bigbertha

There are many problems here. Shining Armor comes out of nowhere, Luna disappears during an invasion, and, the biggest problem for me, Chrysalis is incompetent. She apparently did no research on the pony she's impersonating and she reveals herself for no reason. She also sends Twilight and Cadence into a place that they're able to escape from fairly easily. Yeah, she puts her bridesmaids down there, but did she really think that's enough? I'm also not a big fan This Day Aria. It feels like it's trying too hard to be big and epic with fake Cadence's vocals really having to reach for some of the high notes. Despite all of that, the episode is a ton of fun. Twilight's conflict is really engaging and I like that the writers didn't drag out the idea that Twilight may just be overprotective. It doesn't feel like the episode completely changes focus at the end of part 1 since it was revealed that the Cadence was a fake once she put her spell on Shining Armor. The scene with Twilight interrupting the wedding is one of the best scenes of the show up to this point. It takes the stakes of the show up to a point they've never been before before to great effect. The special does a great job at making the sense of scale even bigger than anything before (except for This Day Aria). This is definitely the best two parter so far, even if it is still pretty flawed. Similarly to Return of Harmony, this episode feels like style over substance, but unlike Return of Harmony, this episode does it well and doesn't completely skip out on substance since the core of the episode is Twilight's conflict, which is executed really well. Score: 9/10

I like this one. The jokes are pretty good and there's more of that Twilight and Pinkie dynamic. Sure, the entire second act is filler, and there's no way for the audience to follow along with the clues since Twilight hides them all, but the episode doesn't focus on the mystery. It's about the jokes and fun. In that I think it succeeds. Except for the third act. All it is is saying who did it. Not bad, but boring. Overall, it's good, but nothing great. Score: 7/10

This is a surprisingly cynical episode. Ponyville is full of hypocrites who don't care about bad things happening to others and only care when they get targeted. I can't exactly fault the episode for this view as it is realistic, and it does come out with an optimistic message at the end. The CMC realize that even if everyone enjoys, that doesn't make it morally right and it can still cause consequences. That's a surprisingly nuanced moral. I like it. The episode is also very funny. The episode takes itself more seriously than normal, but it has some really great gags along with it so it doesn't get too boring. The only issue is that Cheerilee disappears after her first scene until the end. It's a necessary contrivance and I don't have a big problem with it, but it does get distracting when she appears at the end. Score: 9/10

Yeah. This episode is fantastic. It could be argued that it's melodramatic, but I don't think so. I think it has the exact right amount of drama. It's incredibly engaging, all of the characters are great, and there are a couple jokes there too. Score: 10/10

I can see where this episode is coming from. It wants to do a story about falling in with the wrong crowd. That's fine. The issue is that it has some unfortunate implications. The mane six constantly generalize dragons and while we can see adult dragons during the migration that don't act like the teenage dragons, it's never acknowledged outside of dragons in the background. The mane six aren't called out for generalizing dragons and Spike's only encounter with dragons seems to have made him believe that all dragons are bad. This could've easily been fixed by an adult dragon finding out that the teenage dragons were acting stupid and stopping them. Then not only would the ending not be anticlimactic, but it would also remove the implications. The ponies would realize that not all dragons are terrible and the message of not falling in with the wrong crowd would still come across. Even aside from the message, this is a boring episode. It takes a generic story and doesn't do much with it. And Rarity is a little out of character here, but it's not one of the bigger problems. Despite all of this, there are some good things here. I like some of the jokes and I like the set up. It's just that the rest of the episode doesn't take advantage of the set up. Score: 2/10

This is such an entertaining episode. We get to see a much more logical interpretation of crazy Twilight instead of one that's completely insane and that helps to make this one stand out from Lesson Zero. There's also the fact that this episode is much more low stakes than that episode. The comedy really is great. Crazy Twilight is a lot of fun and there's always something new happening. There's constant changes in characters, locations, and situations. It helps to keep the episode fresh instead of getting repetitive. And there's Pinkie, who plays off of crazy Twilight really well. This is actually my favorite Pinkie appearance of the season. Score: 10/10

This is a really bad episode. The entire situation is extremely contrived with Fluttershy just so happening to bump into terrible ponies. And the message is pretty bad too, pushing most of the blame on Iron Will rather than Fluttershy, when Iron Will's advice wasn't that bad. And there's Rarity and Pinkie constantly calling Iron Will a monster before Fluttershy starts to take things too far. And Rarity seducing a guy to give her his food and the episode not treating that as wrong. This episode might just be the worst episode so far morally, which is a pretty large problem in a show like this. The comedy isn't that good either. Fluttershy rarely leads to good comedy since she's so quiet and boring most of the time, but this episode proves that the opposite extreme is just as unfunny. Mean Fluttershy isn't exactly bad, but she's not funny. And Iron Will isn't funny either or even that fun to watch. This episode is a mess. It's unfunny, teaches bad morals, and has a really contrived story. Score: 0/10

There are a lot of things to appreciate about this episode. The song is amazing, many of the jokes are funny, and Cranky is a good character. His backstory is sweet. But the moral is really bad. Pinkie should've realized that not everyone wants to be her friend. That would've been a good message, but instead Pinkie bothers Cranky, goes through his stuff without permission, is generally a nuisance, but she's rewarded just because she does one nice thing. Everything she did before is forgotten. That is just not acceptable to teach to kids and it ruins the episode. Score: 3/10

This is a pretty enjoyable episode. It doesn't get really good until the 3rd act, but the rest of it isn't bad, despite a few contrivances and a weak song. There's still solid jokes and once the episode gets good, it's a ton of fun. Score: 8/10

This episode is fine. I like all of the Daring Do stuff and Rainbow sneaking around is fun, but everything else is pretty dull. The message is incredibly on the nose, even for this show, and it's not presented in a very interesting way. Score: 6/10

This is some high quality stuff. Everything just works here. The jokes are really funny, the story is solid, and the song is one of the best. Score: 10/10

This episode has everything. The jokes are really funny, all of the characters are at their best, there's a fun action scene. It has everything. There's nothing to complain about except for that rerecorded Derpy scene. I don't blame the episode for that though. Score: 10/10

This episode is REALLY boring. I don't quite find it annoying, but nothing interesting happens here. The first act is fine, if not that interesting, but the rest of the episode is some of the most boring stuff so far. At least the ending is cute. Score: 3/10

I like this one. Most of it is decent but nothing great, but Granny's story at the end really brings it up. Score: 7/10

This episode is a ton of fun. The entire episode is based on arguments, but that's a good thing in this case since the arguing is really entertaining. I could complain that everyone only came together because they were forced to by outside forces and not because they actually like each other, but we don't know if this pageant is what really happened. This could easily be exaggerated or completely falsified and just be a simple tall tale for kids. One complaint I don't get is the issue of how Celestia and Luna tie into things. Spike literally says in the beginning that this takes place long before Celestia and the flag at the end is just because they don't know what the original flag was. This is just an overall really enjoyable episode. Score: 10/10

This one's such a missed opportunity. Rarity seducing Spike out of his gem in the beginning is just wrong. I thought it was going to be a flaw for Rarity to overcome. When Spike turns into a monster and grabs Rarity, she'll realize that it only happened because she kept leading him on. But that didn't happen. Instead, the episode doesn't acknowledge that what Rarity does is wrong and instead fans the flames of a dumb crush that should've ended here. Everything else is just okay. A lot of it is pretty boring and the visits to the doctor and vet feel like filler, but I guess there are a couple good jokes throughout. Just not enough. Score: 5/10

This is a solid episode. Rarity is fun to watch, there are a couple good jokes sprinkled throughout, and the conflict is interesting. It just doesn't do anything really well. Score: 7/10

I appreciate this episode even more now. I love the way Rainbow's ego progresses. It starts with her being pretty humble and progresses to the point where she starts to get sloppy with saving ponies. I feel like a lot of people ignore the fact that her ego gets so big that it could end up killing ponies. When the hot air balloon falls, Rainbow Dash barely makes it in time. She just flies into the balloon. That could've easily progressed to not making it in time. This makes the mane six's action completely justifiable. The comedy is also really good. The writers do a good job of making Rainbow Dash have a big enough ego to be funny, but not enough to be unsympathetic. Her breakdown is very funny to watch, but when she gives up and lies on the cloud, the audience still has sympathy since she still has relatable insecurities behind the exaggerated ego. The only issue for me is how quickly the town moves on the Mare Do Well. Rainbow Dash has been saving ponies for a long time, but Mare Do Well saves one and everyone moves on from Rainbow. That's dumb. Everything else is really damn good. Score: 9/10

This one's mixed. The song is one of the best of the show and there are many entertaining moments, but a lot of the episode is repetitive and boring. And there are a lot of moments that feel like they're trying too hard to be cool, like talking about "radicalness". There's also the fact that Tank being Dash's pet is both incredibly obvious and really contrived. I don't quite think this one's bad, but it's not very good. Score: 4/10

Most of this episode is filler, but it's enjoyable enough filler. Sure, the ending makes the entire thing pointless and there are some boring moments, but I like a lot of the jokes and filler sequences. It's okay. Score: 6/10

This does a great job of showing what it's like to have siblings, aside from one pretty big aspect. The entire episode is about how Rarity is wrong in how she treats Sweetie Belle, which is true. Rarity didn't handle things right, but the episode also should've had Sweetie Belle learn to be less of a klutz. She burns breakfast, messes up Rarity's room, and uses Rarity's gems and Rarity is put in the wrong. While Rarity didn't handle the situations well, the episode never calls out Sweetie Belle for making these mistakes in the first place, regardless of her good intentions. It makes the episode incomplete and one-sided. This ruins the episode since it hurts the core of the episode. This is disappointing because Rarity is perhaps at her best here. She's relatable, funny, and doesn't get pushed into being so selfish she's annoying, while still being overdramatic and selfish. Score: 7/10

Love (Cutie Mark Chronicles): The bits with the CMC in between each story aren't very enjoyable Hate (Three's a Crowd): Glass of Water is a pretty good song

Love (Lesson Zero): The very ending feels like filler. Everyone already told the lesson to Princess Celestia. They didn't have to write a letter saying the exact same things. Hate (Amending Fences): The final shot of Moondancer going out to play is perfect. It probably would've made me emotional in a better episode.

This one's not that good. Obviously it's style over substance since the story is as basic as you can get, but I don't think the style quite works. The panel layout isn't the problem. In fact, the panel layout is really great, not being too confusing while still being visually interesting. The problem is that a lot of the styles clash, especially when there are very different styles on the same page. It feels like Andy Price threw whatever he could think out on the comic with little thought about how they would fit together. That said, the art itself does look great. There are some fantastic facial expressions and when the styles feel more consistent, it's really good! If only that was the entire comic. I think the different style experimentation was done better in the issue just after this one. Score: 5/10

The Show Stoppers got a really bad reputation that I don't think is deserved. People see the CMC not knowing what their talent is when it's clearly shown to the audience as annoying. I see it as kids just being kids. Most kids don't know what they want to do with their lives. I'm a teenager and I don't know for sure what I want to do with my life. It makes sense for the CMC to act the way they do. Another common complaint is that the episode is boring. This just goes to personal preference, but I found them to be pretty charming. Not a lot of the jokes are funny, but the episode is cute and fun to watch. The ending is also not well liked. I just really like cringe comedy and I thought the CMC's performance was really funny. It's also a reason why the joke ending doesn't bother me. The episode already had a very comedic tone, so a joke ending makes sense.