Thrond

Aww. do I have to chose? I like almost all of these a lot. Wonderbolts Academy - A perfect Rainbow Dash showcase that finds just the right balance between her charisma, her values, and her insecurities. She clearly takes her role very seriously, but her principles come first - and the episode is smart enough to have her slowly realize that rather than immediately take a stand. Horse Play - Honestly, this is tied for first place to me. I love seeing Celestia given new personality traits, and even more than that, this is just a terrific late example of what this show used to be good at. I love how, even though Twilight does the wrong thing, she does so for a perfectly sympathetic reason. Plus, everyone else is hilarious and perfectly characterized here. May the Best Pet Win! - On the other hand, this one is a bit more simple, but it's also just irresistibly silly. Dash providing her own music stings for a fast-paced animal race is just an inherently fun idea, and it's great to see her showboating just because she feels like it and not because she's overcompensating. And then it's got a great moral about the value of persistence on top of everything else. Make New Friends but Keep Discord - In general I just like Discord episodes, and this one is great because his rambling goofiness is essentially let loose, with Fluttershy (and Maud) only occasionally countering it. Tree Hugger doesn't counter it at all - if anything, her own goofiness just heightens it. Funny stuff. Parental Glideance - I still have issues with the moral here, but I just find Rainbow's parents delightful. They're embarrassing, and yet they're also so earnest and well-meaning, and nobody but Rainbow actually seems bothered by them. Plus, Rainbow and Scootaloo are both characterized perfectly here. Dragonshy - This is one of the more confident episodes of early season 1, but like a lot of the first half of that season, I mostly just find it cute and funny. Fluttershy just getting mad and talking to the dragon is great, as is her various attempts to just go home. It still has the lightweight, non-serious vibe of early season 1, but it also seems like the characters had stabilized by this point. Newbie Dash - The impressions sequence basically means I never want to watch this again, and maybe it should have had an anti-bullying message in there somewhere, but I don't see this as an episode about Rainbow being humiliated. I see it as a story about how far she has come, and how scared she is of losing all she's gained. There's some powerful stuff in there. She's All Yak - I really do love Yona, and she's adorable in this, but I really don't want to see the mane six doing racist things. This takes on a whole lot of baggage for a story that doesn't engage with that baggage beyond "be yourself," and I find it a bit depressing. And besides, I preferred when the mane six were trying to fight racism. Bats! - I feel like there's a lack of balance here. Sure, fruit bats are an essential part of the ecosystem, and I think everyone would prefer to treat wildlife humanely, but Applejack's livelihood depends on those bats, and the episode never gives her side a fair shake. And then the Flutterbat stuff comes out of nowhere and feels like a distraction.

Oh dear. I don't like very many of these at all. "Sleepless in Ponyville" - This is a great, thoughtful take on childhood fears and insecurities, and it's probably my favourite version of the Scootaloo/Rainbow Dash friendship. And I really dig how Luna helps out in this episode and the two others that copied it. "Common Ground" - I really enjoyed Quibble Pants' earnest attempts to get the kid to like him, and related a lot to his difficulty understanding sports. And I loved that Rainbow Dash tried her best to help but still managed to learn something in the end. "Appleoosa's Most Wanted" - I'm still not 100% comfortable with how this one portrays cutie marks, but its take on self-pity is fairly mature, and it's appealingly fast-paced. "Surf and/or Turf" - I guess this one is kinda cute but to me it feels like the kind of watered-down kids' show that I expected My Little Pony to be before I first watched it. The way that the entire problem is in Terramar's head keeps this from feeling very impactful to me. "Boast Busters" - I've come to really enjoy Trixie, even this early on, but Twilight's part in this still \annoys me. It's not clear to me why she thinks using magic at all would make her like Trixie, and it's also not entirely clear to me why Trixie needed to be upstaged. "The Cutie Pox" - This episode has it's moments but I never really liked the CMC's obsession with Cutie Marks, and this seems like a particularly blatant rehash of their season 1 episodes. And then Apple Bloom seems to have learned absolutely nothing when all is said an done, which just makes this episode seem pointless. "Forever Filly" - This one just seems stodgy and formulaic to me, like they reverse-engineered the story from the moral. Rarity suddenly being so obsessed with catching up on lost time comes out of nowhere and is really annoying, and the moral is made really obvious almost immediately. I find it boring. "Power Ponies" - It's honestly kinda weird that they came up with an excuse to turn the mane six into comic book superheroes and then gave them awful costumes and cliched powers. This should have been way more creative than it is, and instead it's just a nothing of an episode. "No Second Prances" - Twilight's characterization here seems unreasonable and selfish to me, and yet I'm also not convinced that she's wrong about Starlight, especially given that in this very episode she casts a spell on Big Mac without his consent. This episode doesn't make me trust Starlight, so I can't sympathize with her self-pity.

I think this is a better version of that than "Shadow Play" because Rainbow Dash trusting Daring Do is something with a tangible reason behind it, as opposed to Twilight's senseless hero worship, and also because this episode allowed us to believe for a while that Fluttershy might be mistaken, whereas "Shadow Play" always privileged Starlight's perspective even when it presented Starswirl's argument.

I think the salvage crew idea is really fun, but given how everything else had worked out, I'd probably say fishers or restaurant staff. Then again, the Equestria Girls world seems kinda vegetarian... entertainers of some sort, maybe?

Why would it be Scorpan? Is that your point of view? I think I finally understand what you mean by Spike's "destiny" if that's the case. You say that like it's a good thing. I don't think we need a new parental figure to explore these subjects, but you do have a good point. This show hasn't done a good job of showing Spike expanding his own horizons, especially when you ignore all of the weird adventure and diplomacy stuff. He doesn't have many friends his own age, he doesn't seem to have any aspirations in life, and he doesn't seem to be developing a sense of independence like the Cutie Mark Crusaders have. Especially given how Spike began going through puberty in season 8, it would have been real nice had we seen a little more of him growing up, like we got with the CMC.

No, no, "Fluttershy Leans In" is the one where she builds the animal sanctuary.

I think some people severely exaggerate the weirder parts of Twilight's relationship with Spike. It seems fairly healthy to me, considering that they live in a cartoon. I think what he's missing - aside from a father figure, of course - is a dragon who can help him understand his body and heritage, especially since he's entering adolescence. Remember, earlier that season Twilight didn't even recognize the Molt. I'm not sure he's ever going to perfectly get what he wants, but at least he lives pretty well as is, and at least Smolder's now there to tell him what's what. I think that would just wind up kinda like the season 9 Scootaloo episode.

I guess not, sorry.

I liked this episode, and a big part of why I liked it is because it's sad. I think it would have been improved a lot if Twilight weren't implied to be a parental figure for Spike, and I think this should have dug deeper into Spike's motivations. I think he turns on Twilight too quickly, and I kinda wish he had some sense that something was wrong with Sludge. More than anything else, though, I just wish that Twilight was able to find some way for Spike to get the things she can't give him. It needed a final scene where Smolder talks to Twilight about Spike. I just want her to know that Spike can get what he needs.

A big part of why I liked this episode is because it's relatively dark. Sludge did need to be a complete butthead, because otherwise it wouldn't be entirely clear just how severe this absence in Spike's life is. I gather you don't want Spike to be taken advantage of, but I think his longing for a dragon parent is all the more powerful when it makes him so easy to manipulate. It shows how desperate he is, so it's all the better when he gets real help from Smolder. Fair enough, which is why I really like how they did that in "Sparkle's Seven." It kinda seems like the show doesn't quite know what Spike's relationship with the mane six will be. I actually wish he had spent more time with them onscreen, honestly. I'm not sure siblings and nieces and whatever are that important, because this is specifically about parental figures, but I'm not a huge fan of Twilight being a parental figure for Spike, so I do wish he was more integrated with the family. And I really do believe that the show has done a good job establishing how close his relationship with Twilight is - I'm not one of the people who thinks it's uncaring or abusive - but there are still a lot of details which the show never clarified. This story isn't really about Sludge. It doesn't really matter what happens to him, as long as he's gone, and as long as Twilight recognizes the void in Spike's life. I like this episode, but my main issue with it is that I'm not completely sure Twilight does recognize that, even though Smolder is there to help him. And good lord, the monster bait thing was clearly their best option at the time. I would be really surprised if he harbors any ill feelings over that, because clearly there were bigger things to worry about.

I mean, if those are the examples we're going with, then sure. Those are both good episodes.

It's canon!

I don't think that's a fact.

"The Point of No Return" - This is such a great, insightful take on perfectionism that its only problem is the show's other great, insightful takes on perfectionism that came before. Also, Twilight worrying about an overdue library book is just an inherently funny idea. "Sisterhooves Social" - This is a perfect example of that season 2 mixture of great gags and genuine insight. Rarity realizing how much she cares about Sweetie Belle is the kind of simple but affecting story that this show doesn't really do anymore. "Flight to the Finish" - I'm glad this show addressed Scootaloo's disability so early in its run, and the way this goes about it is really sweet. And this is absolutely one of Rainbow Dash's best appearances. Love it when she's supportive and introspective. "Griffon the Brush Off" - This is still really early in the show, so it's still rough in some areas, but it's where the show first started to add nuance to its characters, even if the quirks hadn't quite solidified yet. Like a lot of early season 1, I mostly find it really funny. "Grannies Gone Wild" - On the other hands, this is an example of the loose characterization that sometimes plagued the later seasons, but it's consistently funny and has a good moral. Spirited old people are always delightful to me. "Gauntlet of Fire" - I still think this one doesn't do anything particularly interesting - it's a bland adventure where Spike saves the day by acting noble and ultimately learns nothing. But there's a lot of cute and funny moments that make it a fun watch. "Magic Duel" - This has its moments, but it seems like mostly fanservice to me, and I generally wish it had more substance. It generally comes across as empty spectacle to me, and I feel like it doesn't dig deep enough into Trixie's motivation, but it is fun. "Fluttershy Leans In" - This is barely a story, so I'm honestly not sure how it got produced. It kinda seems like it exists only to show how much Fluttershy has progressed, and I don't care. But at least she isn't annoying or stupid in it. "Tanks for the Memories" - I genuinely find it a bit insulting that this show has a story about grief in which nobody died. I don't want to watch a show that has to talk down to its audience. Plus it's really hard to sympathize with the lengths Dash goes to when Tank will just be back in a few months.

I continue to wish this show were less predictable. In general I wasn't that interested in Fluttershy being manipulated by Caballeron, but Rainbow Dash's closed-mindedness got on my nerves as well. I've always found Rainbow's protective attitude towards Daring Do kinda grating, excepting only that first Quibble Pants episode, and this couples that with more boring irony - it'd be funnier if she just admitted that she likes the spa and wasn't ashamed of it, frankly. But Fluttershy's own success in adventuring won me over, even if it's not exactly new; even though her gullibility kinda annoyed me here, her thoughtfulness is adorable. And I honestly didn't think Ahuizotl would show up, because they'd put so much emphasis on Caballeron, so that was a pleasant surprise. I was going to come down as kinda mixed on this, and then Fluttershy asked for Ahuizotl's side of the story, and that tipped the scales for me. I always thought it was peculiar he was shown as villainous in that episode, so having a story about the actual impact of tomb raiding is a really welcome surprise. It's both a great example of the naive empathy that I love in this show and an intelligent counterpoint to the problematic subtext of classic pulp adventures. Plus I loved how all of them decided to copy Daring and pursue literary careers. That's delightful.

I’m indifferent or mixed on most of these. “Bloom and Gloom” - I think there’s a psychological depth to this beyond what you usually see in this show, and the nightmare imagery is interesting. “Sparkle’s Seven” - Mostly I just found this really funny. “On Your Marks” - Funny, and I think this also does a good job of expanding on Apple Bloom’s identity and goals in life. “Applebuck Season” - Funny. ”Daring Don’t” - Not a fan of Dash in this, but the adventure story pastiche is fun. I’m not clear on why people take issue with Daring Do being real. “Luna Eclipsed” - Luna’s characterization here is one of the highlights of the show, but the moral bugs me. Seems weird that Luna should have to relive her trauma. “One Bad Apple” - I don’t really like the tone of this, but I do like Babs, and I wish this story were told from her perspective. ”Rock Solid Friendship” - This is a pretty serious offender for some of my least favourite trends in the show, and Pinkie is annoying in it, but Maud makes up for a lot. ”Fake It ‘Til You Make It” - This episode doesn’t make any sense.

What do you mean by “main character”? She frequently gets episodes where the mane six barely appear. How is she not a main character?

Yes, and because of that she will never be one of my favourite characters, but this will do for now. To be honest, I think she’s become dramatically more consistent these past two seasons; in season 7, especially, she would switch wildly between self-pity, bad judgment, and straightforward heroism in a way that never made sense to me. Now, she’s basically either Weird Twilight or Twilight 2.0, and I enjoy both versions of her even though I don’t think she stands out enough from the other characters.

Oh I didn't even process the "move to Canterlot" line. Do they not hear themselves when they write this? Do they legitimately not realize that it looks like her entire life has been uprooted for a job she doesn't even want? Why is this supposed to be satisfying?! Honestly, it kinda feels like the current writers are repeating all of the same mistakes from when Twilight first became a princess. Oh absolutely. I alone don't have a systematic, consistent, or reliable perception of the character. But there are certain modes she slides into that I enjoy.

Ok, ok, maybe I'll go into slightly more detail. "Lesson Zero" - That this still makes Twilight's motivations sympathetic even while she's doing weird crazy stuff is really impressive. "A Flurry of Emotions" - I think this is incredibly cute, and it's the first episode to properly address that maybe being a princess would be a bit stressful. "The Gift of the Maud Pie" - I just think this is a really charming and funny take on the old story. "Castle Mane-ia" - Like the above, I just find this really funny. I appreciate that there isn't anything serious happening in this one. "The Ticket Master" - Season 1 was a bit sketchy for a while but it's got a lot of funny episodes like this. Nowadays it seems pleasantly quaint. "Uprooted" - A little rote, but I do like the student six, and I think this does a fairly charming job of developing them a little. Not sure why it's so disliked here. "The Maud Couple" - The Mud Briar shtick got old fast, but the moral here is great, and there's a lot of funny moments, especially from Pinkie and Maud. "Too Many Pinkie Pies" - This is slightly too much Pinkie Pie for me, but there's a weird darkness around the edges that I find amusing. "Castle Sweet Castle" - I'm just not sure this goes deep enough to be so low-energy, and I was never that invested in the tree to begin with.

They briefly seemed to be establishing Sunset's temper as one of her core traits, especially with her role in "Rollercoaster of Friendship," but it honestly seems like they've backpedalled a bit this season. I'm genuinely not sure why that is.