S05:E08 - The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone

[Wicked Funky 2,955]

 

The best thing in this episode in my opineion was getting to know the history of griffons!

 

I really like Rainbow dash and Pinkie interacting to, It makes for a fun combination ^^

 

Also, Have we actually seen a skeleton before? Because if not, This is the first time... And grandpa Groff looked freaking beast!

 

 

[Lambdadelta 1,462]

I expected this ep will be more about "finding treasure" ... but it's ok, we have Gilda... :3

[Luffyiscool 397]

This week's mini pmv

 

Gilda <3

[Side Bird 565]

So seeing the first few minutes of the new episode I feel like the Griffons live in poverty. I really hope they re-visit in the future and the cities all amazing and such.

Overall the episode was awesome!

Gilda being reformed and all friendly was amazing.

[Not Yellow Diamond 924]

Well a friend wanted me to share my review so I will.

 

The Lost Treasure Of Griffonstone Review, Enjoy!

 

The episode was written by Amy Keating Rogers who is personally of my more favorite writers, not best but a good writer. The episode showed many things...

 

I think it showed a lot in Rainbow Dash's character, i think this episode provided her with some character depth, but it provided Pinkie pie with more. Pinkie Pie understands friendship really well and...(I never thought i'd use this word to describe Pinkie Pie but...) Pinkie pie was really mature in this episode, like she understood, fully. 

 

That character depth of, RD, let me explain, she shared the same thing as the Griffon's which i thought was interesting

 

The Griffon's kept asking for bits (material items) and they showed pride in a (material possession) not themselves or their nation and RD went after a (material item) to fix an issue versus Pinkie who went after the true thing, which was friendship. I think this defines not necessarily Rainbow's lacking in knowledge as much as it defines Pinkie Pie's understanding.

 

I thought it fit the characters as well. Rainbow dash is often looking at something physical like in "May the Best Pet Win," RD was looking for physical attributes versus non - physical attributes. Pinkie Pie, on the other hand, demonstrated her character because she is constantly looking for ponies to smile, or be happy which is emotional versus physical, although that is showed through a physical thing; you can't really truly smile without a reason, typically.

 

Pinkie pie was hilarious as always, but I think best joke went to Rainbow Dash with the twilight impersonation, that was hilarious.

 

I loved how there were no "90's" references, that made my day. In, "Griffon the Brush off," there were so many references to the 90's i thought i was going cut my ears off, it was literally painful to listen to. They fixed that this time. You know this episode fixed a lot of the things that were wrong in the first episode with Gilda. In that episode, Gilda was portrayed as bully and no character depth. She was worse than Babs ever was, (still don't get what's wrong with the episode) Gilda was unlikable. The only antagonist I, personally, disliked. But, in this episode they gave Gilda depth, tremendous depth, more than Derpy has been given. (Fight me about it!) And they transformed this character into something likable and I actually am looking forward to seeing Gilda again. In addition, they developed RD's feeling toward Gilda post - "Griffon the Brush Off" which i enjoyed seeing the call back.

 

And the flashback was so cute, I LOVED it

 

The writing was original and cute, i enjoyed it, the moral was predictable from the exposition, so was the rest of the episode. If there was one thing that i have to harp on something it's how bad the execution of the story was, like... Every scene was so predictable, i guessed the ending as well as the moral by the end of Act 1. And as soon as Dash was seen by a cliff with that unnamed Griffon i already guessed that she would fall and be stranded and that Gilda would save them. I even predicted the Indiana Jones reference.

 

That was only thing preventing me from getting into the episode was the fact is I knew exactly where it was going, it was too predictable.

 

I'm gonna rate this.

 

Story: 5/10

Writing: 9.5/10

Animation: 8/10

Moral: 7//10

Enjoyment: 8/10

Overall: 8/10

 

It was a good episode, it was one of the funniest, especially the impersonation and "no singing" bit. I loved the character  depth to both Pinkie Pie and RD and even Gilda. I hated all the other griffon's but i loved Gilda and she was well planned this time unlike in "Griffon the brush off," although everything was predictable... like could see it from a mile away, the small things like character interaction, comedy and animation kept me into the episode as well as the unspoken things such character depth and development.

 

Good episode overall

[Buck Testa 5,503]

It turned out Gilda was just Tsundere all along 

 

Seriously though, I loved this episode! Not only did they pull Gilda out of the realm of hated one note characters, they made her LIKABLE and dare I say ADORABLE! I love that they are using the idea of making the map send only a couple ponies instead of all six all the time. Is it just me or is Twilight serving as the local Celestia now, delegating the missions and giving the plans of action? That is a welcome development for her character into her princess role! 

 

Also Mah shipping goggles wonders who that OTHER Griffin was, the one Gilda was all nervous around and shyly offering baked goods too :3, I'd like to see what's going on there! 

 

Pinkie is either really REALLY into statues (hey they ARE made of rock after all, Maud would be proud) or she likes herself some male Griffins, that is certainly an interesting little factoid to know. 

 

So much good in this episode my head is spinning! By Celestia I love season 5!!!

Edited May 24, 2015 by Buck Testa

[OtakuBrony 349]

Howdy all!

 

Great episode!

 

Fun to hear Maryke Hendrikse as Gilda again.

 

Richard Ian Cox as Grandpa Groff was pretty good.

 

RD & PP make a good team

 

Dashie imitating Twilight was hilarious.

 

Gilda's flashback was pretty neat.

 

Fer fans of Star Trek TNG or Deep Space Nine the Griffins sure remind me of the Ferengi.

Asking for gold bars much like the Griffins asking for bits.

 

Amy Keating Rogers wrote a dandy of an episode.

 

See ya!

[MLPFanatic34 3,234]

That was definitely a good episode! It's nice to see a Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie pairing and this was a good pairing, I love seeing Griffonstone and seeing more griffons introduced since we haven't seen many of them in the past aside from Gilda, Gustave, and those griffons in the Equestria Games and Rainbow Falls episode. I also figured that Gilda would appear again and man was I glad she did, I love Gilda now! She's such a great character and I really hope she'll appear again this season or next. I also love Pinkie in this episode, she was hilarious as always and got the true idea of the mission she and Rainbow were sent to complete. I also love Twilight giving her friends a guidebook so they wouldn't get lost and they'd know what they were doing. All in all a good episode 9/10!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cloud Strife 928]

Though what I didn't understand was, why did Dash not just attempt to fly down into the cavern in the first place to get the idol. Seems like something she'd do, despite the fact of the high winds in the cavern. Knowing Dash, she would've at least of attempted such a stunt. Then she should've realised "hm, maybe I Need help" and gone for the supplies and the guide afterwards.. 

 

She did actually attempt, but the winds blew her back - heck, she even outright asked why she couldn't just fly down to the griffon, only to be pushed back. It's pretty heavily implied that she was told there's no way you can fly there.

 

I can understand that, yet it still seems too much to me like she lacked faith in their capability to complete the mission without her assistance. Consider also that she had never been there herself, and had no idea what they were being called there for, yet she still felt the need to micromanage them by giving them obvious advice and instructions that they should have been able to figure out for themselves. 

 

However, I will say that it would have been a hell of a lot more annoying had something from her guidebook actually made them realize the solution. 

 

If this is the start of a series of "mane six go on various friendship missions in pairs" episodes, then I truly hope that the next one does not include this (unless, of course, Twilight is actually included in the mission). If she must continue to be a walking exposition machine by knowing every last thing there is to know about every last corner of Equestria, then fine. But I would strongly prefer there not being anymore handholding "go here, do this" guides from her, which only serve to trivialize the mane five's level of competence before they even get started. 

 

Let me try to give you a bit of a paradigm shift here: what makes advice "obvious"? When you mentioned that the library "should be the first place they should check", I personally stared at that strangely, because it actually wouldn't be the first thing I would've thought to do as far as gathering information is concerned. I'm not at all arguing that Twilight Sparkle wasn't being a bit overbearing, but rather to try to place you in her...hooves, so to speak. Yeah, Rainbow Dash probably has enough common sense to reason that for herself, but would Twilight really know that? Most of the time when they're off going on adventures together and Twilight knows about it, she's there with them. The times that they had gone on adventures without her around, she didn't even know that they were going there. She has absolutely no idea how independent they are and what info they might need, and in those cases, it's better to overcompensate and tell them things that they might already know than to say "oh they might think I'm treating them like an idiot, so I better not tell them anything at all" and for them to get lost because you didn't say anything.

 

It may feel, to you, from an outside perspective, that Twilight believes that they can't handle themselves - but I would rather think better of Twilight. I believe she knows they can, but wants them to be prepared in the just in case scenario, to relieve them of some headaches. As @Jeric said, it might not be necessary, but it's all with completely good intentions. I understand the irritation, I really do, but maybe you're overreacting a little bit by suggesting Twilight feels a certain way, when what I'm getting from it is that she wanted to write a whole book on it not because she wanted to "micromanage", but because she personally was excited for the trip they were going on, was disappointed that she couldn't go, and couldn't help herself from rambling on about it.

 

Either way, I highly doubt it will become a staple of these pairing episodes. Regardless of my analysis here, what it boils down to is, given RD's reaction, it was supposed to be a joke, a joke that worked especially well since it juxtaposed with the dilapidated state of Griffonstone right after Twilight got done talking about how luxurious a place it was. A joke like that isn't going to work two episodes in a row, so you can sigh in relief, since the writers are most definitely smart enough not to do it again, or at least not in the same exact way.

[Vertigo-01 101]

It's good, to be sure! I enjoyed it quite a bit. Great to see Gilda again after all this time, but I feel for her and the others for having fallen into poverty. Being a race that thrives mostly off the pride gained from material wealth has to be hard, for both the griffons and the dragons.
 

And how they spun that plot point makes me a little torn. As an adult fan, I wish that they had played out the search for the idol more, even after Gilda rescues Pinkie and RD. Having raised such a significant plot point, and then abandoning it for what was admittedly a decent moral message for the kids, makes me a bit flustered. This is just one of those episodes where I would have loved to see the adventure side of things pan out a little more, especially with such a motley crew as Pinkie, RD, and Gilda. But, such is the fate for some adult fans I suppose.

Nevertheless, I liked the episode. It had a good flow and lots of fun little bits all around. I feel as if they did a pretty decent job of building Gilda's character as well, though that flashback made me squirm a bit in embarrassment. Good to see an old friendship repaired as well; I'm sure Twilight will be proud.

[Jeric 46,834]

Fer fans of Star Trek TNG or Deep Space Nine the Griffins sure remind me of the Ferengi.

 

 

You win all of the points ... even though points don't matter.

 

From a Skype chat discussion 

 

[12:31:40 PM] Jeric: It killed the Griffon society until one put aside greed

[12:31:48 PM] Nomadic Pathfinder: The episode is fairly deep when you actually think about it.

[12:31:54 PM] Nomadic Pathfinder: And the scene...reaching for the idol...

[12:31:58 PM] Jeric: So Griffons = Ferengi

[12:32:04 PM] Nomadic Pathfinder: ...visions of Last Crusade. (heart)

[12:32:14 PM] Jeric: Gilda = Rom

 

 

[Celli 4,332]

I liked it! Seeing Gilda again was nice, and it's cool to see the reasons she acted like a jerk. Some parts of the episode could have been better, so I rated it Liked It.

[Horse 63]

Griffin scrunchy face.

 

I liked that they gave a real reason for Gilda to be grumpy.  In her first episode, it seemed like she had just turned mean for no good reason.

[Emerald Star 513]

I enjoyed this episode. It was a very nice way of giving Gilda more depth to her character, and it's now understandable why she acted so mean. She is much more likable now and kind of a sad character. Not only is she living in poverty, but she lost her only friend and has been alone and treated like nothing for most of her life.

Overall it was pretty good, one of the best of the season so far.

 

My biggest complaints are kind of just nitpicks. I was looking forward to seeing the griffon kingdom and it turned out to be slightly underwhelming, but that's my own fault for hyping it too much.

It just seemed like they could have done more. The griffons were clearly suffering and in a state of poverty. Their homes are falling apart, the economy is terrible and no one is happy. While it helps, I don't think 'friendship' will be an automatic fix to all their problems. Twilight has a very high status, couldn't she maybe send some help to improve their standard of living as well? I don't know, just a thought.

[The Lonely Paradox 124]

I loved the way they developed Gilda's character. Rather than going further into who she is, the writers decided to take what we already knew about Gilda (that she was a bitch) and went into why she was that way. We got to see the unfriendly environment that Gilda calls her home, and the circumstances under which she met Dash (being teased as soon as she arrived to flight camp). With this new information, it's possible to infer that Gilda's rude demeanor is a sort of defense mechanism. This episode also comes right after Make New Friends but Keep Discord, where we see Discord try to eliminate Tree Hugger because he fears that she is replacing him as Fluttershy's friend. With that lesson fresh in our minds, we can look back at Gilda's past actions in a whole new light. In the new episode, it is clear that Dash was the only friend that Gilda ever had, and it is also clear that Gilda does not (or rather did not) understand how friendship works, so it is possible to view Gilda's actions in Griffon the Brush-off in much the same light as Discord's actions in Make New Friends but Keep Discord; she was trying keep from losing the only friend she ever had.

[Envy 5,996]

I enjoyed the episode quite a bit. Especially the silliness of "Pinkie throw down a rope!" and she just throws down a rope without hanging onto it. xD

But Gilda being 'redeemed' felt a bit off. I always thought that she should have been kept an one-off character. I know it's probably bad to not want her to be given any depth, BUT the way it was handled in this episode felt very off either way.

Edited May 24, 2015 by Envy

[Argumedies 1,748]

I thought this one was okay

 

Few thoughts:

 

Butt pagers still work

 

Griffons are best dwarves

 

DAT GOAT CYCLOPS... I so wanna know more about that.

 

Pinky was just crazy enough to not be annoying.

 

I so want a Gummy/Pinky cooking/bakeing commission art in a Ratatouille style design (Gummy in Pinkys mane directing her in a Bakeing project)

 

And..

 

What is with all the canyons in Equestria???

[Shoobedoo 44]

I absolutely loved Dashies's Twilight impression. And baby Gilda is "totes adorbs"

[Trine 665]

When Gilda was forced to choose either the Idol or Dash and Pinkie, I immediately thought of this:

 

 

It also reminded me of Long John Silver's redemption scene near the end of Treasure Planet.

A little off topic, but was that a plot in the book aka "Treasure Island" or was it just in that Disney futuristic animated movie called Treasure Planet

 

Edit: Also. I don't know why people dislike the arrogant attitude Gilda had in Season 1. I think that was the perfect one. If one think about subtle events, what if you met someone like that, so its a way to learn how one would deal with it if that would happen. Now as much as i like seeing Gilda again and the griffin place, i felt that they just shoehorned some stuff like "Friendship solves the issue" and "Gilda's weaker voice, considering she is known for being prideful as a character". And its not to take a joke on MLP's theme friendship which is a heartwarming thing, but in terms of subtle events it felt out of place. I would rather prefer if it was griffins rebuilding stuff by getting motivated, maybe if Dash had motivated Gilda or something, and Gilda's weaker voice could've been her inner consciousness.

 

Although it does hurt for me to say this since i just find MLP such a cozy and nice show ^^. And people in general ^^

Edited May 24, 2015 by Trine

[windy_prance 114]

I love the setup of this episode a lot. World building and resolving issues with a past character. However...there was very little pay off. Especially from Rainbow Dash's role in the story...in fact I don't think we even needed Rainbow Dash.

 

...However that flashback was totally worth it~! OMG baby Gilda is adorable~!

Edited May 24, 2015 by windy_prance

[Argumedies 1,748]

BTW, do yall realize they just showed the first (non) character death ever in a pony episode.

 

I know they showed a coffen in the HnH episode but not a body

 

In this episode they showed that the Cyclops had fallen to its death and the bones in the canyon were the proof.

 

Death does exist in Equestria

Edited May 24, 2015 by Argumedies

[Singe 2,109]

Gilda's change of heart only happens because Pinkie Pie nearly got them all killed before that.

Edited May 24, 2015 by Singe

[Odyssey 5,713]

Nice episode. Pinkie and Dash are both written very well (Dash especially), the humour is good and the adventure themes are also played well too. It's great to see Gilda return as well. Although I can't say I'm too crazy over her redemption, it still shows that Gilda isn't always a jerk. Oh, and it's also great to see more griffons and their lore.

 

One thing that I've kind of noticed is how Gilda seemed to be pretty scared when she was younger, but as she got older she became more and more of a jerk. At least for me, I can really relate to Gilda's past and overall personality. I was too scared to interact with other people when I was younger, but as I got older I became more of a jerk to other people. I guess it's because I became that way since the bullying I've been through has left an unfortunate effect on me in which I try to stand up for myself and be serious and tough, but it instead made me look like a bully. I guess it's also I haven't had too many friends in my life either, so I often have trouble with interacting with other people. But either way, I am really impressed by the writers for making a character with a relatable past and personality. I do hope we see Gilda again, because I really like her now.

 

Not much else to say other than I really like and can relate to this episode. It may as well be one of my favourite Season 5 episodes.

[NavelColt 22,875]

Dear god, it's about time.

 

 

Instances where CD predicted some shit when few others did, yet again:

> https://mlpforums.com/topic/24026-your-least-favorite-of-gilda-trixie-and-diamond-tiara/?p=544999(2012)

> https://mlpforums.com/topic/87154-cdiscords-gilda-dash-relationship-analysis/(2014) 

> https://mlpforums.com/topic/91707-s4-bring-backsits-gilda-time/?p=2426765(moar 2014)

 

Eat your heart out, easily-offended Fluttershy fans, and move over Trixie; Gilda finally got a comeback, and with it came more Dash backstory.

 

Now that, that's out of the way. <3

 

Hurrah for more world-building, and getting more input on the griffons, at last! If they decided to make an entire episode about Twilight reading through these ancient books about various lands, creatures, legends and societies to young foals or maybe teaching a class in Canterlot, I would not mind. Some of the best episodes (and second EQG movie) involve those awesome little book animations.

 

Interesting new voice for Gilda, and Pinkie's shenanigans were very amusing throughout this entire episode. It was fantastic to see further continuity with the childhood bullies and the Junior Speedsters Song again, and to see just how Dash and Gilda first became friends. Also interesting to see the skull of the long-deceased monster that originally stole the treasure. I was expecting them to run into it for some reason but, it makes sense that it'd be dead by this point, and that they couldn't fit a fight scene into three minutes.

 

And course, ultimately, Gilda is redeemed. There were certain lines that probably could have been altered so that her turn-around didn't seem quite so bi-polar, but this is a very small complain in the grand scheme. No episode can be perfect; 22 minutes is not long to work with for telling a story where you actually try to have character development, so eh. In the end it fit well enough.

 

Another great episode of S5 thus far, and we aren't even at the halfway point yet.

[Rainboom Dash 1,054]

Brilliant episode! Easily, easily one of the season's best for me. I'd always wanted an episode delving more into griffon mythology, and this delivered all that and more. Wasn't expecting a Gilda return so her role and redemption was great, and I was happy with more of the Pinkie-Dash pairing as well. Favorite moment had to be the flashback, which was just too adorable.

 

All in all, currently one of my favorites from this season. Fantastic output from Amy Keating Rogers, who I'm still sad to see go.