Manman20x6

What made me love this show is how it was made for little girls, but written so well that it was entertaining for adults too. If they rely too much on fandom nods and pandering, it detracts from that aspect of the show. Doesn't help that most of their attempts at pandering come off as forced and cringeworthy. It sometimes feels like the writers think that putting a popular background character in a scene automatically makes it funny. Also, Slice of Life sucked because it was literally nothing but pandering, with no real entertainment value of its own. The best example of this is the opening "joke", which is literally just Derpy saying "Muffin". Sorry, but that doesn't count as comedy. Imagine how someone who's binge-watching the show while avoiding all fan content (in order to avoid spoilers) would feel watching that episode. They wouldn't find any of it interesting or funny, just confusing.

Prior to "The Cutie Remark", I would have answered Starlight Glimmer, but then that episode came and revealed that her entire motivation is a childish temper tantrum, making her impossible to take seriously. The idea that Chrysalis and her army need to feed on love is something that is never explicitly stated in the show. For all we know, they can eat regular food just fine, and draining love is just how they make themselves more powerful. This would make them into (literally) power-hungry conquerors, which is a pretty simple motivation for a villain. Viewing her as a loving mother also depends on a subjective interpretation of a song lyric, which is not the strongest evidence. Perhaps there is no room in her heart because she loves power, rather than her drones. Or maybe she sings that because it's the lyric the writers thought fit the rhythm and melody of the song best. None of the villains of My Little Pony are particularly complex, especially since the show tends to avoid going in-depth into their backstory. I'd say the most complex antagonist is Trixie. All she did was entertain ponies, and was damn good at it too, until the Mane 6 took her too seriously and ruined her livelihood. She has the most understandable motive for becoming evil, even if she went a bit overboard in enslaving the entirety of Ponyville.

I definitely agree that the show needs to end SOMEDAY, but season 5 would have been a terrible stopping point. A lot of potential plot elements were introduced throughout the season, which would require at least another season to properly explore. Especially the finale, which adds a new ally to the group with lots of lessons to learn. Trying to cram the baby, the CMC's cutie marks, AND Starlight Glimmer's redemption into one movie would result in a chaotic and unsatisfying mashup of plot elements that do not need to be combined. I do believe that this season or the one after that should be the last. But season 5 left far too many plot threads hanging to be a good stopping point.

Although this is the best episode of the season by far, it does have one kinda big flaw. Ember's acceptance of friendship came MUCH too suddenly. For the first few obstacles, she kept repeating that friendship is worthless and she's only cooperating with Spike because it benefits her. Then, right at the last part, she instantly decides that Spike is her friend, friendship is magic, etc. It would have been much more interesting to see her slowly understand how helpful friends can be, rather than have all of it come in one shot. This isn't enough to ruin the episode. This is not only the best of the season so far, but also the best Spike episode by a huge margin. I was starting to hesitate on continuing to watch the show because every other episode was either boring or cringe-inducing, but this one got me enough to at least keep watching the rest of the season.

Tanks for the Memories: Rainbow Dash does all of these awful things such as undoing everyone's hard work and blowing up a factory, and at the end she gets off 100% scot-free. No one is even aware of what she did. I think TftM is the show's worst episode by far, but if there was just one scene at the end showing Rainbow apologizing, it would have been enough to make it OK, maybe even great. Slice of Life: the episode is supposed to be humorous, but has no real jokes. All it does it acknowledge that bronies make memes, without using these memes in clever ways. For example, the opening scene's "joke" is that Derpy says "muffin". Sorry, but that doesn't count as a joke. Additionally, there's the problem of new fans who wish to binge-watch the whole show before looking up fan content in order to avoid spoilers. If one isn't familiar with the fandom's in-jokes, the whole episode is just a confusing mess with zero entertainment value. The Cutie Re-Mark: This episode turned Starlight from the best, most threatening and realistic villain in the show into a pathetic joke. The "backstory" they gave her is far too weak to justify her horrid acts. However, I don't have a problem with her redemption being so quick, because it's made clear that she wasn't actually evil, just misguided, and genuinely wanted to change after realizing the harm her actions caused. The only problem with the episode is the pathetic excuse for a backstory they gave to Starlight, but that IS a very big problem. The Gift of the Maud Pie: The way they resolved the episode is just awful. Apparently, that pony dude is supposed to be the bad guy, even though he didn't actually do anything wrong. And we're supposed to side with Rarity and Maud, who threaten him until he's in tears and force him to accept a trade when he was clearly happier with his new cannon. I've seen people say "he's clearly a scammer who took advantage of Pinkie" but I didn't see that at all. His trade was fair, and both participants agreed on the terms, unlike Maud's.

I already stated why I disliked the conclusion of this episode earlier: I didn't like how the trade between the random pony guy, Rarity, and Maud felt like the protagonists were bullying someone. I thought of a way to express my dislike for that scene in greater detail: In the first trade between Pinkie and Pony Dude (That's what I'll call him), Pinkie opened the proceedings by stating what she wants from the trade. Pony Dude then says what he wants in return. The two agree to the terms, and complete the trade. This is a fair trade, since both parties set their terms and agree with the other party's terms. In the second trade with Rarity and Maud, the trade opens with Maud stating both what she will give AND what she will take. Pony Dude has no chance to set his own terms. This is then followed by threats of possible physical harm, which means that Pony Dude has no choice but to accept the trade, even though he doesn't actually WANT to do it. This is unfair, because one party cannot set their terms and does not agree to the terms that were set for him. No matter which way I look at it, I can't see it as anything but bullying.

I didn't really like this episode. The jokes weren't that funny. There was a lot of humor through repetition, but it ended up being more grating than anything. Some of the jokes felt forced, for example the shoehorned Twicane. Pinkie was acting even more annoying than usual here. There WAS one part I thought was funny, the PSSSD song. The way they resolved the plot (pretty much bullying someone into a trade they don't want to do) was awful. It felt like a mugging, even though Maud gave the pouch back. At the end, the moral delivered by Maud was pretty good though. So that's one positive point.

I didn't like this episode. The biggest flaw I can think of right now is a continuation of the season 5 finale's problem. Starlight's backstory is weak and not a satisfying explanation for how she turned out the way she did. Having said weak backstory play a big role in the episode just serves to further highlight how poorly thought out Starlight's reformation was. Flurry Heart was... not as bad as I expected, but not that great either. I don't think I'm quite ready to warm up to her just yet, and I might not ever consider her a good character. But she was far from the show-ruining catastrophe that I feared she could be, so at least there's that. Maybe my dislike of the episode comes from said fears about Flurry Heart making me go into it with negative expectations which tainted my perception. But I also had huge doubts about the season 5 premiere, and it turned out to be one of my favorite episodes in the whole show. I think there are probably more problems I had with the episode, but I'm having a hard time pinpointing them precisely and putting them into words. I just didn't like this episode.

This is pretty close to my headcanon that Alicorn magic and dark magic are the same thing. Any sufficiently powerful unicorn can use the same magic powers as an Alicorn. However, they also have a corrupting effect on their user. Sombra is possibly what happens when a unicorn overuses dark magic. Becoming an Alicorn makes one immune to the corrupting effect, allowing them to use these spells as much as they need to without fear. So Alicorn magic isn't inherently evil, but it's dangerous when used by unicorns.

It's never been proven that Celestia and Luna are natural-born Alicorns. If their power is something that is earned through deeds rather than birthright, it doesn't imbalance the race, since that would mean they aren't really a race of their own, but more like a transformation that happens to a pony who deserves it. If it IS a race that one can be born in, it means that some ponies intrinsically have what everyone else can only get through great effort.

On second reading, I think I may have misread your post. Sorry about that. As for the other point you're making, I said in another post that MLP places a great importance on the harmony between races, who are all supposed to be equals. Adding an objectively stronger race shakes up this balance.

The problem is that all the "jokes" are really just shallow references, with no humor value of their own. In the opening scene, the "joke" is that Derpy says "muffin". Sorry, but that's not a real joke. All this is is acknowledging that this kind of joke exists in the fandom, without making a joke of its own out of it. Apparently (I didn't watch the whole episode because it was too painful), there's another scene later on where the "joke" is that Steven Magnet says his name. Once again, this is not a real joke, it's just acknowledging that bronies call him that. In this episode, either you don't get the jokes (and therefore get no entertainment value from them) or you do, but you've already seen it done better in fanart. Some might say it's meant to be a "love letter to the fans", but if so, it's a pretty lame letter. If it was an actual love letter, it would probably be just a list of the physical characteristics of the recipient: "You have brown hair. You have blue eyes. You are 1.7 meters tall." Not very romantic.

I just thought of a new inconsistency that natural Alicorns may cause. The show makes a point that the harmony between the three races is important. This was a central plot point in the Heart's Warming Eve episode, and I think there may have been other episodes about this. Natural Alicorns tip this balance. So apparently, Earth, Pegasus, and Unicorn ponies are all important, but not as important as the Alicorns who have all of their powers combined! (And I repeat, this is not as big of a deal for me as it may seem. Don't think of me as a Social Justice Warrior.)

I just realized that might have been sounding like a Social Justice Warrior or something stupid like that during this topic. That is not the case, this isn't a huge deal for me and I will probably keep watching the show like before (unless they screw up phenomenally with Flurry Heart). I just wanted to point out the potential implications of having a race that is intrinsically superior to the others. Alicorns ARE greater than the other races. Which is why it feels kinda racist on the parts of the writers to introduce such a race in the first place. And I'm not saying that the writers are racist or bigoted for adding Flurry Heart, just that it has the potential to be interpreted this way. Flurry Heart herself, as a character, probably does not hold racist beliefs. But her inclusion has unfortunate implications for the status of the other races, who are objectively weaker simply due to the circumstances of their birth.

Sombra seemed to be less a pony and more an incarnation of pure, mindless evil. Destroying him utterly is the only thing fate he deserved. Apparently the comics show that he has a good side, but I haven't read that part. Chrysalis got off way too easy. In the first comic story, we learn that the changelings were blasted away and landed near a village inhabited by cats. They then proceed to murder every single villager and regain their power easily. In other words, they planned a large-scale terrorist attack, and in return were mildly inconvenienced for a few hours, and a village of innocents were killed as a result.

Just because it's a cartoon, doesn't mean I can't have a discussion about the potential racist implications of a certain character.

This analogy explains perfectly why I don't like Flurry Heart. She's born with the power that everypony else has to earn through huge effort.

We have a race that is naturally better than other races. That is the very definition of a master race, which is a concept preached by many racists. It doesn't matter if it was intentional or not, or if kids care about it. The implications are still there.

It's possibly racist because one race is NATURALLY stronger than others. If all Alicorns had to earn their transformation, it's not racist because their power is the reward for their hard work and great deeds. With Flurry Heart, her power is just the result of her genes. She is better than everyone else simply due to being from the right bloodline. You may have misunderstood my point. It's not about natural-born Alicorns being unrealistic, it's about the unfortunate implications of racism that they bring.

EDIT: I would like to add a preface stating that this is not as big of a deal for me as it may seem. I'm not a rabid SJW accusing the writers of being awful racists. This is just an observation of the possible implications this issue may bring. I really, really dislike the idea of there being ponies who were born as Alicorns. It's not really up for debate that this race, which combines the strengths of the three other types of ponies, is much more powerful than any other. Which is why, until recently, it was shown that such power had to be earned through great deeds. With the revelation that Flurry Heart is a baby Alicorn, we now have a pony who is intrinsically better than others entirely because of the circumstances of her birth. This turns Alicorns into a "master race" of sorts, who are above others due to having the right genes. I'm not just hating on Flurry Heart for being a new pony. Even before her, I disliked the idea that Celestia and Luna were born as Alicorns, and hoped that it wasn't true. Of course, I'll have to see how Flurry Heart is handled in the show before I pass my final judgment, but for now I'm very wary as it can easily become a kinda racist message. It's a show for kids and it's certainly not meant to be racist, but the unfortunate implications are still there regardless of authorial intent.

Try and guess what my favorite ship is. I also ship Appledash.

Neither? Fluttershy is already taken by Bulk Biceps (in my heart), and Celestia doesn't seem to like Discord that much.