BastementSparkle

You know, I am very curious why this is being marketed as a "Special" when what it seems to actually be is a TV movie? It's using the movie's animation style, is based on the original script for the sequel, the promo even mentions it's "Feature Length" as it has an hour and a half runtime. When I think of a "Special" I'm thinking of something more like Best Gift Ever, a double length episode, not this.

I disagree with the idea that her behavior doesn't fit the character. Celestia has certainly gotten more excitable and energetic in recent seasons but I think that makes perfect sense. At the beginning of the series she was coming off of just having ruled all of Equestria by herself for a thousand years, after having been forced to banish her own sister. Now she has her little sister back, she doesn't have to rule on her own, she's getting to see her student succeed and reach greater heights again and again, and now she's getting close to her own retirement, where she won't have to worry about any of the stresses of royal life. It makes perfect sense that her playful and cheerful side would become more and more obvious, to me it shows she's in a much happier place than she was at the start of the series.

I highly doubt the MLP staff is gonna end their cartoon pony show by killing off a major character, let alone three of them. I could see some kind of scenario where maybe he get's trapped or turned back to stone to protect the Mane Six, some sacrifice that get's undone by the end but I doubt they're killing him or anypony else off.

As much as I do like the School of Friendship and the Student Six, I think it's a real shame we didn't get more of the Pillars. They were all pretty cool, but outside of Rockhoof and Starswirl I don't feel like I can really care about any of them that much because they've barely appeared, hoping some of them get at least another good appearance or two in the second half of Season 9. If the show had continued beyond into Season 10, I would have liked it if they came up with something to give them more focus, like a Season arc involving them or something.

Ponyville strikes me as the kind of small town where pretty much everyone knows each other to an extent, and the community is much more tightly knit than in a city or even a bigger town. In that type of environment I don't find the Cakes taking care of her to be particularly odd, they're probably more familiar with each other than you're thinking.

Putting myself in their shoes, I can understand their reasoning as well. Just because they want it though, doesn't mean it's actually the right thing for Scootaloo herself. We can say "Scootaloo really needs to be with her parents", but what Scootaloo needs is love and support and her parents in this episode didn't do enough to prove they can make up for what she'd be losing by taking her away from her home. Parents aren't actually always the best source of love and support, and sometimes they really don't know best, and while I totally buy that Scootaloo's parents mean well in this case, meaning well doesn't automatically mean doing well. If they had done a trial run like you suggested, or maybe stayed in Ponyville for at least a few months to reconnect with Scoots first before making this decision, I could see it working out, as the episode showed it though, I think they're in the wrong and Scootaloo should absolutely be allowed to stay. But you're right, this is pretty personal, and we could go back and forth for days and I doubt my opinions would change. I like the way the episode ended in this case, and I think if they wanted to do a moral or ending more like what you think they should have, it could work too, but the episode would have to be rewritten in some ways, otherwise if it was the same with a different ending, no matter how positively they portrayed it I just don't think I could look at it and see as good. Was nice talking to you though.

Like I said, I think it's great that they want to change things and be there more for Scootaloo and that they're taking steps to do that, but the fact they're doing this now doesn't change the fact that they haven't been there for her in the past, and taking her away from the places and people she is familiar with, that have been there for her...I don't think that's a good way to do this. At the very least it is not a good first step, that's the kind of thing that maybe I could see working out later down the road, after they've reconnected with her more, but it's an absolutely terrible start. While they as her parents, technically have the right to do that, I don't think it's the right thing to do. Those aunts and other parental figures have consistently been there for her more than her actual parents have, I feel like they'd actually be taking away more support than they'd be giving if they went through with this. This episode doesn't make me buy that they're close enough with her as is to offer the support she needs, no matter how much they might love her. While it's true that moving wouldn't necessarily destroy her friendships, it still means she'd see far less of them, especially considering Equestria doesn't have something like the Internet to keep in touch daily. She might not lose them completely, but they wouldn't be able to offer nearly the same amount of companionship and support as they do when she lives in Ponyville. She'd be suddenly in a totally new and unfamiliar environment, with all of the support she's used to now far away, completely not by her own choice. If it were me in that situation, I could pretty much guarantee daily panic attacks. Scoots might not have that issue, but I just don't buy that this would be the best thing for her as is.

@Violet BookishI've been trying to think of how to respond to your opinion for a little bit, because while on one hand, I can see where you're coming from with everything you say, and I don't think you're necessarily wrong, this episode just doesn't do enough to make me think Scoots parents really know what's best for her. They've spent the last 8 and nearly a half seasons seemingly almost totally absent from her life, now they decide they just want to drop in and change that by taking her away from the friends and family that actually have been there for her? It's great that they want to spend more time with her now, and be together as a family but I just can't help but see them as in the wrong for doing this. It's clear they love her and she loves them, but if they want to correct things, taking her away from everyone and everything she knows just...doesn't sit right with me. They might have the right to do that, but I just don't think they should. Maybe it's cause I don't have the best relationship with my own parents, they've been there for me but they haven't really been "There" for me if that makes any sense, and because I wish I had friends as good as Scoots does when I was a kid while I was mostly alone, and if I had been lucky enough to have friends like that and my parents had decided to "correct their mistakes" by ripping me away from them when they weren't ever there for me as much as I needed, I'd probably be just as upset as Scoots here and I just can't fault her and find her as being in the wrong for it. Scoots parents are different from my parents, and their reason for not being there is totally different, but I just...can't look at this episode and see them as being right. Even if Scoots is being a little childish, I just don't have the ability to look at this episode and not see the parents as being in the wrong for doing this.

I understand that completely. I was pointing something out about the situation that would perhaps make it seem more believable, as I don't find the episodes premise particularly far-fetched. You'd think the parents would have taken everything into account, but people aren't always so rational. For a personal example, I received toys meant for little children as birthday gifts into my teenage years from various family members who I don't tend to see often. This was despite talking to them on the phone and even hearing them acknowledge my age and just how much older I sounded, and despite my Grandma sending people photos of me all the time showing I was clearly not a young child anymore. So, I can totally buy the parents not quite getting that Scoots job was actually something important until it was shoved in their faces.

Would they know just how essential her job is though? We don't even know when the last time they visited is, the only contact we know for sure they've had is from letters Scoots has been writing them. She's obviously told them about things like the CMC, her special talent and other stuff, but it's possible as they were only getting this info from their daughter's letters that they didn't quite put together just how important these things actually were. Think back to Forever Filly, when Rarity's image of Sweetie Belle was still that of a little filly who loved costume photo-shoots and puppet shows, having not quite realized just how much Sweetie had actually grown and matured. It could be a similar situation here, when you think about it. Considering these are actually Scootaloo's parents, and they don't see her nearly as often as Rarity sees Sweetie Belle, I think it's likely their image of Scoots is still that of a little filly, and even if her letters stressed just how important her "Job" was, they might not have really grasped how true that was until seeing it for themselves in reality.

Daring Do is an Indiana Jones style archaeologist who writes books. These two seem to be some kind of Zoologists, since their study is more related to animals, and as far as we know, they don't go on regular adventures to save the world from villains or anything like Daring does. They're similar in that they're both overexaggerated adventurous versions of real life jobs, but they aren't actually the same thing.

What about all the good stuff he's done? Helped save Equestria from the Changeling's, convinced the Mane Six to have confidence in themselves that they can defeat Sombra, helped make sure Fluttershy got the best Hearth's Warming gift, helped mend Big Mac and Sugar Belle's relationship, etc. He's clearly a very good friend to Fluttershy, he cares about her so much he nearly made himself fade out of existence just to try and make her happy. For all the problems he's caused, and still causes, and probably still will cause, he's clearly changed from who he was before.

Of all the reformed characters on the show, he's my favorite. A lot of his episodes are some of my favorites, he's consistently entertaining to watch in pretty much every episode he's in, and of all the reformed characters I think his arc is the most interesting, mostly because he's not exactly reformed in the same way the others are. I don't buy that Discord actually changed his ways because he realized he was doing something wrong, or because he feels any regret for his villainous days, honestly based off of his one comment about the "Good old days" of turning best friends against each other in "Dungeons and Discords" I think he still looks back on his time as a villain fondly. No, he changed because he realized friendship was something he wanted to have, and if he wanted it, he'd have to be willing to give up some of his chaos. To me, Discord is a very different kind of situation than the other reformations, because he's not a normal person. He's Chaos and Disharmony incarnate, and trying to hold him to the same standards of a normal person as if he isn't that is silly. He's always going to have a manipulative streak, he's always going to be chaotic, he's always going to gleefully enjoy it when he causes a problem, long as it doesn't make his friends totally hate him, that's just in his nature, that's not just who he is, that's WHAT he is. He's gotten a little better over the seasons about reigning in the worst of his impulses and trying to redirect his nature towards positive outcomes, like getting Fluttershy the best Hearth's Warming gift he can, or convincing his friends to have confidence in themselves, but that troublemaker aspect to him will always be present.

475681 Heya Rising.

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475666 Heya Dawn.

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@Deae Rising Shine~Right back at ya!

I actually had an idea years ago for an Alicorn OC who couldn't fly at all and could barely use magic other than basic Telekinesis. The idea was they were born that way because they had a Unicorn for a father and a Pegasus mother who had earth pony in her family history, and it was a super rare birth defect that ponies could sometimes get, where they develop as an Alicorn, but because normal ponies weren't really suited to carry Alicorns, more often than not they came out with one or more of the traits underdeveloped. So he's basically just an Earth pony who can use telekinesis and has a pair of tiny useless wings. Never actually made him though, but he was supposed to go against the grain of super powerful Alicorn OC's.

475559 Every time Rising asks me to help him get a certain post I get it instead.

475555 Whoops.

I don't think there's any bad morals in the show in terms of concept, at least none I can think of. I think all the morals themselves are fine, I just think the way some of them are presented in the episodes aren't always perfect and can sometimes be taken in a way that isn't intended and thus negative. Episodes like Mysterious Mare-do-well or Matter of Principals are both episodes with good messages, but because the way the episode is written they can easily be misinterpreted or come off the wrong way. I'm pretty sure you're thinking of "Scare Master" not Stare Master. Stare Master was the season 1 episode with the CMC and the Cockatrice and has nothing to do with trying new things, it's about not biting off more than you can chew. Also, that's...not really the moral of Scare Master at all? It's more about how it's okay if you try something new and don't like it, that's okay, and you don't have to enjoy everything with your friends. By the end of the episode, Fluttershy had genuinely tried to participate in Nightmare Night via scaring her friends, but had decided even when she found a part of Nightmare Night she was a good at, she still didn't like it.