TwistedGear

Okay, I feel I need to talk about some more of my issues with the later half of season 5 so I better start with the big one. Yeah. This episode. An episode with Discord, the character that got me hooked on MLP. This is the worst episode i have ever seen of any series I enjoyed. This it the first episode in MLP that is permanently at the bottom of my favorite to least favorite episodes, First of all, the opening, okay, the Twlight spending an entire weekend re-shelving to cut down 3 secs in finding a book would have been funny in season 1 but at this point it flies in the face of all the lessons she's learned and making spike suffer through it is even less funny. Second, the premise of this episode is twilight not getting a joke? Call the presses, the spock of the show doesn't get a joke. Also when you present jokes out of context to be not funny, they're not funny. Also, thanks for having discord make friends with the remaining 4 of the main 6 OFF SCREEN. they could have at-least have used another pony for this besides twilight but... actually thats exactly what they should have done, why wasn't this a Pinkie pie and Discord episode? Pinkie Pie not getting a joke could be played for more laughs while also being something I can feel more invested in, Twilight's placement in this just feels odd. and her whole "Princess's don't get jealous" thing felt completely out of place, what does she think she's going to become the new nightmare moon if she feels the slightest bit of envy? And then the ending where everyone turns the inside joke plot against discord, I suddenly find it much funnier, not because "I was there" but because discords reaction was the first bit of real humor since the episode began, because unlike twilight, he wasn't in denial for 2 thirds of the episode. I'd vent more but I want to hear why I'm wrong about those points in some hope of saving this episode.

It's weird, the second half of season 5 has just felt off for me. And this finale is no different. While I enjoyed the episode while I watched it a few minutes later I felt like I was just played for a sucker. All that spectical, all that awesomness, and they didn't expand on the lore of cutiemarks. Infact they completely skirted around the issue by having every alternate future mane 6 wear more clothes. We never saw if the timeline changed what their cutie mark became, we never learned if cutiemarks can be altered in a good way, and the entire plot had nothing to do with cutiemarks despite begining with a speech about them, featuring a villian centered around them and being named after them. I enjoyed the alternate timelines, yes. But even those were very vague and only held implications. You could write entire seasons based on each one and we only got a fleating few minutes of each, we never even learned what would have happened in half those timelines and it didn't even make all that much sense that changing how rainbow dash DIDN'T preform the rainboom would radically alter the timelines. And in the end whats our new status quo change? Starlight glimmer is reformed, sure it's implied that she's going to be a main character now. But even if that is the case, thats a pretty weak change to what could have happened. There is no intrigue in how Starlight will change the status quo. We've already seen all that already with Sunset, Trixie, Moon Dancer and Even twilight herself. They could have ended the finale with something so much bigger and if the next season premire doesn't follow up with something bigger this finale wasted so much story potential that they'll never get a second chance at using. Then again the per season status quo shift itself might be the problem, maybe what I really want is something that changes everything at once, like a 5 year time skip, or shifting the focus to the pie family or just starting fresh in a place we haven't seen as much of. I just saw all those alternate timelines and felt like those would be more interesting. It's just so weird that this is the point in the seires that I have to start using the excuses of "This is a kids show," "This is a show made to sell toys" when I never felt like I needed to back in seasons 1-4. I don't want to dislike this episode, but I do. And I don't know if its because it's different from what I love about this show or not different enough.

Not much a fan of rarity episodes however these two: Made it worth it to me. I think Midnight Gloom And Daylight Bloom could work as names for them, since they're Day and Night themed and they were introduced in the same season as Bloom and Gloom(Aliright, so I picked the names to rhyme and they just coincidentally came out like that) pretty sure that they're already named something at this point. They also might just be Maud and Pinkie PIe in disguise. Not much a fan of rarity episodes however these two: Made it worth it to me. I think Midnight Gloom And Daylight Bloom could work as names for them, since they're Day and Night themed and they were introduced in the same season as Bloom and Gloom(Aliright, so I picked the names to rhyme and they just coincidentally came out like that) pretty sure that they're already named something at this point. They also might just be Maud and Pinkie PIe in disguise.

Been wanting an episode like this since season 4 started. Twilights life before ponyville always seemed ripe for potential, and know we get to see what that was like. And Colgate gets some screen time (it is really hard to not call her that) Kindof odd that her house was also cobwebbed, she seemed perfectly fine with twilight never talking with her. I love the visual gag with moondancer being a twilight pallete swap, the original six (can we call them that?) was six backround unicorns with two of each mane style, kindof want an alternate universe where they became the elements of harmony (moondancer seems like she could pull of generosit). Starlights cameo was pretty funny, though i wonder if it's forshadowing to what she might do when she comes back. So are eyebrows a sign of poor grooming now? Like five o'clock shadow but for girls?

Tara strong? Not have range? You're funny. I think it's more that all of tara strongs voices are pretty easy to accociate whit the rolls she used them for, particullarly to a fan of the dc super hero cartoons. And there goes my headcannon of him being a sea pony...

I did, I had read that comic the day before so that was at the front of my mind at the time.

I refer you to discords first line ever.

"Whonicorns didn´t die of squeal."? I beg to differ.

Going through the backround 6 and the other major players: Derpy: I love how they both made her a big part in saving the wedding but also the primary cause of the conflict, it's a nice balance that shows how hard she ried to make others happy. Lyra and Bon Bond: I wouldn't have found this half as funny if I hadn't read the slice of life fan series yesterday. I was a bit annoyed how they hammered in that their friends, I thought they were doing a good job of skating the line in rainbow rocks but I guess they had to deconfirm it if they were going to share an episode with derpy. Octavia and Vynal: I think keeping vynal mute works since the no wacking voice is the go to voice for her and there's no way they could have gotten her to do it without SOMEONE finding out early. The BL: Kindof surprised they brought them back, and gave the main one that voice, I never watched the movie their from but I've seen enough to enjoy the scenes with them Steven the Sea Serpent: Didn't expect him, didn't expect the name to be cannon, didn't expect his save at the end, this guy shocked me on so many levels. Gummy: Wow... Doctor Whooves: I love what they did with him the British voice works the science obsession makes sense and the scarf was a nice tou- *dies*

In some fantasy cultures "King" can also be a gender neutral role I'd be intrigued if they'd be willing to have that be part of griffon culture, also might be an easy way to work around Hasbro's "No queens" attitude, since Celestia was originally supposed to be called Queen Celestia.

I'm kindof expecting them to go back and discover that Gilda is the new leader as a result of her being the driving force of their return to glory, bonus points if she's called something other than a princess.

It's rather remarkable how nearly every episode in season 5 so far has forced me to tweak my fancharacters backstories, Now I have the perfect set up for my villian character but have to either change his apearance to resemble a different species or make his backstory be that he was one of the original griffon kings. But enough about stuff I'll probably never do. Lets talk episode opinions. I like how the cutie map has finally entered back into the picture. I'm assuming that the relic wasn't made by mage metalbrooke so it's clear that the cutiemap is serving a more general purpose. Loved the new griffon designs, and the "got any bits" line makes me think that the griffons would make a rather amusing sort of NPC in a fantasy RPG. I wasn't expecting the show to get me to like gilda but not only did it do so, Gilda might be my new favorite character if they keep up the personality they had for this episode. Which means that in my top five favorite characters of My little pony, only one or two are actually ponies... Lovely.... Kindof confused about why Gilda even hesitated between the relic and her friends since she kindof made it clear that she didn't think the relic had anything to do with why her hometown was ruined. Maybe she felt the other griffons would be less jerky to her if she brought back their symbol of pride. Hopefully the series can keep up this quality of episodes, next weeks is the 100th episode so that should be fun..

I don't think anyone was particualarly out of character, Celestia established that she always felt the gala was a boring party that'd she wished would liven up, and the CMC are kids, and kids tend to act up a bit when going to a big event out of excitment, and I don't think they were aware that discord was reformed so they might just becating rude because they think he's a villian. Fluttershy explained her actions pretty well at the end and maud is as hard to read as ever so I've fot no explanaition for what happened there. But you should also keep in mind that a party on the scale of the gala can cause alot of stress for anyone so they might just be a tad wound up from preparing the party. But I didn't see anyone acting too odd save for maybe discord and pinkie, but thats normal for them.

So I was browsing youtube and found cannedcream's Theory about pinkie pie starting the mane six, the video had trouble loading after he mentioned Pinkie pie so I took some time to write out my own opinion on the matter, except the video didn't load for awhile so I had alot of time to consider the idea, halfway through writing I remembered another theory on Pinkie pie being psychic. And then I started to piece together something more and had to rewrite most of my comment. What if the rainboom that gave the mane six their cutiemarks affected pinkie pie stronger than the other ponies? Not only is she the only one physically changed by the effect beyond getting her cutiemark (not counting indirectly affected people such as spike and twilight's parents)but think about it, she moved to ponyville, a town a long distance away from her home as indicated by the cutie map (it was near the edge of the table which had ponyville in the center so thats at least as far as Our Town was). Why that town of all places? Maybe because that where the mane six would meet later? What if she saw her future in that rainbow? She's already shown knowledge beyond what she should reasonably know (Equestria girls), she even sums up her getting her cutie mark as how she saved equestria, something she actually did when she was revealed as the element of laughter. Speaking of, ever notice how when she gets her element pinkie is making a pose and expression that screams "oh how I've waited for this moment!"? Heck her reaction to twilight could have been a reaction of "It's TIME" instead of "Oh a new pony",(She's shown in "A friend in deed" to have a pretty particular process of welcoming new ponies to ponyville, why change things up for twilight with another party only a few hours away?) she knew where the book of the elements of harmony was off the top of her head ("It was under E" seems oddly specific compared to the OTHER time she knew where a useful book was). She's also the only one besides rainbow dash directly inspired by the rainboom itself. For Twilight, Rarity and fluttershy it was the shock-wave of the rainboom affecting something else the inspired them, for applejack it was where the rainboom was headed. But for pinkie her idea for a party came from the rainbow. Also, note that she has to explain that a party is called a party to her parents, as if she'd only just learned the concept herself, perhaps she saw herself partying in ponyville. What if pinkie pie saw the future when the rainboom impacted her farm? It would explain all of those odditiies as well as a few other things like her being prepared for the random things twilight needed in "It's about time", and her throwing the surprise party for twilight in the library despite any prior indication that she knew twilight would be staying there. I'm sure I'm not the first person to have thought about this since alot of the clues come from season 1 and 2, so I'd like to hear your views on this theory. Are there connections I missed? Were these all just happy coincidences? Did you guys already discuss this years ago and I'm just late to the party(pun intended)?

That was not a reference, that was a brick with the words Metal Gear etched into it. Best I could say is some kids would know it from smash bros if they're parents are gamers. Pushing or supporting a romantic pairing that you feel makes sense. Like if you think Spike and Rarity should get together someday.

Expanding this from my tyoutube comment: I had to wait a bit before checking out this episode, as I had just gotten back from the avengers 2 movie, strangely my opinion of that movie veered close to my opinion of that episode. But lets just stick with the episode. I enjoyed it, therewere a few scenes I felt were a tad cringeworthy and the liveaction cut gag is starting to wear thin for me, but it didn't really hurt the episode. I must say applejacks line about her sister growing up makes my desire for the show to update the CMCs models to teenagers and give them their cutie marks burn brighter. But wow, they didn't even try to be subtle during the pinkie and discord scene, I guess what ever pinkies abilities are, she must feel that she doesn't have to downplay them around discord. I like tree hugger, her design and personality kindof make her the maud pie of Fluttershy's friends. I'm guessing she's voiced by the same actress since maud was in the episode too. Seeing discords house raised alot of questions for me, Is that discords home dimension or is it just a part of equestria he was given free reign over? How did the mail popny even get in? And why, in the name of celestia, did they not think to assign derpy to that district? Oh well, if that mail pony ever gets out he'll probably put in a request for it. I guess the smooze's original abilities came from discord lending them out in the old show, makes sense why discord would think of him as the closest thing he has to an old friend. And you gotta love how discord basically pulled every comedy taboo in the span of two minutes(telling a joke everyones heard before, saying "what's up with that", making fun of the host, trying a knock knock joke in stand up comedy. and using prop gags as the whole joke) and then maud finishes up with the overused "No you" joke. I'm with celestia though, that joke about twilights flight skills was funny even if it was poorly delivered. Overall a good episode, and surpisingly downplayed for a discord episode. And i'm starting to want more of Celestia wanting to crash her own parties, it's adorable.