Dark Qiviut

So far, FIM has spent half of the series without her, and the staff has done a really good job keep the ship sailing even without her guidance. The first half of season three was completely without Faust, and the team did well with her, but episodes nine onward had major issues in all of them.

 

The question at this point, however, is how Twilight's transformation will be handled come season four. Faust made it clear that she wasn't for what happened, and the P.R. statements from Hasbro, McCarthy, and Larson were just plain stupid that do nothing except create and eventually enforce shaky speculations. Season four's management of the episodes and handling of Twilight will be the main turning point here to whether Faust's (and former editor Renzetti's) guidance will be missed or not.

Something we can't know until they come out with the final ones, so we'll have to see :3

"Wait and see" and staying mum about it are no excuses here. When an offensive prototype is out there, you're asking for it to be judged, solicited or not. These prototypes do nothing except enforce two things:

1. That EQG is merely a promotion for a new toyline in an extremely thin, lazy disguise, only to have the MLP:FIM logo slapped on the front to make it "appear" to be related to the main product. It doesn't matter whether the characters will be in character or whether the beginning of the movie will be set in the FIM universe. The FEEL of MLP:FIM and its roots must match in the alternate dimension and be appropriate with the spinoff inside the animation and in the products. FIM's roots are about not enforcing the clichés that plague the little-girl/family-friendly entertainment industry. The pilot itself criticized this cliché by relocating Twilight into a town. Currently, EQG is conceptually enforcing the typical girly cliché that goes against what FIM stands for; a spinoff is no excuse to stray so far off the roots of the generation.
2. The sexist stereotype that adolescent girls (the target between ten to fourteen years old) need to be extremely skinny and girly to be good, well-mannered, and beautiful. A major problem in the toy industry is how girly characters are "princess-ified" or sexualized to sell toys and dolls. Monster High — EQG's competitor — blatantly uses sex appeal to sell to adolescents. Recently, Disney redesigned Merida with an evident hourglass body, finer hair, exposed shoulders, and makeup, sparking fierce criticism from people of all ages, including Faust and Brendan Chapman. These prototypes of EQG use these sexist figures to sell to young adults, and that's disgusting! It sells out for the target demographic by making the prototypes all lazily uniform, artificially pretty, and so anorexic.

The fact that these designs exist at any point should elicit anger, and just because it's a prototype doesn't mean it doesn't deserve justified scrutiny. Prototypes or otherwise, the anti-feminist, sexist figure these dolls share reinforces a scary culture that merely hurts our youth and instills this awful stereotype. The anger throughout these branches in the fandom (including 4chan and Faust herself) is loud and justifiable.

The brony has very deep roots in of itself, but one where it's very deep is the fanon. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has a lot of worldbuilding, but the information is vague enough to let the bronies create fanon ideals.

 

So, my question is which is your most favorite fanon? It can be a very popular one, obscure, one rooted to the fandom's days when it was confined in 4Chan, or a more recent one. But don't merely tell us and run off like a drive-by poster. Explain why thoroughly.

 

The two I like most are:

1. The Derpy/Dinky mother-daughter relationship. Whether they're family by blood or not doesn't matter to me. What was a random, silly fanon to start with had a path and mind on its own. With the brony fandom, the fanon turned it into something that's extremely believable despite having no evidence in the canon. There is plenty of great work associated with it, particularly in fanart and fanfiction. When it comes to this fanon, this is one of my favorite fanfics, and this is my most favorite fanart.
   
   
   
   Linky.
   

2. Woona. Luna in her cute, filly form. We don't know what she was like as a filly, but whenever she's depicted, she's a cute, happy filly willing to let you smile. In addition, Woona is easily the most versatile of the Luna fanons: It can fit in canon and fanon, and you can overlap other Luna fanons over Woona.

As for the whole "Mandopedo" fiasco, that was said as a complete joke in a single small thread and Mando took it way out of hand and created a giant shitstorm about it, acting like a complete child. It was never intended to be taken seriously, they were just having some shits and giggles and he ended up taking it literally. That's the thing with that board as a whole, they don't actually try to spread rumors and lies, people just end up taking things literally that sholdn't be taken with a grain of salt.

There is NO excuse for delivering such a lousy, borderline criminal "joke"!

 

Whenever you try to tag the "pedophile" label on anyone, whether it's a joke or not, you risk damaging that person's whole career. The term "pedophile" is considered by almost everyone in this world with contempt and disgust, and anyone who is one clinically is outcast. That "joke" accomplishes nothing except risk MandoPony from legitimately getting a JOB. What if he went for a job interview, and the people who work there research his background and saw that "joke"? That right there sends signals to those companies that he's a danger to their customers.

 

Seriously, what did you think he would do? Cover his ears and pretend it never happened? That "joke" could've cost him hundreds of applications the second that "rumor" began. That "MandoPedo" stuff was very harmful, and he had every right to blow up and panic. Why 4Chan's moderators didn't do an ounce of common sense and lambast/kick out those who had the gall to start and evolve that tasteless, sorry excuse of a "joke" the second it began is beyond me.

I have no interest in 4Chan whatsoever.

1. The forum boards are hideously unorganized. So many topics overlap each other, resembling the "I'm-a-clogged-toilet" chat board that once plagued this forum. If 4Chan is going to actually look like a forum, there must be a serious re-organization of topics within the sections.
2. Many of the boards have terrible moderation, and, quite frankly, many people there need to know the consequences of starting rumors. Places like /b/ and /mlp/ are unfiltered with plenty of rumor-initiating crap that does nothing but passively damn 4Chan and the brony fandom on the whole. The moderation there needs to be much stricter, with big offenses to those who start rumors that could end people's careers (i.e., starting that "joke" of MandoPony being a pedophile because he works closely with the Crebers, which made him panic from fear and anger).

4Chan is considered to be a cesspool of the Internet because of the rumor-slinging, career-damning, and unfiltered crap for a reason, and I see no interest in actually being a part of that garbage.

I, too, can't answer your question, either. Despite the rough crap that's been going around over the past week and the fact there's only one so-called "interesting" FIM-related thing going on, I'm still sticking with the fandom because I haven't lost interest nor time in investing myself in being a part of the community and loyal watcher and critic of the main show itself.

The one I remember the most came on this very forum. My Little Pwny's now doing missionary duties for his church, but if it weren't for the show, he wouldn't be doing that one bit.

 

For further explanation, here's the link detailing the story: http://mlpforums.com/topic/22593-why-i-donated-630-to-this-site/

Although the show is pastel, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic actually had several dark moments that really teetered the strict TV-Y content rating.

1. Sonic Rainboom: Rarity's wings evaporating, making her plunge, only to be rescued by Rainbow Dash in the form of a Sonic Rainboom.
2. A Bird in the Hoof: Philomena bursting into flames, signifying death, upsetting Fluttershy and making her believe she failed as a caretaker.
3. The Return of Harmony, Part 2 was actually quite dark. Ponyville descended into disarray, and the Mane Six — Twilight and her discorded friends — were all fighting because Twilight couldn't retrive her book and no one else besides Spike behaved. When the Elements of Harmony failed, Twilight turned into shades of gray and plodded towards the Library depressed while her whole world collapsed. Combined with the music, it was a pretty dark moment. The only reason it wasn't perceived that way was because the writing was great, and there were many hilarious moments in between to keep the audience attentive.
4. Lesson Zero: In a sense that not completing her tasks on time equals failing and regressing in her studies, she became irrational and crazy. She began seeing things she shouldn't, and her judgment was so clouded that she decided to artificially create a friendship problem to complete her assignment.
   
   I think everyone here remembers this:
   
5. Putting Your Hoof Down: Quite possibly the most visible dark episode up to that point. Fluttershy became Flutterbitch after taking Iron Will's training way too much to heart, making her ultra-aggressive and an even bigger pushover than some of the ponies she saw. It turned her into a monster, resulting in that sad sequence with her walking back home and being tied up within a gloomy gray sky.
6. Wonderbolts Academy: This moment here.

And those are just some examples.

 

But compared to Transformers's variation of "dark" (then and now) compared to MLP:FIM now is the content rating. TV-Y is the strictest and most aggressive of them all, so thematic moments to the point fo really dramatic may violate content guidelines. MLP:FIM is rated TV-Y, so they have to be really careful not to made the dark moments too graphic, dramatic, or thematic. Transformers, meanwhile, is under a TV-Y7 rating, which provides a little more leeway.

The fact that the possibility of violent messages were sent disgusted me. Equestria Girls, from the get-go, has had very poor quality control, and I've been royally disappointed in both Hasbro and DHX for not promoting it at its best and for not developing such a stupid concept to its fullest potential. But regardless of your feelings towards it, there is no excuse to Tweet or e-mail violent messages, either in the form of a death threat or posting a picture of someone pointing a pistol, to those who were working on it. Just because you're on the Internet doesn't absolve you from self-control or self-responsibilities online, and the ones who sent those out-of-line messages need to comprehend that.

This episode would be amongst one of stupidest ever conceived in the show from a conceptual level for two reasons:

1. It's a lame strawman. It's not about "hating change." It's about reviewing the change critically and concluding if it genuinely works or not.
   
   Changes like having all of the characters write friendship reports to Celestia instead of just Twilight (beginning in Lesson Zero) is a bold but excellent change, for it allows all of the characters to share screentime without shoving Twilight needlessly into the plot.
   
   Changes like the Twilicorn, on the other hand, came way too soon and was just way too big of a concept to fit in Magical Mystery Cure; I've already written why the Twilicorn was such a stupid concept for the season finale already here.
   
   While season four has the chance to be well-written, you can't help but feel skeptical about what will happen, even though DHX has a great track record for producing high-quality material.
2. It comes off as a smug response towards not just the brony fandom, but the family-oriented target audience altogether. It doesn't matter how much you disagree with your fans. It's important to communicate with them constructively, even if the criticism from the audience tends to get blunt. Half-baked morals like those are very divisive, very snide, sending a dangerous implied message to generations that thinking critically with high standards is a bad idea, and not worth it to be published on the professional level. It comes off as a betrayal, which you can't do. Meta-esque stuff like your concept, Commander, never worked in fan-made material (I've seen shit like this in fanfiction and fan-comics, and they're NEVER written well), and they don't work professionally, either.

1. Plump the design a little bit. In several of the concepts, the characters share a model-esque torso in the shape of an hourglass. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic's purpose is to stray away from that sexist crap and show kids and adults that you don't need these stereotypes to make a series both enjoyable AND factually good. While the designs in the trailer don't display the hourglass as much, it still needs work to make the hourglass even less noticeable. Make the characters appear like real-life humans instead of humans with their torsos retouched each time they apear on camera.
2. Really vary the clothing to make them in character. Think about it, do you really believe characters like Applejack or Rainbow Dash would want to wear a miniskirt? If you believe you do, then I implore you to understand their personalities, activities, and agility more. Research their personalities, activities, agility, occupation (if applicable), strengths, and flaws; and match them with the clothing style.
3. Don't copy-and-paste each complete body design from one character to another and alter the colors and details a bit to make it appear that they belong to that character. In each revealed concept, the characters retained the same basic shape for the top, skirt, and footwear with nothing to really separate them. Don't let the colors fool you. If you really want to know how lazy the bodies are:

    

   a. Erase the color and leave only solid white or black blocks.

   b. Erase the color and leave behind a black silhouette.

   c. Stack the tops, skirts, and boots on top of each other in three neat piles.

    

   Immediately, you'll notice how dangerously subtle the alterations are. When you're making good quality character design, you need a strong base followed by really emphatic differences in the hair, body, AND clothing. This is something Monster High (despite using sex appeal to sell) succeeds: The character designs vary explicitly so you know who's who even though you don't see the details. For Equestria Girls, you can't and need the hair and colors as a crutch to differentiate. For humans or human-like antrhropomorphics, that's a really big problem.

    

   BTW, don't give me the "They're using Flash" excuse, because that no longer works. Back when Macromedia had Flash, it was still a new, rough program. Today, with Adobe running it, they've really made advanced upgrades to where it can be as useful a tool as traditional hand-drawn animation. It may be a tad bit tricky, but Flash can handle these details.

4. If you're going to use the fur color for the Mane Six's human skin, use them for ALL of the humans, not a select few. It makes them stick out like a sore thumb.

And the thing is, several bronies have succeeded in giving the Mane Six great human character design that's creative, intelligent, and AMAZING. Here are two examples: here (Drawfriend pics 37-41 & 43) and here (check out the same brony's Vinyl Scratch's badass design here).

While the rumor sounds true (with the crappy quality trailer giving away the central gag-worthy plot point and setting), never believe everything you read, especially if there's no confirmation in the source. As of this point, it's just an anonymous user sprouting nonsense. Take what the dude wrote with a grain of salt and wait for the littler details from the movie before you can confirm this.

@@DusK, Based off my own experiences with pixels and graphic design, that size is more than big enough. However, if you ever want to work more with logos someday, I recommend staying away from programs that deal exclusively with raster files like Photoshop or GIMP because the resolution is fixed. In the future, use vector programs like Illustrator (which you must pay for) or Inkscape (which is free).

1. At least one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders getting her cutie mark. The CMCs have taken three seasons to get to where they are now, and having their "find-their-cutie-marks" gag any longer would make it really stale. I hope an episode features one of the characters feeling committed to step forward and spend their hard-earned time in their main, innate interests.

Character development for Celestia. She's been around since the pilot and has had no development. Her personality is set in stone to the point of flatness. Luna, Twilight, and Cadance have personalities, strengths, and flaws front and back that give each of them full character. Celestia is portrayed as a deity figure with no emotional or psychological flaws that can make her such a deep character, which is shameful because she has the potential and a very good concept.

Twilight's development to an alicorn princess isn't shafted to where she's merely the "adorkable, crazy alicorn princess with wings slapped on." Her being an alicorn princess signifies a very big change in social status. If nothing about her or her relationship with her friends alters except that she has wings now, then it proves that Magical Mystery Cure was a shallow, insulting excuse for an episode specifically to promote the Pony Princess toyline.

1. Fluttershy: Kind-natured, shy, timid, yet when able to push herself to the plate, is an extraordinarily brave character. Her psyche is broken and still in desperate need of repair and is great fodder for psychological analyses.

Derpy Hooves: No matter how hard she tries, her vision perception will always screw her up. Clumsy and aloof, she's a very bright spot to Ponyville, because she's very cheery and always tries to do the right thing. In her brief roles, she has a lot of character that makes her cute and funny. Furthermore, on a more personal note, she's the community's creation and is the justified symbol of this fandom.

Princess Celestia: Flat character notwithstanding, she is a very wise ruler. Smart, kind, and unwilling to let the pressures of ruling a kingdom get into her head. She is an excellent mentor for Twilight Sparkle, who she has full trust of.

Dinky: There's really no good reason for the canon, for Dinky is merely a placeholder to fill in the background and has zero personality in the show. But the fanon thus far has solidified this with the Dinky/Derpy daughter/mother tandem and her constant portrayal in the work.

Trixie: A character who received the short end of the stick in Boast Busters. A showmare with the confidence and arrogance. A show-off with the ability to entertain in order to make a living. As a character, she has so much depth in which, following Magic Duel, can be explored further.

Rainbow Dash: Cocky, confident, caring, and loyal. The most complex and most developed of the Mane Six. There are so many layers in her characters that make her such a joy to discuss, debate, and analyze. She takes that tomcolt stereotype and breaks it in half.

Twilight Sparkle: Adorkable, insecure, intelligent, and so on. From a unicorn whose nose continued to be buried in a book to a capable and calculative leader, she's grown immensely. But she still has many holes to fill and challenges to fulfill. Despite how bad the Twilicorn was conceptually and in execution, it provides ample opportunity to promote her as a better leader and character.

Princess Luna: The best written of the three princess so far, discounting Twilight currently. In all of her appearances, she's yet to be badly written at any point. Of the two sisters, she's the underdog and has one of the best FIM pony designs (her season two version is much better in that regard). Despite regainning her position as the Princess of the Night, she still tries to fulfill her worth as both a princess and pony. The pain of her blanketing the world with darkness still scars her mind, and she's still trying to recover from it. Like so many other characters, Fluttershy including, Luna is one you can really psychologically analyze and realize how deep she is as a character.

Discord: A villain to initiate with, more of a neutral character/borderline antagonist today. He's the most well-rounded villain in the entire series: mischevous, chaotic, and menacing. His characterization made him so deliciously EVIL. Although him being more of an antagonist might drop him down a peg (especially if the team doesn't one-off him again), he's still a great character who makes ponykind's livelihood dizzy.

Princess Cadance: Caring, sweet, kind, and stubborn. Dubbed the so-called "purity princess" by critics, she ain't close to a Mary Sue. The Princess of Harmony never enjoys sadness, always loves spreading her wish of love and happy life to those around her. She's very protective of her current kingdom, The Crystal Empire, and will do whatever she can to keep the Crystal Ponies safe and joyful. Her half of "This Day Aria" is rich in character, depicting her firm commitment and love for Shining Armor and anguish over Chrysalis tricking Twilight's friends, Canterlot, Princess Celestia, and all of Equestria.

Even if the storyline IS good (which I doubt), the quality of the character design is not only still bad. In fact, it's worsened.

 

The "leaked" designs were generic, but at least they were decent enough to become identifiable and not so intellectually insulting. Here, these characters look absolutely anorexic and sexist. They sexualize the female anatomy beyond even what many of the Disney princess of the Renaissance did (except Ariel). They look Barbie-fied with a splash of anthropomorphic anatomy, with the exaggerated neck, arms, and hourglass torso.

 

Currently, because the character design sucks, I have no interest in watching it. The hook is more broken than a rusty ship anchor, and as a result, I see no reason to trust the team in doing a decent job executing it.

 

If Hasbro's going to genuinely try to attract the Monster High audience, at least demonstrate genuine effort by not slapping lazy design and actually drawing GOOD anthropomorphic characters. There are so many brony artists out there who draw great humans of the Mane Six, this being a good example. Good character design tells curious consumers that the overall product is high in quality, while bad character design like these pieces of garbage show nothing except the lust for a quick buck. Combined with its terrible character design, needlessly slapping the MLP:FIM franchise on it undermines the intelligence of the consumer, and anyone with a good eye for quality should be repulsed by these sexist designs!

 

Factually good character design hooks people in. Bad character design detracts them. EQG's main hook — the character designs — sucks, so I see no need to trust the crew into hoping they write the overall product well.

http://mlpforums.com/blog/91/entry-4505-how-to-design-an-effective-logo-revised/ <--- I think those participating in the Poniverse Logo Contest could use this advice. (And if desired, I'll bump it for the night viewers.)

I think it's time to break out my journal from last year: http://mlpforums.com/blog/91/entry-4505-how-to-design-an-effective-logo-revised/

 

As an amateur logo designer, logos are an art form that need to be reviewed very carefully. Be simple. Be on point. Don't overcomplicated your logo. Be technical. Have fun. I can't wait to see the creativity you guys deliver.

 

EDIT: Uploaded a revised blog.

It was assigned to me for my Women in Literature college class, and I couldn't put it down ever since. Today, I still go back to read it to remind myself of how great this novel is.

This novel is a semi-retelling of the author's time prior to the Great Depression (and likely the main reason why Tillie Olsen became a communist), with a working class family trudging throughout the midwest U.S. to make a living. The family is tired, hungry, and poor; they lived decently in ne part of the book, but then had to live in a nasty slum in Omaha, Nebraska. They're working class, but didn't have the luxuries. With the Great Depression around the corner, their lives worsened.

Mazie Holbrook, a young daughter, is the main character. She quickly became aware of her suroundings during the book, and she often daydeamt to escape the harsh, violent realities of both society and her parents (notably her father, who in turn her mom got into violent rampages herself).

What's so great about this book is how relatable the characters are. Mazie is young, but quickly became wise beyond her years. She is a revolunary character that carries some of Olsen's political viewpoints. Jim, Mazie's dad who turned into drinks to escape the harshness of the Depression, often turned into violent stupors, but cared for his family. Anna, Mazie's mother, also lived through the brunt of the Depression and is psychologically scarred due to the hard work and abuse Jim put her through. But they all have qualities and flaws that make them all human and sympathetic.

It's a Depressed society that Olsen herself experienced (likely without the parental abuse), but there are a lot of symbols relating to her Jewish heritage, Communist political viewpoints, and feminism. It's one of the few published pieces from Olsen, and this book is unfinished (she wrote it in the 1930s and then abandoned it, only rediscovering it in the early-1970s). But despite the errors in the writing and spelling, it's a brilliant book that only highlights Olsen's genius.

 

 

 

To those who are fans of George Orwell's 1984, Zamyatin's We is the grandfather of dystopian novels.

 

Taken place in a "pure," glass-covered country called One State, the ship called Integral is built to expand the country. D-503, the main protagonist, helps contstruct the ship and is soon met by I-330, who doesn't conform to the Benefactor's authoritarian laws and worshipping.

 

This novel is an amazing piece of literary criticism of the U.S.S.R.'s communist policies, and was so damning that the country censored it, only to have it smuggled out of the country, translated, printed, and published in the U.S. But it wouldn't be as impactful if it wasn't so good. D-503 doesn't have the mind of a slave. Instead, he feels human with impulses, urges, and freedom, but bogged down by the authoritarian rule of the Benefactor.

 

Some of you might have read other dystopian novels in the past; this one started it all, and you wouldn't have seen the likes of books like Brave New World and 1984 without it. In fact, We inspired Orwell to write 1984.

Oh, there definitely will be some, and there may be one out there in the works right now, either publicized or planning. Content dealing with the Twilicorn being immortal hasn't stopped despite McCarthy playing Word of God on Twitter (if anyone thinks it will, they're lying to themselves; if she's replaced by another editor someday, (s)he may say the reverse), and chances are McCarthy's role as part-time PR manager there only adds new concepts (this time dealing with perhaps making her friends gain a longer, if not permanent, life, too) into the fire.

 

—

 

EDIT:

 

Actually, I don't just mean Twilight, but also all five of her friends becoming immortal.

I know that, hence my topic sentence in this post.

They are my parents after all. Have to accept there decidtion...

Just because it's your parents doesn't mean it's acceptable, passively or not. Them being your parents doesn't mean you unconditionally tolerate cowardly "logic" thrown at you from them. The fact that they reacted the way you described is deplorable to say the least.

 

You accepting their reaction means nothing except admitting defeat. They're showing cowardice by displaying such backwards logic and homophobia. If anything, ask them questions. Ask them why they think of this. Show us what we bronies are. Show them an episode that certainly isn't so "catered to little girls" like Lesson Zero. Show them the music, fanart, and fandom animations like Snowdrop and Double Rainboom. Retain your boundaries by not going too far and throwing fallacies and ad hominem insults as well, but don't be afraid to challenge their backwards opinions. Don't be a doormat!

I doubt they'll change that, considering the direction it's under. With the youngest demographic being somewhere being three to six years old, the show's change of rating to TV-G runs the risk of scaring the guardians and parents off. TV-G programs have a reputation of not being suitable for anyone that young an age to watch on their own because the content tends to be more mature than TV-Y programs. I don't think the writers nor Hasbro want to scare the youngest demographics' guardians away from watching My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.

 

Also, the rumors are exactly that — rumors. Even if they may be true, never heed them, especially if there's no profound evidence to back it up.

 

They should change the rating to TV-MA

 

Isn't TV-Y basically the same thing as TV-G? Or is one of them a lower rating? I'm not exactly sure how those ratings work.

TV-Y is the lowest TV rating of them all and has the strictest content rating of them all.

 

Anything with TV-Y must be friendly with anyone younger than seven years old without the need of a parent or guardian. Fantasy violence, crude humor, foul language (light or heavy), perilous horror, and shock-value content are forbidden in TV-Y shows.

 

TV-G is a soft PG rating if compared to the ratings in the movies. TV-G shows allow a bit more mature-graphic content and have looser restrictions on crude language (i.e., toilet humor, some non-fantasy violence, light swearwords, lighter mature words like using the word "sex" under its many versions, and some heavier romance).

Many of the cars here are ugly, but there's another that is really ugly!

 

 

Featured in this 1980s Price Is Right clip is a three-wheeled vehicle called the Zoe Zipper.

 

Here's a screenshot of the Zipper from Virgin Media.

 

 

 

 

Season One:

1. Boast Busters: Simply because of the way the characters were handled in response to Trixie. The episode front to back was a royally mixed bag, and the conflict was needless.
2. Over a Barrel: I never watched the episode, but I read the script, and I know already how much I'm going to dislike it. Polsky ponified the conflict between the European settlers and Natives and trivialized it. So I'm skipping this shit over.
3. Owl's Well that Ends Well. One of the first truly BAD episodes of the series. Out-of-character personalities for both Twilight and Spike, and the aesop dragged on for far too long.

Season Two:

1. May the Best Pet Win!: Rainbow Dash, you can be a jerk occasionally, but you're a really big jerk here. It wasn't objectively good, but not objectively terrible. But certainly not very enjoyable.
2. The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well: EVERYONE was obnoxiously out of character! Dash's fragile ego was amplified beyond comprehension, and her friends acted like major jackasses. This comic details why this episode's so bad and too detestable to even enjoy. It's not a "so-bad-it's-good" episode. It's a "so-bad-you-want-to-bang-your-head-on-a-steel-chair-and-throw-up" episode. It's one of two episodes I watched only once because of how stupid TMMDW is.
3. Hearts and Hooves Day: The episode got way too random for my liking, and the way the episode was resolved was an unlikeable, out-of-character atrocity!

Season Three:

1. Spike at Your Service: Spike was written so badly here to the point of careless. He knows damn well how to cook and clean and understands what to expect from his friends.
2. Just for Sidekicks: My most hated episode in season three (second-most hated overall). Spike didn't forget how to cook, but he was written so AWFUL here, too. Instead of being needlessly careless, he willingly severed the trust his friends had over him, a contradiction of the lessons he learned from Secret of My Excess and Dragon Quest.
3. Games Ponies Play: Only read the script, and I know how much I'm gonna hate it. Pretty simply, the characterization is so idiotic that I wonder how this shit got approved in the first place!

So, right now, I'd say more than ten, but because I never watched Over a Barrel and Games Ponies Play, five to ten.

Expanding Keep Calm And Flutter On into a 2-parter would not have made Discord's redemption any more plausible. If it actually were a 2-parter, people would still call it "rushed." If 22 minutes isn't enough to believe that Discord is good, how is 44 minutes enough? If they really want to please everyone, they'd make it into a 3 hour epic. Than no one would be complaining about how "rushed" it is. They would just scream "I want old discord back!"

Once again, you're grasping for straws.

 

Twenty minutes is very LITTLE time to explain the process. You have to write the beginning, middle, and end and fit all of it within a narrow time frame. Discord in KCaFO wasn't redeemed within at least a forty-eight-hour frame. He was introduced in the beginning of the episode and was redeemed in around twelve hours, confirmed by Celestia around twenty-four hours later. He's menaced society longer than the Mane Six was even born and put Equestia through hell before he was initially turned into stone. And then you have the layers of information buried within that compacted space. The foreshadowing, Discord's quick tricks, the switching of the scenes, the conflicts, the key moments in the scene, and — once more — Discord being a millennium-old deity all within one small space that whizzes through a lot quicker than you think. The fact that he was reformed in less than one calendar day (especially via very poor pacing) makes no logical sense whatsoever.

 

A two-parter for a plot like KCaFO would've definitely worked a lot better because of something like these such ideas:

• Celestia's "logic" for redeeming Discord wouldn't be as flimsy. More time equals more opportunity for Polsky to write a logical explanation. In KCaFO, Celestia's "reason" was that she wanted him to use his powers for good and relied on Fluttershy to do it because she was the bearer of the Element of Kindness. Given Discord's personality and past, this "logic" is bullshit! It must be more convincing, and at least three more minutes of Celestia explaining why would've done the trick.
• The details wouldn't have been lost. There are layers of foreshadowing, but the small space forced them all to blend too much to the point where they went unnoticed.
• Further explore the eventual friendship Discord and Fluttershy would have. The two became friends at the end, but Discord manipulated Fluttershy, not truly viewing her as a friend until the end. Dialogue between them would give their friendship strength and show the potential of breaking down the barriers on both ends instead of merely one.
• Discord's past as a psychotic tyrant can be explored better and would allow the writers to call back on past episodes and lines such as Discord saying why he wouldn't turn ponies into stone.
• It gives the rest of the Mane Six a better opportunity to trust him and see through his mind games better. They remained antagonistic towards him until the final two minutes.

With a two-parter, Discord's redemption would've been given more time and would've made him turning to a borderline antagonist a hell of a lot more convincing. There's no excuse for lackluster performance in the professional already; a two-parter makes this less excusable. KCaFO's good, but way too weak to make the process so convincing. Just like Magical Mystery Cure and the poor way that was handled, if given one more part, then the episode wouldn't be subject to critiques and criticism of its objective flaws.

 

MMM on the other hand? Absolutely. A two parter would have made it way better. I still enjoyed it, but the pacing was horrible for a season finale that could have very well been the series finale.

MMC was definitely a series finale. The final draft of the script was submitted in November 2011, and season four wasn't planned yet. DHX treated season three as the final one, which is why they crammed so many bold ideas at once (with mixed results).