S05:E04 - Bloom and Gloom

[ponylaces 1,869]

Forgot to mention that I loved the breakfast Applejack was preparing changed each time.

[ndogmario 81]

" You can't run from your shadow "

Okay, here's my little insignificant review.

 

Whooo, this episode sounds like it came straight out of a fanfiction ! No seriously this episode sounds like Two fan-fictions i read not too long ago put into one. Can't recall which ones it was.

thi episode was so eerie. It being nightmare was caught a mile away, ...but that mysterious voice! SPOOKY! My first thought was that it was probably Starlight Glimmer from her associated with removing and giving cutiemarks. It being AppleBloom's shadow was totally mind blowing for me! I need a fanfic delving deeper with that concept! Head canon: Applebloom's shadow is an example of an nightmare entity as seen in the my little pony comics! The shadow itself gave me the creeps once it revealed itself and the essence of it gave me goosebumps even after Luna revealed it to just be a mere shadow ! And by the way, Luna dream sequence! It was just a matter of time. Luna's movements were a bit more floaty in the dream realm, I noticed that! And now I want to do a marathon of all the CMC Luna dream episodes. Now let's talk about the little details. A new electric bug creature thing called "Twittermites", that apparently gets more dangerous the further they spread out! Geez Equestria sure do have a whole lot of dangerous creatures ! And apparently there is currently only one person who can control them! And he's an old man! Equestria is one heart attack away for being doomed! Voice sounds more mature. Maybe Applebloom or Michelle Seiber finally hit puberty. And it's confirmed, ponies change their names to fit their cutiemarks! Episode had a funny word pace to it but that can be accounted for being a dream. I notice a lot of episodes dealing with dreams really does feel like a dream. All over the place; nothing really coherent; contrivance; things moving along faster or slower than they appear. But I did there can be considered good writing or an expense to the story. Apple Bloom's dream was more like in a lucid nightmare that gets more weirder yet feels more real as it goes on. Kind of like a fever dream. Also like how Apple balloons Luna dream episode kind of makes a full circle of all the other CMC dream episodes if they all come together in the end. Nice way to end an arc!

 

Well those are my mediate reactions

[Scootaloo Is Best Filly 576]

I really liked this episode.  I gotta tell you, it took me such a long time, to realize those were dreams. I actually said "What a B****"" out loud, when Sweetie Belle, kicked Apple Bloom out of the CMC. To me, it feels like Apple Bloom, is sort of the leader, of the group, so it seemed even worse, to me. I don't even know if you could even do that, seeing as she's the leader. No, leader, no more Cutie Mark Crusaders. That's the way I see it. 

 

I think I read somewhere that the voice actress doesn't wanna do Babs again, so this could be the closing pages, and we may never see Babs again, UNLESS , maybe she shows up, maybe with an unspoken role.

 

All in all, this was a really good episode, and a really good message. I am glad they decided to send Babs a care package, CMC for Lyfe.

[Blaze Bronson 343]

The first terrible episode this season IMO. Rated I didn't like it.

 

The good:

This season have taken concerns and ideas from bronies and finally put them into episodes, and here they deal with "the dark side" of the cutiemark.

Pest control pony was awesome, and made me laugh.

Luna's speech about fearing your own shadow was great. I really like the comparison of the shadow being you, and fearing it essentially is fearing oneself.

Bringing up the issue with naming vs cutiemark! However they didn't answer it though.

 

 

The bad:

The episode felt incredibly rushed, constantly pushing new ideas on us before actually going deeper.

This should have been split into two or maybe even three episodes.

• One where the cutiemark excludes her from the cutiemark crusaders, but in a slower paced and more subtle way than; "get out, you don't have a cutiemark". It should give this uneasy feeling of being unwanted, but also focus on how the other two of the crusaders feel about it. Leading to the moral that the ponies are still the same, no matter the cutiemark, and their friendship stays the same.
• The other episode could focus on getting an unwanted cutiemark, and how it affects the relation to family and society. This would give us a bigger insight in how this whole system work. And the moral would be that the cutiemark represents your interests and abilities, rather than give you said abilities, and force you to use them.

Also yet another tease for a cutiemark which they didn't get

 

 

All in all an episode with some good elements in it, but so much potential lost that it just makes me cry a little inside 

[Luffyiscool 397]

Predictable

Predictable =/= bad.

 

It's not the destination, it's how you get there.

The VAST majority of MLP episode plots have been done before in other cartoons many times over. 

Over half of the entire show's run should be too "predictable" for you.

 

 

tedious Groundhog Day sequences

You say tedious, I say eerie and intriguing. The episode sucked me in with its atmosphere.

 

 

and Luna fan pandering.

I don't think you know what the term means. 

[Foliha 395]

Spoiler Alert!

 

Found this on Wikipedia..  In case anypony's interested.

Edited April 19, 2015 by Foliha

[Wind Chaser 4,767]

Say what you want about 90% of the episode being a dream sequence. As someone who continues, day after day, to struggle with what Apple Bloom struggles with, every bit of how that dream portrayed her, the world around her, and other characters, felt very natural and fitting for the emotional state Apple Bloom was in.

 

When looking at every scene throughout the middle of this episode, you shouldn't look at it without considering it in the context of how Apple Bloom sees the world, not as it actually is. DT and Silver Spoon are up to their old tricks because that's all she knows of DT and Silver Spoon. You can't expect any character development on their part, because technically they weren't actually in the episode, that was all in Apple Bloom's head. The same can be said for those scenes of the other two Crusaders telling her off. That's all her expectation, not to be measured against reality.

 

Apple Bloom's always been impatient about getting a cutie mark, but this episode dealt with a different manifestation of that. It dealt with her fearing the unknown, and that's very believable for someone in that situation, especially of her age. The kinds of questions she brought up are actually quite familiar to pretty much every Crusaders thread in Show Discussion since the previous season ended, and ones I've been waiting for this show to take on. With this undying devotion to self-image MLP's world has, it never really addresses the concern of a negative self-image too often. This episode finally acknowledges the presence of such a possibility, to spend every hour of your short life working for something that didn't benefit you. Been there. Done that. Smoked it. Called it an Uber. (Google that reference if you don't get it.)

 

This episode very accurately and fittingly reflects the emotional state of someone who deals with the quest for self-image under heavy and conflicting external pressures. It's something that damns you if you do and damns you if you don't. This is one episode where you really have to look at the big picture. As a dream sequence, it really works. It captures all the feelings of a dream: the familiarity and the realism combined with the surreal and psychological aspects of it. That really helps in delivering its message, not to worry yourself too much over things that are realistically outside of your control. Something I myself, for one, can very much relate to.

Edited April 19, 2015 by Wind Chaser

[Jon the VGNerd 842]

Almost like A Nightmare on Elm Street mashed with Ghostbusters reference... awesome.

[rjrgmc28 130]

Ok. After writing 2000 plus words and many a paragraph plus my anxiety getting in the way, it's time for me to deliver my thoughts on the episode. A little late than usual, but I had a lot to write about on the blog from my own experiences with anxiety that it took a little longer than first planned to publish.

To recap from my tweet this morning:
 
"Well...that episode was something completely unexpected. It covered the anxiety issue perfectly. A great episode!"

This episode for me was completely different that I thought it was. I thought it was going to go extremely dark and extremely deep and deal with the issue of anxiety in the style that the season premiere did, but it turned out to be a great episode that also went to lengths to cover the topic without having to go too dark in terms of the storyline.

Sure it tested my anxiety, stress and PTSD to breaking point, but I actually enjoyed it despite being “shook up” as they say.

There were some scenes that pushed me to the limits such as the later nightmare sequences with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle and when the Apple Family turned on Apple Bloom and disowned her. I couldn't get through these scenes without my PTSD, anxiety and stress getting in the way and having painful flashbacks of my early life (e.g. fighting with parents, bullying etc) also fuelling the tension.

But despite the bad, there were a few scenes that actually warmed my heart a little. This included the scene where Sweetle Belle was on stage and about to sing. I can only imagine what Rarity must have been going through at that point in time and without getting a little overboard on this, I actually had a dream after watching the episode where Rarity ended up comforting a crying Sweetie Belle at the Carousel Boutique.

In the end, I have to give the show staff credit for actually tackling this issue that no other show in it’s genre couldn’t touch.

After this episode, I've got a good feeling that the Cutie Mark Crusaders might end up having their big moment soon enough. It may not be today, it might not be tomorrow or even a few years down the track, but when the time comes and it’s good and ready, I’ve got a good feeling that we will see history being made before our eyes.

I have also have written my full thoughts on the episode itself on my blog, which can be viewed here.

 

The audio description version of the blog post is now also available:

Edited April 19, 2015 by rjrgmc28

[FlutterDash4072 189]

I don't have much to say about it, but it was another pretty good episode. I loved the nightmare sequences, there was plenty of good humor in them. I was smiling throughout pretty much the entire episode.

 

I don't watch previews for the episodes, but I feel for those of you who feel like the show pulled a bait and switch. Having your expectations dashed hurts.

[Castle Bleck 19,176]

They did it.

 

They made Vinyl and Octavia's bond canon.

 

...

 

Edited April 19, 2015 by A.V.

[Shady23 175]

I did like the episode because I love the Apple's so much as well as Luna. I've just been so excited for the CMC to finally get their cutie marks I was disappointed that Apple Bloom didn't get hers. All in all it was a good episode, I'm just ready for the CMC crew to branch into a new story line.

[GenderIsAnIllusion 2,177]

Well besides being a total tease, it was the best CMC episode to date... The jokes were funny, you could really see how Bloom felt, and the moral was something not many children s show covers these days. 9/10 IGN

[Judgement 445]

Loved it. Not only was there more Luna, but both Octavia and Vinyl judged Sweetie Belle while sitting right next to each other. #RoommatesConfirmed

[Luffyiscool 397]

This week's mini PMV

 

It was low hanging fruit, but it just had to be done.

[HeartFeltPuma23 180]

First of all, I have to say this: I didn't like the episode, for a lot of various reasons that I am going to write down here (in a, I hope comprensible way). The first thing I have to talk about is Babs, why does she get her Cutie Mark? There was no need to do that, the writers could have delivered the same message without doing something this big, a character discovering his purpose is a big deal, and we should have got an episode dedicated to her, to show how she got it and how things are gonna develop for her, (even if for my own personal "head-canon" the four of them should have got their Cutie Mark together, their quest is all about that, it's not a quest for fun or anything else, it's a quest of self-discovery, and if they started together they should have finished it together.) 

The second point I have to bring up is "characterization", why are the characters so poorly and badly written?? Ok, it's a dream, Luna controls it plus there is AB mind going wild, but the CMC sending away one of the crusaders is outright stupid, they would never do that, and if they throw out one of the members because he/she has got their Mark it means that their friendship revolved around the Marks and not them as "persons", it was a mere "objective" friendship, they didn't understand friendship in the first place, and this is another thing that is most likely to not happen, or at least it will not if the script is done by someone who knows what he/she is doing, picking up from my head-canon once again, I always thought that once one of them/all of them get their CM they will just help others find theirs, that their friendship would be so strong at that point that the CutieMarkCrusaders would become a much bigger thing all thanks to them, that would be a great ending to a great story of growth. 

My last point comes from the end of the episode, "Even if she has her CM we can still be friends", yes, of course you can, a butt tattoo doesn't change the person, and right after that AB clearly says that Babs isn't a crusader anymore, why?! Why can't she help her friends and others to find their Cutie Mark? This is simply poorly thought writing, just as giving Babs Seed a Cutie Mark in the first place is, this episode could have been so much better, it really lacked in the writing department, and AJ singing or the smooth animation can not fix that, this episode is simply an error, a joke. I highly hope that the letter was a fake, if it isn't things would change irreparably, and I'm sure that no one wants that, not in this way at least.

[MLPFanatic34 3,234]

I enjoyed this episode, and was so glad to see Princess Luna since we haven't seen much of her since Season 4, I hope she's in more episodes this season, I also enjoyed the CMC this episode and Apple Bloom definitely shined. I definitely like the moral and story in this episode, that no matter what cutie mark you get, it won't change who you are as a person. I also like that they mentioned Babs Seed since we haven't seen her much at all. All in all I enjoyed this episode! 9/10!

[Justin_Case001 4,858]

Not a bad episode.  Not bad at all.  CMC episodes are usually meh for me, but I must admit they have been getting better as the series goes on.  Example--The Show Stoppers is my least favorite episode, but Sweetie Belle Toils is one of my favorites.  This one was very good, too.

 

I was thrilled to see Luna doing her dream stuff again.  Now she's helped all three CMC.  Noice!  There's never enough of the Sisters, so I was really glad she had a role in this episode.  I just hope they give Tia some decent parts this season.  Still feeling apprehensive about that.  C'mon, they need to have her in the show again, already!

 

This episode definitely had a great premise, and a fantastic moral.  Worrying about who you're going to be and the fear that it might turn out to be someone you don't like is a very real problem that most of us face.  And the realization that one's cutie mark doesn't change who you are, but it's merely a representation of who you are, was a brilliant message.

 

The only problem I had (and I'm sure many of you will agree on this one) was the decision to say that Babs can't be a CMC anymore.  Bad call, Hasbro.  Bad call.  This is a problem we have worried about on these forums for a long time--the problem of what would happen when one of the CMC gets their mark, and would it divide them and so on.  Well, now we know.  This is very sad.  I can live with it because of the fact that they went out of their way to say that they can still be friends, but it's ridiculous and unfair discrimination to not allow Babs in the club.  Wouldn't Babs still want to help them get their marks?  Wouldn't she still want to help the blankflanks?  Would she not still be an advocate for proper treatment of blankflanks?  Wouldn't she still want to work to stop bullying of blankflanks?  Is that not reason enough to be a CMC?

 

I am a white, hetero male.  Can I not be a feminist?  Can I not fight for LGBT rights?  If I had lived in the sixties, could I not fight for black rights?  You know what this reminds me of?  X-Men: The Last Stand:

 

Mystique: "Eric..."

Magneto: "I'm sorry my dear...you're not one of us anymore."

Pyro: Da f*ck?  Dude, that's cold.

 

Sorry, there wasn't a clip of that on youtube.  Would have uploaded it myself, but I don't own the movie.  Anyway, this is no different.  Magneto wouldn't allow non-mutants in his group, even if they believed in him and backed his cause.  That's unfair, and that's the flaw in his methodology.  Babs would surely still believe in their cause, so how is it right to not allow her in the club?  I thought that they would change their mind after the dream segment in which AB was cast out.  Saying that they can still be friends wasn't good enough imo.  This just isn't right at all.  I'm very disappointed by this decision.

[Luffyiscool 397]

 this episode is simply an error, a joke.

Or you took everything way too seriously and need to slow yourself down.

 

I'm more inclined to agree with this fellow:

 

When looking at every scene throughout the middle of this episode, you shouldn't look at it without considering it in the context of how Apple Bloom sees the world, not as it actually is. DT and Silver Spoon are up to their old tricks because that's all she knows of DT and Silver Spoon. You can't expect any character development on their part, because technically they weren't actually in the episode, that was all in Apple Bloom's head. The same can be said for those scenes of the other two Crusaders telling her off. That's all her expectation, not to be measured against reality.

 

Apple Bloom's always been impatient about getting a cutie mark, but this episode dealt with a different manifestation of that. It dealt with her fearing the unknown, and that's very believable for someone in that situation, especially of her age. The kinds of questions she brought up are actually quite familiar to pretty much every Crusaders thread in Show Discussion since the previous season ended, and ones I've been waiting for this show to take on. With this undying devotion to self-image MLP's world has, it never really addresses the concern of a negative self-image too often. This episode finally acknowledges the presence of such a possibility, to spend every hour of your short life working for something that didn't benefit you. Been there. Done that. Smoked it. Called it an Uber. (Google that reference if you don't get it.)

 

This episode very accurately and fittingly reflects the emotional state of someone who deals with the quest for self-image under heavy and conflicting external pressures. It's something that damns you if you do and damns you if you don't. This is one episode where you really have to look at the big picture. As a dream sequence, it really works. It captures all the feelings of a dream: the familiarity and the realism combined with the surreal and psychological aspects of it. That really helps in delivering its message, not to worry yourself too much over things that are realistically outside of your control. Something I myself, for one, can very much relate to.

[silverfeather7 13]

All I could see was Inception. Princess Luna was Dom/Leonardo DiCaprio and had to do things to get Applebloom out of her dream. There were also other references strewn in there, but that's standard.

[Mesme Rize 15,681]

All I could see was Inception. Princess Luna was Dom/Leonardo DiCaprio and had to do things to get Applebloom out of her dream. There were also other references strewn in there, but that's standard.

 

I think it was more of a parody to Groundhog day, since ABs mornings always started the same.

[silverfeather7 13]

I think it was more of a parody to Groundhog day, since ABs mornings always started the same.

I haven't watched that movie. I really should watch it.

[Dewdlz 938]

Luna's voice seemed different from what I'm used to hearing. Also, she seemed more flashy and purty. 

So happy to see her dramatic entrance and doing what she does best.

[Time Shield 402]

I enjoyed it thoroughly. People who complain about tediousness and repetition obviously have never experienced waking up from a dream and going about your business only to find out that you're still asleep. I've heard of cases where people remember it happening almost a dozen times. And in any case, it's not repetitive: it was actually pretty fun to note the minor differences each time the dream restarted (the breakfast being the most obvious, but there were others).

 

For anyone complaining about the characters in the dream not having much depth, they are in a dream after all. Dream characters tend to be pretty one-dimensional to begin with, since they reflect how the dreamer sees them. On the other hand, we got to see a lot about AB's thoughts and insecurities here, which was very welcome character development.

[Silver Letter 1,830]

This episode is interesting to say the least and it's enjoyable. I've watched it twice so far. I was sure disappointed that Babs got a pair of scissors as her mark. This wasn't exactly foreshadowed in any way and the CMC rationalization was lame.  I am more relieved that Apps didn't get her mark. I thought the first one was silly and ill-fitting. Plus, she is meant to get hers last. I was not very happy at first when I thought they had gone against that but that was not the case. I like seeing Luna again and she helped Apps and ended up helping them all at the same time. I hope this episode means that the CMC is coming to a conclusion in this season.