Nyactis Mewcis Catlum

To be fair, you do have a point here. I definitely found myself laughing at 28PL more than I did MMDW. I just think the things it did wrong, it did worse than MMDW did. Honestly, that cake prank is actually amazing. If I could pull that off on someone in real life, I totally would. It's probably the one part of 28PL, along with Sweetie Belle's blasé attitude about it (i wonder how the cake tastes? clearly good if Sweetie Belle didn't seem to mind anything else about it), that sticks out to me as being particularly good. And the one done on Applejack is funny on the sheer idea of how the heck did she do that? I think maybe a kid could probably buy it was the 'extreme' that they had to go to (and thinking about the primary demographic of this show is certainly what I do, and trying to think within the show's world itself rather than simply putting in real world notions everywhere), but I really don't buy it, personally. And to be honest, I think the reason I don't buy it is partly because the set-up beforehand is poor, and I think MMDW's did its setup better, funnily enough. Maybe I could buy something as extreme as this if Rainbow's pranks were getting excessively harmful, or a majority of them were bad, but over half were harmless (and actually really good pranks, at that), and the ones that were harmful didn't take up that much screentime and the pain that would be inflicted was temporary. (In Cranky's case, bathing in tomato juice would probably fix it.) I think it actually might have worked better if they switched the order of the pranks. If Rainbow pranking Fluttershy was more toward the end of the episode, rather than the beginning, then it'd definitely make sense that they'd jump to the conclusion they would need to scare Rainbow in return. I still think the prank would be disproportionate, but I'd be more easily able to follow the ponies' logic that that's the only way they could get through to her. That, and handling the conversations they actually do have in a more realistic way, rather than a miscommunication go balls-out and make Rainbow's blasé attitude from the first prank carry over further. (I mean, if they were willing to depict her that way in the first prank, why not go all out with it?) As it was, that meeting came off less like she brushed them off and more like they put her in a defensive position in which literally no person ever would listen and chose terrible wording that most people would know would egg Rainbow on. This would better hook in the idea of 'making Rainbow feel how we feel about her pranks'. (I mean seriously, Applejack. "Lazy"?) Hell, I think the story would be stronger, even, if the pranks started out harmless and they were fine with it, but over time they progressed to getting annoying and then even dangerous, and that's when they needed to stop her, which would make the moral at the end more nuanced and better emphasize the "for the right audience, for the right time" message the episode is attempting to convey. Come to think of it, MMDW did have a bit of an ordering problem itself... I think a lot of people would be less against that episode if they reasoned that they needed to do something about Rainbow's ego once they noticed Rainbow putting off rescuing people. But unlike MMDW, 28PL started out with its strongest case to show Rainbow what-for first, whereas MMDW escalated to it. I don't know if I would call it a "pacing" problem, so much as a... I don't think the pranks got extreme enough to justify the one that they did. This wouldn't fix the terrible characterization on Rainbow's part, but I acknowledge characters are vehicles for story-telling at their core, and this would at least make it easier to buy the ending. also shit tl;dr this comment is a bit all over the place here sorry lol Yeah, I do think she'll be fine after this, and that's mainly because this is a cartoon, and obviously they're not going to explore how the idea of feeling as though starting a plague would mentally scar you for life. ...though that does make interesting fanfic material It's more the principle of the thing that I'm concerned about. And, taking the demographic into account as I said before, what if it encourages people to believing that attempting these pranks on people in real life is acceptable? In the world of the cartoon it can be fixed just by having a new episode happen, plus the lighthearted tone of the show, but if you did something like that outside of the show you'd pretty badly scar your friend. Food for thought. I pointed this out in a status update, but a lot of Rainbow's fear doesn't seem to come from trying to protect her own life. She speaks a lot about how they would 'wait for the effects to wear off' and that 'no one should eat the cookies'. The video I linked to says it already, but to actually use a line from the transcript: Rainbow Dash: No, no! Stay away! They're making you sick! You don't want these! I mean, lbr, why would Rainbow fear for her life when all they're doing is walking around saying 'cooooookies' over and over? No, the fear would logically stem from how erratic the behavior is...and the guilt that she caused it. It's the isolation of the situation that makes it creepy to Rainbow, not so much the idea that she will be killed by her friends. Because, I mean, she wouldn't... And Rainbow usually doesn't appear to be that afraid to attempts to her life, and she's seen it all before a million times already.

I think Lauren Faust mentioned somewhere that she wanted ponies to have different body types, but earlier on that proved to be difficult for the animators. Maybe they're implementing that more in later seasons?

EDIT: Upon going back over episodes a bit as well as seeing other people's thoughts, I'd like to bring up it's not just "Griffon the Brush-Off" that makes this characterization of Rainbow feel contradictory. "Scare Master", which happened before this episode, has Fluttershy clearly saying being scared is not for her and she wants no part in it and would like to avoid it. Hmmm interesting. Revisiting this episode. Still think it's bad. But I don't want to restate reasons that people have already specified in here, because honestly, I think reciting the same points over and over again was an issue with my comments I made a couple of years back. I'll just sum it up by saying: I agree with the complaint that Rainbow's character regressed and that this retreads ground that she already learned a while ago and didn't need to be spelled out in its own episode, again, with a forced moral. I'll instead bring up some other points that may have been lightly touched upon, or didn't mention much, or didn't mention at all, for the sake of provoking more thought: 1 - There's a very, very odd progression with the pranks in this episode, and I actually think it's something this episode did worse than "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well". While the latter started out with small harmless boasting that progressed and escalated as the episode went on, this episode actually started with the worst prank first. Yeah, some of the other pranks were harmful to the ponies they were inflicted upon, but the first prank we see in the episode is undeniably the worst one given that it visibly brings Fluttershy to tears and gives her a panic attack and relating to the already mentioned 'regression' issue. Normally in an episode like this, the better structure is to have the pranks get worse and worse until the characters establish that they can't take it anymore and they have to do something about it. Not saying this can't work, but generally stuff like this is based upon escalation (and Rule of Threes, but that's a whole other discussion). And I definitely think it doesn't work in this particular episode, given... 2 - Some of the pranks are actually rather funny. The one that Rainbow does to Rarity in particular, I legitimately can't imagine anyone being offended by. No, seriously, I actually think that prank, if not objectively funny, is at least objectively clever and not all that obstructive. I know of no real world person who would be offended by that prank, and I legitimately can't think of any real person who would be offended by it, so the fact that Rarity is, is baffling to me. And if the reason is because of the outfit that Sweetie Belle was supposed to wear, Sweetie Belle herself didn't seem all that upset by it, and she's the one who's supposed to be wearing it... And there's another aspect to that... 3 - Since we're talking about "Griffon the Brush-Off" at all, I think it's not just Rainbow's attitude that was changed for this particular episode - all of the Mane 5 were different in their own way. Remember, Rainbow and Pinkie already pulled pranks on these gals before, pranks that were honestly less original and funny than some of the ones Rainbow pulled in this episode, and they laughed along with it. It's strange that suddenly now they're offended by it. You can say that they have changed and they just think it's juvenile now, but is that really a good change? Could you argue to me that it's a good thing that the characters have suddenly become allergic to the idea of fun? 4 - It's very evident that they were attempting to address the complaints that were in "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well" with this episode given that they explicitly show Rainbow's friends talking to her twice in this episode. But here's the issue: I never wanted a retreated of MMDW in the first place. What I wanted, and what I think a vast majority of the people who complained about that episode wanted, was for them to learn from the mistakes of MMDW and use that to better other episodes. And this episode really does basically follow MMDW beat for beat and just change up what exactly they're complaining about in Rainbow's behavior, and what she's going too far with. Just replace "boasting" with "pranking", and it's the same premise in every other way. And them doing something in MMDW and then better in this episode, I'm not about to give it a pass for. And the thing they did fix in this episode... They handled it pretty sloppily, and it rang pretty hollow for me. It is nice that it shows that Fluttershy has progressed to asserting that something is not funny and can stand up to her friends, but that's the only praise I can really give it. 5 - This one has been brought up before, unlike the others which either weren't or were lightly grazed over, but it bears repeating because it's actually the part of the episode that gets me the most. Showing up Rainbow and making her feel worthless like in MMDW is one thing. You could argue they didn't know Rainbow well enough by then to entirely understand that that kind of thing would put Rainbow at a low spot, and you could argue that they saw it as justified because they were still helping other ponies and it's not like they had any control over which 'hero' they favored (their boasting, though, was a bit excessive if their whole point was to illustrate that MMDW was supposed to represent being humble, like lmao, way to rub it in gals). But this is another entirely. Others argued here that Rainbow could seriously hurt ponies in her pranks and they were awful because of that. While I agree the pranks were certainly risky, Rainbow carefully observed them and it was clear her intention was not to harm them (that scaring one doesn't count because that particular prank sticks out like a sore thumb, it doesn't feel like Rainbow would make such a prank and again, it doesn't fit in with the escalation narrative, and it's the one she undoubtedly acted the most insensitive about...i don't know, it's a weird one to me, but in that case maybe you could argue the harm caused by that would be a temporary scare and she didn't know it'd be panic attack inducing, even though Rainbow would have to be hit pretty hard by the idiot ball to believe that). The brick was probably the worst offender in that regard, but even then having bitten into hard things by accident the worst thing you're going to get is some jaw pain for a while. It's clear that to her if it was going to cause any harm it'd be like...pinching someone on St. Patrick's Day kind of harm, the kind you'd get over relatively quickly and sure it'd be annoying but nothing life-threatening. I'm not suggesting they're good pranks (because tbh they were really fucking stupid), but just that the damage that could be caused by them is relatively minor. You know, relatively minor compared to believing that you fed an entire populace of ponies that you personally know and love cookies that turn them into zombified freaks like you spread a freaking plague over them. My point is thus: the thing with MMDW may cause some trust issues at worst for a while, and it'd hurt Rainbow, but it's on the same level as inducing that panic attack in Fluttershy, that sort of thing. It's not something that would stick with her for very long... Despite what fanfic writers may say. Tricking Rainbow into thinking for quite some time that she'd caused a plague on her friends that turned them into zombies is COMPLETELY different. That's an incredible trauma to induce on someone. It's like... On level with those "social experiment" pranks on YouTube. Like, damn, dude, that's way too far. And there's no, no way that they didn't think that would be traumatizing. Or, wouldn't, if they were real people. I'm not angry at these characters for this, they're fictional characters, not worth getting angry at them about it. I'm...frustrated that the writers played that off as acceptable. I mean, I just don't know, some people would probably argue it was justified and weighted well, but I'd be in heavy, heavy disagreement with that. Also, did anyone notice how Rainbow went to find and warn the remaining friends she thought she had...? EDIT2: This review here has a lot of my issues, and why I actually think MMDW was better than 28PL.

To be honest, given that it was in quotations, I was actually thinking this thread would be a discussion on why people find the ponies attractive. Maybe I've been on cesspool forums for too long...

Different interests. It's not just guys who have a lack of interest, my girlfriend isn't really into ponies either. (She's mainly deterred by the art style and the fandom, generally.)

A little nod to the fandom is definitely not the same as implementing it as an actual, full-on plot point. This honestly isn't a weird question to ask, considering it's clearly inspired by the "Cupcakes" fanfic which was written years ago. The crux of it is 'would the events in that fic be possible?' I kind of like it (that is, the hypothetical questions) lately, though. The show wouldn't tackle it, we know that for sure, which is why it's so interesting to talk about - since the show is never going to confirm it, the speculation can go in multiple different directions. Tragedy and comedy go hand in hand.

Rainbow would definitely have it worse than me. It'd be kind of fun learning how to fly with pegasus wings, and given how much endurance ponies generally have, there'd be little danger of terrible injury as a result. If anything would be strenuous for me, it'd be learning how to fly to the competency of the Wonderbolts. Rainbow, in the meanwhile, would be stripped of her ability to fly and be stuck in a completely unfamiliar house she's never been in.

I don't know, I'm skeptical that introducing more AUs wouldn't dilute the plot at this point. I think they should just continue developing the main canon. However... if you've got these ideas rolling about your noggin, why don't you write about them yourself (or pitch the idea to a fanfic writer)? I'm sure other people could come up with something cool for that!

This is a pretty valid concern. I'm worried that the writers feel that the only way to set Starlight apart from the others is to keep referencing that past, that they think that past defines her. But it's through referencing it so much that they aren't really allowing Starlight to showcase the other great qualities she has above that. And it's kind of sad, because Starlight actually makes a great foil to Twilight in that Twilight is clearly more empathetic whereas Starlight is more practical. While Twilight is prone to bouts of panic and worry, Starlight has a tendency to keep that worry under lock and key. I know people aren't as fond of "A Royal Problem" these days, but I really liked what it showcased about Starlight's personality and the way that she handles guilt: it's something that's clearly always there, but she tries to shove it to the back of her mind.

An episode that's not necessarily special on its own, but a good set up to where S8 may lead up. I wasn't surprised upon the news that Chancellor Neighsay would come back; he was set up as especially important, so it makes sense that he would get his own time to shine later down the road. This episode isn't an epic or grand adventure, nor did it really stand out as particularly amazing or anything, but it's a premiere. I don't usually expect premieres to be the most earth-shattering thing, just to show me what I can expect from the season, and I think it delivered on that. It's plainly obvious to me that these non-mane 6 are going to be developed out later. Not sure why people are concerned that they're one-note now. The mane 6 were pretty one-note in their own debut, and they would later have their characters completed as time went on. Patience, my friends. As for taking focus off the other mane 6, I definitely agree that it makes sense that Starlight was the one to say this to Twilight, but at the same time I understand the frustration that the other mane 5 have been pushed out of the focus. That being said, I think it's too hasty to jump to the conclusion that they won't be in the focus at all. The previous season, while certainly emphasizing other characters more, still gave the mane 6 their own episodes (it's just that quite a few of them people don't like to remember ). I stated this in a status update, but if there's anything I'm concerned about, it's the life that's being sucked out of the musical numbers in the show lately. There's been some great musical numbers in seasons past, but I think this absolute need to shove them in every episode, even where it's not necessary, is really beginning to show in the musical numbers' quality. S8's premiere shows this the worst, as the songs just... I'm sorry, you're free to like them, but they really aren't good. They're off-rhythm, and when they aren't the lyrics are generic and just not what I like from MLP: FiM music. I would honestly prefer if they dialed back on writing songs just because they feel they have to meet a quota and instead make better songs in the special moments where the songs deserve to be showcast. Quality > quantity. I'm a bit of a rhythm junkie especially so it sticks out when they're literally stretching lines just to fit the rhythm of the song, and this could so easily be fixed if they just spent more time refining the more lack luster lines in songs. Magical Mystery Cure suffered from a very similar problem. I'm interested to see what the future of S8 holds for us. The School of Friendship can certainly lead to some interesting plots, and it's pretty great that some more relatable characters are being made out of different species. Certainly, there are some who decry it out of the fact we didn't get them earlier, leading to some unfortunate implications, but I'm honestly just glad they're here now.

It's unlikely she will be, but it's fun to speculate on what would happen if she was.

The subject isn't about how likely the possibility is, but how she would react to it if it did happen. Now, I've actually written Rainbow Dash for this forum before, so I'm rather familiar with her character - I'll give this a shot. First, I question those who say that an alicorn would be unable to be in the Wonderbolts. By whose jurisdiction? There's nothing suggesting that an alicorn wouldn't still be able to fly. Do remember that ponies who become an alicorn don't necessarily change; they just ascend to a greater purpose that they happen to have. It depends on how she became an alicorn, I think. Is it a princess ascension, or is she just gaining the ability to use magic? In the latter, I can see Rainbow as being curious and playing around with the abilities; as they're not her true passion, they won't take away from flying, but Rainbow's more than just wanting to Go Fast, considering she also likes reading books now and clearly liked building a kart. If it's by princess ascension, Rainbow's never been one as far as I've seen to shirk responsibility, as she's a rather dedicated weather pony. Perhaps early season material like season 1, but nowadays, I think she would embrace it if it was coming to her. I don't think like Twilight she'd worry too much about her purpose, she'd just go at it head-first. If she flopped, though, she'd definitely question, and question hard why she got the horn in the first place or if she even earned it, which would likely take some reassurance on the other princesses' part to get her back up to speed on that one. Overall, I think she'd take the responsibility she gains from it rather seriously, but not at the complete expense of fun, and with the same bravado she tackles any other challenge with.

Cuddly: Pinkie Pie. No contest. Pinkie Pie is the one who will give you a tight hug when you need it. Cutest: Honestly, I think all of them are cute, but I guess Twilight Sparkle has the most adorkable moments of them all.

Besides the generic "different people have different tastes" answer, there's actually a very specific gripe in Celestia's case: her lack of utility. While I personally don't find issue with it (I think a lot of our greater plots wouldn't be able to happen without side-lining her to some degree), others are bothered by how often she doesn't contribute to the solution, and even when she attempts to she's often overcome.

This is an episode I find myself thinking about a lot - but not necessarily for the reason one might think. My feelings on this episode jerk around back and forth. I definitely feel the emotional weight of this conflict, and I relate to Moondancer as someone who's had those I care about seem to not care as much for me in return, and having that affect me to the point of not wanting to make other relationships. Hell, I've had friends outright betray me, and me have tangible proof of such a thing. But it's partly because I relate to Moondancer that I can't honestly sing its praises to the same degree that others do. The emotional weight hit me, hard. I knew how she felt. I knew her actions. I knew why she was doing what she did. I was Moondancer, at one point. And it was a miserable time in my life... But it wasn't miserable because of what those people did to me. It was miserable because of what I did to myself, and that's what hurts about the episode the most. It lightly addresses it, but it's not enough. And the one thing that made me realize that: I related to Twilight, too. I was also Twilight, at one point, not just Moondancer. And it was being Twilight that made me realize just how unhealthy Moondancer's disposition was. And people look at this with Moondancer as the darling, that Twilight hurt her significantly and Twilight is a "horrible friend" because of that... But the matter is, most of those who say that are those who have never been in Twilight's shoes. They think of it as a lack of caring, they think of it as thoughtless, as tasteless. But you don't see, you never see, you haven't experienced, the horrible friendships and relationships that I was guilt tripped into because of this very mentality, that I had to be there at beck and call for everything and if I wasn't able to come back, if I wasn't able to reconnect, for any reason (and truthfully, Twilight had a good reason; she moved to Ponyville during conflict, and she was personally asked to stay and study friendship there, and it was only when her life began to settle some that she could even begin to think about her old friends), that I was indeed a horrible friend; and what was interesting, oh so interesting, about all these scenarios was the fact that hmm, conveniently, these people giving me trouble for not reaching out, for not contacting them or being there during significant moments, never attempted to reach out to me again and didn't seem to care about any trials and tribulations I faced. Instead, when I tried to come back into their lives, they'd tell me how much I missed out on and should've been there for. That crushing guilt traps you, consumes you, and makes you undervalue yourself. But your friends don't have the RIGHT to command every aspect of your life, they don't have the right to demand that you constantly be there. Yes, it sucks if you're not, but what about you? You're your own person. You have your own concerns in your life. And where were they, during your conflicts? I can't rate this episode fairly. I can't say whether I like or dislike it. It's personal for me, and it's...not personal for me in a good way. It places way too much on Twilight's shoulders, and she's just one pony. And yes, I get it, it's realistic for people to react that way when they've been burned, but the story doesn't address enough that just because it's realistic, it doesn't mean it's justified. Especially since Moondancer did have other friends attempting to reach out to her (and it states as much in the show, in fact), but she ignored them because she held onto a fillyhood friend. It's so weird that people love Moondancer, but they'll scorn Starlight Glimmer for doing basically the exact damn thing, just to a larger scale. This isn't really an organized review or anything. Just me pouring my feelings out because I've been mulling over this. Friendship's such a hard and bumpy road sometimes, and I think people oversimplify it sometimes. It's so easy to judge a situation from the outside, so easy to not attempt to understand other people and what they're going through, so easy to point a finger at someone. Dunno, man. It's tiring.