Thrond

After rewatching some of the episodes with SG, I take back my earlier opinion of SG being groomed to be a sucessor. In fact, it was Sunburt's own words, mistakingly assuming SG was Twilight's protoge, and Starlight corrects him, saying that she's merely a student. (there are several other episodes that confirm this) So I can only hope that she remains as such, rather than being groomed for a position of power, if anything happens to the royals and the mane 6 in Future Equestria's time. 

I can't imagine something that significant happening to the royals and mane six, and even then, I have my doubts that Starlight would be the next in line. Students from a class don't usually substitute for their teacher. 

It's called show, don't tell. The "show" part is good writing. The "tell" part is bad writing, especially if it means you need some quack shrink and a whole bunch of white knights to justify Starlight's actions. She should be able to function without you holding her hoof. These are not the kind of breadcrumbs competent writers would want to spread among their audience. Even if these breadcrumbs were actually real, they'd do nothing but explain something that should have been made crystal clear from the very beginning to EVERYONE.

Granted, the episode proper only really shows you the initial incident, so I get why people find it underwhelming; I'm probably way overstating my case out of irritation. I guess most people saw the scene differently from how I did, as I never felt that it was supposed to justify Starlight's behaviour. Think I took it for granted that she was wrong and her reactions are wrong, so of course the initial incident would have to be wrong as well. That said, the argument that something should have corrected her course in the intervening years is beginning to stick with me, although I still don't have nearly the same amount of anger for it as you all do. 

Cheesus Crips who got grilled for our sins, you are really treating this show like it's catering to your kind of developed mind, aren't you? No wonder folks like you come charging in whenever some shitlord like me throws a fit over bad writing. White knights are basically filling the gaps with fanfics while accusing all others of wanting the show to be like theirs.

Apparently, the existence of several years between the Starlight flashback and the mane six encountering her wasn't as implicit as I took it to be. 

Would you mind also explaining Tree of Harmony? Me and Tyrone over there had an argument, you see. I claim that it's an eldritch deity which wants to enslave all life, while Tyrone thinks it's a space rock with super powers. 

I prefer your take on it. 

I think that illustrates the problem, though. The single story about Sunburst moving away after getting his cutie mark is the only explanation the show has given for why Starlight turned out the way she did. There's a BIG distance between "Starlight was upset as a kid when her friend moved away after getting his cutie mark" to "Starlight has committed her life to eradicating cutie marks, and is so committed that when the Mane Six try to put a stop to it, she works up a spell to manipulate spacetime in order to get revenge on them". And yet the show provides nearly no explanation of how Starlight got from the former to the latter. Kids moving away from their friends, or vice versa, seems like a pretty normal and understandable occurrence, one that most people eventually get through without obsessing over it into adulthood and drastically altering their life trajectories as a result. So why did Starlight react SO badly, and why didn't anyone (including herself) stop her on her path to thinking that all cutie marks destroy friendships and must be eradicated? I wrote in my original post in the topic for "The Cutie Re-Mark" some of the reasons why I find Starlight's backstory, as presented, hard to believe:

 

 

I honestly can't come up with solutions to these questions and issues. If the backstory shown in "The Cutie Re-Mark" is only the beginning, then we're not shown or told anything else that happened after that to make Starlight into an adult on a mission to get rid of all cutie marks. And that's a problem because I (and probably others) don't understand how exactly that happened, and have essentially no basis on which to fill in those details and make Starlight's backstory make sense. I would say that this seems like an instance of "show, don't tell", but the show doesn't even tell what happened after the backstory shown in "The Cutie Re-Mark". Maybe it should be rephrased in this case as "show, don't leave the audience to fill in a huge and important backstory with only assumptions and speculation".

I'm not entirely convinced that it was a night/day change; I imagine that it just planted seeds in Starlight's mind which many later events eventually transformed into a lasting hatred of cutie marks. Perhaps by the time anyone was aware of that, it was too late, but admittedly that's pure conjecture, and although Starlight seems generally unstable, we don't get a good sense for how that affected her ideology. With that said, I'm not entirely sure how else she would form that ideology, because unless she experienced a particularly long period of events which fed her confirmation bias, surely she'd realize that meaningful, lasting, healthy friendships can still form between ponies with different cutie marks. I always found it implicit enough to not feel like I was doing the legwork, even though there's clearly a lot of details missing and I can understand how people might be disappointed in that. 

Let's get the negativity out of the way first. Got way more episodes I think are underrated anyway. 

Overrated

Look Before You Sleep - Nearly unwatchable from the obnoxious bickering between two characters who always, with almost no exceptions, bring out the worst in each other. 

Luna Eclipsed - Seriously, does nobody care about how Pinkie more or less got away with ostracising Luna? That was awfully mean-spirited of her, and the episode tries to play it off as all being in good fun. 

It's About Time - Might play better to me on a rewatch, but I just don't really enjoy watching Twilight make ridiculous leaps in logic, even if it is justified by her sleep deprivation, and this episode doesn't have any of the depth of "Lesson Zero." It's also the first I watched when it came out, and it just wasn't a good start. 

Magical Mystery Cure - Hey guys, did you know that ponies have to obey their cutie mark and have no control over their own lives? And clearly Twilight is the only character who matters, because it's not like all five other main characters have accomplished just as much as her. The songs sound good but everything in them is pure poison. Honestly though, as much as I hate Twilicorn, it's really the emphasis on "destiny" which makes this episode so gross to me now, especially with the context of the S4 premiere. Speaking of which...

Princess Twilight Sparkle - The Tree of Harmony would have been enough to get this episode on my bad side, but it's also overstuffed, Twilight's emotional arc is given no breathing room, and it puts a cliffhanger in a flashback which has nothing to do with the main story. AND it's a cliffhanger which we've already learned the resolution to, so it's kinda impossible to rewatch once you know what's going on. Bad writing all around. 

Bats! - Y'know, Applejack's stance is perfectly reasonable, so it seems kinda odious that the episode paints her in such a negative light. I think that's only supposed to refer to her approach, but that this doesn't come across well only underlines how poorly executed this episode is. And, yeah, that stinger is kinda messed up, and basically invalidates the episode's plot anyway. 

Maud Pie - Maud is nice, but the episode over-emphasizes the contrast between her and the mane six to the point of making her appear a little insensitive. Plus, the rock poetry is a little too silly when treated as an oddity - makes Maud almost feel like a one-joke character. 

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3 - Half of this is great, but the opening bit with Twilight and Rainbow is brutal. Lot of flat jokes, all of which rely on obnoxiously exaggerated characterization. Makes these two seem almost like Rarity and Applejack in how much they bring out the worst in each other. 

The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone - The unfortunate implications of one culture bettering another by introducing their values is kinda hard to ignore, especially with how difficult it is to believe that the destitute griffon society would not have a single person try to make friends, even if just out of sheer necessity. That's not how societies work, dammit! Plus, Gilda is drained of all life here, and I was never really able to be invested in her. 

Amending Fences - I'm sorry, I cannot sympathize with Moondancer. We know that Twilight was a recluse who had no interest in friendship, so it's hard for me to picture exactly how Moondancer would come to perceive their relationship as meaning anything to her. Furthermore, Twilight barely knows Moondancer. How does she know that Moondancer is actually being self-destructive, and didn't just decide that friendship wasn't her thing either? Was it necessary for Twilight to stalk her and shove friendship down her throat? How does Twilight react to people who just don't have much interest in social interaction? What is this episode's moral?! I'm baffled that so many people consider it one of the show's best!

Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep? - At least half of this is just action and callbacks, which I already happen to think have nothing to do with the show's strengths, but it's also pretty weightless, unimaginative, crappy action, and that action focus combined with the callbacks and the fact that this is a "serious" Luna episode gives it an overwhelming feeling of pandering to the fanbase to me. Not necessarily dispassionate, but misguided, and the fact that the humour in this is painfully lazy doesn't help, nor does the extremely questionable moral of "getting over" obvious trauma. Barely any redeeming qualities here if you ask me. 

Hearthbreakers - The main plot is tedious as all hell and drowns out all the charming stuff happening in the margins. Mostly frustrating, though not without its merits. 

The Mane Attraction - Coloratura's main conflict is powerful and her response is admirable, but I can't remember her personality at all, and Applejack learns absolutely nothing from this. It's yet another one of those episodes where a main character helps another character with their issues, while learning nothing in the process, and stands out for adding almost nothing to the show itself. 

Gauntlet of Fire - Look, it's fine, but I have no idea how this forgettable, by-the-numbers adventure episode became so popular. It's moderately amusing at times, it has an okay message, and while it does have the uncomfortable idea of non-ponies adopting pony values, at least the dragons don't seem to be in utter disrepair when the ponies arive. And yet... it's so unexceptional. Ember is a sterotype, it's not really about anything the show hasn't been about many times before, and no returning characters really grow from it or express an especially meaningful internal conflict. It's just okay. 

Viva Las Pegasus - I kinda like this one but there isn't a whole lot memorable about it. The setting is merely window dressing, Applejack and Fluttershy spend a good amount of the story separated, any memorable new characters are underused, and the plot lacks originality. I get why people like it, but to praise it to the high heavens like everyone else is doing is confusing to me. 

Underrated

Feeling Pinkie Keen - My god, that's some top-tier slapstick. 

Owl's Well That Ends Well - Always thought this supplied some good, emotional development of Spike and Twilight's relationship. Spike's a bit silly and Twilight's a bit pedantic, but I liked seeing how much they care about each other. 

Putting Your Hoof Down - "New Fluttershy" is charismatic. As flawed as this episode is, that one fact does a lot to keep it entertaining. 

Dragon Quest - Aside from the cold open, this has top-tier characterization around the board, it's very funny, and I think its moral is really nice. Always struck by how far Rarity and Rainbow Dash, arguably the show's two best characters, have come since S1. 

Ponyville Confidential - Distinctly recall pushback against this one back in the day, but while the Ponyville ponies were kinda petty and hypocritical to the CMC, what they were doing was wrong, and it's not hard to see why ponies around them would be angry and mistrustful. Need to rewatch this one. 

One Bad Apple - Empathy: it's good. Babs Seed is a fully fleshed-out and ultimately sympathetic character, and I like her, and I really like that the CMC were able to welcome her and show her a better way in the end. Plus, I'm weak against pro-empathy morals in general. 

Spike at your Service - This episode is funny, and the conversation around the middle where Applejack is complaining to Rarity is one of the most organic and casual scenes in the entire show. I want to see that kind of conversation more often. 

Just for Sidekicks - It's funny. 

Daring Don't - It's very funny. 

Leap of Faith - I think this is just as good as "Rarity Takes Manehattan" and "Pinkie Pride," in no small part because the conflict to Applejack's honesty is quite possibly the most difficult one to face. It takes imminent danger for her to open up, and it's very understandable why that would be. 

Equestria Games - An exercise in sustained empathy. As jokes, the awkward moments don't work, but on some level I think this episode is supposed to be kinda painful, because it lets us empathize with what Spike's going through, and I find his struggle to be very sympathetic and interesting. Plus, this is quite possibly Cadance's best episode. She's just the sweetest thing, and I'd rewatch this episode just for her. 

Party Pooped - The yaks consider lying to be a grave insult, and wars have definitely been started over less than feeling that your people have been personally insulted and disrespected. Furthermore, this is very funny, and I just love the whole premise that Twilight and friends are dealing with diplomacy for the first time and are woefully unprepared for this. I would watch an entire show of that. 

The Crystalling  - A bit heavy on exposition, but Starlight's conundrum is sympathetic, and I really enjoy seeing Shining Armour and Princess Cadance struggling with being new parents. Think this is the first time in a while we've gotten a significant amount of Shining Armour, too, and combine that with the focus on character development, the lack of a major villain or even threat until halfway through, and the mane six acting more as damage control than big heroes, and this is still the freshest the show's been in ages. 

The Gift of Maud Pie - It's the little details which make this one. Rarity and Pinkie Pie have the sort of warm, amicable dynamic which is my favourite in this show, and they're really funny together. Then there's Maud, who's not only funny but has come to show emotions in subtle but percievable ways, making her a much more endearing character than in her debut. Plus, learning about the Pies' tradition is great, and it's a good non-map excuse to have two characters in one place, as Rarity expanding her business is also lovely. She's gonna be a big name some day! 

On Your Marks - Hardly great, but it's a lot funnier than everyone seems to give it credit for, and I like that it at least tries to point to a new direction for the CMC, even if it stays pretty surface level and inconclusive. 

Newbie Dash - Finds a very inventive way to evoke just how far Dash has come in order to become a Wonderbolt, using a name which was once used to mock her as her Wonderbolt callsign, thus inverting its meaning. In simpler terms, this is about Dash reclaiming the name "Crash" as a symbol of her accomplishments, and that's really satisfying. It also finds a fresh spin on the "Dash needs to learn some humility" theme by having Dash's boasting escalate with her insecurity, therefore meaning that she actually needs a boost to her ego in order to stop bragging and showboating. If only it weren't for the impressions scene, this would be one of S6's very best. 

Spice Up Your Life - It's fun and there's nothing wrong with Rarity's characterization. 

28 Pranks Later - It has a cool atmosphere and a lot of funny jokes. That makes up for a lot in my book. 

To Where and Back Again - It's only a couple people who are griping about this one, but I really don't care about the plot contrivances or even formula beats as long as we get to spend time with such endearing characters and see them express insecurities and bounce off each other. Does what "Viva Las Pegasus" tried to do but way better. 

Found this while searching for other threads, and haven't found any later threads of this type, so I'll just dump my own list here. Been a while since I watched, but here goes: 

Great

1. Bloom and Gloom, a clever and moving depiction of realistic childhood insecurities. 

2. Rarity Investigates!, one of the most consistently funny episodes of the whole show, and featuring its most underrated pairing. 

3. Slice of Life, a genuinely inventive bit of absurdity which subverts more fanon than it features. 

4. Party Pooped, another inventive bit of absurdity with a strong message. Only episode to make Twilight's status meaningful. 

Good

5. Brotherhooves Social, an exciting and eventually moving episode which develops a side character. 

6. The Cutie Map, which is exciting precisely because it explores even darker territory than usual. 

7. Crusaders of the Lost Mark, which is kinda like "Magical Mystery Cure" done right. 

8. Make New Friends but Keep Discord, which is just plain entertaining. 

9. Canterlot Boutique, which is blatantly rushed and sorta unbalanced but fun and admirable for moving subplots forward. 

10. The Hooffields and McColts, which features another fun and underseen dynamic, though its ending is weak. 

Okay

11. The Cutie Re-Mark, which has really solid humour and a poignant ending in service of a very formulaic story. 

12. The Mane Attraction, which might rise on re-watch but right now comes across as formulaic and inconsequential. 

13. Hearthbreakers, which coats fun elements in an incredibly tedious main plot. 

14. Amending Fences, which I have always found unconvincing and unearned. 

15. Tanks for the Memories , which would be funny enough if Dash weren't impossible to sympathise with. 

16. Castle Sweet Castle, which is too sweet to dislike but too boring to feel anything else about. 

Bad

17. Scare Master, which exaggerates Fluttershy's fearfulness to an asinine extent and is filled with obnoxious reference humour. 

18. Princess Spike, which has a lazy, generic plot without many funny jokes.

Awful

19. Made in Manehattan, which features one of the most needlessly depressing scenes in the show's history. 

20. The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone, which is lethargic and bases its worldbuilding on unconvincing premises. 

21. Appleoosa's Most Wanted, which takes the questionable aspects of cutie marks to their most disturbing extreme. 

22. What About Discord?, which revolves around a joke which is apparently supposed to be obnoxious. 

23. The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows, which repeats a single unbearable cringe comedy gag with little variety or depth. 

24. Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?, which seems to fundamentally misunderstand what makes this show good. 

Lotta people reacting as if Starlight's backstory was supposed to be the entirety of her motivation, or even to justify her actions, when it's really only the beginning of her ideology. Seems pretty obvious that there was a lot of confirmation bias involved after Sunburst left. 

As for Starlight, I don't think it makes a difference whether she learns her lesson or not. Even if she continues to allow her lack of empathy for others to show, even if she still exerts her power over others, she's still just going to get rewarded in the end anyway. 

I don't really think she got "rewarded" in "Every Little Thing She Does." It's the episodes where she does something worthwhile where she actually gets some kind of reward.  

Twilight... yes, mostly, although she seems to have forgotten the lesson again in "Every Little Thing She Does," since she's right back to planning Starlight's friendship lessons. I guess she never had any reason not to, though - wasn't the issue always that she was overbearing about it? I dunno, Twilight has barely ever grown meaningfully since season 2.

Starlight is more complicated. "Every Little Thing She Does" was a bit of a blunder, and as good as I think its ideas are, Starlight's initial remorselessness does change the way her eventual apology comes across. That she still seems guilty and distrustful of herself in the finale without making any significant blunders makes it feel a lot more sincere, though.

Having not read the comics, Sombra is my pick, because he mixes the horrific deeds of Tirek with the sadism of Chrysalis and Discord. Starlight at least appears to have some moral code, and Chrysalis has somehow convinced herself that her borderline inept tyranny is for the best, so they seem less "evil" to me, and Discord is more unshackled from conventional morality than anything. Nightmare Moon was never overtly malicious, aside from her Equestria-conquering ambitions. Tirek, while just as sociopathic as Sombra, doesn't have any moments I remember as being especially sadistic - he just doesn't care about the pain he causes, if I'm remembering correctly. Plus, Sombra just leaves more to the imagination, and I find that genuinely frightening.

   ...They've covered themselves in bees in an effort to outdo each other. Maybe I'm exaggerating that on account of my being fatally allergic to the lil' buggers, but that ain't a healthy relationship even if they have "mellowed out." Hah, they're mere steps away from playing Russian Roulette in a bid to prove their superiority over each other! 

Bees scare me as well, but that never seemed especially serious - more the two of them having fun than anything. It's something Rainbow in particular would possibly have done anyway, and that episode is a good example of them being very friendly with each other. Plus, while neither is the brightest of the mane six, I think they both know the limit between "friendly challenge with proper safety precautions" and "potentially deadly bout if irresponsibility." 

  Weeell... to be honest, that's likely how I see most of RD's flirting attempts to go. So put the creeps together, eh? I can see RD's attempts to just turn right back around to how much of a catch she is. Think that's what I found so funny about that scene, like You're any better, eh Dashie? Know what else they have in common? Framed Headshots of themselves!   That's maybe one way I think of it, with their clashing pride it would somewhat force the other to be a bit humble. Both strike me as libel to openly & harshly critique the other's efforts and only drive each other to higher heights!  

I don't really see it that way, though of course I have no idea what Rainbow Dash flirting would look like. She certainly doesn't seem the type to dismiss someone else's dreams as being made up to impress her. I find it fun to imagine that she'd be a lot more smooth, but that's just me. In any case, it's pretty clearly not gonna happen, because Rainbow seemed repulsed by his advances. I can concede your points, but what I just can't get past is that Rainbow clearly showed little interest and found those advances kinda gross. 

That was totally a straight-up date she went on with Quibble (Mr. Pants, hee hee!) 

This is a good ship. 

but, ehh...   I just get the feeling like if you met Rainbow Dash in real life & insinuated that she might be gay she'd likely respond by knocking a few of your teeth out.  

I like to think she'd be less likely to take it as an insult, and just confusedly correct you. She's grown less defensive of her image over time, and I just can't see her being offended by someone getting her sexuality wrong. Unless you implied there was something wrong with that, or something. 

Goddamit, is anyone returning? Dave Rapp, at least? Why is it so hard for the show to nail down a consistent set of writers nowadays? Season 6 was good, and a step in the right direction, but season 7 is looking less and less like a sure thing. Still hoping for the best. 

My thoughts on this require a bit of unpacking, but to put it briefly: yes, except I don't think that's what Twilight is trying to di. 

1. I'm really not convinced that Twilight is grooming Starlight as a successor. She's just trying to make Starlight a well-adjusted member of pony society, and nothing else. I'm even a little ambivalent about whether Celestia was looking for a successor, to be honest, as even with Twilight having become a princess, Celestia hasn't stepped down. And it's doubtful that Twilight has loftier goals than just helping Starlight understand friendship, which even now she's only just beginning to.  
2. We have no idea if Twilight is Celestia's only student to not go rogue, or even if she's the only student who's become an alicorn. We know that Celestia and Luna are long-lived, but although any evidence to the contrary is pure conjecture, it's never confirmed that alicorns always have long lifespans. Even then, over this long period of time, maybe another simply got sick or fatally injured or something. It could have happened. And even then, maybe Celestia had students who just never became alicorns. It's clear that she only takes in ponies with significant magical potential, but nothing has confirmed that this inherently means becoming an alicorn, or inherently becoming royalty. 
3. It seems doubtful to me that we'll see the conclusion of Starlight's arc. Even after three seasons, Twilight's ascension felt rather sudden, so if Starlight reaches her level, it certainly won't be for a good while still. It would require a much greater level of investment than the show has thus far provided, and multiple seasons of her having a solid grasp on friendship, which she currently still has less of than Twilight ever has since the pilot. 
4. This show has an optimistic outlook, to the point that any halfway sympathetic character generally has their life move in a positive direction. Any permanent betrayal just seems unlikely in this show - even Sunset Shimmer we only learned about from being told about her past, and she wound up getting back on the right path anyway. People keep talking about Starlight wandering off the "right" path, but that's just not something which happens in this show. 

So yes, I do think that Twilight will succeed in teaching Starlight, but only how to be a good friend, because that's the main thing she's trying to do. 

(Or as I call it, rain-BowJack!)

BowJack Horse-ship

   What was that during? Fall-weather Friends? That autumnal race episode where they got all combative about it? I cannot deny that there was some sparks flying between them there! I can certainly see AJ & RD dating ...having their moments, maybe even having a loving relationship... but I don't see them having a healthy relationship! Heck, do think I've seen some YouTube videos made about how BowJack is possibly the most hole-ridden sinking ship in the fandom!    That, would be a relationship built on competitiveness  & stubbornness.

That was an early episode and I feel like their relationship has mellowed out since then; can't recall any episodes they've shared since where their banter has been less than friendly, and that level of mutual appreciation is the main thing I look for in a ship. 

     Do have to agree with her spiky personality RD is quite hard to ship. I'm tempted to say Rainity (Rarity+Dash, they worked quite well together when RD got herself basically blamed for kid-friendly murder.) but that's kind of a stretch.

I think Rainbow Dash and Rarity would have the second most obvious thing to bond over (after Rainbow Dash and Applejack of course) given that they have loftier dreams than the rest of the mane six. Plus, the episode you point out starts with Rainbow and Rarity very excited about going to dinner together, and that's before Rainbow is accused of a crime she didn't commit! 

I'd say our best bet is Rain-yr, think Zephyr's bluster matches her pretty hoof-to-hoof! How better to keep a loudmouth in line, than with another loudmouth?

I don't think Rainbow necessarily needs to be "kept in line," and she pretty clearly seemed to dislike Zephyr's advances - understandably so, might I add. That is a relationship which I really don't see working. 

I suppose my top three in this category, which oddly enough seem to chain together.  Are as follows:

Flutterdash:  Because RD is far too competitive & pushy for a quiet, panicky mare like Fluttershy. I don't see her being willing to slow down constantly for her and Dragonshy sort of was the nail in the coffin for me there.

She was pretty gentle and understanding in "Hurricane Fluttershy," though!

Also, i fully support ZephyrDash. It's the closest we've had to a legit MLP RD ship. Why so much hate? I know he's a jerk, but he's adorkable. Also, it's probably just because you all see him as a rival to Soarin'. :I

Rainbow Dash is clearly not interested in Zephyr, his advances are creepy and condescending, and I see him as a rival not to Soarin, but to Applejack. AppleDash 4lyfe.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash, most overrated ship because they only got it because of their VA and they don't have much in common and hasn't been relevant since 2011.

I ship them because I have fun reading sexual tension into the episodes they spend together and because they have clearer common interests than pretty much any other mane six pairing. Dunno where you get that they don't have much in common, and I certainly don't understand why so many people seem to consider "relevance" important to shipping. 

To be fair, Applejack's Day Off wasn't entirely the Fox Brother's fault. I believe Dusedau was at least partially responsible.

Dusedau only has a story credit, so unless he was guiding behind the scenes, he's only really to blame for the repetition and maybe for the Rainbow Dash nonsense, as I really don't think there's anything wrong with how Applejack acted at the end. Fox brothers could easily have added more jokes to make the episode more exciting, so they're at least half to blame for how boring it is - the other half of the blame would go to the animators, who filled the backgrounds with absolutely nothing worth noticing. The episode does stick out among "The Gift of the Maud Pie" and "P.P.O.V.," however, as even the latter is at least pretty funny at times. 

...yeah, no, if you can't tell she has a personality, either you have a bias against EQG, or haven't actually watched all 4 movies.

Sunset described her personality herself, so that's a pretty clear starting point to what she's like.

 

By the way, I don't particularly like Sunset, so it's not like you're dealing with a Sunset fanboy or whatever.

Maybe I'm basing too much of it on "Legend of Everfree," where she's pretty much a slab of wood, as she definitely doesn't seem so boring in the previous two movies (I mean, she has actual flaws in those!), but I still don't have a very good feeling for what her interests are or what she does in her spare time.

Admittedly, I liked season 6 as well, but none of the episodes left a lasting impression on me. None of them really had that "wow!" factor that episodes from the previous two seasons did. I mean, "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" was so good that I actually stood up and applauded at the end of it. Still looking forward to season 7. Season 6 was by no means a bad season. It's just that most of the episodes came off as mediocre.

I appear to be one of the few people who didn't get that "wow" factor from season 4, and season 5 genuinely annoyed me on quite a few occasions; meanwhile, I had a lot of fun with season 6, and can name a good few episodes which really did wow me. I mean, "A Hearth's Warming Tale" alone raised the bar significantly,

As for Rainbow Dash pranking Fluttershy, consider all of the character development she's received over the past four seasons (even if it got reconned for an episode like in "Scare Master"). Given how much Fluttershy has grown as a character, Rainbow Dash obviously thought that Fluttershy could handle it. At least it was tame compared to some of the others she pulled. (Who the hell puts a brick in someone's sandwich!?) At the very least Rainbow Dash is completely at fault here. She was the one who took her friends' words the wrong way. Even Twilight says, "I don't think she understood what we meant." Rainbow Dash deserved what happened to her.

I have no issue with Twilight's friends scaring Rainbow to teach her a lesson, but she doesn't express a whole lot of guilt over the Fluttershy thing or ever really show that she's thinking about anyone but herself, as far as the Pranks are concerned. Which is the point, but I'm not sure that I believe she would act that way at this time.

I already have modest expectations, so if it doesn't turn out great, I'll probably be sad about the lost opportunity, but for it to genuinely let me down it'd have to be genuinely awful (like, Legend of Everfree awful, at least), so I'd certainly be irritated if that happened. 

This is really my biggest concern, aside from an increasing (although perhaps unfounded) feeling of "too many cooks in the kitchen." General audiences won't know anything about, say, Twilight's journey from a hermit to the Princess of Friendship, so if the film bases any emotional beats on that, they're gonna fall completely flat. I'm sure the broad story will be fairly easy to follow and fairly exciting, and at two and a half hours there might even be a genuine emotional core to it, but there's a chance that it'll either gonna be inaccessible to a wider audience, or do absolutely zilch to progress the characters. It could surpass that expectation, and I admit to not having viewed many film sequels to TV shows lately, but right now I'm not really expecting it to be much more than cute, kind of exciting and hopefully pretty funny. In Rotten Tomatoes terms, would predict somewhere around the mid-70s, with a general critical consensus of something cute and funny but insubstantial. I have reservations, is what I'm saying; it seems healthy not to get my hopes up for top-tier pony. 

Alright, let's get this out there. 

1. Learning more about Sunset Shimmer's interests.

Look, I like Sunset as much as the next person, but now that the movies seem to think her anxieties are dealt with, they ought to give her something of a personality. Aside from seeing what she likes to do in the human world, which would go a long way towards making her feel less like a slab of plywood, it'd also be great for the specials to explore her flaws in more detail, because Legend of Everfree made her seem more or less infallible. It's boring and hard to connect to. 

2. Learning about the mane six's lives.

What form do Rarity and Rainbow Dash's ambitions take in this more familiar world? What are Twilight's higher education plans? We've seen horses on Applejack's farm, so what other animals does she raise? Maybe we could also see more of Fluttershy's work at the shelter, or whatever the hell Pinkie does in her spare time, and meeting their families would be especially delightful. Does Pinkie live on her own? Or is her family slightly more modern in this world? There's so many interesting questions brought up just by the change in setting. 

3. Interaction between Equestrian and Human counterparts.

This one seems unlikely, but more stuff like the ending of Friendship Games would be a lot of fun. How would the pony mane six react to their human equivalents? And yes, this does include learning more about human Sunset Shimmer, because again, it'd be a lot of fun, and if human Sunset is as mean as pony Sunset used to be, you could have a neat little plot thread about her literally confronting her past. Finally, Princess Twilight hasn't been in these things for a while, so having her check in on the human world would be nice. 

4. More confidence from SciTwi.

I get it. Different environments lead to different personalities. But the whole idea is that this is Twilight Sparkle, and as is she's barely recognizable. Now that she's in a more welcoming environment, I'd like to see her act more like her pony counterpart - not in the same sense of being boring and infallible, but showcasing some of her counterparts faults and becoming less timid. I don't want her to take the spotlight from Sunset, but as is she barely seems like the Twilight we recognize. 

5. More of the absurdity of Friendship Games.

The third movie had high school motocross. You want this world to set itself apart? How about we get more silly junk like that? It'd also help bring some humour back after the milquetoast dullness of Legend of Everfree, and if these shorts are unable to focus more on individual plotlines and character arcs, and more importantly regain some of their identity. Shouldn't be so bad as long as Lewis & Songco aren't at the helm.

6. More familiar faces in new contexts.

There's so many characters we haven't met yet! If we do leave the school, I'd like to learn more about characters from FiM and how their counterparts live in the human world. Seeing characters I recognize is half of the fun of these movies for me. 

Why should they? Why should they not respect that some parents would rather their kids not watch about lgbt ponies? Everybody has different beliefs and I'm sure they would lose a lot of little fans because of angry parents.

Because there shouldn't be anything wrong with kids watching a show with LGBT characters; there's nothing which makes them less appropriate than non-LGBT characters. 

"A Hearth's Warming Tail"

A Christmal Carol episode. Uninspired as ****, but hey, it has Luna in it with a new singer.

 

"Spice Up Your Life"

Mediocre. Just mediocre.

 

"Stranger Than Fan Fiction"

Boring with lame jokes and pop culture references. Maybe it's Josh Haber's fault, though.

 

"The Times They Are a Changeling"

This was okay, excluded the abysmal ending. And there he shares this episode with two other guys. So who can know that it's Vogel who should take the praise?

 

"Viva Las Pegasus"

Again. He shares this episode with the same two guys, Kevin Burke and Chris Wyatt. The episode is okay again, but i start to believe that it's because of Burke's and Wyatt's effort.

 

i just noticed he took part in the finale with Josh Haber. Not sure if that makes things better or worse...

I really like all those episodes, so hopefully that explains my disappointment.

Don't be so sure. Compared to seasons 4 and 5, season 6 was very mediocre. It wasn't a bad season, it's just none of the episodes made any effort to stand out like the aforementioned seasons.

I actually liked season 6 more than the prior two seasons by a fair margin, although the absence of two of its best writers is awfully concerning. Still hoping season 7 continues with the strong direction.

I don't get what the big deal is with people hating on "Newbie Dash" and "28 Pranks Later." I thought these were both great Rainbow Dash episodes.

"Newbie Dash" is severely underrated; I wish it expressed her best qualities too, but it explores her with meaningful depth and somehow manages to wring emotion and pathos out of something which would realistically just be a meeting and a slightly embarrassing first day.

I also like "28 Pranks Later," but it doesn't depict Rainbow very well; I was under the impression that she was much more sensitive by this point, so pranking Fluttershy(!) of all ponies seems off base for her.

Guys they're totally heterosexual, you think that the creators would put that kind of thing into a kids show?

They haven't disproved it yet, so we can always speculate! Use your imagination!

Plus, maybe they should put that kind of thing in a kids' show.

That storyline ought to be wrapped up by now, and we've only seen that form again in costumes and dreams, so I doubt Fluttershy will ever actually revert to Flutterbat, and I'm kinda glad for that, because it only really works for that story, and I consider every appearance since the first to be egregious can pandering. You could make it a superpower, but that sounds exceedingly boring to me, so I'd rather it wasn't.