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Dark Qiviut

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  1. Dark Qiviut
    There's several degrees of mediocre and -20 degrees of awful. Since Wonderbolts Academy, Dash episodes have become Spike episodes. The only difference is Gauntlet of Fire is objectively good. Daring Don't, Rainbow Falls, and Tanks for the Memories are pitiful.
     
    Newbie Dash easily competes with No Second Prances as season six's worst episode and may be the worst one after this season's done with.
     
    What went wrong?
    Rainbow Dash's sense of maturity is completely nonexistent. One of her best traits is the ability to put her pride aside in favor of doing the right thing. WA is her best performance, because it put out the best in her from the middle onward. You knew it was about to come. Instead, she's become a very flanderized shell of herself with a monumental ego that has to be pegged time and time again. She marginalized her very own integrity by shooting it off early, embarrassing herself in front of the Wonderbolts, and being incompetent. Simultaneously, who can blame her? The Wonderbolts used a nickname that scarred her, and — what else is new? *eyeroll* — the Wonderbolts themselves were complete assholes! This is the third time that a group that she idolized acted like jerks in which she would want nothing to be a part of, yet she blows it aside. Consider Dash's history of when her confidence shatters. She wants to impress, but the more she gets hit with that insult, the worse her confidence gets, and the more she tries too hard. The dialogue is a mess. So much of it is contrived exposition. Again, when you exposit, you ruin the impact of the message and the overall. Show, don't tell, especially in child-friendly media. Take a good luck at how much the terrible dialogue ruined Rainbow Falls, Trade Ya!, EQG1, and McColts. The humor is a mess.
     

    The Spikabuse wasn't funny then and sure as hell isn't funny now. DHX, do the fandom a favor and knock this shit off!
     
    Pinkie Pie is flanderized again. *thumbs down* She's more than this.
     
    We're supposed to laugh at Rainbow Dash impersonating her friends, but it really failed. I don't know if the humor was in response to Dash's Twilight impersonation from Griffonstone or not, but whatever the case is, there is a huge difference between 'em. In Griffonstone, the joke worked because Dash was agitated when he impersonated her. In Newbie Dash, she impersonated them because she genuinely wanted to impress them. Consequently, Dash's impersonations in the latter comes across as cringeworthy and stupid, not funny. Jesus Christ, the moral. What the hell?!
     

    First off, let's talk about hazing, specifically rookie hazing. It's a very common tradition in many fields to "haze" newcomers. Hazing, for that matter, has had so many controversies. Some teams will haze rookies because to them, it's good ol' fun. But not everyone receives hazing very well because what comes across as good ribbing to the veterans can come off as bullying to the rookies. And when you look at the news articles of investigations related to hazing, the resentment is very valid. For several years, hazing has been on the news for really, REALLY bad reasons. People have been bullied, hurt, and killed by people who use these hazing rituals. A lot of the time, hazing deals with abusing someone under the context of "good fun" or "tradition." The abuse ranges from being taped up to a wall or pole to paddling to being raped. There's a movement to ban school hazing and some governments criminalizing hazing. Why? Because to haze is to bully, and it's not okay.
     
    What made this moral reprehensible is how Newbie Dash tolerates and embraces hazing.
     
    Why?
     
    "Because it's good fun."
     
    BULLSHIT!
     
    Rainbow Dash has every right to feel insulted and not take "Rainbow Crash" lightly. It doesn't matter if Spitfire or anyone else took their insult in stride. Not everyone does, and they have every right to say no. By being complacent, the episode tells the viewer their feelings towards insults don't matter. Words can hurt, and words can kill. Rather than ignoring it, be aware of it. Just because it's a common thing in the Wonderbolts's culture doesn't mean it's okay. Despicable moral!

    In short, this episode is garbage!
     


     
    Source: S06:E07 - Newbie Dash
  2. Dark Qiviut
    Warning: This review contains massive spoilers for the movie. If you don't desire to be spoiled, click the back button.
     
    ———
     
    My Little Pony: Equestria Girls is the semi-blockbuster for the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic franchise. The fourth generation has garnered hype and popularity since its inception on October 10, 2012, with the help of the target audience (families), market audience (families and families of little girls), and periphery demographic (everyone else — the teenager-and-up bronies, for example). However, unlike Friendship Is Magic, Equestria Girls's market audience is adolescent girls — ages ten to fourteen. With the premise revealed and controversy surrounding the spinoff, how does the movie itself hold up?
     
    To answer several questions and thoughts before I write the official commentary:
    If you watched the , you'll notice one segment where Twilight has trouble flying, a retcon from the ending from Magical Mystery Cure. The clip from that commercial came from this movie.
    Flash Sentry, who was featured not that much and didn't have much dialogue, was a love interest. In passing, Rarity said Flash Sentry and Sunset were a couple, but were broken up. Twilight gained a crush on him, and the two mutually respect each other.
    Derpy is featured at least twice in the movie, once deep in the credits dancing to the tune and the second during Equestria Girls (the song). In the latter, she appears walking in the lower-right-hand corner.
    There was a common question about why Twilight not stealing the crown back before retreating as fast as she could to the portal. Spike queried to Twilight about telling Twilight why she didn't ask Principal Celestia where it was, but that was the closest it came to this idea. Twilight didn't bother searching for it at any point in the movie.
    In the back of Sunset Shimmer's toy packaging, she's references as a former student for Celestia. She was Celestia's former student.
    Twilight Sparkle, while in her human form, didn't attended classes (at least on screen).
    At no point is the word "human" even uttered.
    If you wish to see the plot summary, head to its wiki page here.

    Now to my standard review.
     
    My Little Pony: Equestria Girls markets to female teenagers via the content within, but DHX and Meghan McCarthy are responsible for animate and write the movie. On one hand, there is plenty of material to attract the parents and periphery demographic with the wit and humor. On the other, there is so much, from the little details to the characterization to the overall concept, that is extremely patronizing to the periphery demographic to the point of segregating them from the rest of the audience. It has the potential and shows it occasionally, but on the whole, it's one gigantic clunker.
     
    First, there are strengths:
    The animation of the ponies is extremely fluid. To repeat, one element from the series that is often overlooked is the quality and improvement of the animal animation. Instead of using Flash as a cost-cutting measure, DHX uses it as a crucial tool to develop the animation and make it as useful as handdrawing them, akin to a full-length Disney animated picture. The same can be said for Spike as both a dragon and dog. The way bot designs move gathers no noticeable hitches or glitches.
    In the alternate world, the environmental graphics are solid. It's school, but it feels like a lively school, with bright colors, land, shadows, and many other nuances. In front of Canterlot High is a horse statue that contains numerous details to make it look polished and beautiful. You can see, pause, and observe the details in that statue.
    There are no complaints for the excellent voice work. Whenever they talked, the dialogue, reactions, and exclamations didn't sound fake or poorly acted. When Twilight was anxious, she appeared anxious. When Spike was concerned or snarky, he was exactly that. The tones were believable. Sunset Shimmer was a bully, and her aggressive voice (as a human, pony, and bitchy demon) fit her personality.
    Like the episodes themselves, one crucial point in the series is both the background musical score and song score.Once more, William Anderson performed well. Each time his score came into play, the mood resonates and correlates. When the situation was calm, the score captured that feeling of calm. When Twilight was anxious or panicking, Anderson's tunes captured that panic. During the lone fight scene, the score revved up to represent adrenaline and urge, and it matched the scene well.
     
    And if you are a Star Wars geek like I am, take a listen to the score once Twilight opens Principal Celestia's door open with her head. You'll notice a tiny bit of a Star Wars-esque tune before it switches into something more fitting to Celestia.
    Daniel Ingram is responsible for the song score, and what he did really harnessed the feeling of youth. The songs are teen pop, which tends to be upbeat, young, and urban in its music. According to Ingram, this is something very foreign to him, which he did quite well in three songs:
     
    A Strange New World: This is the most unique of the songs in terms of tone. In the other songs, you can really notice the similarities in the drums, symbols, and rhythm. In this one, however, the mood is much more different, which means a change of pace in the music. It's lower and doesn't have as much adrenaline compared to the others.
     
    Equestria Girls: The second the song begins to plays, there's a tribute to Queen's We Will Rock You. It's by far the catchiest song in the entire movie, and Ingram's upbeat, high-paced score (akin to a song played at a baseball game during a road team's mound conference) revs up tremendous adrenaline, starting small and then climatically ending on a continuously high note.
     
    The instrumental theme for the characters' transformation. If you're going to give this moment any impact, it's important to put in a great score for it. Ingram did exactly that, combining the teen pop genre with the feeling of magic and majesty in the instruments.

    [*]The characterization of the humans is rather decent. Twilight's misadventures as a human really fits her, for she transformed from a pony so suddenly. As for the other humans, their dialogue fits their personalities and roles (Principal Celestia, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, etc.).
    [*]But there's one human who stole the show in some capacity: Pinkie Pie. If you love Pinkie Pie, you'll love her glorious performance. For almost the entire movie, she was extremely in character and random, but didn't behave like a mindless clone from Too Many Pinkie Pies. Whatever she was going to say, you had no idea when or where. But whenever she did, it fit her so well. She wasn't random for the sake of it nor was she random during very crucial, dire moments. If she was serious, she was. When she was surprised, she was surprised. When she wanted to surprise someone with her hilarious antics, you had no idea how, whether it's her "hunch," breaking the fourth wall, or hanging upside-sown with a megaphone in her hand. She was fantastic here and gave her character so much justice.
    [*]A little detail, but Principal Celestia shone early in the movie. Her sassy, snarky expression once Twilight entered her office was funny, and she showed both patience and impatience. In that small clip, she displayed a bigger sense of character than her pony counterpart: her strength of wisdom, but a psychological flaw of greater importance and not wanting to waste time taking needless conversations.
    [*]When Spike is well-written, he is a tremendous character, and he was excellent here. The design choice of him being Twilight's dog is still stupid because it relegated him to a pet instead of Twilight's surrogate brother, but he was the level-headed figure of the duo. He was intelligent, witty, and the wiser of the two. He sometimes said something that was hilarious and not as smart as he hoped, but he knew Twilight very well and guided her whenever she got stuck, lost, or anxious. DHX, this is how Spike SHOULD be written: not a comedic butt of jokes, but a character who's worth his screentime and attention to the audience. Suffice it to say, it's his best role since The Crystal Empire.
    [*]Twilight Sparkle was adorkable, but not the same Twilight compared to season three. All of the character growth from the pilot to Magical Mystery Cure was retained: nervous, mature, capable of quickly regaining her composure. Her leadership, which isn't highlighted as much as it should, played a role in many parts of the movie, from making her human companions of her friends friends again to being the one who helped clean up the mess in the hall to leading the chase in the end.


    That said, there are many issues, some small, some quite big.
    One big issue in many of season three's episodes is the pace, either because it's too fast or too slow. This issue is evident here on many occasions.
     
    a. Twilight was transformed into a human and had to adapt in order to retrieve her Element of Harmony. In what is a seventy-minute movie, Twilight had to adapt to being a human in only three days. Transformation from one species to another is not as easy to adapt as you logically think. Think about a baby walking. When a baby tries to walk the first time, he or she will stumble and fall down. Eventually, the baby will walk, but it won't happen right away. It takes plenty of time to adjust, and this example applies to Twilight. She's smart, but isn't going to go from acting like a four-legged mammal to a human who's capable of wiggling her fingers and walking on her two feet in a couple of days. Getting used to having different anatomy takes plenty of time to adapt, and it's too quick.
     
    b. A common issue in the series: explaining a villain's backstory with as little detail as possible. Sunset Shimmer is the main villain in the entire movie, and Celestia didn't explain her history as thoroughly as she should. If given one or two more minutes to explain her past more, then Shimmer's transformation from a confident student to a dishonest, egotistical bully might've made more sense. Instead, Celestia's explanation was rushed and only opened up more questions regarding her past. Sunset's flimsy excuse following her defeat didn't close the door on these questions, but rather left them just as open, if not more.
     
    c. Twilight's crush, Flash Sentry (a.k.a., Brad), is boring and flat. As a character, he has very little personality. Sure, he's supposed to be kind and gentlemanly, but when he spoke, there was so little to demonstrate something from him that stands out and make him thoroughly three-dimensional. Any physical, psychological, and emotional flaws that make the characters thrive are absent, and he had so few roles to make him verbally stand out. Basically, he was a tertiary character.
     
    d. The mutual respect for both Flash Sentry and Twilight resorts to three common clichés: Flash helping Twilight to her feet; Flash and Twilight bumping into each other, having a "crush-y" moment, and Flash being Sunset's ex-boyfriend.
     
    The latter cliché is such a major copout for two reasons: It creates unnecessary conflict (which never got brought up following the revelation), and it's written as a cheap excuse to hook Twilight and Flash up. If you want to write genuinely good quality cruses and romance, don't fall for these stupid traps that intellectually insult your audience.
     
    Furthermore, the family-friendly romantic feelings were implausibly developed. At one point, they met. The next, Twilight developed a crush. The third, Flash and Twilight developed mutual respect for each other. There was so much going on, no time for them to mutually communicate was given.
     
    e. The plot, from the beginning to the end, crammed way too much information for it to flow plausibly. This is a seventy-minute movie that featured several plot points, and it's up to McCarthy and the rest of DHX to have everything flow smoothly and plausibly: Twilight learning how to be a human, regain the crown, team up with her Human Five counterparts, defeat Sunset Shimmer, develop a crush on Flash Sentry along the way, and return home all in three days. What was given the ample opportunity to develop everything well was cut for the required time given for the movie. When you're forced to cut corners to cram so much detail, you run the risk of really diminishing the quality of the story. That's exactly the case here, with the plot going, "too much information, too little time." If anything, this movie should've been longer.
    While the animation of the ponies and other animals is fluent, the humans are very subpar. With the exception of the twirling during Equestria Girls, the humans don't appear fluid at all. For one, the squash and stretch (an important principle in animation) are missing most of the time. When they walk and run, it doesn't have that organic motor of their legs. When the characters walk, run, pose, or throw, it's as if I turned on a machine. Instead of using Flash as a crucial tool to produce high-quality animation, it comes across as a crutch to cut corners.
     
    While a nitpick, Snails carried that wheelbarrow full of bricks as if it was empty. One brick alone is extremely heavy, and he's pushing at least a dozen. That's about two hundred pounds of bricks. For a team that takes its physics very seriously, DHX slipped up here.
    The cause of the division of the Human Five is out of character. While teens are extremely naïve, the Human Five are extremely intelligent, and they were all friends when they went to High School as freshmen. When Sunset Shimmer sabotaged their friendship with questionable messages, in-character beings of themselves would've gone to the supposed messengers and ask if they genuinely sent them. If they weren't friends to begin with, then that's not a problem, but it's very problematic and didn't make sense.
    While the callback to the pilot with Fluttershy being shy to Twilight is fine as a concept, it doesn't make sense as she communicated with Sunset Shimmer. Following the confrontation, Fluttershy wouldn't have been as shy to talk with Twilight, who helped her and saved her from getting any more verbal abuse. If Fluttershy was quiet and meek while communicating with Sunset Shimmer, then the correlation wouldn't have been a problem.
    The periphery demographic is segregated from both the market and target audiences, relying on constant current pop culture and brony references to retain attention. While it's fine to reference the brony fandom in the form of Vinyl Scratch (with and without her shades), Trixie, Photo Finish, and Derpy, it's important to balance everything out with well-written plotlines, intelligent dialogue, and thorough characterization; this movie forced itself to divide the demographics.
    I called this out way too many times, particularly in my editorial.
     
    The human character designs are extremely formulaic, both male and female (with very few exceptions [i.e., Snips, Snails, Celestia, Granny Smith]).
     
    What makes the ponies stand out is how individual they all look even from either a basic silhouette. The pony base design is so strong, a mane and tail are all needed to create a character in a basic shape. With the humans, however, the hair immediately recognizes who the characters are, but that isn't enough, especially if going by a basic template (and to replicate well-recognized characters). Here, you need to really make the clothing varied to make the characters individual, and altering clothing like the skirts or boots just a little bit isn't enough. You need extreme variations in the height, anatomy, clothing, and so on to make them recognizable in a basic outline. For the Mane Six, besides Rainbow Dash's athletic pants, they're so similar; you can swap the completed designs from one to another, and they'll still fit.
     
    I repeated this in my editorial, so I'll copy and paste it:
      While Equestria Girls is both well-sung and well-composed, the other songs' lyrics are extremely repetitive. A Strange New World used the same message over and over again, while This Is Our Big Night (both the original and reprise) continued the same lyrics and tune. The latter is short, but it could've used much more variety to make the lyrics much more interesting. The creative genius that we normally see in the lyrics and song score is lost in its repetition and lack of necessity.
     
    The song played during the credits, A Friend for Life, albeit interesting and brings back the implied message My Little Pony: Equestria Girls sends, is very forgettable. It doesn't have catchy lyrics nor the bouncy rhythm that makes Equestria Girls intriguing to listen and see.
    Although the Human Six are in character, with the exception of Pinkie Pie, Spike, and Rarity (to an extent), the dialogue comes across as stilted. What makes great, three-dimensional characterization isn't merely having them be in character, but also not being able to predict somewhat what they're going to say. Whenever Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Twilight, and Applejack spoke, I honestly expected what they were saying. It doesn't have to be an exact match, as long as the message correlates. Pinkie's characterization was great because you didn't expect what she was saying, but you can here with almost everyone else.
     
    It isn't only the Human Six, either. Sunset Shimmer, Snips, Snails, Vice Principal Luna, and Flash Sentry have the same issue, too. As they each spoke, I could predict what they were about to say.
     
    Rainbow Dash, despite being in character, had the worst dialogue. Her lines are not only way too stilted, but also too simple and limited in her vocabulary. Review the movie and see how much she says the word, "awesome."
     
    There's a big difference between in character and a combination of in character and three-dimensional. Most of the characterizations leaned on the former rather than the ladder.
    For a character who was supposed to replicate wisdom and intelligence, Vice Principal Luna showed none in her brief appearances, especially while interrogating Twilight in her office. Instead, we got someone who couldn't recognize a blatant cutout. The picture of Twilight causing the mess in the gym isn't a photoshop. It's an image with Twilight cut out and glued on the front to make it look like she caused the mess. Any vice principal with an ounce of intelligence would immediately recognize the ploy. Paper has texture, and you can feel the image being cut out immediately. The real Vice Principal Luna would notice this immediately, find Sunset Shimmer, and interrogate her rather than rely on a semi-Deus Ex Machina to get Twilight out of trouble.
     
    Simply put, Vice Principal Luna is an atrociously, out-of-character idiot.
    The story's extremely predictable, playing it way too safe. While Friendship Is Magic mostly developed the characters conservatively, the writers aren't afraid to throw a curveball to make the plot interesting and accessible, sending a message to families (of little girls/teens) that good quality, fresh entertainment is available out there. But instead of throwing a great curveball that makes the audience whistle by how nasty it broke, Uncle Charlie lazily hung in the middle of the strike zone. This movie doesn't play fresh one iota. Instead, it sticks to the common clichés in high school with nothing genuinely interesting or faithful to the main series to keep things interesting. It's the typical "newcomer-arrives-at-High-School-meets-new-friends-gains-her-bully's-ex-as-a-crush-kicks-bully's-ass-and-the-story-ends-happily" plot, only with My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic slapped on the front to make it appear related. It's extremely formulaic; I felt like I honestly saw or read the same plot in another book or show.
    Snips and Sails are extremely unrecognizable as characters. Sure, their faces, bodies, and voices exist, but there's a difference in seeing them visually and seeing, hearing, and identifying them. Snips and Snails spoke, but they're not them.
     
    In Equestria, Snips and Snails are innocent-minded characters. While they tend to say and do stupid things, they're not evil. In the alternate world, they're evil! They're villains, and that's NOT them! They're a dumber version of Diamond Diara and Silver Spoon, but as males instead of females. "Alternate Universe" is no excuse for disrespecting the original characterization and making them different characters with "Snips" and "Snails" slapped on the obverse.
    Sunset Shimmer is a TERRIBLE character. There was so much criticism for King Sombra for being flat and boring, with nearly nothing to make him a full-fledged, developed character. However, Sombra still has plenty of potential to become such a dastardly villain that Discord would squirm.
     
    Sunset Shimmer is just bland and uninteresting. As a personality, she is the typical, high-school-clichéd, one-dimensional bitch. What could've been a highly manipulative, calculative, cocky, greedy, proud villain is relegated into a cardboard with the typical bully, with bright colors and a black jacket dressing her. Swap the shared "personality" Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had from One Bad Apple into Sunset Shimmer, and you have the same character with only a different character design and voice to separate them.
     
    Also, if she was interested in obtaining magical genius while studying under Celestia's tutelage, then why would she decide to venture into Canterlot High, a place where magic is much more obscure and difficult to conjure, in the first place? Instead, wouldn't she venture to another area to study harder, like a restricted section in the school library or another school where she feels she can study to her very best? Celestia describes Shimmer as hardworking to a huge fault, greedy, and thirsty to be the best sage. Greed and pride can describe Shimmer fantastically, but it wasn't used properly for her because the concept of the alternate world shuts down magic, and she behaved dimwittedly. Instead of shutting down her perceived intelligence to make Twilight and the rest of the characters better, use her intelligence to make both Twilight and Sunset equal rivals, and use Twilight's intelligence to problem-solve.
     
    Then there's her excuse why she became cruel and dishonest:
     Her reason for becoming so evil is flimsy and shallow, making her a flatter, dumber character, and inorganically shoehorning the Magic of Friendship in the canon. Her cruelty needs to have much more basis than this. If she's going to be evil, don't throw in a rushed two-liner. Give her evil a basis to make her evil solid, logical, and empathetic. In the ending, Sunset is at her most vulnerable. Show us why we should feel sympathy for her. That throwaway line doesn't give her character justice. Instead, bullshit is delivered, stomping on any integrity her concept once had.
    The ending makes no sense.
     
    a. Like the rest of the plot, the climax was way too quick. There was so much to deliver, explain, show, and tell, but the whole battle was crammed into five minutes.
     
    b. A second Deus Ex Machina bloomed. Flash showing up to get Twilight out of trouble was the first. The second came here when Twilight and her human friends harnessed the power of the Elements of Harmony. While the Elements of Harmony were definitely going to impact the movie somehow, Twilight was able to activate its power without the tools necessary to activate the Magic of Friendship. If the physical tools were unnecessary, then why did Discord steal them in Return of Harmony, and why did Twilight have to safeguard them from Keep Calm and Flutter On to Magical Mystery Cure? The DEM handwaves the purpose of having the tangible objects to begin with (using that "intangible tangibles" cliché) and creates a big plothole that the universe didn't need having.
     
    c. As funny as Twilight was in the dance, her going to the Fall Formal at the end is completely out of character of her. She's running on time, and she barely entered through the portal before the clock ran out. What if she went into the Formal and didn't make it on time? She would really regret doing it. It would've been best for the plot if Twilight went on to say, "no," say goodbye to her friends, and leave for home.
     
    d. The fact that Twilight went back to her world this quickly is just plain stupid! This event is a very big change for her to adapt. High School and the Fall Formal are completely foreign environments, and it's up for her to adapt as well as she plausibly can. Furthermore, it's up to her to survive. But to be there from the beginning of the movie to returning to her own world makes no sense.
     
    1. It shows right from the get-go that this movie's primary purpose is to sell toys. The plot is second-nature, and it shows how much how DHX has to try to cram such a dumb concept into the plot in order for the alternate dimension to make sense professionally and canonically.
     
    2. It's such a huge mea culpa and exemplifies why converting Twilight from an alicorn back to a unicorn is such a stupid idea. It tells the audience that DHX spits on the concept and wants to do whatever it can to "rectify" an idea that's so unfaithful to Friendship Is Magic's roots. But this plot point is so cheap and admits to the audience that the movie shouldn't have been made, period. DHX and Meghan McCarthy are implying, "This movie conceptually sucks, and we'll do whatever it takes to get out of it." It's as if McCarthy ran into Writer's Block and sifted through The Generic Book of Generic Clichés just to escape. It have It takes whatever "soul" — or lack thereof — Equestria Girls already "had" and destroys it.
     
    If DHX wanted to disguise the blatant toy promotion more convincingly, have Twilight not be able to return during the movie. As in, the only way to get back to Equestria is to wait for the next thirty moons or have Twilight adapt in High School, better expand the Magic of Friendship to Sunset Shimmer, battle through rough times in High School, become triumphant, and graduate. But this canonical method is cheap and lame: It tells the audience that DHX and Hasbro don't desire to explain and expand this world further.
    Finally, this movie as a whole has absolutely no soul. Just because there are patches of great work doesn't mean the passion is exactly there. It's very possible to churn high-quality work just for the sake of it. The movie's concept is extremely typical, but McCarthy and the rest of the crew didn't do something to make it stand out and make it not only differentiate from the rest of the typical High School plotlines, but also faithful to the roots of Friendship Is Magic. The concept is old to the core, but McCarthy could've still done something to make My Little Pony: Equestria Girls refreshing and not fall into the samey plotlines that have killed many movies (both blockbuster features and home videos). But Equestria Girls didn't dare to take chances and slapped in many brony references to capture the periphery demographic's attention. Too much was crammed in simultaneously, forcing the movie to hold its breath until the credits rolled. Like a furious and impatient conductor rolling through his or her notes, Equestria Girls speeds through one page after another and cuts corners to fit everything into one package. It's completely different to Magical Mystery Cure, where the path wasn't linear. Here, it was very linear with no thoroughly great characterization, poorly done character development, and the overall impression that DHX and Hasbro didn't care for the overall quality and performance of the movie at all. Executive meddling is no excuse for giving My Little Pony: Equestria Girls a Dementor's Kiss.

    My Little Pony: Equestria Girls is a spinoff with the ability to expand the universe into more uncharted, interesting territories. Despite a concept that doesn't stay faithful to the core of the main series, the Next Big Thing for Friendship Is Magic provided ample opportunity for Hasbro and DHX to take it and make something fresh and good out of it. There are patches of high-quality characterization (primarily in Pinkie Pie and Spike), music, character backstories, and overall potential. Instead, the story is safe; the humans' animation is inorganic; the lyrics are often repetitive or forgettable; and the overall script quality is sacrificed for time. In what could have been a great way to sidestep executive meddling and send a message to families, adolescent girls, and the overall periphery demographic that the High School concept can show a breath of fresh air, the clichés deliver the opposite, disappointing message and further prove that the concept just doesn't work. Although the potential is there, what is executed instead is mostly a convoluted, lazy, soulless mess. Overall, My Little Pony: Equestria Girls is a terrible movie.
  3. Dark Qiviut
    If you want to read my first impressions of the episode, check out the spoilers:
     
     
     
     
     
     
    After re-watching it, the episode has since really grown on me, and I began to embrace it more and more. Now I detail a few more things I adored:
    Of all the episodes this season that featured the entire Mane Six cast, this is easily the strongest. Each line from the characters worked to perfection. Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, Twilight, and Spike had great and in-character lines. Celestia, for her brief moment, was great. Discord's antics and lines stole the episode.
    The foul language from the critters. Of the Mane Six, Fluttershy is the only one who's been able to communicate and understand the creatures (the lone exception being Hell's Angel, strangely enough). Her being a median for both Applejack and the beaver was cute and hilarious.
    Everyone but Fluttershy NOT trusting him, even completely all the way through the episode. Everyone was absolutely apprehensive about his revival and "reformation." Although Discord is starting to learn the error of his ways, it's obvious they still don't fully trust him. Even Celestia is still uncomfortable having him around, hence her stern whisper. This works really well because if everypony began to trust Discord off a drop of the dime, it would be way too sudden. It's going to take much more time before Discord can be fully relied on. DHX, writers, I'm counting on you to show some more development between him and the rest of the cast.
    Discord still being the Spirit of Chaos, but not to the point of being a true villain. Of the four villains throughout the series, Discord has the most potential because of his charisma and depth in character. His tricks can still drive everyone angrier than the Angry Beavers, but still be both a protagonist and anti-hero. This draconequus has so much depth and can really give the canon so much worldbuilding. Furthermore, even more character development for Discord himself. More of this, the better!
    The occurrence of one-shot characters returning to the scene. Like I said with Babs Seed in my analysis for Apple Family Reunion, we're seeing one-shot characters returning and hopefully receiving more of a role in the canon. Trixie, then Babs, and now Discord. I'd like to see more of this in the future, and hopefully more of Discord later this season and beyond.
    The hilarity. Discord's tricks work so well and fit him so excellently. I was laughing a lot from his antics, particularly him taking out his eyeballs, rolling down the red carpet, reformatting Fluttershy's couch, and the dancing candles akin to Beauty & the Beast's "Be Our Guest."
    The Deus Ex Machina being defeated early. Too Many Pinkie Pie's biggest flaw came midway in the plot, which was Spike discovering the book from inside a secret cupboard that led to the Legend of the Mirror Pond. The trick of Twilight forcing Discord to reform (only to have it being eaten) was an extremely clever and hilarious take in poking fun at this plot device.
    Discord's plan to manipulate Fluttershy into having her promise not to use the Elements of Harmony against him, only to have this plan both work AND fail. When he was released, he composed a plan to fool and trick Fluttershy and take advantage of her kindness and assertiveness. All of those tricks were used in order to embarrass and humiliate her friends and convert her to his side. However, in the dinner party, he began to enjoy her company, and he was starting to at least have a heart for friendship, for his heart was as cold as stone. This enjoyment of her company made him spill those lines and compassion. The game he played worked for him, but also against him. "Well-played, Fluttershy. Well-played" is the best line in the entire episode (perhaps the entire season, with the exception of "I quit!" from Rainbow Dash and that line from Granny Smith in Apple Family Reunion dictating the possibility of not having so many family members attending the next reunion) and put his change of heart into full circle. But his stone cold heart wouldn't warm up without some hints, which is what I'm going to deliver next.
    The foreshadowing. So much of it. It wasn't one surprise to another. Each event led to another and made the episode feel complete. Here's what I mean:
    The Angry Beaver who didn't give a dam about Applejack's farm. This event hinted the huge dams and flood later in the episode.
    Discord's sneaky trick with his tail. When he snapped his fingers, the beavers were put under a trance, and they built the dams that flooded Sweet Apple Acres (which Discord later froze into a lake of ice).
    Discord eating the paper. This foreshadowed Twilight's plan to forcefully reform Discord, and he was one step ahead of her plan. When Twilight and the others left, they conversed on a backup plan to forcefully reform him in front of Fluttershy's door. Twilight said she had that plan. I wouldn't be surprised if Discord heard them and, with his magic, stole the spells and ate the paper.
    Fluttershy declaring Discord as a friend. Discord intended to be buddy-buddy with her, but Fluttershy's words to Discord were kind and sincere. For a cold character such as Discord, it's something that he almost never hears and notices: actual warmth in conversation and belief that his exterior and treacherous trickery can be broken down by kind words and attitude. But he still manipulated the Mane Six and severed his trust she had for him. That line he spilled as Fluttershy rejected his manipulation and stormed off broke down the last bits of that block of cement and put that moment in the dinner party to full circle.

    But there was one big flaw in this story, and it's completely the opposite of Spike at Your Service: The pace was too fast. From the get-go, the momentum was extremely quick, whereas Spike at Your Service had a great pace but a poor plot and even worse characterization of Spike. The runner broke into a sprint on the treadmill and, for the duration of the show, never slowed down. Writing a great pace for a storytelling is a lot like aerobic exercising. You start the pace slow and then you slowly build up your momentum and energy. Then, for one to two minutes, you race and make your heart beat quickly. Then you slow down again and change the pace and intensity here and there. In addition, you breathe to let the oxygen flow. Just like the person in his exercise routine, Keep Calm and Flutter On held his breath, then exhaled for a quarter of a second, and suddenly held it in for another minute. This kept on going, and this plot had no time to breathe and actually calm down for a few moments.
     
    Discord's redemption would've been much better if the plot was slowed down, altered, split into two parts, and have the duration of his redemption last for more than just twelve hours. Instead of constant rapid and quick sequences to the point where the viewer can't fully grasp at the actions and consequences during the episode, slow down the pace a bit and space out the chaos to where we have calm in between the storm. Have Fluttershy converse with the others and maybe have a scene where Discord can talk about his coldness and love to make lives hell. Maybe have him create some chaos, but then think otherwise and keep the magic chaotic but fun. He can still have his moments, but he will feel warmer to the others and vice-versa. The development of Discord's friendship with Fluttershy would feel more natural and not as compacted as a tall man squeezing inside a Volkswagen Beetle.
     
    That said, there were numerous great things that still made this episode strong. With great characterization, the episode flowed from one moment to another, and there was plenty of foreshadowing that and Fluttershy was the best candidate to penetrate Discord's stone-cold heart. He is much more relaxed and will no longer be transformed into a stone statue anymore, but he will likely remain the Spirit of Chaos that will hopefully drive everyone crazy and create some great chemistry with the other characters. The pace was abnormally quick, but it didn't deter what was an extremely exciting episode that hopefully takes advantage of Discord's great potential as an anti-hero and character altogether.
     
    —
     
    Source: S03:E10 - Keep Calm and Flutter On
  4. Dark Qiviut
    Note: Credit to @CloudMistDragon, @Justin_Case001, Kaperon TSB, and Applegeek for this review.

    Today Sparkle's Seven is Season 9's greatest episode. Everything fell into place and was written so, so well. But writing just this much only really undercuts the mastery of its storytelling and humor.
    Rather than doing simply a breakdown of the episode in a strength/weakness structure or a long essay, I'll break down specific points, ala my Movie review and Zeppelin analysis.
    Setting the Tone.
    Within the first minute, Haber and Dubuc establish the episode's whimsical tone, beginning with this little whammy.
    Spike's so excited to receive Shining Armor's letter that he burst in Twilight's office, accidentally spooked Starlight enough to cause her to drop a stack of papers on the floor, and unroll his scroll with extreme glee. All punctuated by a very happy trumpet score in the background. Ten seconds in, the audience begins to have a quick impression of what its tone, atmosphere, and overall direction could be: casual, fun, and possibly exciting. The crown may be a toy, but Spike's face and Twilight's subsequently surprised reaction reveal how important it is to them: It establishes a friendly sibling rivalry between her and older bro Shining Armor, which the montage shows they had a huge amount of fun to earn it. That toy crown's nostalgic, a will to be impressive during the week, and improve if you miss it. Being a bro himself, Spike's excited to see SA revive it, even if for one more time.
    Before the open ends, Sparkle's Seven alerts us of the stakes: Whoever wins the crown this time officially wins Sibling Supreme. Forever. It effectively delivers on the episode's direction and tone without wasting one precious millisecond.
    Speaking of tone…
    Twilight: "For…ev…errrr…"
    What do Best Night Ever, Lesson Zero, Pinkie Pride, Slice of Life, Saddle Row Review, and Break Down each have in common? They're filled to the brim with comedy and among the best episodes in part of or because of it. Sparkle's Seven ups the ante hundredfold. Everywhere it goes, it's ripe with humor. To go over a few early examples:
    Starlight's last, quizzical line. Celestia's beat after Princess Luna takes a verbal shot at her (along with a small stare at her as SA gloated). This face…

    Suddenly, I'm hungry for pudding… Princess Luna whinnying like a horse. Recall his fans giving that poor robin having trouble flying near the Royal Sisters's castle? Here's the next scene!

    Eeyup! Same robin, dazed from crash-landing, walking near the castle instead! Going a little dark there, eh, story?! Pinkie cutting off Rarity and Dash's film noir scene (a very clever callback to Rarity Investigates!) and breaking the fourth wall during the cartoony space scene. Her small whine sells it quite well. Spike imagining himself as a spy teaming up with Fluttershy to steal his crown.
    From the start, Sparkle's Seven doesn't let up on any comedic opportunities. If they find a spot, they were going for it, be they succeed or fail. Varying the humor — rather than relying on one type — by equally including sound effects, the score, little Easter Eggs caught on repeated rewatches, different camera/animation techniques, and dialogue catches the audience by surprise, a crucial ingredient to good-quality comedy, and increases its replayability. The cartoony medium also helped accentuate their faces, going extreme without becoming uncanny.
    One will be covered in more detail right now.
    The Many Faces of Equestria!
    Despite the boatload of comedic variety, their faces drive most of it. Haber, Dubuc, and the animators successfully take advantage of the animation medium and exaggerate them without becoming gross, uncanny, or out of place. The only question: When's the right time? Thanks to its absurd tone, whenever they surprise us.
    Act 1's full of them, but some of my favorites occur during the second. Here are just a few.

    Earlier, AJ claimed to possess an alter ego named Apple Chord and would use it to distract the Canterlot guards while the others snooped inside. But after telling her story, Dash realized she wasn't telling the truth, leading to this awkward mouth. Does a face like THAT tell you she wants to be Apple Chord? Nope! Onstage, one uncomfy dudette forces herself to live a lie long enough for her friends to get inside. This one is sequential: Twilight and Shining Armor's exchange outside the castle. Suspected she was up to something, he questioned her. How did she respond? By sniffing a nearby flower with a cunning grin. Shining scooted away, peeking as she innocently waved to him. What makes this so interesting? Because it adds to the friendly yet passionate rivalry between them. Silly, yet serious in showing a tight, competitive relationship. Twilight realizing Rarity's scheme fell apart.



    If that doesn't accurately describe her sinking loss of hope… Poor Twilie. Yeah way! Uh huh!
    But my favorite moment, until the end, is the Dash and Rarity scene. Realizing in shock that the café was closed during the afternoon catalyzed their moment to spy on the episode's first truly suspicious event: Luna replacing two Canterlot guards with Zephyr Breeze. At first, one might wonder why she'd hire someone like him to take part, but then you become reminded of SA's words from earlier: ponies guard every door, so it makes sense for ponies to replace them while they're out to lunch.
    That said, it's Zephyr we're talking about here…!
    But we'll talk about that later. The true gift of this scene is how they react to him. Including, well, how shall I say it? Uh…eeyep?
    Oh, eeyup!
    When I first watched Sparkle's Seven, I laughed. The second time around, I nearly fell to the floor from laughing so hard. Sneaky sneaky, DHX! XD
    Ironically, they also made Zephyr, one of the worst characters of the series, actually pleasant to watch. Sure, he's still a diva, but he's much more self-confident now (clever subtlety). His ego's no longer patronizing; only Dash finds him annoying. Why does the way they present him matter here? Ashleigh Ball wanted Rainbow Dash to interact more with Ryan Beil (Zeph's VA). They showed great chemistry in FB, and Dash helped get his life back on track. SS's the first Pony ep we see him in since then, so the question is will his development stay or not? Sparkle's Seven answers that question with nuance.

    Oh, and do I need to post a couple of more faces? 
    I'm the Youngest One(s)
    Like past episodes such as HW Club, Best Night Ever, Lost Mark, and TT123, the third act really elevates it. The first pivotal moment occurs just following the commercial break, when Spike tells Fluttershy he sometimes feels forgotten and uses their rivalry to back up his point. Immediately, two innocent moments from the cold open impact the story: baby Spike drawing gold stars below their chart and his wish to take part in it right after Twi's flashback.
    But there's more than that, as well. For most of the series, Spike's family presence with Twilight's more like an afterthought. In Season 1, Spike's primary occupation was assisting her in her studies. At one point, Twi wanted to wake Spike up from his sleep and request him to retrieve her quill, implicating he's a slave. Thanks to the ending, Princess Spike sent misandric messages in a pro-feminist show. Have we come a long way since then? Yes. But his arc felt incomplete, and episodes like Zeppelin (Iron Will believed Spike wasn't family enough to reward him a ticket!) and Father Knows Beast only created more Q's than A's.
    Long-time continuity backs up his doubts. FS, recalling her strained sibling relationship with Zephyr, understands his feelings. Twilight — so determined to win the Hard-Won Helm — accidentally ignores Spike's "little brothers" line minutes later. Thanks for proving his point, everypony.
    Fortunately, this scene was an extra cog to one of two big reveals in the climax:

    Under everyone's noses, Spike stole the crown, shocking everyone.
    But he wasn't alone.

    AIN'T THAT TWIST SO…GLOOO—RIOUS?!

    So how does this make any sense?
    Recall the first bit of foreshadowing mentioned a few paragraphs ago. Celestia and Luna share very strong differences of opinions of Shining Armor's security. Celly really liked it, but Luna was unsure and, as stated in Act 1, wanted to test it with her, but she chose to summon Twilight instead. Everyone was so caught up that they overlooked its fatal flaw: They're so focused on outside threats they overlook inside ones. Spike quickly realized it, and observing how Luna and Celly couldn't stop nonverbal arguments with each other, he concocted an inside plan with Luna to prove it to everyone. And boy, did they take serious advantage! Knowing his vanity would distract him from doing his job, Luna replaced two experienced guards with Zephyr for the afternoon shift. Spike tore Pinkie's hot-air balloon with his claws, not only further sabotaging Rarity's plan, but also providing enough of a distraction for AJ to steal a Royal Guard medal (which Rarity later used). Luna keeping Celestia and SA out of the Throne Room long enough for Spike and Fluttershy to explore the catacombs, escape, and invade. At one point, they got lost, and Dash pulled down every wall sconce to try to escape, so he mapped out the catacombs and noted all the traps and secret passageways. Spike's wits are essential to his character. Sparkle's Seven explores 'em in a completely new way: strong forethought. He not only rightfully predicted Rarity's plan will fail, but also Twilight's and SA's. All they needed to do was play it out, let SA catch Twi off-guard, and then *snaps fingers* capitalize. He won the Hard-Won Helm of the Sibling Supreme fair and square. Kudos to both SA and Twilight for acknowledging them as their little bro all along.
    But give credit to Luna, too. From a storytelling perspective, her little disagreement with Celestia fueled the spy parody that Tabitha St. Germain suggested. Her tiny shots and glares at her sister foreshadowed the climax and smoothly tied into both Twilight's rivalry and Spike's plight. Celestia's decision to ignore her justified her reasons to behave sourly made sense and gave her a solid alibi to help corrupt their flawed security system. By one-upping her older sister, she won well-earned bragging rights herself.
    The Miscellaneous
    Typically great episodes offer more than simply the story. Little details, smaller jokes, and intentional subtexts increase layers and replay value, giving viewers a reason to rewatch it either now or in the future. Beyond the dazed bird example…
    This whole episode is a parody of spy film, mostly inspired Ocean's 11, a classic film remade twice. According to Applegeek, Kaperon TSB, and @Justin_Case001, there are several references to not only Ocean's 11, but other spy and action films at large. Rarity's "unexpected" speech parodies George Clooney's "The house always wins" speech from the 2001 remake. Credit to Justin Case for finding this. DHX recreated this classic Ocean's 11 poster. After Shining tells his sis of all the security measure, Twilight uses mathematics to figure out how to break through, parodying a moment from the blackjack scene during The Hangover. Credit to Kaperon for discovering that. Luna stroking the goose satires the Bond-villain-strokes-the-cat cliché, and like Applegeek himself, I have a good hunch the goose (with his pink, skin-toned feathers) is supposed to resemble Dr. Evil's sphinx from Austin Powers (another Bond parody). This episode is also one subtle, yet gigantic, parody of itself, a great catch by @CloudMistDragon. FIM doesn't shy away from admitting how predictable their stories are sometimes. Whether your enjoyment of the product is determined by that is up to you. (Nowadays I rarely ding it for this, as the journey factors more.) Shining Armor accurately predicts her whole plan, is prepared for any other unpredictable folly by them, expects them to put their plan into action, and lures them into the Throne Room until the last minute. This self-deprecation is easily the smartest showcase of Shining's experience with security and wits.

    Simultaneously, it winks at those in the fandom who use the "predictability" card through Rarity's and Twilight's plans without being condescending. Was her plan unpredictable, yet in character of everyone? 100%. But Plan B had many major problems, notably inexperience and lack of cooperation. OTOH, Twilight's plan, while predictable, was well thought-out and highly tailored to their talents, cleverly commentating how a well-crafted, predictable story is more valuable than an unpredictable one. Ironically, this allegory subtly foreshadowed the unpredictable plot twist. Nice swerve, DHX.   Very clever use of time is shown through the flashback. Back then, the family's Hard-Won Helm was shiny and new. Today, it's cracked, dented, and busted. Listen very carefully when Spike dons it; there's a small ruffling sound to further indicate its worn-out condition. Methinks SA enjoyed it a little too much, eh? During her heated argument with RD, Rarity stopped briefly to say "hi" to Spike and continued her diatribe, stopping after completely realizing who's there. (BTW, I haven't watched any of the Ocean's 11 films, Hangover series, or Mission: Impossible series. So I had to get the references from elsewhere. Nevertheless, ain't that tantamount to its high quality: not fully getting the references, yet finding it all funny, nonetheless?)

    Conclusion.
    So much describes this new classic. The characters are perfectly in character, including Zephyr (who's actually funny). Every joke lands perfectly, and is sometimes funnier on rewatches, with my favorite being Dash begrudgingly dressing in style. It got serious at times, rounding its story without becoming melodramatic and maintaining its lightheartedness. Several stories are simultaneously intertwined flawlessly, including its satire of spy films, itself, and allegory. On top of it all, its moral on listening to your loved ones and making sure they don't feel left out is executed so well.
    How awesome it really is to see Spike treated with so much dignity once again. Regardless of all of Season 6's well-earned criticism, Spike's writing was top-notch. Thank Haber for partially why. Whenever he's the editor or writer, this small dragon gets the respect he deserves. Thanks to Weseluck, Sparkle's Seven addresses a series-long concern related to his family and provides a solid alibi to craft a devious deed to win the game. If it doesn't prove how far he's come since Princess Spike, I don't know what will. He gets Spike, period.
    But don't leave Dubuc hanging, either. She co-wrote the ingenious Shadow Play with him. Sparkle's Seven continues to show how well they work as a team, and the former's inspirations clue us all. Its top-notch dialogue, successfully multi-layered stories, and brilliant executions from top on down are all found here.
    And finally, thank you to all the voice actors who stayed with this show for so long. You all dedicated so much of your time to building FIM's success, and your voices are iconic to the very same characters. It's so fitting to have the 200th episode dedicated to you, and watching it was a huge honor.
    Thank you, all, for contributing to this all-time great and show that commenced western animation's renaissance.
  5. Dark Qiviut
    Author's Note: Just like my Friendship Is Magic episode reviews, I'll begin writing them for Thomas & Friends, starting with the season debut, Thomas the Quarry Engine. This one and four other episodes are released for the U.S. DVD, Trouble on the Tracks, on April 8, 2014.
     
    Review bumped April 9 to feature the episode and cleanup.
     


    As a longtime Thomas fan who stuck with the original seven series and eventually lost plenty of interest because of the really bad storytelling during the HiT Era, Series 17 revived my interest to sky-high limits by being the first good season since Series 7. Great characterization. Lively interaction. More attention to railway realism. And BETTER STORIES AND STORYTELLING. After Mattel acquired HiT Entertainment, the writing team (led by Sharon Miller) was gutted in favor of those experienced with the series before, with new head writer, Andrew Brenner. Bill or Ben? was the best Thomas story not just last season, but the whole CGI Era, too. Thomas the Quarry Engine — written by head writer Andrew Brenner, who also wrote Bill or Ben? — not just rivals Bill or Ben? as the best Thomas episode in the CGI Era, but it's objectively the best season opener since Cranky Bugs.
     
    Strengths:
    Last year, Arc Productions replaced Nitrogen Studios as Thomas's primary CGI animation company, and it provided not just great camera angles, but also plenty of extra details on the characters and scenery. In Bill or Ben?, the red paintwork on their bufferbeam was slowly crumbling away, displaying their hard work and energy they endured over the years. Overall, Arc had a trial year last season; despite its lack of refinery, it was spectacular. Kudos to David Baas (the director of the animation last year and this) for giving the CGI a fresh experience.
     
    Arc Productions stepped that up further here: On the HD version, you can see so many tinier details in the rocks, rails, wood, and paintwork of every single engine. And it isn't a gimmick; it enhances the story. On top of that, it's also extremely refined, which was last season's biggest flaw from objective quality standards.
    Major props to Arc and Brenner for adding Henrietta into the episode and giving her her first speaking role since Daisy in 1986. If you saw my journal, Henrietta has a face now, but it's no longer so shocking. Her characterization was mostly focused on the narrator instead of dialogue, and her dialogue was mostly plain. Maggie Ollerenshaw gave her that wisdom oozing from her voice. It fits the oldie-but-goldie aura both Toby and Henrietta share nicely.
    Excellent use of Railway Series material by having Toby pick up the quarrymen so they can go home. Good to see the original source not being ignored.
     
    On the meanwhile, there's great usage of references from the classics and older Railway Series:
     
    a. Diesel calling himself and Mavis "revolutionary."
     
    b. Thomas being shoved down the hill and crashing into the buffers beside the station, ala Trouble for Thomas/Thomas & the Trucks.
     
    c. Mention of the quarry located at the end of Thomas's branch line.
     
    d. Mavis being allowed to extend her work to Brendam Docks every now and then.
    Great characters VERY IN character. Diesel, Mavis, Thomas, Toby, Henrietta, the Troublesome Trucks, Salty, Cranky, Porter, Hiro, and the Fat Controller are all in top form. None of their lines were out of place, empty, or forced. They had attitude. Personality.
     
    In the previous series under Sharon Miller, the voice actors tried to have them in character, but the scripted dialogue was so bad, it only worsened the characterization. Since Series 17, you can tell how much the voice actors really love their jobs; when you write great characterization, you make the jobs much easier and apparently much more fun. Brenner, Arc, and crew took close advantage of it.
     
    And even better is Mavis's much needed character development. For a long time, her mentor role has been more or less stuck to one level. This episode advanced her character for the first time since Toby's Tightrope, where she grew from the immature, hypocritical fusspot into a mature female diesel.
    The little musical number — based word for word off from 1909 — is a very nice twist to the Thomas formula, and with the solid pacing TtQE had, it really belonged here and gave it a solid conclusion. Reminds me a bit like the musical numbers from Friendship Is Magic, only to end the episode rather than in the middle and not be confined to a modernized form of a genre.
     
    What was a little surprising is how good the singing was.

    Weaknesses:
    Thomas stopped dead when he hit the buffers. The buffers can't withstand such weight; they'd collapse pretty quickly and be crushed by the train's weight.
    Mavis and Diesel were able to get Thomas's train back on the line without a breakdown train. It would've been better if Mavis or Diesel fetched Rocky or Harvey so they can get the train ready for delivery.
    Diesel didn't have some on-screen punishment for his misdeed. While Thomas was in the wrong for taking the long, heavy train alone, his actions were justifiable because Diesel purposefully disrupted the flow of the work from Ffarquhar Quarry, and Thomas had to deliver the load of stone before a specific time. After Thomas was scolded for taking the train alone, Diesel wasn't seen for the rest of the episode.

    But those three obvious flaws don't deter the high quality of Thomas the Quarry Engine. In eight minutes and forty-five seconds, Brenner hones in a high-quality script filled to the brim of attitude, history, and research. Arc Productions's intricate care to the refinement of its Computer-Generated Imagery is treated as an important ingredient to the story, never leaving anything so stilted. Combined with great characterization, solid pacing, and a creative ending, TtQE will leave Thomas fans young, old, past, and present with a strong impression that Series 17 is no fluke. In all, a fantastic episode.
  6. Dark Qiviut
    After a string of episodes that weren't really objectively terrible, yet not objectively amazing, either, Rarity steps into the spotlight in Rarity Takes Manehattan. While it was referenced in Cutie Mark Chronicles, One Bad Apple, and Apple Family Reunion, it was shown only in TCMC. This marks its first appearance since then, and the scenery is spotlit more. In the first Rarity-centric episode since Sweet & Elite (and first Rarity-centric appearances in the official media since the Rarity micro comic and Nightmare Rarity chapter — each only above-average at best), Polsky delivers.
     
    ———
     
    Strengths:
    Everyone (minus Spike) has a purpose in the story. While not everyone is brim with dialogue, they're not confined as background ponies. They belong and carry an important role in the story. It's especially the case after Rarity finds out Suri Polomare had plagiarized her dress line.
    Suri Polomare (voiced by Tabita St. Germain) is an excellent antagonist. While Rarity's generosity was pushed to the brink before in the form of Suited for Success and Green Isn't Your Color, this is the first time anyone takes advantage of it so maliciously. Suri is every artist's biggest nightmare: a lying, no-good, sleazy plagiarizer, and just about every one has had their work plagiarized before. It's no fun, and Rarity has every right to be pissed.
     
    Suri is written as a lying, manipulative bitch. An anti-Rarity.
     
    Unlike Rarity, whose so many facets create a great character that breaks the snobby fashionista cliché, Suri breaks it, too, by making her so evil. The Diamond Tiara of Rarity, but with extra dimension. (And way more dimension than the generic "character" called Sunset Shimmer.)
    Speaking of Suri, Coco Pommel, her protégé, is just as excellent a foil as Rarity. Unlike Rarity's vast experience, Coco is still grasping of talent and career: designing high-quality dresses within a quick schedule. Like Suri and Rarity, Coco wants to make it in Manehattan, but she's given very bad advice and is commanded all the time. Her will to grow and acknowledgement that Suri is not for her because of her vileness proves how genuinely likeable and well-developed she is, even in her youth. Cathy Weseluck did a fantastic job voice-acting her. I honestly hope she isn't a one-shot, because she has so much potential.
    As a New Yorker, Manehattan really respects the cultures of the city. New York City is a gigantic melting pot of so many cultures in and out of Manhattan. From the popular tourist attractions like Broadway to The Statue of Liberty to Grand Central.
     
    The bridge where the train scuttles past during "Generosity" is possibly one of the following ponifications:
     
    a. Park Avenue Viaduct (connecting both halves of Park Avenue — split by Grand Central).
     
    b. The Manhattan Valley Viaduct (located along 12th Avenue in Manhattanville, before going underground in City College) or northern West Side El (from Inwood’s Dyckman Street to Van Cortlandt Park).
     
    c. The old 3rd Avenue El (an old elevated subway line from the Financial District to Gun Hill in The Bronx. The Manhattan half was demolished in the 1950s (leaving the Lexington Avenue line a victim to an over crowdedness so severe today, the MTA revitalized the constantly delayed 2nd Avenue Subway project; the Bronx portion was closed and later torn down in the 1970s; it was replaced by the Bx55 Limited, which is now the Bx15 Limited).
     
    d. The Metro-North Railroad viaduct (along Park Avenue from 97th Street to the bridge in East Harlem before the Hudson, Harlem, and New Haven lines split The Bronx’s Mott Haven).]
     
    The big bridge crossing from the mainland to Manehattan is likely a reference of the Brooklyn Bridge or Verrazano Narrows Bridge.
     
    (None of the pics/clips are mine.)
     
    While it's mostly fixated in Midtown/Hell's Kitchen, Chelsea, and the Financial District, the multitude of cultures and classes make the city so grand, from Greenwich Village to Harlem to Flushing to Pelham Bay/Orchard Beach to Coney Island to Richmondtown to Corona to Riverdale and so on. If the team ever revisits Manehattan, I'd love to see them reference the other neighborhoods, especially from the outer boroughs and suburbs.
    Albeit referencing more of the upper-middle-class and upper class parts of Manehattan, it shows the respect and hustle of the city. As a New Yorker, I've seen a lot of people mumble and grumble over it, including the long waits for a cab.
    As a character, Rarity is significantly balanced. There are so many little facets that make her so endearing and complex. RTM takes full advantage of it, from teasing Spike to showing her generosity to the bell hopper, taxi driver, and fellow tourists. She overly dramatized, loved for her friends, wanted to one-up Suri no matter the cost, and realized her crimes in friendship.
     
    Her best moment: the reprise and walking in Manehattan in the storm with nothing to cover her. While she covered herself with a newspaper earlier, she didn't here. That showed how much she grew over the past three-plus seasons, from being pissed off by just touching the mud to taking part in the Sisterhooves Social after being responsible for the strain she caused with Sweetie Belle to worrying more about her friends instead of her vanity. Although her vanity, selfishness, and greed aren't going to go away in a snap, her other qualities shone.
    As for "Generosity," its initial tune really captures the Mane Six's joyous, hopeful spirit. They visit the city, and they're excited and hopeful. Its tone is very upbeat and Broadway-like. With a wide vocabulary and good composition, it foreshadows Suri's plagiarism later on. Conversely, it tells Rarity's element a bit too much, and its lack of catchiness doesn't help.
     
    This is why her reprise works better. It shows the consequences of her actions via the mood of Manehattan, somber score, Rarity's lack of care for herself, Kazumi Evans's sorrowful voice, and subtlety in the lyrics.
    While there is plenty of comedy, it isn't as zany as the other stories Polsky wrote. Even in Too Many Pinkie Pies, his darkest story, his comedy was abundant. The slapstick is much more toned down in exchange for something more serious. According to Polsky, it was a completely different direction compared to his initial concept.
     
    Suffice it to say, RTM's is among the deepest in this series, and Polsky shows his wide talent range. If he wrote RTM similar to his other episodes, the mood would've been way too inappropriate, and all that potential would've been lost.
    One of the biggest criticisms this season — the pace — is all but nonexistent. While there are perhaps a couple of moments where the pace speeds a tad too quickly, it isn't jarring. There is plenty of material to cover, but it flows so fluently, each sequence feels organic. To make it better, unlike PTS, DD, and PoP, the episode has many moments to relax and collect itself without failure.
    While we don't actually see Suri's consequences (i.e., her reaction to being lost and Coco Pommel quitting), doing so would've sensationalized the moral and perhaps make Rarity the bad mare. Because she didn't give a damn about the fashion contest anymore and instead treated her friends to an exclusive performance of the Bridleway musical, Hinny of the Hills, she shows her worth by that alone. Coco sees this, too, and her conversation with Rarity (along with presenting the trophy and gift to Rarity and being the one to design the costumes for the next show) presents good karma. Whether Suri will ever learn her lesson or not, I don't know.
    The morals aren't shoehorned. They're reinforced with each action and consequence, along with the thorough characterizations and goals from the Mane Six, Suri, Coco, and Prim Hemline.
    As a big bonus, RTM actually feels like a community and helps complete the atmosphere. There are so many ponies, both new and reoccurring, appearing here, making Manehattan feel alive. This is something Friendship Is Magic needs: the community interacting with each moment. It's been absent for most of Season 4, leaving a very wide gap that gives the canon life. More interaction with the background ponies, the more complete the canon becomes.
     
    BTW, kudos to the team for plugging in Sapphire Shores, Hoity Toity, Photo Finish, Fancy Pants, and Fleur de Lis!

    Weaknesses:
    Spike's role as background comic relief is too old and tiring. After Power Ponies, the development he receives is tossed away. Heck, throughout Season 4, he's basically there just for the audience to laugh, and that marginalizes his character.
     
    Like what I wrote in my Castle Mane-ia review, lay off the Spikabuse, pleeeeeeeease.
    The Grumpy Cat meme is forced and distracting; the criticisms are completely justified. Two key reasons why (one related to the story, the other not).
     
    a. The meme is taken straight out of the Internet and plastered onto the flank as a cutie mark. No ponification. No effort to blend it into the scene. It's the actual face of the meme as a cutie mark. It sticks out way too much and is too in-your-face. It's not like Chanel, Derpy, The Big Lebowski, the Nyan Dash, or Sweetie Bot (in Equestria Girls), as they are blended into the canon.
     
    If you're going to reference a well-known meme like the Grumpy Cat, show some effort by blending it into the canon and ponifying it. Don't rip it off and make people wonder if the artists lack the creativity to include interesting background ponies and organically blend pop culture simultaneously.
     
    b. Instead of letting the previews and writing attract the older and computer-savvy demographics, The Hub is trying to appease them by advertising the episode via a pony with a ripped off meme. Inadvertently, The Hub left RTM with a very bad first impression and made your general audience wonder if it was actually well thought-out and written well, even if for a split second.
     
    Hub, don't pull this stupid stunt again.
    "Generosity" (not the reprise) tells too much and hammers Rarity's element excessively. Combined with it not exactly being catchy, it hurts the song and messages Polsky and Ingram relay. It's good for other reasons (a couple being very well-scored with a strong vocabulary), yet somewhat forgettable.
     
    It's compared to The Smile Song in one way. Like TSS, Generosity is a character exposition song. However, there are some differences.
     
    a. While The Smile Song tells a lot, it's counterbalanced by some very catchy lyrics and a very bouncy score that gets the audience pumped and excited. When it's very catchy, it's very memorable, and The Smile Song works to its advantage partially by the bouncy, upbeat score.
     
    Generosity, on the other hand, is actually quite tame, and that works to its disadvantage. While it also catches the urban, upbeat tune of the city, it doesn't have the giddy bounciness that The Smile Song has.
     
    b. As far as The Smile Song's musical is concerned, you see Pinkie using smaller measures to make her friends happy, but with each lyric, Ponyville catches its happiness, and it became bigger and bigger. Soon, Pinkie Pie's song and ability to make others smile affects everyone.
     
    Generosity, conversely, doesn't do that. While the generosity starts small and ends up with Pinkie and Applejack helping, you don't get to see the results until after it ends. Although it works from a storytelling perspective, it falls flat when self-contained.
     
    Also, Rarity's element works much better when it's a bit more subtle or really demonstrated, as Rarity is a complex character. What she did and sung aren't out of character, but it doesn't fully work for a character whose qualities and characterization are more about showing her rewards and consequences rather than telling everyone who she is and can be, something Art of the Dress and the reprise succeed. Combined with the self-contained rewards being absent and delivery of her messages like a carpenter nailing a wall with a hammer, it doesn't give what she did as much justice in the beginning as hoped.
     
    Generosity isn't a bad song, but it doesn't have that oomph. More show, less tell.
    Twilight is an alicorn princess (and there are only four, all royalty, discounting the animation hiccups), and in a city as big as Manehattan — with all of the tabloids, business of the city, and how the Twilicorn was gigantic news in Equestria entirely — surely Twilight will be more recognizable than Mayor Bloomberg.
     
    While her status shouldn’t be so glorified that Rarity's focus is stolen, at least give her status some recognition (i.e., a taxi colt telling Twilight crossly, “Back of the line, Princess!”). Ignoring it ages Magical Mystery Cure more and more and disserves her growth.
    Pinkie, you left your brain at Sugarcube Corner. Please retrieve it the next time Rarity displays tickets. (Thank Luna Rarity interrupted her.)
    The timeline gets lost, demonstrating some issues with the pacing. The script constantly reminds the viewer the whole event was "Fashion Week." In other words, the contest and results should occur from one end of the week to the next. Usually, it's seven days (or five, if confined to only the weekdays). Instead, we only see the first three days and never witness the rest of the week. Whether it's because they were perceived to be irrelevant or not, I don't know. It would look much better if RTM shows more of Fashion Week beyond just the contest.

    Despite the annoyances, the rest of the episode is very well written, and they don't diminish the overall quality significantly. Polsky and crew carefully researched Manhattan to make sure it replicates the real life's atmosphere organically and tastefully. Instead of it being contrived, Manehattan's overall design feels like it belongs: industrialized to a point, yet not abandoning its simplified roots.
     
    In a fresh twist, Polsky trades his usual slapstick comedy for a more down-to-earth, slice-of-life, serious character study, giving him the opportunity to explore Rarity's actions in response to being plagiarized and shortsighted (yet extremely justified and believable) ambition to one-up Suri and claim the top prize. Combined with a solid pace, excellent writing, and fantastic characterization of Suri, Coco, and Rarity, Polsky executes easily not just his best episode to date, but also Season 4's best episode thus far. Rarity Takes Manehattan is a clear home run.
     
    ———
     
    Source: S04:E08 - Rarity Takes Manehattan
  7. Dark Qiviut
    At the time, four new writers were introduced to Friendship Is Magic: Josh Haber, Ed Valentine, Betsy McGowen, and Natasha Levinger. For better or worse, they perform effectively enough to be mainstays in the franchise. (How many episodes McGowen will write, including one on her own, I don’t know.) Come Somepony to Watch Over Me, Scott Sonneborn — a writer with an extensive résumé, from Beevis and Butt-Head to Angela Anaconda to Celebrity Deathmatch to amateur porn — makes his FIM debut. Applejack becomes overprotective of Apple Bloom in a plot full of contrivances, poor characterization, and negative implications surrounding the moral.
     
    Strengths:
    Throughout the season, the animation has made huge strides to take advantage of as many unique tools as possible; DHX/Top Draw fulfilled that again via making the chimera menacing, the background of Hollow Shades, and the bayou tribute.
     
    Firstly, everything about the chimera is absolutely terrifying, as it should be. When he first arrived, he was a lion silhouette. Then, three pairs of eyes slither onto the screen in front of angry pools of lava. Finally, each of their voices fit their characters: hungry, sly, menacing, egotistical, cocky, and angry. You can tell the chimera not lives in the territory, but conquers it. He blends in the dark shadows and uses it to his advantage, scaring Apple Bloom witless the second she witnesses his prowl towards her.
     
    While the lava pits are scary enough, you need the atmosphere to match the foreground in order to show how creepy Hollow Shades is. That’s the purpose of the background, special effects, and limited color palette. Hollow Shades is monochromatic, relying on tints, hues, and shades of red, yellow, orange, and brown with black as a sharp accent to enhance the mood. There aren’t many bright colors minus the flames, but they don’t need to. Except the bluish-gray leaves, every tree is black and shaped in a way to creep out to the viewer (with success) while dripping dirty green moss off their branches.
     
    The bayou isn’t menacing, but the color composition and rendering of the houses parallel to Hollow Shades well. No bright colors from the sky clue how Applejack and Apple Bloom are forced to navigate back through just to return home. Personally, the most interesting part is the layout of the wooden cabins. As a big fan of those, they each carry plenty of personality and share stories. The most commonplace for each are the tapered roofs: By how warped they are, the cabins look old and weathered; and the environment feels very humid. By this, you can guess that this honors the humid areas of the South during the turn of the Twentieth Century.
    A very hilarious joke pokes fun at how often the show breaks into songs at the drop of a hat. What’s better is how bad the lyrics are before Scoots stops them. Basically, it’s part of The Show Stoppers (one of season one’s worst) done right.
    As it should be, the fight scene is very intense. You can feel the tension dripping out of you as Apple Bloom is running for her life. The music in the background intensifies the life-and-death predicament even further, especially as she’s being chased or when Applejack jumps to her defense.
    The Cutie Mark Crusaders are in character. Apple Bloom grows distressed and angry at how annoying and creepy Applejack behaves, as she should be. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo don’t speak a lot, but still maintain their ambitious, childlike personalities reinforced in previous episodes, including Twilight Time.
     
    On the flipside, seeing Scootaloo as the one to screw up fits her perfectly, and not merely from a humorous angle, either.
    Like Apple Bloom, the tiger head also has a connection with his goat sister. In StWOM, AJ looks over her shoulder constantly. The chimera suffers the same annoyance, only it’s permanent.
     
    Unfortunately, there isn’t much to their own conflict after that, so it becomes filler.
    “Saltwater casserole.” Yeah, not all that appetizing.

    But after this does the episode really fall apart.
    Applejack is very out of character. Too often already, there are numerous excuses for her actions, from being protective of Apple Bloom (or others) in the past, to using past events as hidden clues like her shortsightedness in Apple Family Reunion.
     
    But there are many big differences.
     
    AJ defended Apple Bloom in Bridle Gossip because she didn't trust Zecora's attitude and cryptic rhyming. Her appearance and poison joke’s aftereffects didn’t improve her impression in the slightest. Nevertheless, AJ was just as out of character as the others (including Apple Bloom for leaving her for dead in the middle of the Everfree Forest), Zecora and Spike exempt. Her rationality and stubbornness were replaced by irrational assumptions, mean-spirited unlikeability, incompetence, and stupidity. She was just as stupid there as Look Before You Sleep (which made her behave childishly for no good reason). As her inexcusable actions and characterization are contrived just to hone in a story for one of the worst episodes in the series (personally, I rank it second-worst behind One Bad Apple), what she did there doesn’t deserve a defense. I don’t.
     
    In Call of the Cutie and The Cutie Pox, Applejack had a good reason to be worried. The former had Apple Bloom being obsessed with getting her cutie mark, and she was being bullied for being a “blank flank.” Conversely, The Cutie Pox revolved around her getting too many cutie marks, and she was feeling sick.
     
    Apple Family Reunion was about preparing for a grand reunion. What she did wasn't stubbornness, pampering, or overboard stupidity. She planned a layout WAY too grand for everyone’s liking, and her plans and excitement clouded her judgment. In fact, when she saw everyone feeling very exhausted and cramped from his or her activities, she decided to hitch a ride along the west orchard. When she realized she royally screwed up, she learned her lesson and had a memorable time, after all.
     
    As far as StWOM is concerned, three important details are exposited during the story, each of them overlooked way too much.
     
    a. In Act 1, AJ presents her with a scroll with a long set of chores and reminders. Apple Bloom completes everything. She doesn't have to fully monitor Sweet Apple Acres, as they’re already done by the time the others departed. Even if something bad happens, she has lived with them for so long that she should know what to do in case of an emergency.
     
    b. Once the chores are done, Apple Bloom doesn't have to stay at Sweet Apple Acres. She can do whatever she wishes, such as explore Ponyville, eat some lunch, play with SB and Scootaloo, and even visit some of her older friends like Rarity and Twilight.
     
    c. Big Mac and AJ aren't going to be gone for very long. At the very beginning, because of the difficult trek to deliver the pies, Granny Smith says she’s allowed to live at home alone through the afternoon. That means anywhere between six to ten hours depending on the route, conflict, time of delivery, and so on. AJ and Big Mac are prepared for their traveling in case of an emergency, hence the equipment featured in Act 3. They won’t leave unless they know what they’re doing. They will be returning by a little past nightfall.
     
    Applejack’s known AB since the day she was born. AJ knows AB has been without a guardian for stretches of time for a while. Bridle Gossip, The Cutie Mark Chronicles, Family Appreciation Day, Ponyville Confidential, One Bad Apple, Twilight Time, etc. Up to this point, she’s been with other fillies or by herself several times, and the Bearer of Honesty comprehends this.
     
    Also, Apple Bloom isn’t a newborn foal in preschool. AJ trusts AB; AB trusts AJ. AJ and AB can cooperate very well. She KNOWS AB is pretty mature for her age, can care for herself, and shouldn't fret, if their in-character relationship in Sisterhooves Social holds any water. Some of the reminders and chores on the lists (or supposed to be) are so mundane, she’s obviously going to be out of character from the start. (As they trek in Act 1, AJ wanted to put on the list a reminder that in order to get a spoon out of the drawer, Apple Bloom needs to open the drawer first.)
     
    To worsen the matters, AJ's out-of-characterization is reinforced by a combination of extreme incompetence and stupidity, an ingredient that doesn't a high-quality story make. Sonneborn was trying to write Applejack as being very worried for her sister, who’s living alone at home for the first time. But AJ’s telling the audience she’s worried. Instead, she’s showing the audience how much of an idiot she thinks Apple Bloom is. As a result, Applejack is the idiot, as well as incompetent.
     
    Plus, it doesn’t make any sense for Applejack to suddenly abandon her duties as a farm owner on the flip of a dime. Because she is partially responsible for running the farm, the pies are a delivery with the purpose of being brought over, preferably on time. If she’s that concerned for Apple Bloom’s well-being, then they could’ve done two things.
     
    a. Alternate the delivery. Have Big Mac deliver the pies first. Once he returns, then Applejack delivers.
     
      
     
    b. As they prepare to leave (maybe the night before), Applejack goes to her friends and asks them to look out for her sister while she’s gone. One pony doesn’t have to watch her all day. Merely have the Remane Five at random watch over AB in the background for about five to ten minutes per hour (or two) and then mail a letter to AJ’s destination for updates.
     
    If you're going to dial up a trait, you need to do three things. Make sure it's established. Back it up with a very good reason. Don't make the affected character look like an incompetent idiot.
     
    If Applejack saw Apple Bloom do something that could've gotten her badly injured or killed if she didn't save her, you’d give her some incentive for her over-pampering. If this closely followed Call of the Cutie, then you can reinforce Bridle Gossip and fix this issue of logic and characterization. But many instances of AJ's protection occurred during seasons one and two, and she had very good reasons why. Not to mention, up until somewhere like Dragonshy or even the end of the pilot, many of these characters were somewhat blank slates. We're now in season four; these characters are established and have grown tremendously since the pilot. You can't just create a new light switch or outlet without knowing how to correctly handle the circuit.
     
    As an Applejack fan myself, Applejack in Somepony to Watch Over Me isn't Applejack. It's Twilight in season one with extreme stupidity, incompetence, and no objectively good reason to write her behavior off like this.
    This episode’s intention was to make Applejack look and act morally in the right for pampering Apple Bloom and treating her like an idiot. Instead, by stalking her around, completely ignoring her cries, and babying her, AJ comes off as a major creep. Laugh all you want, it doesn’t change how creepy Stalkerjack is.
     
    To make things worse, the entire plot is supposed to be rather serious. But when you add in stupid humor, it becomes distracting, and the episode’s focus really loses consistency. It’s very difficult to make low-level humor blend in a serious plot, and it fails here.
    While the visuals are fantastic (especially the sharp angle), the surprise cheer from the Cutie Mark Crusaders in the opener lacks the subtlety. Once the shadows appear, the surprise turns into a sudden “3…2…1” countdown. In other words, the timing is rather off. If the shadows don’t appear at all, then the comedic timing would’ve been much sharper.
    The moral’s execution is extremely broken.
     
    a. It’s extremely contradictory. Firstly, she doesn’t realize that she’s frenetically watching Apple Bloom’s move every five seconds. But then at the bayou, Applejack needed Apple Bloom’s pie delivery to be reminded of how she didn’t need to watch over her little sister. Basically, AB’s actions made her realize how stupid she was behaving. AJ was taught the lesson because she was way too stupid to figure it out herself.
     
    Any other factually bad episodes that did a similar method?
     
    i. Bridle Gossip — Zecora warns the Mane Six not to judge the book by its cover although the episode offers no subtlety.
     
    ii. The Mysterious Mare Do Well — The Remane Five tell Rainbow Dash not to brag after not offering her any clue and being passive-aggressive, hypocritical assholes being her back.
     
    iii. Spike at Your Service — After having a whole episode where Spike does a 180 in characterization, both he and Applejack agree that the next time someone saves another’s life, there’s no “servant for life” bullshit. Basically, it’s something they should’ve figured out at the very beginning if they weren’t so stupid.
     
    iv. Simple Ways — Trenderhoof racially patronizes Applejack and the entire Earth pony race with his one-note, stereotypical ego. Even though Applejack wants nothing to do with him, he still does it, only to stop when Rarity tells him not to change who you are to impress someone else to his face.
     
    b. “She caused the jam and soup to spill? Twenty-four hours of supervising a Cutie Mark Crusader who can easily fend for herself in the Everfree Forest and do dangerous tricks simply to get her cutie mark!”
     
    “Deliver pies on a journey that nearly got her killed? Apple Bloom can fend for herself and not have Applejack stalk her every move.”
     
    Well, wouldn’t AB nearly getting herself killed by a chimera be a better reason for Applejack to pamper her and baby-proof the household?

    This is the fourth season-four episode featuring Applejack as a central or important secondary character.
     
    Applejack in Bats! wants the vampire fruit bats to be rounded up before they destroy the orchard and chew up the food supply. But despite having a good reason to act immediately, she’s vilified and forced to choose the unrealistic and wrong solution for the bats, causing the episode’s quality to significantly drop.
     
    Contrarily, Pinkie Apple Pie pairs Pinkie with the Core Four, and Applejack is the one front and center. Her expectations and wishes to keep the family impressed for Pinkie make the conflict funny, but real. The story concept is weak and full of exposition; but the characterization, humor, interconnection of the humor, song, and pacing more than make up for it.
     
    In Simple Ways, Applejack is the most in character besides Spike, because she wants nothing to do with the love triangle and is focused on doing her job. But to snap out of it, she acts as Rarity in the form of Applejewel, and she’s easily the funniest of the bunch. Unfortunately, Applejack’s humor, Spike’s fantastic characterization, and two hilarious “Getting-Crap-Past-the-Radar” moments don’t save it from being both by-the-letter and stupid.
     
    Speaking of “stupid,” that’s the best word to describe Applejack’s incessant creepiness throughout Somepony to Watch Over Me. While the opening is nicely animated with good tension and decent humor quality, the potential is chucked out the window after Applejack’s unnecessary nervousness kicks in. By having her characterization derailed, the humor transitions from possibly being funny to creepy and stupid, as Applejack stalks Apple Bloom to the point of making Twilight Sparkle from Lesson Zero look sane. At least Twilight had a good excuse backed up by in-character continuity. This orange background pony has no excuse and learns her lesson the hard way because she was too stupid to figure it out herself. On the other hand, the moral’s implications break the whole ending and make the conflict look ridiculous and worthless. Overall, my second-most hated episode this season so far (behind Rainbow Falls) and a poorly written performance in what is hands down the worst Applejack episode to date.
  8. Dark Qiviut
    Note: Credit to @Truffles, @Sparklefan1234, @PathfinderCS, and Silver-Quill for this review, which I C&P'd from here with extra edits. This review has been revised to include a little more content.
    Sludge may be the most hateable non-villain of the series, if not one of them with Svengallop, Garble, Zephyr, and Spoiled Rich. Garble's someone to just hate, but Sludge you love to hate. This slob knows how to con others with no remorse. He wants to lives the luxury life and make you work for it, all the while tugging the right strings to make you fall for his tricks and divide you from who you love at your most vulnerable state. While he freeloads, he's not a stereotype, as he always cleans up after himself and trades his laziness for his brains. Smart, calculating, and very manipulative, he catches himself, remains convincing, and uses Spike's want for biological parentage to bypass all doubts.
    Several clues indicate his scheming ways before he became more brazen:
    He stopped jogging on the treadmill to chug the fresh cider…with hilarious results. XD

      The Wonderbolts held him above them, but he won't fly until Dash lectures him.
      He doesn't admit to being his father until after he fully recovers (just as he's about to depart) and walks with Spike back inside.
      Just by his stops and gestures, he's making up his backstory as he goes along, including not answering other questions the RM5 asked, but his tale's canonically logical, and his tears sound real, adding a layer on uncertainty.
      Silver-Quill brings up this point. Look at the image below:

    In this shot, she's nearly as tall as Torch, a monster-sized dragon.

    In the next, she's nearly as tall as Sludge, who's much smaller than him:

      After his song, he cackles, cutting into Act 3.
      ^ The synopsis gives away a very important clue: "dad" and "real" are in skeptical quotes.
      Dismisses Spike after being asked if he wanted to do anything with his son and then casually accuses him of not being a "real" dragon, cutting deeply into his psyche.
      His name has negative connotations related to muck and sewage. Despite being clean, his personality perfectly fits his name. Because he's so conniving, I'm really glad he's not his father; if he was, he'd be a deadbeat. However, as excellent he is at crafting a façade, this leads to a few big problems I have with it, echoing from @Truffles's review, @Sparklefan1234's comment, and Discord conversations with @PathfinderCS.
    Spike's hurtful comeback to Twilight absolutely crushes her, but doesn't have the weight. From the beginning of Act 3, the RM6 were already suspicious of him thanks to his sleazy manipulation of Spike and major holes in his backstory previously. Unfortunately, they can't prove anything, and Spike grew so close to him that telling him the truth without being delicate risks fracturing his relationships with the ponies. They must give him the benefit of the doubt and hope he doesn't brainwash him further. Emotionally, the delivery of disappointment feels stilted, further hurting its importance.
      Spike doesn't truly figure out he was being used until after his conversation with Smolder, and their plan takes place off-screen. Afterwards, everything starts falling into place. Because he figured it out late and needs Smolder's off-screen advice for some closure, the pacing feels a little off.
      No one can blame Spike for being so disappointed with Sludge revealing to be a phony. After getting so acquainted with him, his reveal's a major slap to his face. Yet, just before it concludes, he starts getting over it and feels mostly satisfied with the only family he has. But as this and DQ demonstrate, wanting to know his family roots matters to him, and he thought he was so close to actually figuring out who his biological father is. Heck, he revealed his scroll of things to do with them and was so happy to do them. As a result, Father Knows Beast's ending feels really hollow and forced.
      Sludge's backstory, even with the holes, is plausible, and you can fill in the cracks with them. His sobs after telling them his story also feel real. The script and Allspark even built interesting and complex lore behind it with a very unique art style of its own, suggesting a degree of reality into his tale. At the time, he looked very sympathetic and acted like he wanted to reunite with his "lost son."

    So for FKB to use the Liar Revealed trope feels like a gigantic letdown, and Sludge's reveal alone is anticlimactic. Previous clues indicate he set Spike up, but one big unmentioned red flag is stating he searched everywhere for him. Why does it hurt the story? Because he never recognized Spike nor said his name until after he fully healed. It was only a matter of time before Smolder and Spike craft a plan to out himself for being the fraud that he is. I don't like to harp on predictability in FIM nowadays, because the journey determines the episode's success above the destination, but that blatant piece of foreshadowing really risks sucking the audience out of the story. It's no surprise why many, myself including, feel dismayed. By revealing to NOT being his dad, the episode reverts to the status quo. After all this time, Spike's past remains a mystery. So despite a competent, nicely written story with a nicely song, great comedy (i.e., Sludge chucking SG out of the castle as she bathed ) and one of the best non-villain antagonists of the series, the resolve feels hollow. More could be done to tighten the plot or not feel so isolated from the rest of the series.
    At the end, I still feel uncertain whether I like it or not. Even after I submitted my initial review in the discussion thread. Nevertheless, it's got some big positives.
    Spike is very good here. He really wants to do the right thing and tries so hard to impress his "father." Here, we see his vulnerable side and one other flaw rarely exploited that well: his naiveté. He became so devoted with reuniting with what he thought was his biological father that he overlooks when he becomes a sleazy slob. Despite telling Twilight off, her worry clearly was on the back of his mind, evident by expressing his confusion towards Smolder. (This is also the first episode to refer to Spike as an orphan.) The audience sees his personality, how it was shaped, and (despite accusing her of being a fake parent) sympathize with them. His commitment for Sludge was genuine, which made his disappointment feel more crushing.
      Twilight has one of her more mature secondary outings of the series. Throughout FKB, Twilight is more than Spike's friend, but mom, too (and he sees the others as his family). From thinking he let her down after he was quiet and turned away for so long (punctuated by a really funny pillow reveal XD) to hugging him after he admits to being orphaned. Spike's health and well-being matter to him and will do anything to make sure he's safe, even if it means probably upsetting him. When he revealed Sludge ditched him and wasn't his real dad, she consoled him immediately, equally upset with the results.

    These shots really show their love for each other:


      Unlike Sludge, Smolder represented authentic dragondom despite their rough reputation, and she was great at it. When Twilight had trouble instructing Spike how to do tricks, she's there to help, explained that their parents teach them to fly when they're ready, and Spike offers a thank-you pillow to her, who doesn't sleep with pillows. Also, she knew Sludge phonied everything and worked with Spike to out him, because he treated her as his servant instead of his son. When he fled, she comforted him.
      Sludge is a fantastic, competent, and clever antagonist. No need to repeat.
      This is Dragon Quest (S2's worst episode by far) done right. How so? Recall the sexist implications and xenophobic stereotyping of dragons by the Mane Six. In DQ, while the RM5 watched dragons, they mocked Spike for looking "feminine" and proudly claimed that he's unlike the "other dragons" because of it. This sexism and xenophobia crossed over to teenage dragons, who are are written to represent dragondom, with Spike disowning his identity until Gauntlet of Fire. These implications are nonexistent here, and Haber wisely dignified dragon culture. Sludge claims he teaches Spike how to be a "real" dragon, but in reality, Sludge is a false representation of dragondom, while Smolder is. Guess who's in the right here.
      DQ's lesson actively uses racism in a positive light and treats the dragons other than Spike himself as savages in comparison to ponies, creating imperialistic implications that ponies are inherently superior. Thankfully, FKB handles a similar moral much better, this time focused on family over individuality, but Spike neither forgets nor abandons his dragon identity or sees dragon culture as a bad thing.

    Suspicions aside, they supported Spike's dad and worked with Spike to fulfill his wishes. They were all really charitable throughout the second montage: Pinkie and Fluttershy vs. Spike and Sludge in buckball (Granny Smith the ref):

      Rarity & Dash mimicking HW Day so they trade presents:


      Spike & Sludge bake and eat cupcakes together.

      Accusations of xenophobia from the ponies to dragons in DQ by bronies are justified, courtesy of their racist and sexist language. In FKB, no one acted like that at all, including Twilight. As mentioned previously, everyone's focused solely on Sludge being a terrible person, not because they believe dragons are primitive. When TS expressed concern, Spike retaliated with false accusations, which he apologized for.
      In DQ, Fluttershy agreed to watch the dragon migration after Dash agonizingly watched the butterfly migration, but punted her chest and cowered away. Here, Fluttershy actively helps him heal and no longer outwardly fears larger dragons. Disappointment aside, is Father Knows Beast a good episode? I believe it is. Compared to the rest of its post-Matter streak, it's the weakest of the bunch, especially so after its excellent run from Road to Friendship to Sounds, but it's still competently written. Hopefully, it'll continue to hold up on its own and age better in the future, but right now, don't expect me to watch it again anytime soon.
  9. Dark Qiviut
    Note: Credit goes to @ChB, @King Clark, @AlexanderThrond, @Jeric, WaterPulse, and Razgriz for this review.
    FIM (and by extension, bronydom) is close to seven years old. Over the years, the characters grew into lovable role models and inspirations. Each has their own reasons for watching, loving, and sticking with the show. Through thick and thin, FIM's overcome turbulent times, yet succeeded. How long it'll last is to be determined. By extension, the brony fandom grew, underwent a whole bunch of drama, and grew some more. While Slice of Life was a love letter to the fanbase, Fame and Misfortune takes their own frustrations and responds in a really lazy, broken way. It's the Rainbow Falls of Season 7.
    Strengths:
    Glimhorse = Awesomehorse!

    All season, Starlight's been the best-written Mane character. In every episode she's been in, her roles make sense. She continues to grow into her own and is more and more one of the Mane cast. Even when the episode isn't as good as it should be, she's usually the best part.

    This episode is her best post-reformed appearance. Everything about her role fits perfectly. While the RM6 wrote in the journal, she was absent and had no knowledge about it. So the journal is new to her, and she can look at what's going on with a fresh mind. Simultaneously, she's treated like an actual, genuine part of the gang, not an ancillary member that the writers can plug in when the episode calls for it.

    Her best moments occur in two places:
    At the restaurant after Rarity ran away wailing after two patrons denigrated her behind her back. She took Rarity's reaction and what they said about her really hard. The chilling part is her bitter tone as she replied to Twilight: Combine that with her nasty glare, it's perhaps the angriest the audience has seen her. As Twilight went off to Sweet Apple Acres with AJ, she stayed behind. Her mannerisms and worried expressions show how much Rarity means to her and doesn't want her to get hurt. Moments like these implicate to the audience how much she values her as a friend. When I first began writing this review, I read a comment offsite accusing her of acting like a Deus Ex Machina, a criticism that makes no sense at all. If she's like one here, then she wouldn't be established until the climax or resolution and pops open an idea that wasn't established at any point in the series. Starlight was an important secondary character since the opener and had a major impact in all four acts. Just before she temporarily departed in Act 3, she told the ReMane 6 (and by extension, us) that she'll be back with something important.

    Coconut Cream & Toola Roola.

    These two fillies, based on their G3/G3.5 depictions under the same names, are good characters. What makes them strong is, yes, they argue petulantly, but they argue like children. When Twilight stops them, she shows them an important moral to learn from and decide to try. Even with the little screentime, they grow in each successive appearance. Whether they'll appear or not anytime soon I don't know. Personally, I hope they do. This may depend on the VAs (who are kids) themselves.

    Strong melody.

    The melody for We're a Work in Progress is really good. It's positive, uplifting, and inspirational. All the qualities that help hone the welcoming backdrop and make FIM's world so endearing.
    Weaknesses:
    Handwaved continuity.

    There are at least four continuity errors, two of them major. Like my RF review, instead of a brief summary, here's a fuller list:
    They learned that lesson from Return of Harmony. The season 2 premiere. The journal didn't debut until season four. Unless they stated to add them in later (which they didn't directly), it should be only S4 lessons, not a mesh of all four together.
    The fact that everyone suddenly wanted to know about what they learned. Once they published it, they became popular and unpopular. Why does this not make sense from a continuity perspective?

    Ever since they defeated Nightmare Moon, Ponyville and Canterlot revered them as celebrities. Sure, other episodes within the earlier seasons had this type of occurrence before, ala 'Shy from Green Isn't Your Color. But Green is from season one, when the characters and world still grew. At the time, it was mostly Canterlot, Ponyville, and the Everfree Forest, So the writers could get away with that.

    Nowadays, the Forest has no more plot utilization, and the world has expanded beyond not just Ponyville and Canterlot, but Equestria altogether. In RoH, Celestia rewarded their victory with a celebration and stained-glass window. They saved The Crystal Empire from Sombra. Twilight became a princess. After defeating Tirek and saving all of Equestria, they and Spike became responsible for spreading the Magic of Friendship across the world. You get the point.

    If this was a early-season episode (seasons one through two), then their sudden popularity would be believable. This is season seven. They're international celebrities. If they were interested in the journal and lessons, they would've done so long ago. Particularly the ponies from Ponyville. More about this later.
    The CMCs' sudden popularity makes no sense, either. They dipped into popularity contests twice (Confidential, Twilight Time). In Flight to the Finish, they were awarded the spot representing Ponyville for the opening ceremony. After Lost Mark, they became permanent celebrities and are sought for advice whenever they wonder where to either find their Mark or reconnect with it. Hell, they remark about their history of success during Forever Filly:


     
    So, why would they suddenly become really popular again now? And why would they conveniently skip over Twilight Time's lesson, which SB wrote in that same journal?
    In the Equestrian world, Daring Do is nothing but a figment of A.K. Yearling's and the Daring fandom's imagination. The RM6 know she's real, yet they respect Daring's/A.K.'s boundaries. She wants nothing but to be remembered as a quality children's storybook series. The entire Daring Do con is commemorated specifically for Daring the character, her world, and overall cast. The ending of both Don't and Stranger imply they (both the ReMane Six and Quibble) keep her identity and privacy a secret.

    But the RM6 out her in their journal. Not one of the seven, especially Dash nor Twilight, pause for one second to reconsider the consequences of unsolicitedly revealing Daring's secret identity — how big it'll be in the Daring fandom after reading something that should never have been revealed. They just go, "Screw common sense!! We'll publish it, anyway!"

    The continuity error's even worse when Dash directly references Don't after SG magically published several clean, refurbished copies.
    Dialogue, you disappoint me.

    A good chunk of the story's believability lowers considerably when the dialogue is often forced, and that's what happens here. Even though the RM7 and CMCs act in character and the two new fillies are portrayed like kids, sometimes the lines are mechanical, turning fully-dimensional and relatable characters into robots. It happened in many episodes prior, including Rainbow Falls, Trade Ya, Newbie Dash, and Buckball Season. Same thing here. Starlight, Toola, and Coconut spoke the most natural here.

    The most annoying points come after they remind the audience of the lessons they learned and, in particular, after Rarity ran off:
    Thanks, Twilight, for reminding us everything we all just saw seconds before. And loud enough so the snobby couple a few feet away could hear (yet didn't react due to plot contrivance).

    It gets worse when the ponies exposit, and there's a lot of it here. What's the golden principle in entertainment? Show, don't tell. In "children's" entertainment, even more crucial. By expositing so much, much of the seriousness and humor are sucked out, leaving behind an arid story.

    The tone will be mentioned later. But a repeated flaw in this show (and episode in general) isn't:

    A Whole Cruel World.

    The entire setting is really, really cruel. One or two days ago, the Mane Eight were among Equestria's biggest celebrities. Once they published the journals, they became pariahs. A group of leaders that (in the townsfolk's POV) deserve nothing except abuse. Wherever the script went, the RM6 felt miserable. And the more Twilight witnessed their pain, the more and more pain she felt, too. And how did all of Ponyville (or Canterlot) react? Selfishly.
    Rarity (the diner): Two background ponies talked shit behind her back. Neither of them clearly understand anything what the journals were supposed to say and went off on nothing except baseless assumptions. After she ran away, they feel oh so proud of themselves and pretend like it's no big deal. Not even Starlight's scolding through their thick heads worked.

    It's really unclear what they're supposed to portray. Is it supposed to be a jab at people for criticizing the writing within the episodes, missing the point in an episode, or hating Rarity's character? Any of the above, all, or none? Whatever the case is, it fails for five reasons. The lack of clarity already explained.
      The "stuck-up rich bitch" stereotype is enforced.
      Rarity underwent major trials that completely transformed her as a character. We as an audience saw that ride…but all they read is the result. To echo @Jeric in a chat with me, both RTM and Simple Ways showed her at really low lows. When all they read is how shitty you behaved, then they may have an awful impression of you regardless of outcome.
      Daisy, a well-known background pony from season one with a sweet (yet overly-dramatic) personality, bashed Rarity. For her to act like a snob is very out of character of her!
      The newspaper. Observe the 1.5/5 score in the shot linked above. The pony who read it really disliked it, and the couple's dissing only piled everything on. That one shot further muddles the point.
      Pinkie: It's one thing if they're tourists meeting Pinkie for the first time and wanting to get acquainted with her. All five — Carrot Top, Cherry Berry, Sassaflash, Berry Punch, and Coco Crusoe — are long-established background ponies dating back to season one. We've seen them help each other out so everyone's lives improve. They were seen at one point or another during The Smile Song; all but Coco and Sassaflash not only have very dedicated fanbases, but also actively followed, smiled, sang, and danced with her. Pinkie's presence was more than enough to make them all happy.
     
    Glad you said this, Pinkie, 'cause that doesn't make this scene okay! In fact, it makes it worse. Them knowing her for years and suddenly laugh AT her like complete jackasses does nothing but implicate that their happiness before and after Pinkie brightened their days is a façade.

    In fact, hold that quote.
      Dash: Bratty pegasi continue to pressure Dash and refuse to leave her alone. It's one thing if they truly were eager to hear more about her stories and adventures. It's another to rip out Twilight's lessons gleefully, pretend Twilight isn't even there, and act all smug about it. Dash wasn't happy with how poorly they treated her friend, but was forced to put up with it, since her "fanclub" is too stubborn to listen.
      Fluttershy: Several big problems: Like every other pony before them, all four adults are assholes. Or to be accurate, worse than just assholes. They're abusive, gang up on Fluttershy, and then put up a shoddy, lazy excuse just to be awful people. "Entitled to know"? "Why can't I be in the book"?!

    ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!

    There's NO excuse to gang up on her, period! One of the ponies here is Lemon Chiffon, who debuted in Mare Do Well. Previously, she had two hearts as her cutie mark. Here, a half-full glass of water mark along with a snooty, "masculine-sounding" voice. She resembles a lot like Lily Peet, a MTF brony "pundit" with a history of bashing bronies. I don't know or care if she laughed from that or not.

    If it's intentional, that's a line you never cross. Why? When you parody specific fans, it comes off as tacky at best and self-indulgent at worst. It tells the audience you have a very hostile opinion on not only specific members of your audience, but also the people you're trying to reach out to. Personally, if I'm parodied like this, I'd be really offended, because I'm treated like a caricature rather than a real person.

    If it's unintentional, then while the line ain't crossed, her attitude, voice, and mark are supposed to mock the "entitled fan" stereotype when FS stands up to them, three qualities Chiffon can't control. Sometimes intent doesn't equate result, yet the possible transphobic implications remain.
      This "gang" resembles PYHD's market scene, one of the worst of the series. Unlike the former, all of them debuted previously. These four characters and their so-called "personalities" are designed for this episode only. Good chance some or all of them will either never make an important appearance again or (hopefully) change to a more likeable personality.
      @AlexanderThrond brought up a great point in his review, and I'll expand on that. Fluttershy is used as a vessel to respond to the "criticism" (read: abuse in the episode's context) of their struggle to develop her, completely contradicting their intentions several seasons ago. From Luna Eclipsed until right around Rainbow Falls, her character stagnated, and her shyness was often reduced to comic relief. It looks even worse following an episode where she learns a very valuable lesson. When you flanderize a character like her after she underwent significant development in season one, you reduce her from three-dimensional to one-dimensional. Any long-time brony understands how this valid criticism of her didn't come out of thin air.

    During season four, DHX attempted to write better stories surrounding her, even when they aren't quite up to snuff: Bats!, Breezies, and Filli Vanilli. The following season, that criticism blossomed, and the flanderized Fluttershy has been absent ever since. The one episode showing Scaredyshy in S5 wasn't written as a daft joke: It expands a pointless scene from LE and explains why she hated Nightmare Night so much: She hates being pranked, and NMN without the pranks isn't fun. Without reading the valid criticisms, understanding them, and putting forth solid effort to fix this flaw, the Fluttershy we see today won't exist. Season five was great for her. Seasons six and seven are her best to date.
      It conveniently ignores It Ain't Easy Being Breezies. She had to assert herself through a very difficult action that she hated to make: kick out the breezies so they can continue their journey home. In her journal entry, she marks down how she had to learn that tough message. It's her very last journal entry that we witnessed, and it'd make sense if it were her last one in the journal, too. Not one time is it referenced, and it's ignored in order to continue using that journal as a forced plot device to dissuade. To handwave one of the most important episodes and subsequent lessons in her entire saga just to drive a point home makes the meta reference and payoff very deceitful.
      Rarity (boutique): The context behind the jump scare pile onto the torture. But why would Lemon Hearts (one of Twilight's friends from Canterlot) even be a part of the anti-Rarity hate mob in the first place? She'd know how much Rarity (and the rest of her friends back in Ponyville) mean to her, and she'd respect that. If she got upset, chances are she'd write or talk to Twilight.
      Applejack: No, they didn't bash her, pretend she didn't exist, laugh at her, or gang up on her. These are huge AJ fans.

    They're still assholes. Every single one of them show up at Sweet Apple Acres unannounced, immediately declare themselves to be part of her family without any consent, and force them to accommodate them, whether they like it or not. Big Mac, AJ, AB, and Granny not only moped as they slaved away for trespassers, but were actively distressed. Obviously, they want nothing to do with them, yet can't do anything about it since they're so outnumbered by this mob. All of them are terrible, but since she's my favorite character, the FS scene is my least-favorite.

    Oh, and Twilight? She's her own section.

    "Comedy."

    What this show does well often is the comedy. The jokes, timing, and corresponding tone can really make an episode funny. But when the jokes make no sense, forget it.

    The jokes suck for varying reasons, ranging from missing the point to the story's tone to hypocrisy of the meta "humor."

    The biggest offenses are the following (in airing order):
    Fluttershy writing her journal entry minuscule and nervously using the excuse of leaving room for others. This joke is very vague. Is it to reference her Timidshy past, or something?
      The mashed, rotten apple used to indicate AJ's lesson. Why the hell would she even smash an apple in there to begin with? She may not be the tidiest pony, but c'mon, man.
      Lemon Chiffon's voice and attitude so the audience can laugh at the "entitled fan" stereotype from all four who brigaded FS.
      This jump scare:
     
    By far the worst joke in the episode and second-worst grossout face of the season to this: If it's a jump scare, it's supposed to be a surprise. Rarity has a history of exaggerated faces, and both Twilight's and Starlight's distress/grimaces clue the audience that they'll hate what they'll see from her. Credit to @ChB for pointing this out.
      It takes up a good amount of the frame, and is drawn in exaggerated detail. The slowly-dripping mascara and level of intricacy for her mouth are no accident. It's done to be disgusting.
      The context surrounding it. The couple bashing her behind her back, reading the bad review in the newspaper as they dissed her, and Canterlot boycotting her in front of her boutique took a toll. Of the six who were tortured, Rarity had it the most devastated reaction.
      The entire scene with AJ is supposed to be a meta reference to her lack of popularity in the fandom and how little she appears in merch compared to the others. Unfortunately, what's supposed to be a gold mine for excellent meta jokes (including parodying the short end of the stick she received by the showrunners since Mane Attraction) is turned into a major missed opportunity. Just about every character who invaded SAA is established as far back as S1, including Cherry Berry (again) and Dinky Doo. This scene reinforces one of the episode's fatal flaws: the sudden treatment of the RM6 as celebrities.
      Context is key. If this was the first or early joke in order and rewritten a bit to make it seem like it's tens and eventually hundreds of happy tourists from abroad flocking in line at the entrance to meet her, then it's possible to make it work. Instead, every pony other than a specific few leading up to this scene live in town and trespass because of plot convenience. These ponies reinforce that context. AJ's statement of not liking the newfound popularity understates the chaos from SAA and their insufferable behavior.
     

    That line (and who it represents) is an imbecilic straw man. People complained about Twilight in season 4, because her characterization was boring, and rising her into princesshood put her on a much higher pedestal compared to the rest. Turning her into a princess means she takes part in ruling the kingdom and making sure none of her actions hurt Equestria.

    The Twilight of old appeared in Castle Mane-ia, yet what made her so lovable and her status played hooky until Twilight Time. Later episodes, Twilight's castle forming a round table (thus equalizing the Mane Six and Spike), and season five since rectified that, and the criticism has since dwindled considerably.
    So, how many jokes were successful? Two.
    Pinkie's party favors popping out of the journal once Dash opened her journal page.
      Twilight's face becoming flat as a pancake after AJ accidentally smashed her into the wall. Her exaggerated scowl and glare made it funny. Best joke of F&M. *closes "Twilight"*

    Even though this is an ensemble episode, Twilight receives the most focus. Each time she witnesses a caricature of fans attack/stalk her friends or is completely ignored herself, Twilight's confidence gets beaten down more and more. Like the others, she's tortured by the townsponies just to create a payoff (whether it's the punchline to a joke or otherwise), but the torture pornography helps ruin it, among other things.

    "Among other things" being the littler details. Recall how I called the dialogue a flaw: There's more to this problem generally. On two specific instances, the dialogue helped ruin the story.
    Here, Twilight both affirms and doubles down on an absolute viewpoint of what the journal and results should be: If you don't take the friendship lessons to heart, you're not to be listened to, even if you enjoy it. There's no homogenous way to enjoy a product. If there are ponies out there who enjoy the journal, but isn't fully invested in absorbing the lesson, so what? There's no one right way to enjoy it. I'll return to this point soon.
     
    …

    …

    …
    Where do I even start with this shit?

    F&M is FIM's third meta episode of the series. Only this time, the characters are portrayed as the showrunners' avatar, and those who are abusing the ReMane Seven represent the fans they're retorting. It's self-referential and doesn't hide it.

    When we as an audience criticize the Mane Eight, we don't usually do so because we hate the characters or expect the worst. We criticize because we know that this show is very good and has done great, yet can do better. As an audience, we relate to them in some way or another. It can be a mane pony, secondary, or background. Everyone has a preference of who they like and dislike. Nobody looks at a character exactly the same way. Guess what? That's okay. At the end of the day, we still love the characters as a whole and appreciate the show and staff for what they do.

    This "parody" is completely inaccurate in message, conflict, and theme. This exchange is the worst dialogue in the entire episode and causes the whole conflict to fall apart.
    They're characters, not real people. They exist only on screen, on paper, or within our own imaginations. It's the creators' job to flesh them out and make that character become high-quality and memorable. Neither the avatars nor antagonists are real.

    But in the universe, the characters ARE real and conquer major trials. Each time they wrote in the journal, they changed for the better, even after the episode sometimes doesn't work. Fluttershy after Breezies, Dash in Equestria Games following Rainbow Falls, Rarity after Simple Ways, etc. In canon, the characters aren't dictated by a writer's pencil or keyboard, because there, they don't exist. On the other hand, the antagonists see the autobiographical lessons as fiction and those who wrote them as fictional characters.
      Neither the antagonists nor protagonists are on equal conflict ground. The ponies questioning, bashing, stalking, and abusing the RM6 are treating them not as real people, but as either characters that we as readers want to replicate on paper and recreate or property that we can recycle. How the hell can the reporter — probably the one who released the 1.5/5-star rating, though that's just a guess — honestly believe the RM6 are fictional characters when he's talking to them directly? Once more, why do ponies from within their inner circles suddenly begin to see them as celebrities when they've known them for so long, anyway?

    This small exchange does nothing except tell the audience that all of these "antagonists" are straw men. Characters written to be proven wrong in order for the main characters to have the upper hand. What makes them so bad is that you're taking what could be valid points and eliminating them so the protagonists have the upper hand in everything they do. You're making what should be a complex conflict completely one-sided, thus telling parents that the episode — and show, if they watch it for the first time — is trying to emotionally manipulate children into viewing the plot through a black-and-white mentality. F&M uses real talking points from within the fandom, checks them off, and morphs them into abusive caricatures of fans rather than taking the good, bad, and recreating them into what fans as a whole truly are — people. In layman's terms, what could be a good lesson is morphed into a bad one. Straw characters helped ruin the Fluttershy Micro, Root of the Problem, Spice Up Your Life, AND here. NEVER use straw men to teach a lesson! Good melody, poor lyrics.
    While the musical melody for Work in Progress is good, the lyrics make the song the worst of the season. (Yes, worse than the duel between Big Mac and Stereo Pop.) The song (and by extension, the "we're not flawless" moral) is a loaded statement. Everyone knows the characters are flawed and how important the combination of both strengths and weaknesses makes the characters appealing, relatable, and memorable. Sometimes, the characters make really terrible mistakes, but what makes them work or not is whether these mistakes make sense or not. Sometimes the showrunners make sloppy, careless, or lazy mistakes, and people criticize the execution of the characters and story, because they love the show and know the writers can do much better, hope they learn from their mistakes, and hope these mistakes don't happen again.

    The "It's flawed" excuse is as stupid as "It's a kids' show." Flawed characters don't make up for poor characterization, worldbuilding, or writing overall. When you're a moral-driven cartoon with huge focus on likeable characters like this one, your reasons for characters (especially ones designed to be role models to children) to act like jerks must make sense. "In character" and "flawed" don't justify bad behavior.
    Think through your implications!

    Time and time again, the show has a history of not thinking through the unfortunate implications. Sometimes they're small and don't affect the story so drastically. Other times, they completely affect the entire story and moral. See DQ, Mare Do Well, OBA, and Hard to Say Anything.

    Here, the implications (in story and out, small and big) are abundant.
    The RM6 out Daring Do as real, invading her privacy.
      Pinkie's laughed at by ponies who's known her since at least season one, implying that their appreciation for her and friendships together are lies.
      The implications surrounding Lemon Chiffon.
      The fact that ponies from Canterlot and Ponyville suddenly become enamored at the idea of the RM6 publishing the journals. I wrote it earlier, and I repeat it. Place this episode in season one, adjust the story to remove the implications, and write better jokes, this is passable. Why? Because we still haven't fully acquainted with the Mane Six and Ponyville. But have Ponyville and Canterlot act like they never knew them from the beginning in a season-seven episode? A time when where they're celebrities and help spread the Magic of Friendship abroad? Nonsense! Do they genuinely care about the ReMane Six, or was their appreciation for them prior to F&M a waste of time?
      This moment, when White Lightning walks away, hurt by Lemon's insults of FS:
    This is supposed to represent how sometimes very vocal negativity can drive a wedge in discussion and may make people fear to express themselves. It becomes even worse when the person is brigaded by many like-minded negative people, creating a very toxic atmosphere. Toxicity goes both ways. "Toxic positivity" is as true as "toxic negativity."
      As far as the scene itself's concerned, the characters' fans and haters both attempted to trespass on Twilight's property, and it's assumed WL's part of that crowd. It's very difficult for me to pity her when she behaves as poorly as everyone else.
      The moral is really clunky. It's supposed to be about how despite a whole bunch of people trashing the work, as long as some enjoy it, the effort's worth it. But there's a difference in what you're trying to say and what you're saying. After the song and friendship speech, both sides resumed their bickering and feuding. The lesson paints all of the abuse as merely an obstacle of their next friendship quest. However, this isn't merely an obstacle. These fan clubs and haters are willingly or accidentally ruining their livelihoods. Rarity's boutiques remain boycotted; AJ still can't figure out how to eject her freeloading fanclub; Dash will still be nagged by brats in the sky; haters will still stalk and verbally abuse Fluttershy; and old friends will continue to treat Pinkie like an automatic laugh track. Only Twilight can deal with her problems post-credits. What happened here is not okay and shouldn't be handwaved for the sake of a cheap gag.
      Coconut Cream and Toola Roola are (apparently) a metaphor of the show's assumed primary demographic: young girls. Because of how self-referential Fame is, how those two fillies are the only ones not the ReMane Seven who are sympathetic, and how they're the only ones who actually the lessons to heart, it sends an unintended message that little girls who take the morals to heart are the only people who matter.

    What makes this toxic? Let's go back to Twilight's quote from before:
    Parallel this to the brony fandom and FIM. Would anyone want to take the lessons to heart if they're not entertained first and foremost? FIM's educational entertainment, the emphasis intentional. Everyone wants to be entertained when watching the show. But answering the question as this is a generalization. Critically think why you like the show. Why are you entertained when watching it? What entertains you about it? For some, it's easy, not so much for others. Bronydom is a fanbase of millions. Like human fingerprints, each reason why each brony — yes, little boys and girls count as bronies, too — watch the show and what they value most in the show is very individual. Could be the stories they tell for one, the colorful cast another. One may like the Mane Eight equally, some more than others, or have a dislike of at least one of them completely to the point where they can't stand 'em. For others, could be varying degrees of heart, humor, storytelling, and so forth. For another, how both kids and adults alike can watch it without shame. Hell, the morals of friendship they teach may be the primary reason a few watch it. How much they personally emphasize depends on their preference.
    Earlier this season, A Flurry of Emotions hinted this moral in the background; whether it's intentional or not doesn't matter. Spearhead creates abstract pieces of art with intent of witnessing other ponies' reactions and emotional experiences once they see them. He understands how each one reminds Cadance and SA of Flurry Heart and dearly missing her and that someone else will react really differently. He's explicitly open with this fact.
    No one watches the show the same way, either.

    To echo, Twilight and the entire premise affirm that if the ponies don't learn the friendship lessons and grow from them, then whether you like the journal or not, you're not worthy of being listened to. The moral in itself implicates this by using two fillies as tokens. Combine that thought to bronydom, and it implicates that you're only a fan if you take the friendship lessons and morals to heart; if you don't, you don't qualify for a fan.

    I doubt that's supposed to be that way. But from how the story's themes were presented and what the characters believed, it makes sense why many take it that way. Because that ideal, accidental or vice-versa, is dishonest in every facet. Some may love aspects of the journal, some may hate it. Others may have equal or less sharp reactions. You can control the content you put in, but not how they feel when they view it. How you, the ones who publish it, respond to it is up to you. Likewise, to repeat from before, no one will react to any FIM episode, comic, short, or EQG film/special the same. No professional material (episode, movie, comic, short, etc.) is free from questioning. Do they miss the point sometimes? Absolutely. All of us have done that, myself including. But when the characters behave out of character, you paint an uplifting and likeable world as cynical and mean-spirited for the sake of the story, and/or teach dishonest and hurtful messages, then criticizing and bashing the story's integrity is fair game.

    For that matter, and this is a message to everyone reading this review, people regardless of age are entitled to like and love the show how they see fit. People are entitled to dislike and even hate episodes. People are entitled to criticize episodes if they suck. People are entitled to take NO lessons to heart! Does any of this make them lesser of a fan than others? If your answer is yes, exit the page now.
    Aside from the mane characters, CMCs, and the other two fillies, everyone is a quarter-dimensional, abusive caricature of specific groups of fans. Each set Twilight encounters includes the entitled fan, collector, hate mob, brat, and freeloader. Swap lines within their groups, and their personalities are exactly the same regardless of who's speaking. There's no redeeming quality in anyone here.

    But what makes this really sad?

    a. Both kids and adults combined represent these stereotypes, including ALL adult fans. The fact that all of them are false representations of who fans are regardless of age talks down to not only adults who watch the show, but also little kids. The episode paints a broad brush on every antagonist by turning them all into one-note bullies. Every adult (both the lovers and haters) acting so petulant hurts the episode's themes, messages, and reinforces awful geek-centric stereotypes. On their own, the stereotypes are bad enough; it's even worse when using them to try to teach a moral to children.

    b. F&M doesn't isolate the criticism from the abuse and reacts very defensively to valid (and dated) talking points. Fans (including big Fluttershy fans, like myself) criticized her, because we know they can write her better. (We're seeing this now with AJ and her flanderization.) Ironically, the past three seasons are among her best of the series, thanks to the criticism. Even though he wasn't in the episode, Spike wouldn't have his best season last year had the fanbase not hammer them for their poor treatment of him for so long.

    c. As written before, these caricatures are straw men.

    d. Recall the quote:
    It applies to everyone, not only Pinkie. Most of the characters have been present since the pilot, a large chunk (i.e, Lyra, Bon Bon, Daisy, Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, Rose, Amethyst Star) with canonical characterizations prior. The background characters became beloved from their antics, spawning ideas, theories, and other creative forms of imagination. When characters do something with the mane characters, like help, sing, or dance, they tell us how much these ponies care for one another. Slice of Life works in so many ways, one of which is how much they care for each other and see others as part of Ponyville's soul. They actively helped Matilda and Cranky prepare an impromptu wedding and fussed little. The moral and animation presentation make it feel like they accomplished something.

    So, what do they accomplish here? Becoming ungrateful bastards. That's not what the show stands for. It's so out of character of the show's welcoming atmosphere and progressive morale.
    Rebuttals to some/common/eventual defenses for this episode.
    When all we see is everyone from Ponyville or Canterlot behave like assholes, you're telling us to assume that everyone from both towns behaves like this. The same logic applies to bronydom. When 99% of all the audience sees is badly-behaved fans, you paint an impression that this is not only the norm within the brony fandom, but that almost everyone who's a brony is some kind of "manchild." You're guilting people by association.
    If you're trying to suggest that it's only a portion, either SHOW a portion or clearly dictate that that these jerkasses, while very loud, don't represent the whole. Don't use real talking points. Consolidate the assholes to a spare few, while making the characters recognize throughout that kids and adults — not just two kids — do care about the journal and their well-being.

    Two episodes apply your defense much better than Fame:
    Spike's Search from G1. Stranger Than FF. Yes, Quibble can be an elitist and sometimes a bit of a jerk. But he's also a fan of Daring Do like the rest in the con, and the ep never lets you forget it. Just a fan of the first three books. It's very clear to the audience that he was only one bad apple within that entire con, yet the episode treats him as a genuinely good person who just got caught up. On top of that, he learns his lesson at the end. This entire episode is very laid back in tone, so the writers are able to get away with cartoony shenanigans, the satire, and a bunch of the humor.

    The Daring Do con is a satire of fandom conventions and their quirky charm. It shows us how dedicated many Do fans are, but the con is written in a way so the audience knows it's in good fun. We as people see ourselves in that con, but its accuracy and good-nature comedy make it funny. We laugh at ourselves by simultaneously laughing with the writers.

    BTW, thanks to Fame, I respect and appreciate Stranger now. Though I stand by on Quibble being OOC in the second half, I was wrong to call him a stereotype, and I was really unfair towards the episode the entire time.
      Self-deprecation comes primarily not at the audience's expense, but at their own. We're not laughing at ourselves, but at the situation the comedians are in. Rodney Dangerfield was amazing at it: He always never took himself seriously, knew that the audience and he were going to have a great time together, and was just an all-around good guy.

    You know who was great at making the audience laugh at themself? A hint: he just passed away. Don Rickles. He could deliver any type of insult at you. There was no line he couldn't cross. So why was he funny?
    Again, Rickles never took himself seriously. The lighthearted tone in his routines loosens the atmosphere and makes the audience more receptive to the jokes. Rickles knew how to insult you without getting personal. He put in the effort to make you laugh through his performance. If they laughed, then he succeeded. He roasted everyone and made them laugh so hard that they couldn't breathe. Despite his act on stage, he was an excellent person behind the scenes. The stories people tell about him show how good he was as a person. When he has that good of a reputation, the audience knows his insult routine is all in good fun. Some of his best roasts were to people he respected or were close friends with, like Sinatra and Reagan. In short, guilt-trip someone who's insulted to laugh at themself, the joke is neither good nor funny. It failed. To double-down and accuse them of being part of the problem is hypocritical.
    Like "SJW," "fanbrat," "fanboy/girl," and "alt-left," this pejorative jumped the shark. In fact, I hated it ever since I heard it. Why? Because it mocks people just for being able to feel. You're directly trolling people for sharing an emotional response. You mandate that people should act like robots or live in some kind of hive mind. Humanity doesn't work that way. Diversity helps shape up our world. You can't control people's emotions.

    Ironically, calling people "snowflakes" or "sensitive" is hypocritical, too, 'cause you're emotionally reacting to their emotion.

    "But why do you love Cutie Map, when it's one of the most cynical settings of the show?" Glad you asked, my imaginary questionnaire.
    This setting is completely confined into that town only, and both its presentation and Mane Six's reactions make it clear that what they see around them is not normal. Everyone's happiness is completely controlled. Starlight continually brainwashes Our Town's inhabitants into sticking to her ways, or else. Starlight was a ruthless, calculated control freak. Not to mention she was the villain. Something folks like her should do. If she wasn't so evil, then it won't make any sense. It was also very well written. DHX very carefully planned everything about that episode from beginning to end, and the Mane Six figured out how to solve a life-threatening friendship problem very cleverly. In short, TCM's about celebrating diversity and free will, not the opposite. It's cynicism done right.
    Congratulations for answering your own question. There's no place to treat real people and groups of real people like stereotypes in any show, especially one with intent to educate to children. The fact that we teach kids that (ageist) stereotypes are A-OK in entertainment makes me take it very seriously. This show is way better than this pandering schlock.

    The better the show, the more it respects kids. And, yes, kids DO care about lore/worldbuilding. If they don't, then why is magical thinking so important in children's development, and why do psychologists and high-quality children's educational shows (i.e., Arthur, Mister Rogers', Sesame Street, Shining Time Station, Magic School Bus, Dragon Tales) value it so much?
      In a June 2017 interview from The Hollywood Reporter, Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner admitted that boys make up 30% of FIM's TV audience, and they no longer allegedly aim toys to a specific gender. Observe the recent trend of FIM being marketed to boys AND girls over the past year-plus. With Let Toys Be Toys campaigning for the desegregation of toys, Audi's Spanish branch publishing a car commercial satirizing gender roles, and companies like Target, Toys R Us, and TJ Maxx (for clothes) de-sexing aisles, this trend is only (hopefully) continuing.

    Focus that back to MLP. Zacherle founded the franchise as a unisex toyline, and MLP & Friends was for all ages regardless of gender. Faust and crew published FIM as an all-ages, gender-neutral show, too, and it's been that way since. The family-friendly approach and refusal to apply gender and age barriers onto their stories and world are two background reasons why the fandom became so enormous and boisterous.

    The point? "It's for kids" is a stupid excuse. Being for children shouldn't affect the quality of your product. To use it regardless of circumstance talks down to kids and treats them like idiots. Apply this to "it's for little girls," as well. Labeling FIM as for (little) girls shoves gender roles upon our children, segregates genders into categories, applies different standards of quality to girls when it should be universal, and treats girls as tokens to excuse misogyny and misandry. Being a "good girls' show" shouldn't matter. Be a good show, period.
      It's odd how no one has come forward to claim credit for the aired product. Larson repeatedly disassociated himself from this episode, both in ToonKritic's podcast and on Twitter.
     
    Big Jim was unaware, too:
    I don't know what happened behind the scenes, but given the visual and audio evidence, the theory of it being a lighthearted poke either originally or after submission to Hasbro deserves the benefit of the doubt.

    However, for the aired product, it's ridiculous to claim it's lighthearted when Ponyville and Canterlot treat them like crap and the characters become emotionally distressed and scared as a result. Unlike Best Night Ever, Slice of Life, and Stranger, the meta conflict and character reactions are supposed to be taken seriously. The tone and mood are played straight; both sides treat the matter as a really big deal. Laughing and grimacing at the stereotypes don't a satire make. That's why The Good, The Bad, and The Ponies isn't a parody (despite its intentions), and the same applies here.
    Razgriz made an excellent point last month when criticizing Fame, and I echo my reply on Discord to here with changes: You can't have a show without an audience. People watch and follow the show out of interest, admiration, and so on. They don't watch to get called out. It's a bad move to taunt any portion of the fanbase, because it can come across as an attack on the people you're not attacking. "Lighthearted fun" or "a portion" makes no difference. If you're going to respond to any group of fans, you BETTER know what you're doing.
    Rickles knew what he was doing when roasting people. Whoever ghostwrote this script didn't.
    If you have that thought, erase it. There's no excuse for anyone to abuse the showrunners, and I never condone it. I'm on record of being against it, sometimes replying to users angrily when they do. No matter how angry we get at episodes from time to time, these showrunners, animators, and editors are people. They earn as much respect as everyone else here. The criticism, even the harsh ones, are aimed at the product. If I criticize the company or showrunners, it's for their lack of effort if applicable because I know they do better, releasing something with stereotypes or harmful morals (since kids are impressionable), or their behavior if they cross a line (which I've done to no one but IDW's Ted Anderson for his sexism). But I don't get personal; that's a no-no under any circumstance.

    At the end of the day, DHX is an entity full of people like you and I.
    That "argument" is the most obvious self-fulfilling prophecy I've heard within fandom in quite some time.

    One thing the show does very well is it creates and enforces a very uplifting, inviting atmosphere. The pastel colors, likeable mane characters, likeable background ponies, idealistic solutions to friendship, and proactive approach to solving friendship problems tell the audience this isn't supposed to be that type of world where "realistic" doesn't translate into stereotypical cynicism. This was one of the themes when the show started, and it's shown by how Ponyville and Pinkie actively welcomed Twilight in the Golden Oak Library. Sometimes even when the episodes don't do as well, it stays true to its tone.

    Think about this. When were the episodes at their best? When it shoots up. Hurricane FS, Winter Wrap Up, Perfect Pear, Lost Frickin' Mark! Even when it doesn't do as well as it should, like A Friend in Deed, it still capitalizes on that welcoming, confident setting.

    OTOH, what are some of the biggest flaws in Mare Do Well, PYHD, Ponyville Confidential, Bats!, Filli Vanilli, 28PL, Newbie Dash, and Owl's Well? The mean-spirited tone. Everything about it is not only completely cynical, but also done in a way that completely beats down on the mane character and makes it act like the entire world is out to get them. When the setting dials up the mean-spirited tone, it makes the world they're living in very unpleasant to watch. Do so with an idealistic, uplifting world like FIM's, then it's done for no other reason than to serve the plot. If you're gonna present something mean, make it feel organic.

    Each time the series turned up this level of contrived cynicism, the quality of the atmosphere and overall story degrades. You're piling on cruelty again and again just because. Fame, to repeat it, has that same flaw. Ironically, it's similar to one of season 2's worst, which Larson wrote and took credit for:
    (Link to poster.)

    Replace the gossiping theme and CMCs with fandom and the ReMane Six, respectively, and you get the same episode. Remove the fandom allegories; all you have left is a town deciding to suddenly declare the ReMane Six famous and treat them like dirt just because they can.

    So, here's a question, and think about it long and hard. If Fame and Misfortune didn't include fandom allegories, would you grin viciously at this episode? Would you act like white supremacists following Trump's election victory and publish the vitriol in the first place?

    For a good chunk of you, chances are it's gonna be "no."

    That alone means Fame is a failure. This "bravery" is cowardice and a self-centered desire to air your dirty laundry as well as support the idea that kids should embrace lazy shortcuts of entertainment. Excusing this lowbrow shit is bad enough. To do so through this doesn't make this episode any better. In fact, you only make it worse.

    One final note.

    A few self-contained scenes completely contradict continuity…but I held out one more: the whole premise itself. There's no care in backstory, worldbuilding, and contextual logic in any way, shape, or form. Echoing WaterPulse offsite, it feels like the one(s) who ghostwrote it didn't give a damn about the Equestrian world or threw it all away just to drive home a point. If the story doesn't care about the rich, ever-growing world, why should your audience?
    Conclusion:
    Wow.

    Just…wow.

    Now, to give Fame some credit, it has a lot of potential. The material to create an excellent satire is there. We as a fandom have its strengths and flaws. A good, effective satire can allow the fandom to actually poke fun at itself: acknowledge the problems, yet do it that makes it funny and not anger-inducing. Stranger pulls it off rather effectively, particularly within that con and treatment of Quibble as a nice albeit stubborn guy. And apparently, this was supposed to be lighthearted, too.

    So, what the hell happened? Where's that traditional love and care for the audience? How did the show (which aired The Perfect Pear one episode prior) manage to publish an episode that was so wrapped up in trying to send a message to its audience that it forgot to write a story, much less a good one? Larson makes it known that plenty of it was ghostwritten during development, and the fact that nobody claimed responsibility for it is troublesome. That doesn't mean DHX doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt. Far from it. They're a reputable company, and the people within care about their craft and the quality they publish.

    I feel very sorry for Larson. Even though many of his ideas weren't his, laws require him to be credited for it. This episode as is feels out of character of him. Out of everyone who worked for the show, he's closest to the fandom. He may've screwed up on one satire, but that was due to story oversights, not spite. Additionally, in every episode he writes, he focuses a lot on sticking to the continuity and not contradict it; neither episode that keeps it in mind (this and MMC) were his fault.

    I originally skipped this one, because I believed it was going to be bad. After watching it the first go around (and then skimmed through a second time), it blew me away. Was it as bad as I thought? No. It's twenty times worse.

    Fundamentally, it's broken. It doesn't understand what a parody is supposed to be; it tries to parody obnoxious fans, yet the characters play everything so straight that it's treated as a serious plot instead of a satire. Continuity is ignored for the sake of the story, both in sections and throughout. Jokes are rammed in without focus on having them make sense. The premise used the idea that the ReMane Six would finally be recognized as a result of their journal, even though their celebrityhood dates back to the pilot in Ponyville and Canterlot and expanded following MMC. Fanatics are painted with a broad brush by having everyone sans two fillies portrayed as abusive caricatures. Yet, by combining valid criticism with the abuse, reducing existing characters into less-than-flat caricatures and ageist stereotypes of fans, and painting the antagonists as seeing the RM6 as only fictional characters, the antagonists become straw men, damaging the story and morals. The beginning is stupid, and it only worsens with each passing minute. Starlight's appearance, her best since reformation, is wasted here.

    Fame & Misfortune panders to the lowest common denominator. Lazy, dishonest, and intellectually offensive. This garbage exists as is to check off common talking points within the fandom, whether it makes canonical sense or not. Whoever decided to warp the script into a callous attitude should be ashamed of themself. It overtakes 28 Pranks Later as the most mean-spirited take of Equestria in the entire show and is fundamentally worse than Rainbow Falls and EQG1. Unlike Fame, those two tried to tell a story. Add the unfortunate implications (the ageism, enforcement of tired geek-based stereotypes, and treatment of Coconut and Toola as tokens), it's even worse. It's both my most hated and (so far) worst episode of season seven.
    At the start of the review, my bottom-13 was like this:
    One Bad Apple Bridle Gossip Newbie Dash Dragon Quest The Crystal Empire Rainbow Falls 28 Pranks Later Princess Spike P.P.O.V. The Mysterious Mare Do Well Owl’s Well That Ends Well The Show Stoppers Putting Your Hoof Down Now, after talking about another awful episode (Newbie Dash) with King Clark, it's now this:
    One Bad Apple Newbie Dash Fame and Misfortune Bridle Gossip Dragon Quest The Crystal Empire Rainbow Falls 28 Pranks Later Princess Spike P.P.O.V. The Mysterious Mare Do Well Owl’s Well That Ends Well The Show Stoppers
  10. Dark Qiviut
    Author's Note: This is a revised review for Sleepless in Ponyville. You can find the original here.
     

    Have you ever told campfire stories? What campfire stories scared you the most? At some point in your life, did you ever get a nightmare so crippling, it affected your every move? Scootaloo knows that feeling, and Sleepless in Ponyville explores this. As Corey Powell's debut episode, she explores Scootaloo's perspective in twenty minutes full great characterization, a lot of humor, a well-done moral, and a world of well-deserved feels.
     

    Strengths:
    The characterization is extremely well-done. None of them were flanderized, flat, or out of character. Each line dripped with personality that fit everyone. To get it out of the way:
     
    Rarity: This was easily her best role last season in one where full-fledged, good-quality characterization from her was a rarity. As she's exuberant and sassy, her vanity and care for younger Sweetie Belle complimented nicely. On one hand, she played tit for tat with Sweetie Belle by having her temporarily drag her luggage to the camp sites. On the other, the growth from Look Before You Sleep, Suited for Success, Sisterhooves Social, and Sweet & Elite aren't forgotten at all. Despite her vanity, she still really cared for Sweetie Belle and comforted her whenever a story or spark scared the daylights outta her.
     
    In a way, however, her character was a reversal of Look Before You Sleep; albeit growing, it had to happen via childish, gross immaturity at her and Applejack's expense. It took twenty whole minutes for her and Applejack (and Twilight, by extension) to stop being dumbasses and grow some brains.
     
    Speaking of Applejack…
     
    Applejack: The cordial friendship that got them to finally look past their differences and grow closer was recognized previously in Sisterhooves Social and continued on through here. Like most of season three, AJ's characterization shone brightly like polished brass. The calm, cool, and collected of the six, she knew her equipment and was definitely prepared for the camp and journey to Winsome Falls, as she should (i.e., using the bow drill to start the campfire). Just like Rarity with Sweetie Belle, she and Apple Bloom share a beautiful sisterly relationship. Although we saw nothing truly new about it, it was still solid, warm, and funny.
     
    Unlike some other crappy episode that arrived more than a year later…
     
    Most importantly, she's the only one to recognize Scootaloo's jumpiness and fright, and keeps questioning her in response. The others don't.
     
    Apple Bloom: Just like what I said about Applejack, Apple Bloom is the little sister characterized as such, although with plenty of spunk and sass coming from her Southern accent. Again, there's nothing new, but with her conversations and relationship with Applejack, it's reinforces how close they are, meanwhile proving that Apple Bloom's slowly growing up.
     
    Sweetie Belle: The cute, hilarious charm forges on. Like Rarity, she holds that same pizzazz with the ability to persuade others.
     
    Her voice? Funny.
     
    Singing 99 Buckets of Oats — an obvious reference to 99 Bottles — very late in the night? Nothing short of hilarious and surprisingly in character. (If she was fully awake and during the day, then it would've been out of character.)
     
    This?
     
      
     
    Scootaloo: She was in several episodes up to this, but never got an episode in her point of view. SiP is her first, and she was masterful. Prior, she was the least developed of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and SiP changed that instantaneously. Not only was she in character, but the conflict she encountered was very real. While it may not cripple an adult, kids are much more sensitive to scary stories and nightmares. For Scootaloo, who wants to look her best in front of Dash (who she idolizes so much), it's very believable. Even beyond it is her jubilation and love for adventure, as backed up by zipping through Ponyville while riding her scooter (referencing The Show Stoppers).
     
    More about her later.
     
    Rainbow Dash: Up to around The Last Roundup, her characterization between it and Lesson Zero was pretty inconsistent, ranging from mere flanderization to out-of-characterization. Sometimes she became the butt of some mean-spirited jokes (i.e., the cider gag in he Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000). But following TLR, her characterization slowly improved with occasional bumps like in Read It and Weep (suddenly becoming an avid reader, but that's since ironed out) or Act 1 in Dragon Quest (mocking Spike's apron). Hurricane Fluttershy introduced her in easily her best role since Sonic Rainboom, and SiP improved that.
     
    How? Despite being oblivious to various social cues, she retains her sense of importance, but is extremely energetic and fun-loving. She's sure of herself and still rather cocky, but it's very tame and she isn't flanderized. Up to this point, she was given the best balance: brash, yet caring and loyal to her friends and morals.
     
    That is until the ending, which I'll get to.
     
    Princess Luna: After Luna Eclipsed, she all but stayed in the background, appearing in A Canterlot Wedding and The Crystal Empire. Her appearance in SiP really brought forth some needed expansion of her character, acting as a guide to others who feel lost and hurt if needed. Her role will be dissected into later.
    There was plenty of worldbuilding, expanding Equestria beyond simply Canterlot, Everfree Forest, and Ponyville. The forest near Ponyville is quiet and, once Scootaloo's fears kick in, menacing. Winsome Falls is absolutely beautiful, and the animation allows the graphics to portray the waterfalls plausibly, but with the right colors and atmosphere to create mystique — a sense of purpose for wanting to be there, much less trek.
     
    And this leads to the animation, whichis completely breathtaking. Throughout last season, at least one episode focused on the background animation and effects. Sleepless in Ponyville EXCELLED in this category. The dream sequences are wacky and spooky: Each shape, shade, and color truly made them nightmares for the young filly. In Equestrian life, the forest itself (namely the sharp perspective of the trees and evil yellow eyes) is very graphic and belongs in a family-friendly Nightmare Night.
     
    But the best animation?
     
    This:
     

     
    Need I say more?
    In twenty minutes, Scootallo's characterization was thoroughly explored: We witnessed her athleticism, desire to be Rainbow Dash's protégé, overgrowing fear and will to look impressive in Dash's tomcoltish eyes, and development. Obviously, she idolizes Rainbow Dash due to little sprinkles of Dash's core personality: a will to be cool, daring, and proud. But Scoots's pride was also her greatest flaw: As she desired to have Dash take her under her wing, she didn't want to look weak, for her ever growing façade that eventually blew into paranoia for her safety!
    As for the gags, they're very effective in their own unique ways. Some include:
     
    a. Sweetie Belle pulling the cart: A very tit-for-tat moment from Rarity after Sweetie baited her into agreeing to go. It works because it counterbalances with Rarity's care for SB, and Sweetie never truly struggles to the point of feeling pain. To keep it fresh, Sweetie doesn't pull it entirely, as Scootaloo pulls it at one point.
     
    (BTW, Rarity was not flanderized nor out of character for making Sweetie pull. It teeters the line, but because it counterbalances her caring side, it doesn't cross it. To claim she was is just plain hyperbole.)
     
    b. 99 Bottles on the WAAALLLLL! Next! XD
     
    c. Scootaloo telling the scariest story in FIM history:
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STLdC0cEvzM
     
    d. Rainbow Dash's snoring gags, as they helped continue the plot and show how calm and relaxed she can be when asleep albeit asking Scoot if she doesn't snore.
     
    e. Rarity's makeshift tent in Act 1: Extravagant and very in character. Hey, she's a character with plenty of style.
    The pace is very well-done. For all of last season, if there was one evident flaw, the quality of the flow was very poor. In The Crystal Empire, it was too slow. Too Many Pinkie Pies, One Bad Apple, Keep Calm and Flutter On, Spike at Your Service, Games Ponies Play, and Magical Mystery Cure were all fast, either a little or so much that it needed to be two parts just to make the flow satisfying. Sleepless in Ponyville had no such problems. Each gag never overstayed its welcome. Every main scene never lasted any more than needed. The climax was bold but never elongated. The resolution was quick enough to satisfyingly conclude it, yet slow enough to make it memorable and have the event stick in the audience's mind.
    Like Polsky's For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils this year, Sleepless in Ponyville doesn't attempt to hide the graphic nature of the nightmares (and for this episode, the climax). Because Scootaloo is experiencing nightmares that psychologically damn him, it's Powell's job to make sure the nightmares hit her in the gut and scare the royal shit out of her. This is completely unlike Toils, where Luna uses Sweetie's selfishness against her and makes Rarity's supposed future graphic to teach her an important lesson in not being jumping to conclusions so selfishly.
     
    Also, Scootaloo continually punishes herself during the course of the episode. All of the little bits of animation, sound, and frightened response to the dark forest scare her, as her mind plays tricks on her throughout.
    The climax is extremely exciting and full of marvelous tension with a great twist. Typically, characters who hold on over the ledge just hang on to there until the hero comes along to save him or her. Instead, Powell and crew push the boundaries further by having Scoots fall into the raging river and going over the fall.
     
    (And if you pay attention to the scene after where Luna tells Scootaloo to face her real fears, notice how the moon is behind Dash. This should give you a clue how Dash was able to realize Scoots was in trouble.)
    Without a shadow of a doubt, the resolution itself is easily the best moment of the season and solidifies the episode from top to bottom. The emotion and chemistry brewing in the night scene is raw, and it makes the viewer want to cheer them on and embrace their newly created chemistry.
     
    Until this point, Dash's characterization was easily on the upswing, just approaching a moment just like this. When she admitted the campfire stories once scared her as a filly, it illustrated raw characterization and growth that breaks through the tomcolt façade she's built over the course of the series as well as her lifetime. While that's obviously never going away (or not completely anytime soon), that scene proves her growth since the pilot.
     
    (Of course, one episode later, Dash is featured in Wonderbolts Academy, quite possibly her best episode yet.)
     
    Meanwhile, it also completes one of Scootaloo's biggest missions: to be Rainbow Dash's protégé. Since the beginning, she has the competitive edge and tomcoltish characterization along with the desire to be like Dash. It took nearly two full seasons (including one crappy episode early in season two ), but the ending brings her first journey full circle, as it should be.

    Weaknesses:
    Two key areas in this episode lack clarity.
     
    a. The extent of Luna's powers of exploring in ponies' dreams. In the very beginning, there was no such discussion of her even having the idea of such powers. Then, in SiP, she uses it seamlessly, as if she always had them. There's no explanation where she got them, how she got them, and how far she can use them. Even with For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils granting her a larger extent of her powers, the questions offered weren't answered here and haven't since. There's a very good chance the questions will be ignored, and her powers will be used as a trump card for the writers.
     
    b. How Rainbow Dash knew Scootaloo was in danger. Sure, the animation hints this, and you can suggest this as a possibility, but it's way too subtle. In a way, it behaves like a deus ex machina. If the relationship here was given more clarity, then it'd be more believable.
    The usage of the bow drill was used incorrectly. In both scenes, Applejack used the drill over a small pile of sticks to immediately start a fire. In real life, the sticks wouldn't be sufficient enough to start a campfire.
     
    Here is a step-by-step vlog on how to start a fire with the bow drill:
     

    I don't camp, but I know one thing. Applejack, sleeping in an unsupervised cave for the night in the wild is normally a REALLY stupid idea!


    On December 8, 2012, Sleepless in Ponyville airs for the first time and introduces Corey Powell into the world of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. In the first episode without Twilight since Putting Your Hoof Down (One Bad Apple included her as a cameo), only seven characters (minus The Olden Pony in Scoot's first nightmare and final dream) spoke, and Powell used their slots wisely. Every character was in character with extra dimension. Combined with some nice comedic moments and fantastic animation, the pace flowed smoothly with little to no obvious hiccups (along with a tense action scene). Albeit a couple of questionable logic choices and lack of clarity in specific scenes, Sleepless in Ponyville is unquestionably one of the best episodes in the series and easily the BEST season-three episode.
  11. Dark Qiviut
    Normally, because it's a fan animation, I tend to be much more lenient in my comments. However, Zachary Rich helped produce this whole piece (along with 104 other people) with the intent to graduate from Savannah's College of Art and Design. This fan-made episode is out there to prove to everyone that he is ready to work in the professional field. Therefore, I'll review it as if it truly is a professionally published piece.
     
    ———
     
    This is a strong animated piece, with lots of action, characterization, and humor. Rich and crew took what is My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and created something that could fit within the realm of the canon while inserting of their own ideas. What are really strong is the following:
    Without question, the animation is the best part of Double Rainboom. One key component in animation is the fluidity of it, and it was extremely well-done. In some cases, it flowed a little better than some parts of the show and really pushed the boundaries of Adobe Flash, something DHX has been able to do.
    The characterization of Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash are, for the most part, IN character, especially given the current timeline, which is somewhere in season two. Twilight retains that adorkable edge while freaking out, getting annoyed at the right moments, and caring at the right time. Rainbow Dash, meanwhile, retained that recklessness that she didn't dispel until Wonderbolts Academy. She likes to push herself to the edge, occasionally going too far, and used to fly very recklessly. In Read It and Weep, she flew so wildly, she crashed and broke her wing. Pinkie Pie's antics worked extremely well, retaining that cheery, bubbly confidence that everyone knows so well.
    The pop culture references are abundant, but don't intrude to the story. WeLoveFine, EQD, Toy Story, Harley Quinn, and so on blended right in the piece, and you have to really slow down in order to find it.
    The plot twist was shocking, but made a lot of sense. Whether you love it or hate it, NO one saw that crossover coming. But it was done in a way that works given the fantasy, folklore, and logic the canon provides. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic exploits their zany worldbuilding, but so does The Powerpuff Girls, and a lot of the crew worked on both projects. Lauren Faust, in part, worked as a storyboard artist in Powerpuff Girls, and the simplicity in PPG's characters and atmosphere are noticeable in FIM.
     
    At the same time, Rich and crew carefully researched various theories, especially the idea of exploring and ripping through an inter-dimensional, space-time continuum. There were bits and pieces foreshadowing the crossover, but there was one that, following the interview on Everfree Radio, gave it right away.Twilight's contraption when holding Rainbow Dash back. I remembered seeing it once before when the preview was uploaded on YouTube a few weeks ago, but didn't know where. Rich explained that it came from the Powerpuff Girls episode, Bubblevicious (one of the most popular PPG episodes, by the way), and it rang in my head wondering how I missed that! It was subtle, but very clever.

    [*]There's another part of the professional world of MLP:FIM that shines: the background score. It shines here, too. Andrew Stein (MandoPony) did a splendid job with the music, giving it his flavor, but simultaneously blending in the canon. It's fast when needed, somber when needed, and hilarious when needed. It added so much flavor to Double Rainboom.
    [*]The humor is top-notch and follows the zany roots of both The Powerpuff Girls and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. The funniest part is easily Rarity's hairdo becoming Twilight's, scaring away Spike.
    [*]There were plenty of brony references, but almost all of them came during specific moments where it didn't intrude to the plot. The Scootachicken joke belonged, and it was hilarious. Derpy had more secondary screentime than seasons one and three combined, desperately trying to eat her muffin (but couldn't); and you can't help but feel for her. WeLoveFine and EQD were there, but were so subtle and so quick that you couldn't spot them immediately. Berry Punch's brony reference for her alcoholism is there, too, but almost unnoticeable because it was in the background.
    [*]The tones for all of the characters match. The Powerpuff Girls were perfect. Twilight Sparkle, voiced by Rina-chan, closely associated with Strong's voice; and the same is said for Pinkie Pie. The only one that was half-and-half is Rainbow Dash. But despite the different voice, the way it was conveyed (her tone) matched her headstrong reckless character that was prevalent during seasons one and two.
    [*]The crew did a spectacular job portraying the consequences of the double rainboom. It was forceful and damaging. Ponyville was in shambles, as if in the middle of a nuclear explosion. They wanted it to be graphic, and they got it.
    [*]The end credits are akin to one of a Pixar film. Instead of being an afterthought, it's part of the episode, which is a very clever touch.


    But there were also rather noticeable flaws.
    One brony reference was redundant: Snowflake's "YEAH!" Albeit funny, it ate up too much time on the clock.
    Some of the animation look like it was tweened too much. The biggest example is Fluttershy escorting the chickens before Rainbow Dash zoomed by — It was rather choppy.
    Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup's lines were way too simple to display much genuine character. The only moment where the character was displayed was Buttercup's aggression during the fight with the monster.
    The script was to the point, but it was actually too simple. While many of the lines were in character, some didn't have the depth necessary to make the characterization as convincing as it should, especially the Powerpuff Girls'. Better lines from them and more hilarious conversation between the PPGs and Dash (and maybe Professor Utonium, if you want to brainstorm) would provide such great chemistry.
    The explanation for the double rainboom was nonexistant. Where did it come from? It's evident through the script's effects that, if going fast enough to break through the speed of sound AND light, a double rainboom causes a rift in the continuum, landing the individual who's going through it into another dimension. But there was never any history or backstory behind it in the form of the actual script. It came off as extremely abrupt, and we still never got the full details behind them. In other words, given the current writing, it's a glaring plothole.
    Twilight's mere anger following Rainbow Dash's return didn't match. She was worried that Dash would kill herself, and then couldn't find her. She showed absolutely NO relief that Rainbow Dash is back in one piece, just frustration and anger, and it didn't fit her one bit. A combination of both (combined with disappointment) would've been much more in character.
    The deus ex machina, while fitting in the canon and Pinkie's "fourth wall breaking" was stupid! Despite the foreshadowing early in Double Rainboom, there was absolutely NO buildup for it, and it made no sense, even in the context of the letter.
    The letter to Celestia fit: Dash drank the potion without thinking ahead and resulted in some serious consequences. But the letter felt very incomplete and didn't have the right enough polish for it to make it very convincing. (The reference with Pinkie entering through the "FL" door was hilarious, though.)
    The episode is too short and didn't have the balance between Rainbow Dash's hilarious scurrying in Townsville and Twilight's method to get her back to Ponyville. It was exclusively Rainbow Dash's side of the story, and part of the plot suffered from it. Double Rainboom's plot would've been much better if the perspective was more omniscient here, focusing on both Rainbow Dash and Twilight. If the perspective was balanced, then Pinkie Pie's portal traveling wouldn't be such a rough deus ex machina, and Pinkie Pie's inclusion would've made more logical sense.

    In short, Double Rainboom had very great polish in its animation, and there was a lot of heart. There were minute, but very glaring issues in the executions of the PPG's characterization and concepts that bogged down Double Rainboom, so what could've been even greater wasn't. Nevertheless, for a long production, Rich and crew did a marvelous job laying down the groundwork needed for the fandom to come up with future material. He shows that he is ready to go out into the professional world of animation once he graduates, and I can't wait to see what other ideas he has in mind in the future. Very good work!
     
    ———
     
     
    Source: Double Rainboom
  12. Dark Qiviut
    This is a review for one song, two covers, of The Moon Rises.
     

     

     
    Back on February 25, 2012, PonyPhonic splashed in his debut single, The Moon Rises, a slow opera-esque musical. With Celestia revered during the day, Luna yearns for the attention, devotion, and love for her moon, something the citizens of Equestria rarely, if not ever, admire. Her naivety and jealousy solidified a conflicted, wounded heart to be the corrupted and feared Nightmare Moon.
     
    A little more than eight months later, well-known brony actress EileMonty uploaded her own cover. The message is the same, but the delivery is different. Instead of a quiet, reserved jealousy, EileMonty's delivery is wishful, but soon turns corrupted and evil beyond compare. Instead of being the singer, EileMonty in The Moon Rises sings in character of Luna and Nightmare Moon.
     
    Both songs work extremely well, and one of the key reasons is the dark music. The piano chimes in lowly, creating that feeling of darkness and loneliness. Drums beat, and the bell tolls, urgently marching for control of Equestria. Beginning softly, it transitions with a soft touch of the xylophone, memorizing it resonates and quickens, with finally silence. The perfectly executed organization of the musical score laments to the audience.
     
    But there is one clever insertion: the background Latin and vocalization during the chorus. It transitions the song from one moment to another and makes Luna's sense of pain and spirituality very believable. Without it, the background score's dark mood becomes less impactful.
     
    Both versions convey Luna's transition and jealousy in two radical, brilliant ways. PonyPhonic's low, male male voice is wishful and reflective. It's as if Luna looks down at the citizens of Equestia, and very slowly gets jealous. But the hidden layer of evil is blanketed with an eerie calm, like a religious prayer. PonyPhonic's continuously calm voice captivates the audience and helps the viewer concentrate on Luna's pent-up envy.
     
    By contrast, EileMonty is Luna, and more overt emotion is expressed throughout. As PonyPhonic's score rings, Luna reflects in sadness and jealousy. But as the music picks up, Luna becomes angry, corrupted, and extremely evil. EileMonty explained that singing it identically to PonyPhonic wouldn't make her impression of the characters as convincing, and this song shows this. In her voice, singing in a quiet, reflective jealousy contrasts too much with Luna's voice and Nightmare Moon's evil. Her transition from calm to really dramatic in her evil is extremely in character and makes the song so chilling. You can feel the evil oozing in her voice in her cover, all the way through the very end. It sounds evil. It feels evil. It IS evil! With the background music, Latin, and song's overall tension, this in-character rendition convincingly belongs in the canon.
     
    PonyPhonic made his spectacular debut with the glorious The Moon Rises, a dramatic opera-like musical song. The blend of the instruments and the Latin gives it an ancient, religious perspective, with PonyPhonic's soft voice reflective, envious, and subtly jealous. EileMonty's cover improvises the method the song is sung, yet retains the respect the original song has. Her excellent impersonation of Luna consequently makes the song belong in the canon. While I prefer EileMonty's cover because of the added depth in Luna's jealous evil and successful impersonation, both versions are equally amazing for different, yet all the right reasons.
  13. 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

  14. Dark Qiviut
    As much as I like to say I enjoyed it, I can't. The previous eight episodes have all been good to amazing, but this one is the first (and hopefully only) clunker of season 3.
     
    First, some things I do like:
    Rainbow Dash's character. Dash has shown a bit more of her sympathetic side lately, but here is where we saw her cockiness, eagerness, and going in way over her head. Her blurting out her own novel idea as well as Applejack's was hilarious and gave me the most laughs throughout the episode. From the way she's behaving, she's grown into liking action novels more and more. (Bronies, she gave you her idea. Write it!) But I also laughed hard at the fact that Rainbow Dash had to keep her promise and demolish the tower. Mission failed! >)
    Twilight's concentration. Over the past several years (in the canon), she's shown a huge desire to learn, grow, and be invested in doing her very best in her assignments. If there's one thing she can get into, it's get into a zone of deep concentration. It fits extremely well into her character, and I can really relate to her in this scenario.
    Rarity's compassion for Spike. She knows Spike's mud pie is absolutely disgusting, but she is good friends with him, and their friendship has grown considerably since the series premiere (especially Secret of My Excess, my second-most favorite Spike-centered episode behind Dragon Quest). She spat it out, but only when Spike turned away; she doesn't want to hurt his feelings, and he can get pretty reactive. It's obvious she cares for him as a very dear friend.
    The Mane 6's "Master Plan" to break Spike's "code" failing miserably. They were desperate to break Spike's code and decided to have Applejack get attacked by a timberwolf puppet. But they forgot big time about Spike's advanced intelligence; he's naïve, but he's not someone who gets easily fooled, and that trick almost bit them each on the flank. And it nearly bit them back harder when he rejected the timberwolf breath late in the episode. Sometimes, it's better not to cry, "Wolf!"
    The timberwolves. They're extremely detailed, but very well-done. Given the nature of the Everfree forest, there are many scary, dangerous creatures to watch out. The timberwolves looked scary, dangerous, and powerful. And I'm not sure if Spike's flame wouldn't have worked, given the spell-casting substances the wolves had.

    Now the two things I didn't like, starting with the smallest:

    Pinkie Pie's erratic character before the last commercial. She's bubbly, excited, happy, slapsticky, and random. But given the nature of the scenario before the commercial, it didn't fit her one bit.
     
    Her antics prior to it fit her really well. Too Many Pinkie Pies explored her sensitivity, care for her friends, and commitment. Wonderbolts Academy had her behave obsessively, but Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash have shown throughout the series that they have an extremely close relationship. Each of the Mane Six are very great friends, but some are closer than others. Pinkie Pie is extremely close with Rainbow Dash, and as Wonderbolts Academy is tiring and strenuous, she doesn't want that bond to separate.
     
    But in here, it didn't fit. She would've taken the whole scenario a bit more seriously; if it were slapsticky, it would've been more toned down, as she's a character with tremendous depth and understanding of serious circumstances. She was too hyperactive and happy in this case.
    Spike himself. He has been in the spotlight so much more this season, and he's had several small but very important roles: getting the Crystal Heart back to its rightful spot (only to be rescued by Cadance), finding the book about the Mirror Pond, and keeping the team composed in Magic Duel. Prior to season three, for the little spotlight he's had, he's had great character development, particularly in three season two episodes: Lesson Zero, Secret of My Excess, and Dragon Quest. Season two was, honestly, the best season he's had, and season three continued to develop him even more. It wasn't the Mane Six (with Spike bouncing behind them). It was the Mane Six (with Spike crouching in front and getting a nice little hug from his friends).
     
    He didn't feel right at all in this episode. His eagerness wasn't the problem at all. He's a kid dragon, and kids tend to be extremely eager; boredom sucks. But it resulted in him being not only being continually clumsy, but also CARELESS. Spike is many things, but carelessness and continual clumsiness aren't either. Spike can be bored, eager, or excited however he wants, but he has known Twilight and the others for quite some time already. He's shown to have a somewhat advanced intelligence due to his talking, cunning, and line of thinking. Seeing him become so destructive (and not even be aware of how bad his clumsiness was at times) doesn't fit him at all. He has known the characters long enough to understand how things work for them, and he's able to understand each of their expectations, mannerisms, and personalities. Spike himself is also a very good cook, and I'm sure he'd know how to handle an oven as well as preparing fine ingredients for an apple pie.
     
    I think it would be much better if some things would've changed, Spike's carelessness especially. It would be having Spike be clumsy with the balloon, apples, and then the pig (with him actually being aware of it), but then AJ and Spike would have a chat telling him that he can help, but slow down and take it easy. Afterwards, Spike would help with the chores and perform well at them. If Spike were to ask for help, AJ would, and the two would make a fine team. Then maybe they can visit Rarity, and maybe he could help her out a bit, too, using AJ's advice and Spike's knowledge on his surroundings and expectations of how Rarity works around the Carousel Boutique. You can write the rest.

    I was extremely eager seeing Spike get a much bigger role, as he and Rainbow Dash have been the two breakout characters this season (minus Scootaloo). Despite several great small things, the main plotline in Spike at Your Service just fell completely flat. Overall, this was a big disappointment. Worst episode of season three so far.
     
    ———
     
    Source: S03:E09 - Spike at your Service
  15. Dark Qiviut
    Author’s Note: This is Part 2 of my Rainbow Rocks review. Click here for Part 1. Click here for Part 3.
     

    Weaknesses
     
    Forced exposition in the prologue.
     
    One of the golden rules of telling a really good story is "show, don't tell." Too often, this show tells a lot of exposition, particularly in some of the worst episodes like Daring Don't, Bridle Gossip, Rainbow Falls, and MMMystery. Two of the more popular ones, Maud Pie and A Canterlot Wedding, were really burned by how much the characters had to tell everything to the viewer. Maud Pie is one of the most fascinating because key details were exposited all over: Its volume not only killed any momentum it had, but it also preceded the lack of narrative clarity as well as unfortunate implications in the final moral.
     
    The fact that you got the audience to introduce the villains first and see them behave actively is an excellent way to introduce the conflict. But that momentum was killed the minute this happened:
     
    *whistles* Time out! The camera and sickly green coloring — a connotative color of evil — focus on their pendents, so it's obvious they're up to no good. The pendents themselves offer a glimpse over what they want. You can tell they're powerful, look for more power, and (if going by continuity, as this film expects us to) are definitely not from this world. Simply by introducing the viewer to angry voices immediately creates tension.
    I said this perhaps two hundred times, and I'll say it again to those who haven't read any of my reviews yet. By telling so much exposition, the momentum in the script screeches to a halt. Words are powerful, and it's especially true in a script. Here, instead of wondering what the Dazzlings want to do, you know everything about them — along with their past — two minutes in.
    Ink Rose already said this in Tommy_Oliver's commentary about the movie, and it bears repeating here. The moment the trio spoke, any subtlety they had left vanished. When you tell us how evil you are the second you're introduced, you lack credibility as a character, and the momentum to build the characters further into the narrative really becomes stilted.
     
    Some of the best villains in the history of cinema didn't info-dump on the audience. In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Judge Claude Frollo was a massive racist and ruled Paris like a dictator, but what helped him remain incredibly ambiguous are how he decided to take care of Quasimodo in the bell tower and held an honest belief that he was doing the right thing. Aladdin's Jafar is exactly the same thanks to his suave dialogue, yearn for what was in the Cave of Wonders, tense yet hilarious relationship with Iago, and lack of knowledge about his cobra staff; even though the narrator spilled plenty of details, Disney's writers were very sneaky in their subtle tricks.
     
    McCarthy's introduction to the Dazzlings is equivalent to a hammer banging on a wall. You saw the villain, and you read their proverbial biographies in the middle of the pages rather than the beginning.
    The exposition is cringeworthy. When you exposit correctly, you add a subtle layer of depth to the story. When done INcorrectly, though, the rich blue water drains until you see the sand underneath.
     
    How?
     
    a. The lack of subtlety, which I just explained.
     
    b. None of their lines feel natural in any way. The characters' reactions feel extremely plain and forced. Sonata's slang lacks fluidity. Aria shows little personality other than one note (matter-of-fact). Adagio is the clichéd leader who must retain patience with her fellow friends.
     
    This problem becomes more visible once they witness the Elements of Harmony. Adagio Dazzle's reaction makes no sense given how long it's been since they sensed any Equestrian magic beyond theirs.
     
    c. All of the characters know who they are and their goals, so it makes no sense for them to say it again. The only reason the audience gets to hear that is to tell them they're evil.

    Sunset Shimmer was factually a terrible villain and doesn't deserve any praise whatsoever, but one thing it did decently is introduce Sunset Shimmer with some subtlety. Unfortunately, everything about her collapsed the moment Canterlot High showed up and turned her into a generic, one-dimensional alpha bitch.
     
    Unfortunately, the exposition doesn't end there. It continues with the Mane Six as well as Sunset Shimmer's mission to redeem herself, which I'll get to later.
     
    Plot holes & contrivances.
     
    Even though Rainbow Rocks solved some problems, it created several more.
    In the last movie, it was the friendship between the Mane Six that triggered the Magic of Friendship whether Twilight had the crown or not. When Twilight left for Equestria, so did the Equestrian magic (the pony ears, hair extension, wings, and tails).
     
    For good reason. The movie implies that magic from Equestria has no business in the human world. Their magic is considered very dangerous there, so having it there opens Pandora's Box from systematic abuse. When Twilight lost her crown in the human world, "the balance between the two dimensions was at risk." With the portal closed, Equestrian magic is locked out.
     
    So why the hell did Equestrian magic appear whenever the Rainbooms played music? Given the connotations from the prequel, to have it reappear without Twilight and an open portal between the two worlds blatantly disregards continuity.
    Sunset Shimmer's book is a blatant Deus Ex Machina and breaks the alternate world's lone hard-lined worldbuilding rule left. When Sunset Shimmer abandoned her studies, this means she abandoned them. The only reason for her to return was to retrieve the crown (which is both odd and stupid considering she was locked in the human world, so she ought to have no idea the Element of Magic exists), so she can help conquer Equestria. In the middle of the film, everyone couldn't figure out how to defeat the Dazzlings. They wished Twilight could return to help, but couldn't do anything other than congregate and mope because of the closed portal, a portal that can only be activated via a natural phenomenon.
     
    …Then out of nowhere, Sunset has the solution to reopen it? When the portal is closed, it's closed! Contact between the two worlds is stifled because the magic to connect them is blocked. You can't connect the two worlds without opening them.*
     
    Thus, it makes no sense for Twilight to not only retrieve Celestia's copy of the DEM, but also have the mirror in her castle in the first place. Last time she went, she had a good reason to go. After she left, she completed her mandatory mission and had no other reason to return. Last time we saw the mirror, it was in the Crystal Empire. When did the mirror get relocated and why was it relocated? Not once was any motive explained whatsoever, and this isn't a minor nitpick. Without the mirror, Twilight can't travel through, thus making her journey and subplot moot.
     
    Yet, the plot hole worsens when Twilight is suddenly able to magically reopen the portal. Again, the portal is a magical, innate phenomenon that can only be opened once in between a specific amount of time (and "moons" is a timeline the writers use as an ambiguous handwave). Instead of researching, Twilight is able to perform cartoon logic to reopen the portal by force.
     
    So now that Celestia's copy of the book is capable of re-opening the dimension, why didn't Celestia tell her about it in the first place? Princess Celestia has a copy so they can communicate with each other. As her copy is in sync with Sunset's, they know where the other is. Apparently, Sunset brought it with her, so you can make an educated guess that either she used it in the human world at least once before (after all, she never hinted that she ditched it permanently), and Celestia's copy can locate it. Therefore, Twilight and her friends could research a solution to forcibly open the portal, thus making all the tension — contrived to start — more contrived.
     
    In other words, there was no need for the audience to heed the "thirty moons" warning because it was bullshit from the start!
    A contrivance from the first movie returns. No, it's not one of the biggest clichés in high school dramas (conversation between main protagonist and main antagonist in the conveniently dark hallway). It's how the Dazzlings know everything about Sunset Shimmer.
     
    a. They acknowledge the fact that she and the rest of her friends aren't affected by their spell and want to trigger their hate much more differently. But despite knowing their magic, they never explicitly had any knowledge about Sunset Shimmer, nor did the audience witness anyone conversing with them about her past evil.
     
    b. Let's say they did know about her background. But wouldn't that also means they must know about how Twilight was a pony who ventured into CHS in order to retrieve her crown, thus invalidating EQG's plotline of keeping her true identity concealed?
     
    In that case, why didn't they show up during the battle when Sunset, the HuMane Six, and the rest of Canterlot High were incapacitated?
    The reason the Dazzlings' magic doesn't directly affect the HuMane Five is the Magic of Friendship lives inside them. When they abandon their Magic of Friendship, their hate clouds their judgment, resulting in such a weak position that grants the Dazzlings the ability to eat their magic and restore to their former glory.
     
    One HUGE problem. None of these five have ties to Equestria other than their pony counterparts. Their pony counterparts live in Equestria, and they each have innate magic. This includes Sunset Shimmer, who abandoned Equestria for the human world. Because just about every character in the human world has pony counterparts, shouldn't they have Equestria magic, too? Wouldn't this contrivance result in either affecting everyone with the Dazzlings' spell or not?
     
    Nope. Only the HuMane Five contain innate Equestrian magic. In this spinoff, the Magic of Friendship only works for the sake of the plot at given times. In this case, performing music, which this movie never explains how it works. Why does the Magic of Friendship ONLY function when playing music? As they're capable of enabling it at other times, shouldn't they be able to activate it anytime when they command it?
    One drawn-out contrived scene of "humor" that I'll get to later.

    Transparency of plot holes.
     
    The abundance of plot holes in EQG completely broke the movie just after VP Luna interrogated Twilight. Despite my hatred for the film, being so thoroughly angry at just the ending was pointless because the whole movie was a lost cause.
     
    But what pisses me off about the plot holes in Rainbow Rocks more than in EQG are these:
    Sometimes a story can and will have a plot hole. Will the writer always catch it? No. It's up to the editor to find out, inform the writer, and correct it. If she or she can't, it's up to the critics to address the plot holes to inform the writers and overall audience about it.
     
    But when you acknowledge the plot holes and then promptly ignore them, that's not a possible oversight anymore. That's being LAZY!
     
    Part of what makes a really good story is the ability to shed some sense. It may not always have real-world logic like ours, but it must still be presented in a way that's clear, sensible, and something your audience can buy. Comedy works exactly the same way, only with a dose of surprise on the side. Often, Friendship Is Magic can execute really fresh comedy, as seen in Party of One, Return of Harmony, Pinkie Pride, and Testing Testing.
     
    These handwaves don't prove that quality. And the comedy attached to them both (Dash's dismissiveness and Twilight's nerdy explanation) isn't fresh, period!
    What makes lazy writing such a huge cardinal sin of narrative is its objective treatment of the audience. When you write lazily and know you're submitting lazy writing, you're telling the audience they have no intelligence whatsoever. You hope whoever watches the story eats up whatever explanation the characters spew out of their mouths, defends it like no tomorrow, and excuses it "just because." Friendship Is Magic and its team are well above this and repeatedly prove their ability to raise the bar in feminine-centric, family-friendly television. DHX presents no suitable excuse nor wants to: Excusing bad writing is a betrayal of trust. Rainbow Rocks excuses its own plot holes shamelessly and laughs at the audience for seeing them.
    For there's humor attached to these plot holes, the humor is lazy, too. I'm not throwing around hyperbole when I state this type of humor is lower in the lowest common denominator meter than fart jokes.
     
    "Why?"
     
    Glad you asked.
     
    Notoriety from fart jokes comes from its abuse. Today, many writers who publish scripts to shows with a young base demographic believe the only method to make people laugh is to gross the audience out and pander to them…though lazily written flatulence jokes can also be found in adult entertainment like Eight Crazy Nights. When you write and acknowledge an extremely lazy joke, you're exclusively relying on the notion that the audience is stupid enough to laugh once it arrives. That's the only way for a joke like this to work, while fart jokes can still be used freshly if given enough effort.

    The fandom as a collective unit doesn't like the word "pandering" too much, but this is classic pandering to the LCD. You don't handwave contrivances like these. It's disrespectful to your faithful audience, newcomers of all ages, adults, kids (especially the film's marketed demographic: tween girls), Hasbro, and DHX's collective writing talent.
     
    Forced comedy.
     
    Last movie, the true blights of the comedy come from hammering in how Twilight is an alicorn princess trapped in a human body, writing the characters in as idiots, brony pandering, and Twilight being bullied by Sunset Shimmer. Besides that, the comedy was surprisingly passable. (
    is perfect!) 
    Unfortunately, Rainbow Rocks's comedy is much weaker than its predecessor.
    The meta jokes above are a disaster for reasons just explained.
    During Sunset Shimmer's journey to redeem herself, one of her inexplicable trials was to tolerate the constant reminder of how evil she was last time. Far too often, her friends accidentally put her into a rut by rubbing it in. One joke may be enough, but that might be pushing it. But when these jokes are constant, the behavior becomes mean-spirited. What's done is done. Sunset Shimmer regrets it. Adding salt to the wound without provocation turns the joke from semi-mean to cruel. The HuMane Six — the main characters besides Sunset — devolve from likeable characters to accidental antagonists, and Sunset becomes more sympathetic as the audience can no longer tolerate having the humor be hammered in.
     
    This type of humor ages faster because it's so dependent on knowing the prequel in order for people to understand it. This film relies on you to be familiar with EQG in order to get this plot, and the humor is no exception. If you watched the first movie or comprehend it completely, then you'll understand it. But if this is his or her first foray into FIM, then its context gets lost in a sea of obvious mean-spiritedness. The Mane Six are lent a terrible first impression to newcomers, which hurts the growth of the brony fanbase.
    Solid characterization and/or intelligence of characters are/is often sacrificed to deliver the humor.
     
    During the HuMane Six's side of the plotline, more than a dozen comedic spots took place. Unfortunately, so few of them worked because the intelligence, life, and three-dimensionality that helped make each of them memorable is absent. By flanderizing the characters or making them OOC, the humor quality dips.
     
    That's not to mention when characters have to be stupid, and not an endearing form of stupid, either. The Dazzlings' villany potential crashes prior to the opening credits, but their personalities degrade more and more each time they quipped with each other, especially Sonata Dusk (whose ditziness is relied on).

    When you must sacrifice character and writing quality to execute the humor, the humor becomes really contrived. The scenes would've been greatly improved if there was either more attention on the personalities or no humor at all.
     
    And a couple of examples really come to mind.
    Again, the Dazzlings' forced chemistry, but the most obvious come from when they talk with Sunset Shimmer as they tour CHS and after Trixie and the Illusions trap the HuMane Seven.
     
    What really made the former so forced is how obvious the Dazzlings spilled their evil to Sunset. Adagio, Aria, and Sonata never relented their sinister smirks, spoke with artificial sincerity to Sunset, and kept talking about how much they loved to control others' emotions through their singing.
     
    The latter?Congratulations for reminding us what we already know. Only Adagio's line is suitable for this scene. The rest are moot.
    That drawn-out scene of Twilight practicing to sing with the rest of the Rainbooms breaks continuity. During the musical numbers, Twilight sang really well. Even in the first film, she sang well before a captivated crowd in the cafeteria, which helped contribute to her near-unanimous vote count to be the princess of the Fall Formal.
     
    Not to mention…what about the animated shorts, which were claimed to be some kind of "prequel" to RR for giving the HuMane Five the band's foundation? Do they matter, as well? Apparently, by the performance of Shake Your Tail! — the best song of the shorts, yet second-worst of the film (behind Awesome as I Wanna Be) — the movie doesn't think so: No hint of them exists.
     
    But if it wasn't transparent enough. The balloon pops during the climax after Twilight reaches an epiphany of how she never needed to write the counterspell, after all. If it took that line for her to realize they only needed to play as friends to defeat the Dazzlings, then why did the movie hammer in the idea that Twilight must write one? What was the purpose for at least three scenes — at night in the kitchen, backstage, and a montage during Under Our Spell — devoted to drawing such a conclusion, anyway?
     
    Twilight's anticlimactic epiphany makes every single scene, conversation, or diversion dedicated to the counterspell filler and Twilight unneeded. She could've been cut out entirely, and the overall pacing would've been more solid by eliminating one needless subplot. The only reason she had to show up now is because the rest of the characters are too stupid to think for themselves.
     
    *In fact, Sunset Shimmer could've filled the void much better by using the book to communicate with Twilight, who could inform her about the Sirens and help her research for a counterspell. That way, you could bend its continuity, but you don't break it by respecting the phenomenon and forcing the Rainbooms and Sunset to solve the problem themselves.

    Flash Sentry Walking Cardboard.
     
    *sigh* If there's one character who doesn't deserve a following, it's this one. Flash Sentry has as little redeeming value as Snips and Snails because of who he is. A Gary Stu whose lone purpose is to be Twilight's love interest. A walking stereotype. A character both blander than boiled chicken and a complete betrayal of FIM.
     
    Flash was blander and flatter in Rainbow Rocks. It was bad enough last time because he was a sexist stereotype. Now not only does he retain that sexism. DHX didn't even try to redeem his character! It's as if DHX knows Flash's character jumped the shark, so they made him more useless as a protagonist and let the egg-eating snake swallow him whole. The only time he had any personality whatsoever was when he was under the Sirens' trance, but when they were defeated, he was back to his old self.
     
    And I didn't even mention nailing in the most obnoxious, clichéd piece of slapstick in MLP history. Other than after the climax, each time Twilight and Flash meet, they bump into each other. The only reason Twilight has the hots for him is because she likes his looks. She cares so little about his personality, and no chemistry between them exists. Twilight is a fully-fledged character whose personality is warped to make both films pace itself. The first movie forced in a romance so pointless, it'd change zippo.
     
    "A better love story than Twilight"? Until the snake throws up Flash Sentry, FlashLight is a serious competitor.
     
    One major animation screwup!
     

     
    Couldn't you rework the puppets to make them anatomically better?
     
    NEXT!
     
    The Dazzlings.
     
    Unlike Sunset, they were very imposing in their plans. Don't let their sweet singing fool you. It's a trigger that inches them closer to their full power.
     
    Conversely, a very imposing threat and villain doesn't always make for a good villain. Villains should be credible in how they act. Their motives should feel plausible. The characters should have layers of depth and be active rather than passive until the last minute. Make the characters show who they are, yet be full of unique personalities to make them interesting.
     
    The Dazzlings aren't close to being good villains!
     
    Firstly, thank their contrived characterizations.
    Aria Blaze and Adagio Dazzle are the blandest villains in the show (if counting the comics, too, blandest since Celestia and Luna from Reflections). Their dynamic is about as vanilla as vanilla can be. Their personalities are completely one-dimensional; if you hear one line from each of them, you heard their full personalities. Adagio is written to be the cocky leader. If going by Tommy_O's brief review, Aria is written to be the matter-of-fact smartass, which makes sense since she's extremely sarcastic and argues pettily with Sonata Dusk a lot earlier.
     
    But because that's what the script wants to tell is, it doesn't mean they showed it. These two are extremely flat with extremely predictable, mechanical dialogue. There's no flow from one line to another, and their lines come across as forced. With the exception of one moment in front of the cafeteria (Adagio grabbing Aria's vest to shut her up, thus ending any drama that could deepen their dynamic), they had no drama or conflict. If you scratch that scene out, then their roles can easily be swapped, and neither personality changes. When you're able to interchangeably switch them as characters, then your villains lack any development.
    On the other hand, Sonata Dusk is the most unique of the trio. She embodies comic relief through her vibrant, playful colors on her skin and hair and her dopey personality. (Hell, arguably the only one with some kind of personality at all.) She isn't an equivalent to Snips and Snails from last time, for she's her own character, and McCarthy didn't have to massacre their set characterizations for it to work.
     
    Unfortunately, her role is her biggest problem. Like Aria and Adagio, her dialogue is incredibly forced. This time, via dialect and slang as dated as Gilda. Each time she speaks, her comedic role's nailed in like Snips's and Snails's mic drops following their rap, degrading any opportunity for decent humor. On top of that, she's equivalent to Pinkie from Three's a Crowd or a bastardized Derpy with a dose of evil; almost all of her humor comes from her being absentminded, scatterbrained, or an idiot.
     
    But her arguments with Aria are when she's the most cringeworthy. Each devolve into sorry, childish arguments that should be long past them given their supposed length of time in this world. No, it's not that they can't have petty arguments; you can if believable. But these characters are adults trapped in teenaged bodies. They're not kids. So if you want Aria and Sonata to argue, don't have it them argue like two-year-olds. Give their arguments plausible background so you don't waste script space.
     
    Unfortunately, the only time she said anything worthwhile and funny occurred early, and it's no guess what it is:
    Secondly, their plan to take over the human world is incredibly plain because it's so clichéd. It's not necessary for every single villain outside of Sombra to only want to conquer Equestria and/or their own world. A good, unique villain should want more or something other than global conquest. For example, when Discord desired to conquer Equestria, he did so while staying true to his integrity and never had a true goal. Unfortunately, their goal is samey other than be a role reversal of A Canterlot Wedding.
     
    However, when the Dazzlings wanted to approach their goal, they let the audience know about it all the time! Count how often they (or the protagonists) exposit their ability to eat negativity or how they're close they are to conquering, either in conversation or song. Them telling about their plan so often irritates the plot, destroys any credibility they have as characters, and pads the runtime.
     
    Thirdly, how long did they live in the alternate world, anyway? Star Swirl the Bearded was alive at least a millenia ago, so the Sirens terrorized Equestria until they were banished. So…seeing as the timing between the alternate world and Equestria is syncronized, this means they must've lived in the alternate world for several centuries… Did they live as teens since they first arrived in the alternate world, or is it a recent disguise? Did Star Swirl regress their characters as punishment? Twilight's story explaining the history of the Sirens was only supposed to inform her friends about their power. But through the large gap between banishment and today, the backstory merely reveals more plot holes.
     
    Lastly, Let's Have a Battle (Of the Bands) is their weakest song. The morally ambiguous messages in the meters are great, but, yeah, subtlety's lacking. Ultimately, their speaking roles eventually become confined to exposition afterwards.
     
    Sirens, your lust for world domination is as obnoxious as EQG's fan pandering.
     
    HuMane Six (minus Sunset).
     
    Three phrases: flanderization, out of characterization, useless. The entire body, including Spike, regressed from last time. Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash are the biggest victims.
    Last time, the only time where Pinkie's characterization deviated from what made her likeable was when everyone was too dumb to figure out that Sunset framed them. Unlike the rest of the HuMane Five, the Bearer of Laughter's human complement got back on track and was actually really solid. After a season where she struggled outside of Too Many Pinkie Pies and Wonderbolts Academy, she was eccentric, random, but not without reason, and the gags were very in character.
     
    Here, she's completely flanderized. Like the others, she's involved in expositing at Sunset Shimmer's expense without provocation, too focused on partying, too screechy (especially her pony counterpart… ), and missing two of her most subtle trademarks: her patience and sensitivity. Do you really think she'd yell at Fluttershy for suddenly having the stage light flashed onto her or obliviously make Sunset feel uncomfortable after Sunset's already ashamed for what she did?
    Fluttershy's trademark sensitivity and timidity don't show up until specific points. Otherwise, it's hammering in her drawn-out wish to play her rejected song. Of the HuMane Seven, her dialogue is the most repetitive and lackluster.
    There are two asses in the Rainbooms, and AJ is one of them. If you wanna compare a past episode, the best choice is Look Before You Sleep.
     
    There's a difference between honest and rude; in RR, Applejack crosses that line. During all of their arguments, Applejack is the biggest perpetrator. She confronts head-on without consequence, and her actions create friction with the rest of the band. The most obvious is her on-and-off, yet aggravating, annoyance and eventual anger at Rarity for wanting to present a first impression. Whenever AJ snidely points out Rarity's desire to look nice and yells at her for it, deterioration of her character accelerates.
    As I wrote earlier, Twilight is a really studious in her field of magic, namely her passion to help others. Unfortunately, this adult pony retains her shallow crush on Flash Sentry, sucked at singing through the mic, and contrivedly reduced her expertise in the Magic of Friendship to not knowing how to write a counterspell.
     
    Why didn't she research any songs that could help her band defeat Adagio and company? Her friends are there for a reason. It makes no sense for her to lock her sloppy writing and ideas in the closet. How come she never asked her friends for help? Spike? Fluttershy? Rainbow Dash? Sunset Shimmer? Her first line of research is available, and we never saw her capitalize on any opportunity to correct herself.
    AJ is one jerk. But no other M6 character turned into an even bigger jerk in RR than Rainbow Dash. To call her unlikeable is putting her lightly.
     
    I mentioned this often, and it bears repeating. The biggest reason she was such a breakout character is how deep she truly is. Rainbow Dash's archetype is a tomcolt. Brash. Rude. Hard-headed. Oftentimes too hard on others. But Rainbow Dash doesn't follow the archetype completely. In fact, Faust gave her enough background to twist up the cliché and provide something new and fresh to the audience. (Considering the many girls and boys who show masculine and feminine qualities, respectively, all the most resident.) Several key aspects that make her so endearing include sticking by her morals if the key to accomplish her dreams compromise it, her extreme loyalty to those she cares for, her extreme sensitivity to a fault. Her flaws are balanced by several powerful strengths, all something every pro-Dash brony can really relate to.
     
    So what does RR!Dash have? A massive superiority complex. Her whole "personality" revolves around being a jackass to her friends and believing her talent is above everyone else. Instead of putting her friends above the band, she put the band above her friends.
     
    How?
     
    a. Bluntly critiqued their rusty musical talent, unsolicited, in front of Flash Sentry.
     
    b. Always called the band "my band" despite being corrected thrice.
     
    c. Every time Fluttershy asked about her song, Dash dismissed them in favor of others, including Awesome as I Wanna Be.
     
    d. Dismissed their contributions to the band.
     
    e. Insulted Twilight and accused her of trying to hog the Rainbooms over her.
     
    f. Awesome as I Wanna Be. It's completely possible to write a song that brings out the worst of a good guy, but don't reduce her to a less dimension than a shallow puddle of water. Instead, a repetitive and obnoxious musical score and shallow lyrics bloat Dash's insolent ego. Snips and Snails's rap was bad, but at least it was funny in a "so bad, it's good" structure.
     Clamp the excuses! FIM brings out characters who are in character, three-dimensional, and likeable. Only three episodes showed off Pony!Dash with a massive ego: May the Best Pet Win!, Mare Do Well, and Rainbow Falls. All of them very out of character. In the first movie, Dash was in character, yet really flanderized courtesy of her very shallow vocabulary. Her shallow vocabulary remains in Rainbow Rocks, but her attitude is much worse than last time by being uncharacteristically intolerable. In other words, she's flanderized and out of character. Having her be called out for it in her face is a good direction, and she corrected herself, but it's way too late to redeem her for this movie.
    *sigh* Rarity…what happened to you?! Where's the generous, loving fashionista that helped compete with Dash as the most three-dimensional character of the show?
     
    I think the Rarity side of this fandom can explain it, but I think I'll do it. Prior to Suited for Success, Rarity sucked as a character. Minus the pilot, several episodes featured her stuck up or childishly. Its biggest offenders: Boast Busters, Look Before You Sleep, and Bridle Gossip. Suited for Success is the first to truly capture her character, and subsequent appearances from episodes like Sisterhooves Social, Sonic Rainboom, Rarity Take Manehattan, Green Isn't Your Color, and Filli Vanilli.
     
    What makes her such an egregious offender isn't by how mean she is (she wasn't), but by her flat and predictable her lines were. One of Rarity's qualities is being able to sew dresses for her clients and friends. Once she creates a plan, her creative senses activate. On the other hand, Rarity is also very vain (Sonic Rainboom), a drama queen (Suited, RTM, LZ), extremely generous to a fault, a character with exquisite tastes and high standards, egotistical, and sometimes puts her work above the people she cares for.
     
    Rarity is generous in Rainbow Rocks, but only in one way: fashion. The majority of her dialogue and comedy is about clothing, especially in the second half of the film. When that's all she concentrates on, then you're not writing Rarity anymore. You're writing a shallow representation of her.
    Even Spike is a victim of character regression, but only out of pointlessness. Throughout, he was used either to exposit or accidentally put extra pressure on Twilight. Strangely in both, he's the best written M6 character, even in his weaker performances.
     
    So, what about his scene when he opened the door? That'd be okay if the door hadn't swung inward (a door that was unlocked, BTW) and his friends hadn't lost intelligence for it to work.

    And this doesn't mention how all of the characters outside of Spike and Twilight had dumbed down dialogue. Of course, some had it worse.
     
    Sunset Shimmer's path to redemption.
     
    Other than Spike and Twilight, she was the only likeable protagonist. Her motives had merit, and she proved how she was able to move on with her life. Yes, she has much to learn, but she's on the way there. And her pluses earlier have plenty of merit.
     
    Unfortunately, the way her path was executed was extremely flimsy, and not all of it is her fault plot-wise.
     
    Sunset Shimmer deserved to feel very guilty for her actions. As generic a character she was prior, there's no denying how much she bullied others. When Twilight arrived at Canterlot High, she used Snips and Snails to help post a smear campaign online, a classic case of cyberbullying that'd result in being expelled (except Principal Celestia and VP Luna are as inept then as now). As Twilight foiled each tactic and only gathered a bigger following, Sunset grew more desperate by slandering Twilight into being blamed for the gym's destruction, bully Twilight in a bluff to retrieve the crown, destroy part of the school, and try to murder Twilight. She should suffer the consequences.
     
    But that's where the Elements of Harmony effectively died as a weapon that aided in making friendships. When Sunset Shimmer was defeated, her entire character was reset. This is completely different from what the EoH did with Princess Luna and Discord.
    Luna: A once graceful princess turned bitter and jealous, and there was no way for her to control it. Unless ome antidote was there to heal her, she was going to remain angry forever. The Elements of Harmony acted as medicine, healing her heart and ebbing the bitterness she had out of her.
    Discord: The Elements of Harmony turned him to stone and then freed him. KCaFO pushed him on the right path, but now that Fluttershy swore not to turn him to stone, he's free. When he realized who his true triends are, no outside dictatorial weapon forced him to make friends. He changed by himself.

    In Equestria Girls, the Elements decided to make completely change her character and use one of the worst, most contrived reasons why she was evil: she didn't know any other way to befriend others. By all counts, it was going to take a lot of work to fix Sunset's character and make her redeemable.
     
    As expected, DHX didn't succeed, but not completely.
     
    First, Sunset's cruel deeds are told continually. It's okay for the audience to remind that Sunset was "reformed" every once in a while, and it's just as okay for Sunset to be worried about her reputation. However, just like the Sirens, this movie shoves "Sunset was bad" right in your every three to five minutes.
     
    The constant reminders are at their most objectionable when they're reminded as a joke. In the first half of RR, these jokes are all over the place, and not always accompanied by a "no offense," either. Each time these jokes occur, the characters behave as if it was an accident. If you make this joke once, that's an accident, and this type of joke can work if treated with respect. But when they're frequent, the jokes become filler, and they don't act like an accident anymore, but implied maliciousness. Of course, this wasn't the jokes' intent, but the implications exist. (Only Twilight gets away with this passé joke because they happened when she wasn't around, and Sunset couldn't care less anymore.)
     
    It was less offensive when Sunset reminded herself of her deeds. The elements forced a severe layer of guilt and self-evaluation into her character, resulting in several self-introspections. When everyone glares at her, she gets so embarrassed and doesn't feel she can "live it down." Following the tour, she feared the Dazzlings knew her background, crushing her conscience. That said, it mildly risks devolving her into the "woe is me" trope.
     
    More subtlety, better spreading of her self-guilt would've improved the impact. Fewer "oops" jokes would've improved the dilemma and not turn the subplot into an early headache.
     
    Second, Snips and Snails are just as guilty as Sunset. By all accounts, they willingly aided her bullying of others. When Sunset transformed, the tools of FIM's canon stood alongside and were about to help lead Sunset's attack on Equestria. Why did nobody treat them with the same level of scrutiny and scorn?
     
    Third, she never had a trial that would test her loyalties, as well pointed by a brony named @. In order to make a character's redemption believable, there needs to be some temptation for her to consider jumping to the other side. If the Dazzlings offered something very tempting to make her reconsider her friendship with her friends, then you create a deeper internal conflict.
     
    What if the Dazzlings obtained some secret showing how Canterlot High nor the Rainbooms respect her? Their jokes eat her up, and she gets reminded again. Think about this: As the Rainbooms perform, she stands idle in the back. Because the Dazzlings are capable of playing solid mind games, maybe offer her a spot where she can co-lead Adagio's trio and help sing alongside? Or better yet, focus on her strained relationship with Celestia?
     
    Fourth, there's no connection of her past life in Equestria other than her book. Once, she was her prized pupil, and if going by comic canon (something the movies treat as part of the actual canon, unlike the main series), Celestia views her as a daughter she couldn't control and feels heartbroken that she couldn't help her. Rainbow Rocks doesn't present closure to the Celestia arc, which is really gaping to the series and spinoff itself.
     
    Fifth, in order to make Sunset look better, the other characters' personalities were reduced. Compare the shallow, flanderized caricatures of the HuMane Five with Sunset Shimmer. Sunset Shimmer's rebuilt character is multi-faceted, allowing her to react unpredictably. But her friends are cardboard cutouts, constricting them to specific reactions and behaviors like robots.
     
    This has been a problem with the series, too. In A Dog & Pony show, the Diamond Dogs are idiots to make Rarity look better. Equestria Girls is just as blatant, only executed through the Rule of Thirds.
     
    Whenever you reduce the quality of other characters to make the main look better, he or she doesn't look as intelligent as the writer believes. The HuMane Five are stupid to enhance Sunset Shimmer, so Sunset's credibility is damaged. Since they swallowed the stupid pills throughout the film, Sunset's arc is seriously damaged.
     
    Lastly, every bit of her past personality is wiped out, except once:
    Her exasperated, sardonic response to Fluttershy very early in the film is the only time her past character bled into her current. Otherwise, it's completely absent, and both halves are completely segregated.
     
    This is the problem's crux. Stemming from EQG's climax, Sunset's development lacks authenticity. In order for Sunset Shimmer to develop, RR had to completely reset her. Subtract that peculiar line, and her character's a 180. Before the movie began, her growth is automatically damaged because this isn't the Sunset people speculated and saw. Her life in the past matters as much as the present. Without the bad, you can't have the good. With the bad erased and her character acts like that half is retconned, all credentials for her to be a truly memorable character feel superficial.
     
    This Sunset Shimmer in Rainbow Rocks isn't her. It's a completely different character in her colors, clothes, and voice. Her character development skidded to a dead end and faced the angry shark before it even began.
     
    But it never quite jumped it. Despite harping on Sunset's execution, DHX deserves plenty of credit for reviewing her critically and trying to fix the problems. As sloppy as the rest of the story is, a lot of hard work was put into reworking Sunset Shimmer and mending the shattered ends. From a quality perspective, her character as a villain is beyond broken. Unfortunately, with her now as a protagonist, it's as if it doesn't exist anymore. If McCarthy or anyone else in the future shows a merger of both Sunset then and Sunset now, you can slowly transition her from the stereotypical bully into the selfless character with a desire to continue making amends so nobody else makes the same mistakes as she did. You can also retain that edge that Celestia and The Fall of Sunset Shimmer imply so she isn't a completely different character.
     
    Does Sunset have a long way to go before it's completely mended? Absolutely. Like what I wrote in Part 1, her path to redemption wasn't rushed; it flowed decently, and she had to make a mistake before atoning in the climax. And her conversation with Twilight in Pinkie's kitchen is a great evolution to her progress. If going by the side-canon like the Holiday Special, she's heading in the right direction. Hopefully, the Sunset/Celestia subplot will be resolved, as well.
     
    Transparent plot.
     
    Last time, the plot played way too safe in its approach. Rainbow Rocks is just as safe and predictable. Making the movie about a battle of the bands is clichéd already in the high school setting. The minute the flanderized HuMane Five appear for the first time, it was obvious to the audience that Sunset was going to help them save the day. The more she stood in the background, the more glaring the approach. I already talked how the prologue killed any speculation as to what the Sirens plan to use the Equestrian magic. Only a well-done journey could really make the ending as worthwhile as it should. Suffice it to say that it wasn't.
     

    If you want to read Part 1, click here. Click here for Part 3.
  16. Dark Qiviut
    Unlike my other reviews for the longer fan-animations and official episodes/movie, this will be short for the newest fan-animation, Children of the Night.
     
    This is amazing work. With Snowdrop and Double Rainboom, two works that demonstrate the creativity and passion bronies have in their craft, published, Children of the Night was another highly anticipated short musical clip, and it was really worth the wait.
     
    For one, it's very well-sung. Luna's singing voice is a bit different compared to her dialogue one since Luna Eclipse, but it fits her pre-sealed personality very well. The animation shots really highlight the mood of tranquil cultism. "Come, Little Children," which is based of the original song from Disney's Hocus Pocus, was paid great tribute and given so much respect for, yet altered a bit to give it a FIM-like feel. Instead of a feel from harmony to hell, she has a feel from hell to harmony. It has a cult-like feeling, but one where Luna actually feels she's doing something right, and the Children of the Night have the philosophy that Luna truly wants to aid the kingdom. It's a biased form of storytelling from one of the children who falls victim to Stockholm Syndrome, but that intro really clues everyone what the feel of the musical number will be like, preparing them what comes next.
     
    There's also one little detail that caught my eye: the Fausticorn statue where a tear dripped down her muzzle. It's an obvious brony shoutout, but it blends in and feels extremely organic. That little detail sends the message of sorrow and division between the two Royal Princesses and foreshadows what Luna was going to do next, really enhancing the mood and story.
     
    This team spent about a year developing this clip, and it was year well spent. Very well done!
  17. Dark Qiviut
    Haven’t you ever felt like giving a fair review for episodes or movies that were the most nostalgic to you? That’s me as far as Friendship Is Magic, Parts 1 and 2 are concerned: They were the first two episodes I watched, and they officially made me into a brony. They’re not in my top ten, but they’re instilled into me, because without watching it, I wouldn’t have noticed the show. But because these reviews are intended to be thorough and fair, that’s what I’ll do.
    (But expect me to want to fill a shot glass later… )
    Back in 2009 or 2010, Lauren Faust was assigned to reboot a franchise with a history of being almost run down to the ground. Generations 3 and 3.5 are very infamous for their poor writing, poor production, superficial conflicts, one-note characterizations, and lazy storytelling as a whole. Combined with Tales and the short-run Generation 2, My Little Pony was on life support as much as Spongebob Squarepants is today. But on October 10, 2010 (the debut of The Hub), My Little Pony was rebooted in a whole new world and completely different art style via the first half of the pilot. Twelve days later, Part 2 aired, completing the two-part pilot and introduction to Generation 4, titled Friendship Is Magic. Using Flash to DHX’s and Top Draw’s advantages, Faust’s pilot is an intro with a very wide range of characters and conflicts in the most imbalanced quality of all the two-parters.
    Strengths:
    The intro to Part 1 is a fantastic hook to bring people in. I don’t know about you, but it’s personally my most favorite moment in Part 1 because of the original twist that invites the audience into the world of Equestria. Typically, fairytales open the book to reveal centuries-old handwriting to demonstrate its age and timelessness. But "Once upon a time" was the only text. Instead, the audience is introduced to a unique art style. Akin to the ancient Greek artwork, the script delivered several key details to the viewer immediately:
     
    a. An important conflict occurred a long time ago. As Princess Celesta tells the story of herself and younger sister Princess Luna, you can tell Luna’s transformation to Nightmare Moon was serious, and Celestia had to act. By using the word “sister” to describe the younger alicorn and telling in the story calmly while using the pictures, Nicole Oliver is telling the story neutrally, but showing the difficulty of the ordeal then and now.
     
    b. Majesty is bestowed upon you the second the animation opens the storybook. Ancient Greek art is widely remembered for its very distinct style of flat shapes, and they’re among the most sacred and beautiful art ever to be discovered. On the other hand, it’s not the rich colors you see. Instead, they’re very pastel, warming the atmosphere gently as the script carried over into the true art style of the series.
     
    c. The connection between Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia was cordial, serious, and close. Evident by the intro transition from Oliver to Tara Strong’s voice. After the audience found out Twilight was Celestia’s most faithful student, it was obvious the transition was no accident; it foreshadowed their teacher-student relationship at the time, their closeness in particular. This doesn’t come until Part 1, Act 1; but some of the vocabulary is very rich, leading to some humor with the younger Spike. “Precipice,” “on the brink,” and “imperative” are not common in family television, informing parents that this show doesn’t talk down to its audience, something bad “kids’ shows” tend to do. Each main character outside of Twilight and Spike was given sufficient time to be introduced. None of them lasted too long or too short. The appropriate length not only progressed the story, but also introduced the ReMane-ing Five with some depth but without spilling the beans, something you see in plenty of anime.
     
    Pinkie Pie: The surprise reaction, zipping away, and then preparing the party in the Golden Oaks Library set up the basic ground of both her character and Elements she bore in Part 2's conclusion. When looking at the character development she received since then, her hyper talk made sense and was quite funny. It gave her comedy and eccentricity instead of stupidity.
     
    Applejack: The positives of her character were established very early: a desire to meet new friends along with panache, honesty, and strength. Besides Dash, she was the most athletic pony of the Mane Six, and that hasn’t changed. Like Rarity and Dash, she was a hard worker who cared for her family, yet loved her job simultaneously. She had plenty of pride and wisdom to pass around.
     
    Rainbow Dash: How she was introduced to the audience was extremely funny. When Spike indicated her duty to clear the clouds, there was an obvious clue that she was going to “drop by” (or, in this instance, ram by ). At the time, she was eager to please, but brash and extremely immature due to her giggling, laziness, and bragging, though the latter is rather justified from her excellent athleticism. Like Rarity’s generosity, her loyalty was foreshadowed in Part 1, too, when she told Twilight and Spike she “never leave Ponyville hangin’.” Her athleticism in Part 1 and passion in the field were exploited in several other episodes like Sonic Rainboom, The Best Night Ever, Hurricane Fluttershy, and Wonderbolts Academy.

    Also, there was great chemistry between Dash and Twilight. Their dialogue and characterizations bounced off each other, allowing the jokes and pace to tell the story itself. Twilight's deadpanning and arrogance in response to Dash's casualness create tension and foreshadows the relationship they shared throughout the series, boiling over in Testing Testing 1, 2, 3.

    Rarity: Unlike the previous three, her dialogue was the most formal. Despite using contractions, her sentences tended to be complete and regal with plenty of flair in her accent. Even before her “trial” in the Everfree Forest, her generous spirit was exposed when she sacrificed some time decorating Town Hall in order to fix (and fail to improve) Twilight. Nonetheless, her first impression was one of the weakest and needed to complete her trial to give the viewer a solider grasp in personality.

    Fluttershy: Right away, you can tell Fluttershy was much closer to her animal friends than other ponies. Although she never said so, you can assume that she knows these animals, understands them, and is very sensitive because she doesn’t want to say the wrong things. Her shyness to others and care for the animals are important themes in the pilot and overarching narratives throughout the series (sometimes crisscrossing).

    (And, Fluttershy, don’t expect anyone to screw a baby dragon anytime soon. [upon clicking the link, keep your volume down so your eardrums don’t burst. ]) Not everything about the immediate world of Equestria was explained, notably a unicorn’s magic and a pegasus’s relationship with the weather. You had them doing them, and just by the laws that apparently exist at the time, it makes sense. But it also works that they don’t explain it because, after all, it’s a world they’re accustomed to; blabbering about it here would’ve been pointless and, thus, treat the audience as idiots.

    But it gets brownie points when Pinkie shot down Twilight's observation of libraries remaining quiet. All in a way Pinkie would say and do. XD In the four seasons of Friendship Is Magic, this is the only time a villain’s backstory was given thorough explanation. Part 1’s intro was dedicated into explaining Luna’s transformation into Nightmare Moon, and then the rest of the episode built up her return. One of FIM’s biggest quality flaws was the lack of subtlety, but it existed everywhere in Part 1, from Twilight’s fear of NMM’s resurrection to the corrupted alicorn's illusion in the hourglass as Twilight recites the letter Spike’s writing. As far as character design is concerned, Nightmare Moon is absolutely gorgeous. The mix of blue (especially the sapphire armor) perfectly balance each other; along with her mystical mane and perfectly curved helmet, she looks and appears threatening. The hints of purple (the wings, cutie mark, eyelid) and green (eyes) makes the deep blue coat not so overbearing. And the cat-like eyes create a sensation of deep anger that was ready to boil over and collapse on everyone around her. The concept of the stakes is tremendous. When you think about it, no one in Equestria can survive exclusively at night. Firstly, not every animal is nocturnal; there are thousands of diurnal critters, and the nocturnal creatures have a sleep pattern to follow.

    To worsen the matters, every single plant relies on sunlight to generate food, and without the sun, the plants die. Without the plants, there’s no food. Without food, everyone starves. It’s a perfect case of attempting mass murder. All in a fit of jealousy that resulted in concentrated rage.

    The Everfree Forest is unique and creepy. Even without the background music, the visuals are enough to scare the shit out of you if you dared to step foot, and Dash’s story doesn’t help matters, either. Speaking of the forest, besides Derpy (thanks to an animation error in the background), an introduction to a great and memorable character:

    Steven Magnet!
    In what is his lone appearance, he has plenty of life. His personality is very flamboyant, vain, melodramatic, but caring. A perfect foil for Rarity and the element she subsequently represents. Even if it wasn’t the case, Magnet is absolutely hilarious. Lee Tockar did a great job voice acting there.

    BTW, YouTube, for the first time, your Transcribe Audio feature created something useful for a change! Thanks for helping give the sea serpent his canon name. XD The comedy is top notch. Here, no one is safe from the occasional cartoonish slapstick. Spike, of course, is the victim of plenty of it (which became more glaring in future seasons). The same goes for Twilight every now and then, like when she got rammed by Dash and Fluttershy. This pilot showed several moments where the characters were very cute.

    But this…

    Cute, cute, cute! However, one thing about pilots is how unpolished they tend to be. When looking back, the flaws look much more glaring because later seasons are usually more sophisticated. This is exactly the case here:
    Unlike the other seasons, season one was under the microscope of two ratings: the one required by their specific governments (in America, TV-Y) and E/I (Educational/Informational, which you can read about here). Beyond Hasbro’s mandates, FIM really shows how much the pilot hindered its potential in a big way.
     
    Although there are great stakes on the line, it doesn’t feel that way. Each trial was so tame, it could’ve been anything. With mild tweaking, they would’ve fit every other character. If Faust and DHX pushed the line even more, then it risked violating the strict E/I guidelines, and who knows how Hasbro would’ve reacted. I’ll dissect their executions later. One of season one’s biggest problems that’s been popping up among recent marathons is lackluster aging. The pilot is no exception.
     
    a. When listening to The Laughter Song the first time, Pinkie’s joy is abundant in not only her voice, but also the visuals and animation like hopping, appearing out of nowhere on screen (forcing you to wonder where she’ll be next), and the teary laughter. It started slowly and then crescendoed into the chorus, ending NMM’s Snow White-esque horror scene.
     
    But then listen to it again while watching the animations. There’s a distinct lack of polish in the meter’s execution. To extend the length, Pinkie had to shout and extend her first set of lines, and that becomes rather tacky. And for a song intending to be very cheery, the visuals are quite conservative. Of course, this was a brand-new medium DHX was using, and it was a pilot, but they’re plain and don’t get interesting until Pinkie laughs at the tree in between song. Two-minutes or not, the hook arrives way too late.
     
    b. Some of the animation itself is pretty lackluster. In one scene, Apple ponies were handing off various items to Twilight. They didn’t show proper physics in its inertia, making the scene rather stilted. Secondly, the churning in the river is very repetitive and doesn’t offer variety to make it inherently interesting.
     
    c. Applejack’s voice back then is a pain in the eardrums to listen to. For most of its running, her voice is deeper, more mature, wise, and rather aggressive. Here, it’s way too high-pitched, which makes her appear very immature and, thus, doesn’t fit her character. Well, at least not anymore. In especially the second part, the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony are as subtle and being smashed by an anvil, and it’s this where Part 2’s quality plummets. By the time Act 1 is halfway done, the audience immediately knows not just who the Bearers are, but also the specific Elements each of them bore.

    Take the passage Twilight read while in the library (emphasis mine):
      As Twilight recited the elements, the animation scaled back, revealing the characters in order: Fluttershy, Pinkie, Rarity, AJ, and Dash. The order and corresponding animation are no accidents. The story knew who they are and wanted you to know it. In the midst of rushing the script, the fundamentals of foreshadowing were thrown out the window, which is a shame because they did a great job building up Nightmare Moon's revival in Part 1. By blatantly revealing who bore the Elements of Harmony, the rest of the conflicts and resulting climax become pointless. Despite good vocabulary and a variety of characterization, the dialogue is often very forced. So little of the Mane Six's dialogue sounded organic and relied on specific jargon to separate them. When it didn’t, each of them hammered in their respective elements to the audience and relied on naivety from Twilight and the others to force the plot along. Nightmare Moon had a great backstory, but her lines were extremely clichéd and amounted to the manufactured “I’m evil” bullshit in thousands of media.
     
    However, the moment where the corn really became burnt beyond edibility was Twilight’s speech of friendship to Nightmare Moon as the Elements were finally revealed. None of the trials were that effective, and Twilight treated them as such. It was way too preachy and hammered in the main moral of the entire series.
     
    One of the few characters to actually have an organic voice was Spike. Whatever he said and thought felt natural, and his deadpan comedy really balanced out his kid side. Speaking of the trials…
     
    a. They don’t effectively prove the stakes and urgency of NMM’s terror. When you think about it, the EoH’s purpose is to prove they can bear them in case there’s a very big evil out there. But with so much on the line, how do they get it? Through very simple trials that don’t put them in any grave danger except the first.
     
    Speaking of the first trial…
     
    b. Applejack was unnecessarily stupid. Telling Twilight to “let go” and fall down the cliff is possibly the dumbest thing AJ’s done throughout the series because it makes no sense. Even if AJ apparently knew Dash and Fluttershy were waiting to catch her, it was an extremely risky idea. Celestia forbid Fluttershy or Dash lost grip; Twilight would’ve been dead, and Applejack would forever live in guilt. The odds were stacked against the cowmare, and she can’t rely on it all the time. It would’ve been much better if Applejack pulled Twilight back on the cliff and wait for Dash and Fluttershy to help them down. Then again, doing that would’ve caused the trial to fall apart.
     
    c. The Elements are really hammered in and, like I wrote earlier, had to rely on the characters acting naïve to fully realize it.
     
    i. Applejack told her the “honest truth.”
     
    ii. Fluttershy told Twilight (after pulling the thorn out), “Sometimes we all just need to be shown a little kindness.”
     
    iii. Pinkie guffawed at the trees and ended the song with “laugh.” Hell, the song is titled The Laughter Song.
     
    iv. Rarity never mentioned the word “generosity,” but showed it very bluntly by slicing most of her tail off.
     
    v. After Rainbow Dash declined to join the Shadowbolts, the future Bearer of Loyalty exclaimed, “See? I'd never leave my friends hangin'.”
     
    vi. Finally, Twilight repeated the word “spark” to revive the Elements of Harmony. (The fact that the ReMane-ing Five left Twilight all alone was unbelievably dumb. Firstly, they admitted the Everfree Forest was treacherous, and Nightmare Moon stalked them throughout the journey. Secondly, it was designed to be a plot device so Twilight can battle on her own until her friends showed up.)
     
    If none of them were that oblivious, then they would’ve realized it the second Dash passed her “test” at the most. Like what I wrote before, Nightmare Moon’s backstory was fantastic, and her desire to be beloved was believable. But aside from that, she’s a very bland villain. Yes, she’s very active, constantly on the prowl, manipulative, and murderous; but it was poorly represented and realized from how her personality was identical to that of a classic fairytale.
     
    Instead of the typical archetype, why not change her character? Luna became Nightmare Moon as a result of unadulterated jealousy, so anger's clouding her mind. Instead of having her personality be predictably evil, how about making her evil, yet angry and think she’s doing the right thing. That in her jealousy and resentment over her older sister, she feels she’s doing such an evil deed for the greater good of Equestria. By having Equestria summoned into eternal night, she’s giving her moon and those she watches justice. Give her convincing delusions, and the only way for the Mane Six to defeat her isn’t by blasting the Elements of Harmony against her will, but the foundation that just because ponies sleep before the moon doesn’t mean they don’t love or respect her. Gradually build it up to make her become good again. You don’t demand respect. You earn it. PaleoSteno described Part 1 as “rapid fire” and Part 2 as even more so. Well, he couldn’t be any more correct. Despite Part 1 being somewhat fast, it didn’t feel fast, and it set the stage of the second half. Unfortunately, Part 2 really dropped the ball by only spending a small amount of time juggling between the tests. Just as one character faced a test, it was over. The only one where the character spent the most amount of time on her test was Twilight’s Element of Magic.
     
    Originally, Faust intended to have the Mane Six be rewarded for their Elements over a season through an adventure arc. That would’ve been a really good idea, because it retains the stakes, explores the characters, and proves their worth more organically. On the other hand, the arc would’ve robbed season one of the well-done slice-of-life episodes Friendship Is Magic is renowned for. So you win some, you lose some. If Nightmare Moon was to be a formidable foe, she wouldn’t just stand in one spot as Twilight recited her speech. She would’ve acted and tried to stop it. By standing there and doing nothing, she looked very, very weak. Stationary villains as they downed the Skittles have been a very common problem throughout the series (the only one making some sense being Discord due to his pride and ego), and it started here. The pilot only gives the audience clues of Celestia’s whereabouts. Through Mayor Mare’s Sleeping Beauty reference, NMM’s threats of never seeing Celestia again, and Celestia reappearing once the sun rose, you’re clued that she was locked in the sun like her sister when locked in the moon. However, these are only clues. Her role (or lack thereof) as far as her location was never given a ton of clarity, leaving the audience to rely on headcanon to fill in the plot holes. Overall, though, there is an obvious, gigantic, intangible strength in this pilot, something the audience was able to conclude through its nuances.
    It has a lot of heart.
    The vocabulary, variety of characters, graphics, elegant storytelling simplicity, musical score, and humor proved that Faust, Renzetti, and the rest of the crew cared a ton for its audience. Albeit a severe lack of refinement, they obviously tried and succeeded to capture the hearts of many and made plenty consider trying. After over a decade of crappy TV from the franchise, the pilot was a breath of fresh air, resulting in the possibility of improving their craft and delivering great stories in the future. By its track record, they obviously succeeded, but it wouldn’t have happened without the success of the pilot.
    One generation ago, My Little Pony was a laughingstock. A franchise with a great original concept became heavily operated under Hasbro’s microscope simply to pander to young girls’ guardians. But on October 10, 2010, under Faust’s leadership, Friendship Is Magic, Part 1 was released, followed by Part 2 on October 22. The pilot commenced the fourth generation of My Little Pony, leading to wonders over what the franchise will reveal to what is later the brony fandom.
    Subjectively, this is my most nostalgic FIM episode because these episodes led me to the show and becoming a brony altogether. (Winter Wrap Up, on the other hand, is where I proclaimed it really took off.) But through an objective eye, FIM1/2 is not that good at all. Part 1 was decent, but Part 2 is easily the worse half because of its obvious storytelling shortcomings. Overall, it’s the weakest two-parter of the entire show. Nevertheless, the heart the pilot displayed allowed the show to stick around and eventually improve into the pop culture conglomerate today.
    Source: S01:E01+E02 - Friendship is Magic
  18. 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.
  19. Dark Qiviut
    I was at BronyCon myself (my second convention ever, both BronyCons). Unlike last year, my mom came over, too. (This was her very first.) I had such a marvelous time there. The entire convention was absolutely loose. Eight thousand bronies coming into BronyCon in Baltimore, dedicated to their ponies, and having so much fun.
     
    Some of my highlights are:
    How much fun everypony was having. This con had plenty of lines. In non-BronyCon lines I was on, everyone was impatient and wanted the security to get it moving faster. In BronyCon? Buck that! We had to wait, but we also wanted to have fun-fun-fun-fun-fun-fun-fun! There was a lot of dancing, singing, and plain excitement! We all conversed, "yeah'd," gave each other so many brohoofs that our knuckles got sore, and just were plain happy.
    The spirit of unity. Despite the drama and heated debates we sometimes have, there's one thing brony conventions do so well: show a sense of unity. Katie Cook said this perfectly: "It’s one fandom, one interest. You can feel the love and energy and intensity of the fans here: they’ll give each other high fives even if they don’t know each other." Brony conventions offer the best in the fandom, physically, intellectually, and psychologically. The looseness and happiness were all there, and my mom noticed it so much.
     
    The looseness and unity were exhibited in so many areas such as the chants (including "YEAH!", "Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing on Rainbows," "Crush! Kill! Destroy! Swag!", and "FUN!"). You got brohoofs and hugs whether you knew them or not. And it wasn't only the adults who joined the fun. EVERYPONY — EVERYBRONY — of any age joined the fun and chanting, from five-year-olds to fifty-year-olds.
    The creative areas like the Traveling Pony Museum, the Vendor Hall, the creative lounges, and Bronypalooza. At BronyCon Summer 2012, there was an undeniable amount of craft exhibited throughout the convention.
     
    In BronyCon 2013, everypony stepped up their game. The Vendor Hall displayed some of the best brony craft that I have ever seen, and there was such a wide variety.
     
    The Poniverse booth showed a unique united network of websites and even a great preview of their latest installments: Pony.FM (which I discussed with @Feld0 on how to improve upon) and their ambitious pony project that was previewed in their panel.
    One booth nearby had high quality embroideries; another next door had high-quality plushies.
     
    One in the middle of the hall had really well-done beauty bars.
     
    Another had great 3D printing.
     
    Another had high-quality temporary tattoos.
     
    Another had very well-done chains.
     
    Another also had a very well-done Alicorn Amulet, which I bought and intend to use it as my primary jewelry.
     
    Another had well-done bow ties and pins in their booth.
     
    The Perler Pony was also there displaying high-quality perlers. (My mom thought of commissioning for one with Discord ears.)
     
    EquestriaPlush was also there with family and high-quality plushies. (I impulsively thought about buying her Luna or Twilicorn one, but it was well out of my budget, so I just gawked and complimented the unbelievable quality instead.)
     
    You pretty much know the drift. There was so much great work that you wish to buy all of it. Quite a few vendors got caught off-guard by how much bronies wanted to buy their stuff. Several sold out their main products rather quickly. For example, one vendor had seven duplicates of an OC plushy worth a high price tag, and they were sold out by Friday mid-afternoon.
    Forest Rain's proposal to his girlfriend at Bronypalooza on Friday. Great to Be Different showed the origins of their relationship, when he spotted an envelope with "It's great to be different. Love, Derpy" from BronyCon last year. The letter inspired Rain to compose what is currently my all-time favorite brony song. They met in person a few months later (in typical Derpy fashion, his now fiancée got locked out of her car, and they've been in a relationship ever since). It was a sweet moment that caught me off guard. I wish FR and his fiancée the best of luck in their relationship!
    Whose Line Is It, Anypony? If you missed it, you should've seen it. That panel was absolutely hilarious. All of us in that audience laughed on and on. Several times, we laughed so hard, we rocked back and forth and cried. The bronies who performed there were spectacular. (The superhero and "What Would You Say to Pinkie Pie and Not Your Girlfriend?" segments from Scenes Out of a Hat are top-notch.)
    The Closing Ceremony. Couch Crusader at EQD said it best. Nothing is more depressing in a convention than the last day, because this means the con is coming to a close. The Closing Ceremony made sure everyone had the con ended on a happy note. The surprise with the singer from G1 was great, and everypony clapped along. The conclusion with Black Gryph0n and EileMonty co-singing "Proud to Be a Brony" solidified what made BronyCon and bronydom so great.

    I also like to thank a few people:
    My mother. She didn't go to BronyCon last year and was somewhat reluctant about BronyCon this year (because Baltimore's Downtown neighborhood is terrible [especially at night]), but she knew how happy I would be at BronyCon, so she decided to buy tickets and later extended our hotel days. As she saw the lines and walked through the vendor hall, she began to notice the spirit of the fandom blooming and began to show a bigger appreciation to the fandom at large. On Friday evening, while I was at Bronypalooza, she watched the two-part pilot and half of "The Ticket Master." She loved them and currently has Spike as her most favorite canon character.
     
    Her stance on the brony fandom changed for the positive for good the following night. While I went for Bronypalooza, someone recommended her to see Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony. She saw the entire documentary and LOVED it, resulting in her becoming a brony and embracing the brony culture for good. (I decided to buy the documentary as a result Sunday morning, as I have never seen it.) On Sunday, she bought the 2014 MLP:FIM calendar, a pair of Vinyl cutie mark earrings, and a Chrysalis tote bag. (She currently is a gigantic brony of the ponysona, Fluffle Puff, and sings "Pink Fluffy Unicorns…", although she'll accidentally say "Pink Puffy Unicorns…" instead, which gives me a giggle ).
    The Poniverse staff, from @Lord Bababa to @Apple Bloom to @Feld0 to @Marco ~ Ace Attorney to @Ice Storm to @Artemis to @Chigens and Kay to @~Chaotic Discord~ to @Thereisnospoon303 to everyone else there. You worked really hard on presenting their ambitious projects currently and did whatever they could to do it well and on time. Lord Bababa was hilarious and exhausted trying to get it done, and I don't blame him for wanting a good night's sleep. Poniverse staff, you did great at BronyCon, and I can see your works gaining a ton of support. Keep it all going, and I await Beta 2 later this month. ^^
     
    I also want to thank the bronies of the MLP Forums, from @Jonke to @Luminescence to @Zoop to @Skullbuster to @Wingnut to @Sweets to @Bhending the Rules to @~Lugia~ to @Lady Rarity Pony to @TGAP Haven to every brony at the MLP Forums for sacrificing their time to attend BronyCon, too. You were all great and shared a fantastic brony experience. I saw many of you there, and I can't wait to hopefully see you guys again at another brony convention soon. ^^
    The people who worked at BronyCon and kept everything smooth. Despite all of the lovely, organized chaos, the security did a marvelous job in maintaining the convention and keeping everyone alert and happy. EverFree Radio, EQI, and Ponyville Live covered BronyCon 2013 splendidly. Lastly, the folks backstage did great in answering as many questions as possible.
    Everypony who attended BronyCon 2013. You guys there demonstrated the heart and soul of the brony fandom and shows all of us why being a fan of those pastel-colored ponies is something to be proud of. Your warmth, generosity, ability to awe and recognize such high quality craft, and overall passion for the ponies helped make this con special. But what made it special was all 8,407 of you who went. You went to BronyCon, discussed ponies with everypony, treated each other as family, let yourselves loose, and had so much fun. Cons aren't cons without the fervor of passionate, dedicate fans, and the bronies here at BronyCon demonstrated that. Without it, BronyCon would've been typical and BORING. BronyCon 2013 was anything but boring, and it's all of you at BronyCon who show us exactly that. BronyCon showed the best the brony community has to offer, and it really made me extremely proud to be a brony.

    BronyCon Summer 2012 was fantastic, but this convention blew it out of the water in fun, cheerfulness, passion, and quality. Thank you, everypony, and brony on! /)
    ———
     
     
    Source: BronyCon 2013: Experiences, Pictures & Discussion!
  20. Dark Qiviut
    Take it away, Miz!
    Over the past several weeks, excuses after excuses after bashing after bashing from anti-bronies (and fellow bronies) have been chapping my teeth. First, it was the "it's for kids" excuse, and I wrote a blog calling that excuse (and the general population who uses it) out. Next, it was the bashing of the FIM analysis community (BTW, calling analysts "ANALysts" isn't cute or funny; it's stupid), and I'm seriously thinking of prepping for a defense of that community. Another imbecilic claim I see (including from other bronies) is how the older bronies and the community itself "stole the show from little girls."
    Newsflash: That statement is full of shit. Older bronies never stole the show from ANYBODY. They're just as part of the fandom as the little kids and vice-versa. They're just as entitled to appreciate a good show, see it grow, want what they like to see (as long as it works in FIM's context/roots and doesn't deviate from the content rating), and critique it so it gets better as the kids and their parents. The core fandom is a very relevant part of sales, and bronies altogether are very influential both in merchandise and the show big or small, like fact-checking the Celestia doll from pink to (off-)white and (because the core fandom and little kids are growing up along with the characters) helping edge FIM into a more mature direction for season four (e.g., Testing Testing 1, 2, 3 calling out the public school system; Flight to the Finish addressing Scootaloo's inability to fly; plagiarism in Rarity Takes Manehattan; the Twilight/Tirek fight scene). Hell, don't even bother denying it — Because the show spread popularity to bronies young and old, we even have seasons four, five, and beyond.
    And what's more idiotic is how some so-called "feminists" pull this "bronies are entitled/steal the show" bullshit. If you claim to be a feminist and then pull that card, then, well…this should explain nicely.

    Any feminist with an ounce of common sense would never pull that antifeminist, sexist card. It's hypocritical (about as hypocritical as Femme Fetale from The Powerpuff Girls), and if you really are a feminist, you should feel guilty for saying it, much less thinking of such bigotry.
    Bronies regardless of age, gender, or culture NEVER stole FIM from ANYBODY, and it's downright antifeminist and sexist to believe otherwise.
  21. 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.
  22. Dark Qiviut
    Season three was like a haphazard dinner at a restaurant. You have a decent appetizer, then a scrumptious entrée, followed by an awful desert.
     
    1 & 2. The Crystal Empire: Part one gave the season a great start. There were layers of great characterization amongst the Mane Six, notably Twilight Sparkle and Spike. The backstory of both King Sombra and the kingdom were also convincing, despite being brief. Its most notable drawbacks, however, were twofold (both in part 2):
    King Sombra's character was flatter than a board. What made Discord and Chrysalis engaging and more objectively menacing were how their personalities shone through. They had depth. Sombra was scary just for the sake of it.
    The plot crawled. Part 1 had an engaging plot that varied in pace. Part 2 had the pace crawl to a standstill as Twilight and Spike explored the Queen's castle while searching for the Crystal Heart.

    Its strongest moment is easily the Door of Illusions/Door of Fear. It explored Twilight's greatest fear and desire to do whatever she can to pass the test. Twilight took this test so seriously and doesn't want to let herself, her friends, and Princess Celestia down. This powerful magic also gave Sombra the only layer given: his utmost cruelty for anyone aside his own.
     
    While part one was great, part two was noticeably weaker. But it was still a hit.
     
    3. Too Many Pinkie Pies: Dave Polsky's best episode by far. It was an episode full of comedy, but it also provided magnificent depth for Pinkie Pie, as well. Her clones were shallow and one-dimensional, with the minds of airheads, intentionally written to separate them from Pinkie's complex layer of care, laughter, and toughness. There was one obvious brony reference, too: G3!cloned Pinkie. The only flaw was the obvious Deus Ex Machina in the middle of Act 2 (where Spike discovered a secret cupboard within one of the back walls to reveal the book).
     
    4. One Bad Apple: An episode that brought in a brand new eventual Cutie Mark Crusader: Babs Seed. The song is easily the catchiest of them all, with a great rhythm, great musical score, and psychedelic background. The CMC underwent the tortures of being bullied by someone who was coaxed under peer pressure to bully. The drawbacks in this episode were one objective, one personal:
    The revelation of Babs being bullied back in Manehattan came off as way too sudden. Even with the foreshadowing earlier in the episode, there was way too much buildup for the opposite. At least one extra hint while Babs joined the forces of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon would've given the twist a bit more convincing.
    Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara were flat. In Ponyville Confidential, Diamond Tiara was given extra depth by being organized and conniving. She put the Cutie Mark Crusaders in hostage with the threat of having their private photos being released in order to embarrass the trio. Here, Diamond Tiara was a generic antagonist. The same can be siad for Silver Spoon, whom was given a little extra layer of depth in Family Appreciation Day when she was the first to applaud to Granny Smith. That layer was missing, and she was relegated to a sidekick again.

    5. Magic Duel: Easily my most favorite episode in season three (and second-best in season three, too). My two analyses can be found here and here.
     
    6. Sleepless in Ponyville: Magic Duel is my most favorite episode in season three, but this one is easily the best. I praised this episode here.
     
    7. Wonderbolts Academy: At the time, it was the boldest episode with Rainbow Dash joining the likes of Snowflake/Horse Power, Thunderlane, Cloudchaser, Raindrops, and Lightning Dust (Dash's foil and episode antagonist). It was Merriweather Willimas's first Dash-centered episode since The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well (arguably the worst episode in the series and in season two), but she didn't disappoint here. WA is by far the best Dash episode since Sonic Rainboom (and easily Williams's best episode); her complex character was explored entirely, and she obviously learned her lessons from her previous appearances. Rather than finding a fault, her faults were showcased and balanced with her biggest strength: her loyalty to what is her family. Rainbow Dash's character is a concrete highlight this season after a disastrous first half of season two. I wrote the full analysis here.
     
    8. Apple Family Reunion. Unlike the previous episodes, this one is akin to season one and two's slice-of-life episodes. It's tame, but extremely well-done. Applejack's previous episodes centered around her stubbornness and occasional drive to steer away from troubles. Here, she did whatever she could to make the reunion grand, only to have her plans fall apart so badly. It explores a really fantastic side of her: her dedication and love for her family. My most favorite moment of the episode was when Granny Smith said to Apple Bloom that not everyone may make the next reunion, leading up to Applejack's desire to make this reunion the best ever. Here's my full review.
     
    9. Spike at Your Service: Here's where the season's quality began to objectively drop — It was a clunker that reversed Spike's progress in character throughout the series and season three. It had many good smaller moments (including some funny lines), but Spike was handled horribly through a very inane concept. Here's my full review.
     
    10. Keep Calm and Flutter On: A complete reversal of SaYS. The previous episode had a great pace but a shoddy plot and characterization, but this one had easily the strongest characterization of the full cast and shoddy pacing. Fluttershy was extremely in character who didn't fall into being needlessly shy, She was strong-willed and did whatever she could to make Discord trust her in some way. Discord's plan to manipulate Fluttershy completely worked, but Fluttershy witnedd this plan from the very beginning and had him beat in his own game. She's tenaciously patient, and this episode showed the character development she received from Dragonshy, Putting Your Hoof Down, and Hurricane Fluttershy; she was given justice, and Polsky (and Teddy Antonio, the story's creator) deserve immense credit. But Discord's redemption isn't factually as convincing because:
    the pace was abnormally fast with no time to recuperate at any point.
    Celestia's throwaway line when describing her interest to have Discord redeemed was contrite and nonsensical.

    It would've been a hell of a lot better if Discord's redemption was a two-parter; too much information was compacted into one twenty-minute episode, and the timeline was implausibly short. My full review is found here.
     
    11. Just for Sidekicks: Easily my most hated episode of the season. Corey Powell is a wonderful writer who can handle the characters brilliantly. But Spike's character was written atrociously. Instead of being balanced with his greed and commitment to perform right, his qualities were sacrificed for his conniving and greedy sides, lessons that he learned in the past. Powell knows the universe, but tried to give Spike a flaw that he is capable of understanding the need to caution himself. There were several fantastic small moments, but Spike is the focus, so the episode is weighted by his performance. Spike's characterization was an absolute travesty, and I wouldn't EVER recommend this disgusting episode to ANYONE. Here's my full review.
     
    12. Games Ponies Play: This episode I haven't watched yet. But that only determines whether I'll like the episode or not. But I read the transcript on the MLP:FIM wiki, and the characterization is bullshit. I'll skip it over.
     
    13. Magical Mystery Cure: The songs are strong and progressed the plot. But that's really the lone strength (besides the animation; it's always been strong). The plot was way too fast, and Twilight's evolution to an alicorn had no momentum from TCEII onward. It was refreshingly dark in many aspects, but the plot whizzed through like flipping a storybook without reading the lines. Each sequences had no time to relax nor explore the consequences of the changing of the Mane Six's core. This episode easily should've been a two-parter to not just make the premise interesting, but also sell the Twilicorn concept better. The Twilicorn concept is factually stupid, and it was going to take something brilliant to make the idea convincing in the canon. (Liking a concept does NOT mean it's objectively a GOOD one.) M. A. Larson had to weave in the Twilicorn concept in the best fashion possible, and while it was a hell of a lot better than it could've been, but given Larson's intellect, it should've been much stronger. It had no momentum, and it showed through here. Overall, I'm okay with it, but objectively (sadly), this episode is a strikeout. The full review for it can be found here.
     
     
     
     
    And she appeared at least five times, three of them WITH her derped eyes!
     
     
    Overall, season three's episode quality is a mixed bag. There were so many great episodes in the first half, but of the last five episodes, only Keep Calm and Flutter On can be called good, and even that was greatly flawed. To put it bluntly, the biggest flaw in season three was its brevity. Seasons one and two progressed in several baby steps, but season three, due to its order of sixty-five episodes, attempted to perform bigger and more grandiose. Some episodes did a fantastic job (Wonderbolts Academy, Magic Duel), but it failed in others (Magical Mystery Cure). It felt like a final season in a series rather than a continuation for several seasons. So the team attempted to put forth more radical ideas that would make much more sense if given more time to foreshadow everything, especially the horrid Twilicorn concept. It forced itself to go bold, and it's evident by the really wavering quality of the episodes and even the ideas.
     
    Nonetheless, I still have a lot of faith in the team. With season four having twenty-six episodes, there are many possibilities for the series to progress into deeper, more whimsical, and more thoughtful territories. I trust the writers and storyboard artists in getting the job done for season four. Who I have no faith in, however, is Hasbro: They're notorious for inserting some very stupid, series-altering ideas in the canon with no other reason than to sell toys. The results have been mixed, so I patiently wait for the subsequent quality of the upcoming episodes in season four.
     
    —
     
    So, with that, here's my list of season three episodes (from most favorite to least favorite regardless of quality):
    Magic Duel
    Sleepless in Ponyville
    Wonderbolts Academy
    Apple Family Reunion
    The Crystal Empire, Part 1
    Keep Calm and Flutter On
    Magical Mystery Cure
    Too Many Pinkie Pies
    One Bad Apple
    The Crystal Empire, Part 2
    Spike at Your Service
    Just for Sidekicks

    ———
     
     
    Source: *SPOILERS* Season 3 Review Thread
  23. Dark Qiviut
    It's the same old. Another blog from me bitching about Nickelodeon's Breadwinners, a show worse than Sanjay & Craig, Fanboy & Chum Chum, and current Spongebob.
     
    Last year, I went on a tirade about why that show is so terrible. The animation and characters are just terrible. The humor and stories are even worse, relying a lot on butts (including twerking) and stereotypes. It's honestly baffling that Breadwinners has any support and remains on the air.
     
    In my rant last year, I ranted about Love Loaf:
     
    But lately, I thought about Love Loaf, and it hit me. This episode is even creepier than I thought.
     
    SwaySway is in love with Jenny Quackles. He finds a love loaf that will make any duck fall in love with the first thing he or she sees. This gives SwaySway (who's a good guy) the idea he could force Jenny to eat a part of the loaf, marry her, and have ducklings.
     
    Yeah, there's a term for this. It's called rape. And it wasn't subtle, either. It was stated without actually stating the word.
     
    It can't get any creepier, right? Yeah, it can.
     
    From my plot summary:
    Jenny is in summer camp and isn't a camp counselor. She's just as much a kid as the other girls in the camp.
     
    Yeah, "kid." Jenny is an underage duck!!!
     
    SwaySway — an adult duck — is in love with a minor. With the love loaf in his hands, he hopes this underage duck eats the loaf so she falls in love with him. That way, he can marry her, molest her, and start a family with her as his wife and caregiver.
     
    Not only is this "episode" terrible on a technical level. It's morally SICK!!!! The entire plot being a molestation joke is disgusting enough. What makes this more repulsive is the fact that this joke is written for a show rated TV-Y7. Yeah, a cartoon that's supposed to be suitable for kids.
     
    Seriously, who would want to write something that's so DISRESPECTFUL to EVERY victim/survivor of rape and child molestation?! Y7 rating or not, you DON'T write these jokes. EVER! They're disgusting, and those writers should feel awful for coming up with something as demented as a humor-based plot based on this topic.
     
    Why the FUCK is this abomination of a show even on the air, anyway? Because Nickelodeon doesn't get kids, believes parents will let their kids watch whatever is plastered on the screen regardless of parental quality control, and doesn't give a crap about quality! That's why! I mean, Nick got away extremely gross closeups of Spongebob's face, a closeup of Spongebob's infected thumb in The Splinter, and a whole episode dedicated to driving Plankton to attempt suicide (using realistic approaches, I might add) as a joke. A whole show centered on disgusting fart jokes like Sanjay and Craig is gross enough, but at least the jokes are merely stupid.
     
    Breadwinners is a show based off "ducks" that embrace and say "Racist stereotypes, twerking, obnoxious protagonists, useless butt jokes, and child molestation jokes are a-okay for your kids!" Breadwinners doesn't deserve to exist, doesn't deserve the high ratings, doesn't deserve to be renewed for a second season, and should be pulled off the air and burned for good.
     
    Now, excuse me while I throw up…
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