SidewinderX

There are a lot of things wrong with this episode, and most of them have already been said, but I'll repeat them anyway. Civilly, this time. Feather Bangs has potential, but is sacrificed needlessly to set up a forced conflict. We learn nothing about him. Also, his and Big Mac's song was so awful that I was cringing the entire time. I had to skip sections of it because it was hurting my brain. The entirety of the actions of the CMC and Big Mac were immature and illogical. I can almost excuse the CMC (although I shouldn't have to—they learned this lesson, and they should be mature enough not to use fairytales as a reference guide), but Big Mac? He's an adult. He should know better, especially considering his history with romance and the Crusaders. The kiss scene. 'nuff said. TL;DR an episode with potential that was ruined by lazy writing and forced conflict.

Starry Point waded through the small crowd of ponies beginning to cluster around the race start, uttering a few hurried "excuse mes" as she pushed ahead. The air was cool and moist, and looking up, the lanky white pegacorn could see ominous clouds brewing in the sky. Oh, I hope my first Running of the Leaves isn't rained out, she thought worriedly to herself, searching the rows of colorful stands and tents for the sign-in table. Finally, she found it about thirty yards away, flanked on either side by food vendors who were already serving their wares to hungry ponies. She wormed her way out of the mob, taking care not to take anypony's eye out with her horn as she trotted over to the table. A blue batpony was already there, talking with the also-blue stallion that stood behind it. Starry stepped behind the second pony in line, a grey stallion with an iridescent mane, and patiently waited for the others to finish getting their numbers. @Dynamo Pad @Iridescent Edge @Nitobit

... What did I just watch? This episode actually starts out decently. The fact the slingshot worked is kind of dumb, but cartoon physics will be cartoon physics. Getting to know Rainbow Dash's parents was nice, and the trophy room was reasonable. The first red flag was the diaper. Who keeps an old diaper around the house? Even worse, who gives that diaper away to a total stranger? Scootaloo was giving me stalker vibes by this point. But once the parents show up at the Wonderbolts HQ, things go downhill from there. First, the 'yelling causes actual turbulence' is illogical, especially within the context of the show. How do the Wonderbolts ever handle a large event like the Gala if cheering makes it hard to fly? But that is just the beginning. The parents were so obnoxious it felt like they were the ones being set up for getting taught a lesson (although really, they should have been arrested after firing the cannon in the middle of a Wonderbolts performance). But no, Dash is at fault here, because...she got sick of being hounded to the point of it affecting her work and personal life? No. Just no. Her reaction was both realistic and almost justified. Heck, they launched live explosives into a formation, putting the flyers at serious risk of injury or death. This is not funny. This is not acceptable. This is the kind of thing you get sent to prison for. But Scootaloo must have her way, and so continues a fine line of guilt-tripping that has continued throughout this episode, by daring to claim that Dash should be grateful for her parents overreacting and being inconsiderate jerks to their daughter and those around them for her entire life. No wonder her 'coming to Ponyville anniversary' and birthday are on the same day—she probably got away from her parents as soon as she was old enough. Remember, "No one can make their parents feel more worthless than you!" That line alone makes me question how this script got greenlit for production. This episode disgusts me. It is twisted and relies on victim-blaming for its plot. I cannot say enough how much I hate it; I want it to burn for all eternity. EDIT: Re-reading these not-so-old reviews/posts is reminding me that I need to keep a level head. Yelling helps nobody, especially when it's incoherent.

Celestial Advice This episode was...fine, at least by itself. Learning more about Celestia and her motives was nice. However, the writers seemed to jam Starlight into a position of heroism just to make her look better. Spike befriended Thorax, and got basically no recognition for it. Starlight forgot how to use all of the trap/combat spells she used against Twilight and let Chrysalis escape. Go figure. All Bottled Up Memes aside, this episode was terrible. First, Trixie was a jerk, absolutely trashing her redemption so far. Second, it made Starlight an idiot. Starlight! The character who manipulated an entire town into surrendering their cutie marks! She walked into the most blatant metaphor I've seen in my entire life, and of course, it backfired. Setting aside the lesson for a moment: it was a horrible idea. Who puts volatile magic into a glass bottle that is in no way rated to handle those kinds of forces? Of course the jar failed! Even if it hadn't gone flying, it would have run out of room very quickly. Starlight would have been better off casting various small spells to drain the energy over time, instead of bottling it all up. Of course, this defeats the point of the moral, but I'll get to that now. The moral itself is so dumbed down and shoved in your face that it doesn't even feel like My Little Pony. Where is the impressive, well-handled delivery we've seen as early as Season 2? Why does the episode rely on making the characters stupid for the plot to work? It feels like the writing staff is treating the audience like mindless idiots who need things spoon-fed to them. It's not a bad moral, certainly, but the way it is presented ruins the whole thing. EDIT: Wow, I was livid when I wrote this. This feels pretty excessive in hindsight. I still stand by the fact that this episode could have been better—and Starlight made an amateurish mistake that shattered my suspension of disbelief—but it wasn't as bad as I said it was.

Derpymail is real, yes. However, it seems that signups have been suspended since...2017. So its operational status is questionable at best. EDIT: Out of morbid curiosity, I just checked Brony Passions. Yes, it is still running. How? Good question. I do not aim to find out.

Not my favorite, but not bad either. At least we finally got a Spike episode where he wasn't totally useless and/or a jerk. Also, he got a song! Unrelated, but it's also nice to see a halfway-competent guard force for once. Not saying the Crystal guards are effective—not even close—but they at least try to do their jobs, and seem to be very thorough with a lot of drive. They act like what the Royal Guards should be. Like I said, still not great, but the bar is low in Equestria.

Whoops, forgot that. Here!

Ooh, this looks fun. Never done it before, but I might as well try. Sign me (and Starry Point) up!