends with them. Up to the end of Part 2, he was still extremely antagonistic; after Discord intentionally got Rarity and Applejack sick, why would they trust him? Hell, even Discord confirmed to not caring for the others besides Fluttershy simply by the sly whisper once confronting Tirek.
     
    (In Three’s a Crowd, you can create a headcanon that Discord lured Twilight and Cadance into the distant hill to try to murder them in disguise of an accident, as he faked his illness and brought them out to a lethal land where Cadance and Twilight fought for their lives.)
    Conceptually, Discord being the one to give Twilight Scorpan’s medallion was solid. It reinforces the theme of the series’s main arc, which is to give a gift to the one who symbolizes the ability to understand his or counterpart’s Element. It was very clever for Discord’s trust for someone else rear its ugly head, delivering much needed karma and further understanding of friendship. Moreover, it closes the door on Discord’s neutrality and evolving him into a more chaotic protagonist instead of neutral. Will the others beyond Twilight and Fluttershy trust him? If to avoid breaking continuity, they better!
     
    Also, pay attention to Scorpan during the hieroglyphic animation in Part 1's second act. In a panel or two, you’ll see him wearing the medallion that Tirek and later Discord donned.
    Speaking of the medallion, once you look deeper into Tirek, notice this pattern. In early times, Scorpan wore the medallion. Later in the two-parter, Tirek is shown to be wearing it. You can make a great guess that Tirek wears it to remind himself of his brother, who he loathed for “betraying” him. The medallion made him very angry and further motivated his lust for conquest and dominance. Because he saw Scorpan in Discord, he allowed the draconequus to wear it and then steal his powers.
     
    By doing this, he’s telling the audience Scorpan’s decision to not side with Tirek still hurt him, and his cunning decision to lure Discord into trusting him was a way of getting back at him and relinquishing the anger that boiled inside of him. Once Discord was powerless, one piece of his lifelong anger was wiped away. When you think about it, it was really clever of Tirek (and McCarthy) to bait Discord into that subtle trap, furthering his credibility as a tyrant.
    After going back to reading David Ker's panning of A Canterlot Wedding, T'sK illustrates the tension so well. (And this is something I should illustrate more in future reviews and see if it succeeds in next season's episodes.) With the urgency of the situation foreshadowed by the MD callback and illustrated in Act 3's montage, you can tell everything on the line.
     
    This is one thing Tirek actually does so well. Although the writing's shortcomings damaged his credibility as a villain, he helped create the magnitude of the stakes that he imposed on the princesses and Equestria as a whole. He's tyrannical, menacing, and maniacal, and manipulative. There was nothing he was going to do to conquer and destroy Equestria, even if he was going to use someone else's trust as a puppet for his schemes.
     
    Earlier, I wrote that the battle between Twilight and Tirek illustrated two very important strengths. There's a third: The tension and stakes that were told and shown culminated in this battle. Both sides gave it their all to prove who was the higher, more imposing power: Twilight's commitment to keeping Equestria safe and Tirek's lust for conquest. The fact that they ended at an impasse was extremely clever on McCarthy's behalf because it brought back one aspect of Tirek's personality that was lost in transition: his trump card, which led to the final key and overall resolution.
    As Rainbow Falls is a train wreck that doesn’t deserve an ounce of praise minus Derpy’s glorious return, this deserves a mention:
     Even this episode recognizes how lazy and broken Rainbow Falls genuinely is.
    The concept of the roundtable (or Council of Friendship, according to Voice of Reason and AnY’s collaboration) is a rather genius way to plug some of the questions people have as far as the ReMane-ing Five is concerned. By putting them — and Spike — on the same pedestal as Twilight, it gives them a sense of importance narratively. Previously, Twilight rose above the status quo by becoming a princess and becoming one of the most important voices in all of Equestria (does that old expression need to die or what?!), but the others remained in their same positions vying for the same goals.
     
    Now that they’re a part of the council, they’re still the same ponies in Ponyville and can vie for the goals they’ve yearned since the pilot or The Ticket Master, but have a semblance of voice and status that wouldn’t be quelled because they’re “beneath” the quartet. As heavily flawed are Rainbow Falls, Breezies, and Leap of Faith are, they fulfilled their trials and are rewarded for their efforts.

    Weaknesses:
    It doesn’t matter if Spike’s words were obnoxious. Smacking a child upside the head isn’t funny, DHX!
    T’sK’s main internal conflict is despite Twilight’s status as alicorn princess, she’s merely stuck in limbo, discouraging her. She wants to contribute to Equestrian society and have more of a role. There are a couple problems:
     
    a. Several of the episodes literally have nothing to do with Twilight’s status as a princess (and sometimes ignoring it like in RTM). Sometimes, when she does, she either accepts it reluctantly or wants little to do with it. In Trade Ya!, when the traders greeted Twilight, she got very nervous and took off. When she became the de facto leader when Luna and Celestia were horsenapped in PTS, she took position as leader and guard commander.
     
    In other words, Twilight has been involved in important roles as princess. But this episode acts as if her status is mostly or exclusively about being a background princess (no pun intended), when she actually shared an equal balance of getting involved when necessary and not wanting anything to do with it at all. It doesn’t tackle the issue so directly.
     
    b. It doesn’t excuse the way Twilight was used all season up to the finale. If anything, her use in several of the episodes in season four becomes even more glaring and will cause some people to wonder if Twilight’s role in several of them — including Rainbow Falls, It Ain’t Easy Bein’ Breezies — should’ve been cut out entirely.
    One of season four’s overrunning problems throughout is the overload of exposition, and it reared its ugly head again. For some examples:
     
    a. Twilight bowing before the duke and duchess of Mare-tonia and then having Celestia explain the purpose of her being there. Rather than using up about a minute of screentime, you can chop it up by having the AliTrio meet up with Twilight, who’s walking down the hall discouraged and then have Twilight explain how much her lack of involvement is hurting her.
     
    But the real problem is the dialogue in accordance to the exposition. The sentences are very complete, long-winded, and lacking thorough emotion. It’s a bunch of talking heads in pony form.
     
    b. Some of the lines from the ReMane-ing Five and Discord added very little aside from air and humor. After Celestia told Twilight she was going to send Discord out to find Tirek, there was a scene by the Tree of Harmony where Discord all but recounted events we all saw earlier. Although the jokes lightened the mood, it ate plenty of time. Unlike point 2a, this can still work if the lines were reworded to show more variety besides bringing in the journal and chest into the conflict.
     
    c. Act 1 of Part 2 had the Quarteticorn congregate in Canterlot Castle, and they all jibber-jabbered through the conversation for several minutes about what is a really stupid plan (which I’ll get to). Cutting down the dialogue, getting down to the point, and writing lines that genuinely fit the AliTrio (Cadance, Luna, Celestia) without the stupidity would’ve done wonders with the scene.
     
    d. Tirek’s passive dialogue in several of his scenes hurts his credibility as a villain. Sure, he’s supposed to be threatening, but the amount of passive lines he spouted lessens the strength of his evil from a narrative perspective.
     
    And these are merely some of the offenders. Thankfully, unlike A Canterlot Wedding and Magical Mystery Cure, the pacing issues tend to hide a bit better for the most part.
    Although McCarthy’s a very good writer, one of her quieter yet bigger problems in her bigger projects is her dialogue, and that’s the case in T'sK. Celestia, Luna, and Cadance don’t resemble any individuality due to how formal and long-winded each of them were; each line is Celestia’s under another voice. Applejack suffers from the same problem with lines like “As in Discord Discord” and her preference of the pre-reformed Discord. When Twilight and the others discuss the moments they had the Elements of Harmony they represent challenged, the vocabulary tended to be minutely repetitive; varying the vocabulary without looking like you’re relying on a thesaurus and length of the lines would’ve done that there.
    The AliTrio’s reasoning for transferring their magic to Twilight’s was unbelievably DUMB!
     
    HELLOOOOOOOOOO!!
     
    Discord is helping Tirek absorb others’ inherent magic, and Discord has known about Twilight since their first encounter in Return of Harmony, Part 1. For all the quartet knew, Discord might’ve told Tirek Twilight is an alicorn before they conferenced in Canterlot’s throne room and was on the way. Imagine while they talked and prepared to transfer their magic, Tirek barges in and eats it all up. It would make Celestia, Luna, and Cadance look like idiots for coming up with such a claim.
     
    It’s honestly very baffling why Twilight never second-guessed her “logic” and went with it. If she were, then she would’ve interrogated them for this logic. The only reason she didn’t was to handwave any sensible logic and have Twilight fight Tirek alone.
     
    And even when they accomplish the feat and have the story contrivedly play off the bullshit of Tirek not know about Twilight because Discord “was playing a test” (be honest, that logic makes no sense other than to handwave Celestia’s idiocy), it was just as stupid to not cover up Twilight’s tracks by leaving the stained glass window out in the open. If the AliTrio wanted their hardest to keep her presence a secret, then instead of standing around and doing nothing, they should’ve hidden everything related to her before she arrived in Canterlot.
     
    And this doesn’t count Celestia telling Twilight not to let the others find out [about Twilight's powers] “because doing so would put them in great risk.” DHX, why the royal fuck shouldn’t the ReMane Five know about it? Friendship is magic, and it's important for them to know about it.
     
    On another note, how come they don't know Discord switching sides? Why didn't DHX have Twilight tell them so they can prepare themselves? Just so they get conveniently trapped, which Tirek can use as a crutch to betray Discord, which then DHX can shove the conflict into that large battle of rainbow explosions, which leads to the rushed third act? Bullshit!
     
    This plot point was beyond stupid: They HAD to know because Twilight knows, and she had to tell them for two reasons:
     
    a. So they wouldn’t be caught off-guard.
     
    b. Every single pony is in great danger, anyway.
     
    After all, wouldn’t it be better if they hid along with the rest of Ponyville or stood beside Twilight to fight both Discord and Tirek instead? It was as if the AliTrio’s warning of Discord’s betrayal was mentioned at one point and then forgotten once the script was locked. If Twilight saw her friends trapped and realized she had forgotten, then I would've had less of an issue as far as not telling them about Discord's concerned.
     
    Another user pinpointed another part of Dumbass!Celestia: sending Discord out to find Tirek without a backup plan. Because he’s apparently shown fragility in his allegiance (and even she doesn’t trust him too much, as evident by her whisper to Twilight and doubtful gaze in Keep Calm’s ending), it doesn’t make sense for the trio to enact without Plan B.
     
    And one more thing: Discord was sent out by Celestia because he could sense magical imbalances. When Twilight absorbed all of the princesses’ magic, he went haywire. Without McCarthy replacing their intelligences with idiot balls to make the plan credible on the surface, it would’ve fallen apart and — I guarantee you — would put Celestia, Luna, and Cadance into several “hated character” lists due to their severe incompetence.
    Speaking of that, there was no need for DHX and McCarthy to retread the same side-conflict featured from the series premiere, Return of Harmony, Equestria Girls, and Princess Twilight Sparkle. Why does Twilight have to re-learn the concept of friendship is magic when she’s done this multiple times? Sure, she has to fulfill the plot of finding her key, but there are ways of accomplishing this feat without having to rip off past two-parters — including the season premiere — and stylize it differently. Reduce the plot into simple bullet points:
     
    • Twilight has a conflict.
     
    • A villain poses as a threat.
     
    • Twilight must solve the conflict by herself for a contrived reason.
     
    • Twilight realizes her friendship creates the magic she needs.
     
    • She and her friends defeat the bad guy.
     
    • Episode ends on a happy note.
     
    This is what you get. Sure, the episode dressed it differently and might’ve presented a different moral. But it still doesn’t change the body underneath. There was a ton of action with extremely high stakes, but variation of both its premise and story will be necessary. DHX, you can’t rip off past episodes for the sake of contrivance anymore nor can McCarthy and crew pretend this is any different and hope to have several people fooled. It’s old and treats the arc of finding the keys (especially Twilight’s) with severe disrespect.
    The pacing throughout was extremely flimsy. You can obviously tell it was a problem simply by the expository dialogue padding some of the scenes. But it was very problematic in other scenes:
     
    a. Tirek’s manipulation to convince Discord to join him was very implausible. One of RoH1’s biggest strengths is how Discord was able to manipulate four of the ReMane-ing Five (Fluttershy exempt due to her “incorruptible” status) into becoming the opposites of who they truly are.
     
    i. Applejack being told a “blunt truth” of ending their friendship with her behind her back, hurting her and wanting to tell lies.
     
    ii. Pinkie Pie’s Element of Laughter was turned upside-down when balloons laughed at her and continued to bully her into a mega grump.
     
    iii. Rarity being mesmerized by a large, once-in-a-lifetime, perfect “diamond,” converting her into someone greedy.
     
    iv. Discord was able to convince Dash into either continuing the game or having Cloudesdale collapse from Discord’s magic.
     
    Tirek targeted Discord’s teetering conscience as someone who loves to pull tricks that annoys others while remaining loyal to Canterlot and Fluttershy. However, Tirek’s mind games aren’t deep or sharp enough. They were passive and don’t have the bite or longevity to convince Discord to side with him.
     
    b. All of Act 3 in Part 2 crammed way too much to flow organically. You had Twilight stare at her friends trapped in Tirek’s bubbles. Then, she receives her epiphany and receives Scorpan’s pendent from Discord (who was betrayed earlier). Next, they race to the chest with Twilight feeling confident the pendent was the final key. The chest opens, and they become the latest Rainbow Powers, who then seal Tirek back to Tartarus and revert Equestria’s magic back to normal. The chest becomes Twilight’s castle, and they all become important “knights,” per se, for Princess Twilight’s roundtable. Cue final song to end the episode.
     
    That is a ton of information to cram in eight minutes. They just go from one after another without spending any time developing them. The script was quickly telling itself that time was running out, and they had to end it or force overtime. Instead of having Twilight receive her epiphany and key midway in Act 3, then how about cutting a repetitive scene or two out and start Act 3 when Twilight and the others open the chest?
    As for Tirek, despite being very threatening and evil, that still doesn’t make a factually good villain. He has some problems himself.
     
    a. Like what I said earlier, his credibility to manipulate others was marginalized by the poor pacing, dumb planning by the AliTrio, and blunt exposition.
     
    b. Despite him eating everyone’s magic, he basically stands in one spot as he victimizes others or banters with others. By doing this, his screentime presence becomes typical via its journey. This is unlike villains like Discord, who was very active in his constant corruption of Equestria and the Mane Six themselves and never stayed in one place for so long, always popping up when least expected.
     
    c. Tirek’s personality really shines most when he’s still confined in his cloak and frail. His voice is croaky, dry, and weak. Ironically, this gives him an edge in wisdom because of how old he looked. When he becomes giant, quite possibly his biggest personality strength (his quick wits and ability to manipulate others emotionally) gets pushed to the wayside in favor of his lust for rule over Equestria, and his voice becomes very typical for a villain. Healthy? Sure. Unique? No.
     
    d. His original centaur design from Part 1 was very creative and stuck out from the one featured in G1. His skin remained red, but it wasn’t clean and leaned towards brown. Just by that, you can tell how evil he was, but his presentation was much more subtle, especially with the elderly voice that accompanied him. When he became a giant with brilliant red skin and shades of gray and black in his body, the centaur no longer becomes unique anymore. Black and red are typical colors of evil, so the color combination boasts his villainy far more than it should. Like Sunset Demon in Equestria Girls, Giant!Tirek’s design doesn’t show the audience he’s evil; he’s telling them he’s evil. The centaur's frail presentation is much more menacing because he showed the audience how evil he was in a rather cunning and ironic manner, and it doesn’t fall for the typical clichés in graphic design.
    You’ll Play Your Part has a fantastic score, but the lyrics themselves leave a bit to be desired. There are three problems:
     
    a. Some of the lyrics feel stiff. One important component of lyrics is to create a sense of direction that aims at the goal immediately and explains and/or exemplifies it.
     
    Here's an example picked out from Digibro in his analysis video:
     
    I want to have a purpose
    Want to do all that I can
    I want to make a contribution
    I want to be a part of the plan.
     
    Here, despite wanting to contribute to the royals, the lyrics are rather passive because she says the same thing above and below, but what makes it worse is the structure. Because three of the meters started with “I want,” it makes the verse very repetitive, circular, and mechanical. They parallel to what Twilight feels and yearns, which is great, but how she says it makes it sounds very artificial. It’s too structured, undermining Twilight’s desires. It’s important to have the lyrics drive the story (both in the song and around it) forward. More direct activity in its drive would've helped.
     
    This one here’s more of a personal gripe, but when Luna sung, they used “more” and “soar” twice for the rhymes. Again, more variety with more oomph would do quite a bit more justice.
     
    b. One of T'sK's biggest problems is the pacing. Here, it goes on too long. Twilight tells the Alicorn Trio that she doesn't feel like she's contributing. There is so much to go through, and forty minutes is very little time. While Kazumi Evans singing as Luna is a wish come true to a lot of bronies (and it in itself is a grand treat), it doesn't mean it'll help the story. You can have Twilight worry about her status and explain it to them succinctly. Luna, Celestia, and Cadance would reassure with a couple of lines themselves to end it. Instead of spending over three minutes to explain it, chop the song down to two minutes, if not a little over one, and have the trio sing YPYP only. From there, use the spare space to expand other scenes and give them more depth.
     
    c. From a musical perspective, the visual appeal is plain. For over half of YPYP, the princesses stay in all but one spot and relied on very few visuals to drive the message and not force the viewer to fast forward. Its visuals are VERY conservative and don't get inherently interesting until the final chorus; when you have a three-minute song within a twenty-minute episode, that hurts it.
     
    I think some are going to ask this (and this has been discussed back and forth already): How are the visuals and choreography in songs important?
     
    Much more important than you think.
     
    While songs can carry weight, it’s much more different between hearing it through your earphones and hearing and seeing it simultaneously. In all forms of viewable entertainment, it’s extremely important to keep the viewer engaged. When you hear and see it, you need to not just have the song good, but also have the visuals tell a story along with it. Make it bold. Make it interesting. Make it memorable! Make the choreography engaging to drive the story to the next part and make even the weakest of songs sound even better.
     
    Yes, choreography does determine the reception of the song much more than you think.
     
    Take Three’s a Crowd’s A Glass of Water. De Lancie has a history of not being a good singer and will sometimes disguise it. Admittingly, the vocality is rather lackluster. But what did it were the visuals and gags. The pop culture references, animation, transitions, and overall gags really did the song justice and made the experience truly hilarious. Without the visuals driving the story and providing plenty of laughter, then A Glass of Water would’ve been around the middle at least.
     
    Another from this season is The Goof-Off. It’s a very good song with a very clever Smile Song reference, but on its own, it doesn't have that strength. Yet, it’s the visuals that really did it. Every single gag and joke fits Pinkie’s and Cheese Sandwich’s characterizations so brilliantly. They’re wild, wacky, hilarious, and story-driven. None of the characters stayed in one spot, and the camera angles and transitions provided that heartstopping tempo a competition such as TG-O successfully made. Combine all those with two funny live-action shots, and you create a memorable one-plus minute off the bat. The end was perfect for Pinkie to receive her epiphany, and that’s what happened. If the visuals were plain, TG-O would’ve flopped and be placed in more “dislike” columns. But because of its bold and hilarious choreography, it's the most memorable song in Pinkie Pride.
     
    Finally, season two's The Smile Song contains a chirpy, happy tone that fits Pinkie to a “T.” If it weren’t for Party of One, it might’ve been Pinkie’s best characterization. Do we know Pinkie likes to make others happy? Oh, hell, yeah! We’ve known it since the pilot. But one thing TSS does so well is keep it nice and fresh. Each meter is very organic because they vary, sound very “Pinkie,” and feel like something someone in real life would actually SAY! And the flow is incredible — never skipping a beat and honing both Ingram’s and Rogers’s musical prowess. It tells her love for happiness without making it repetitive.
     
    But would have it been memorable if the animation was poor? Absolutely not! The beginning of the episode commences with the snap of her hooves, showing life and joy; a subtle detail, but really helped start the song on a high note. Combined with the jumpy instruments, it’s a great hook that gets viewers immediately invested. During her tour in Ponyville, Pinkie’s joy begins to rub on everyone and turns their solemn or glum moods into happy ones. That happiness joins into one big ball of joy, sending happiness throughout and making them loose and fun.
     
    The animation is fun. The song is fun. It WANTS to tell you it’s fun to watch. It SUCCEEDS! Its presentation is absolutely refined, and the choreography is fantastic, especially in a few scenes:
     
    i. Pinkie and the fillies jumping rope while no one’s holding the ends.
     
    ii. Happiness and sadness personified during the bridge.
     
    iii. As Pinkie hops on the rooftops, ponies who followed her did the same.
     
    iv. The ending that was building itself up for the previous two minutes hit its mark. The background dancers exploded in joy and joined in the chorus. Up till the end where she meets Cranky.
     
    I bring this last example up because YouTube reviewer Mr. Enter claimed The Smile Song has much, much less to do with the narrative in A Friend in Deed than YPYP. Quite frankly, that's bullshit! Again, The Smile Song tells a grand narrative of what she loves and how her happiness ebbs on them and vice-versa. So when Cranky Doodle Donkey shows up and doesn’t smile, she gets confused and wants to do whatever she can to make him smile, leading to her screwups and tension. The fact that her antics bothered him makes sense because it ties back to the narrative presented in the song. The chaotic situations were funny because she was presented as a character in the wrong from a narrative perspective (at least in the first two acts). And the fact she screwed up royally by accidentally destroying the scrapbook crushed her, leading her to want to make it up. Of course, she screws up again and then after finally realizing the situation, she was able to make up for it, all leading back to what Pinkie likes to do: make friends and make friends smile (as established by The Smile Song), which makes her smile, and she learned personal space…after the moral.
     
    Granted, she should’ve been presented with a consequence or two because the cartoon methods of apologizing create unfortunate implications, and the moral itself is tacked on. What Pinkie did from beginning to end was very in character, but took a very safe approach in Act 3 and really teetered the line into making her just as creepy as Party of One. “Not everyone will want to be friends with you if the way you’re behaving towards them rubs them off” would’ve been better. A better method of solving the conflict would’ve been following Twilight’s advice instead of going Looney Toons on him. Still feeling guilty, she talks to Matilda, who later meets up with Cranky, who was cleaning up the mess. Matilda and Cranky talk about how they met long ago and wanted to find each other again; Matilda also holds a copy of her scrapbook containing a copy of the pictures taken at the Gala. Pinkie apologizes for her behavior. Cranky forgives her, smiles, and calls her a friend. Cue the moral. Episode ends.
     
    Regardless, the song really connected to the thematic message of not just the episode, but the series and moral, also. It was a major catalyst to the conflict that immediately followed and foreshadowed the ending and moral. Hell, The Smile Song is what started the conflict in the first place! On top of that, it’s one of the best written, most fluent, and best composed in the series. The choreography strengthened the song, made it belong in the episode structurally and thematically, and helped create the gigantic following TSS has.
     
    What does this have to do with YPYP?
     
    Although TSS and YPYP are thematically relevant and carry great scores, The Smile Song has the polish and drive from beginning to end along with fantastic visuals to compensate it and make it better and memorable.
     
    For songs that aren't exactly so catchy or well sung, A Glass of Water doesn’t have a satisfactory singing performance (on its own, it's one of the worst songs of the season), but the hilarious visuals hide it very well and tell a grand story. Without Discord's antics and chaotic animation, AGoW's reception would've been down the middle at least.
     
    Conversely, You’ll Play Your Part doesn’t have that. Some of the meters are clunky and remain as idle as a running car until Celestia sings or the first chorus. To make it worse, the plain visuals and conservative choreography do very little to carry the message and influence its impact. In actuality, the lack of visual substance hurt the song’s message, underminded its importance, and made it less appealing to listen to and follow along. Sure, you have little details to alleviate it (the aurora representing Celestia, Luna's night sky, and Cadance's Crystal Castle), but without the bigger details, the little ones won’t matter.
    The Rainbow Power ponies. Besides having the ending spilled several months ago (unrelated to the show, BTW; just an observation), there are two problems:
     
    a. It all but renders their sacrifice of the Elements of Harmony rather pointless. One of the greatest strengths of sacrificing the Elements of Harmony from a narrative perspective is twofold: Their friendship is connected far beyond powerful jewelry, and DHX is forced to come up with solutions that don’t rely on a possible Deus Ex Machina or hat-pull. The fears reared its ugly head in EqG and all but ruined the reputation of the concept. The Rainbow Powers are a more powerful, elaborate version of the Elements of Harmony. Despite a change in status, the Rainbow Powers basically put the concept back to square one.
     
    b. The designs themselves are TERRIBLE! I take graphic design very seriously, so the designs are personally my most HATED part of the finale. FIM contains a soft, pastel atmosphere, making the colors visually comfortable. The RP ponies rely far too much on style over substance. The bright colors clash with not just the pastels of the characters, but other bright colors that touch, also. Thus, the characters’ presentations are too gaudy and unpleasant to look at. Hasbro doesn’t need to plug in flashy colors just to pander to kids; it’s very bad character design and bad graphic design in general. You can make the characters look aggressive withOUT saturating the colors.
     
    (Apparently, the Rainbow Powers will have some importance in Rainbow Rocks, as evident by the change of the characters and Rainbow Power appearances in the leaked music video Shake Your Tail!)
    The castle design is very unpleasant. Sure, Twilight’s new castle is supposed to connect with the Tree of Harmony’s rocky, crystal presentation, but on its own, it doesn’t fit at all. The Golden Oaks Library perfectly represented not only Ponyville, but also Twilight. It was homey, beautiful, clever, and pleasant in its interior and exterior. But…
     
    a. The rocky exterior doesn’t have the organic shapes of Ponyville. It looks like something that belongs to The Crystal Empire, but even their shapes are more organically structured. The colors themselves are also too dull and don’t have the pastel, yet warm colors. Visually, the presentation is out of character of Ponyville because it’s far too elaborate, the cold colors clash with the rest of the town, and its inorganic structure appears incomplete.
     
    b. Inside, the hallways and throne room are very rocky with very deep, dark colors to counterbalance with the bright whites, greens, and yellows. It doesn’t have a sleek, regal presentation, and the really dark majesty doesn’t make the castle feel like home, but a prison instead.
     
    Altogether, Twilight’s new castle is telling the audience, “This is my new, grand home,” but it shows the opposite.

    Like Princess Twilight Sparkle, Meghan McCarthy’s penmanship in Twilight’s Kingdom takes center stage. In the premiere, it was McCarthy’s goal to create a satisfying story of Twilight adjusting to royal society. Despite annoying retcons and sloppy writing decisions (poor pacing, the alicorn potion, goofing up Applejack’s and Pinkie’s characters, poor dialogue, a lack of concrete timeline), it nonetheless pushed season four forward. Meanwhile, the finale sealed the overarching plot of the Chest of Harmony and the annoying flaw of Twilight’s princesshood being merely a title. It behaves like a series finale, but also an opening for future ideas. With season five coming up sometime during the winter holidays, it’ll create many new questions without having the dark cloud that hung over the head following Magical Mystery Cure.
     
    Now, as insulting as the idea is, as Tommy Oliver stated in his FIMpression, (like A Canterlot Wedding) the less you think about T’sK's flaws, the more fun it is. And it's a blast to watch on the first try.
     
    But now that Twilight’s Kingdom has aired, it’s time to think about it. So through the critical eye, is Twilight’s Kingdom the best FIM finale?
     
    No. That still belongs to The Best Night Ever.
     
    It’s full of really unpolished executions, so these pieces collectively dropped the quality. Objectively, it’s at most above-average. But it’s better in quality than the other two-part finale, A Canterlot Wedding: While A Canterlot Wedding is rushed as hell, very sloppy, and full of several loose ends that weren’t fulfilled, Twilight’s Kingdom contains more importance than its comparison; while there's plenty of stupidity and pacing issues to question, season four's finale concludes itself and many arcs as a whole more satisfactorily.
     
    Now, bring on EqG: Rainbow Rocks season five!
     

     
     
    Source: S04:E25+26 - Twilight's Kingdom
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