S05:E08 - The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone

[LZRD WZRD 1,929]

As for negatives,Twilight was unbearably annoying in this episode. Of course we, the audience, have never heard of Griffonstone before, but naturally, she is already well-informed about it, as well as every little facet of its culture.

 

*eyeroll* Okay, whatever. Not sure why I would have expected differently. At least she won’t be accompanying them to save the day and come up with the solution to the issue at hand, right?

 

…right?

 

“Twilight literally wrote a book of what we need to do in Griffonstone.”

 

Oh, well, of course she did! Why wouldn't she expect them to be completely lost and clueless without her? She apparently doesn’t even trust them to know how to get there themselves.

 

“Oh, thank you so much, Mother Twily! We really appreciate you for holding our hooves through this whole thing since we can barely tell left from right ourselves! Maybe later at lunchtime you can cut the crusts off of our PB&J sandwiches and stick the straws in our juiceboxes! Oh, and after lunch, you can read us a story while you tuck us in bed for a long nap after our very first friendship mission without you!”

 

*sigh*

 

How is her being informed about Griffonstone annoying? So people who know their history are annoying? As a history major, I'm offended.

 

But moreover, this is a way of getting information across the audience - you know, exposition?

 

Also, why are you so pissed that she gave them a guide book? Is it really that unreasonable for her to give her friends advice on how to deal with a new place that they know NOTHING about? Come on dude, at this point, you're hate for her is ridiculous and honestly obnoxious.

[Dark Qiviut 22,415]

 

 

I could see the "this town needs friendship not the idol back" from a mile away. The fact that a considerable number of the griffons were greedy is believable but come on all of them? It just seems like they took a stereotype that they have placed on dragons and put them on griffons. It is a bit more excusable with griffons as they aren't as diverse as dragons (different species types ect) but still. Griffonstone falling reminded me of Rome a bit as that empire fell quite hard though there was also a remnant of that for a few hundred years afterward with the Byzantine Empire.

I don't think calling the griffons greedy applies here, at least not in today's age. Griffinstone is in complete shambles. There's very little to eat there, and the economy is horrible. They ask for bits any way they can because they need them.

[Manman20x6 359]

And what happened to the cake that Gummy was supposed to bake? I was expecting the unexpecting as in Gummy actually baking an awesome cake when Pinkie returned.

The episode ends with a quick shot of Pinkie's bakery. We see that Gummy has not moved an inch and nothing has changed.

[Jeric 46,851]

9/10 as a first impression score. 

 

Loved

 

• Tibetan/Mongolian flavor of Griffonstone
• Adorkable Twilight fangirling about knowledge
• Dash was obviously impacted by the last encounter
• Pinkie had the solution
• Lil' Dashie again ... and lil Gilda ... 
• Griffon dice
• RD's Twilight impression was hilarious 
• All characters were spot on in character
• Reading Rainbow ... ha!
• Indiana Jones reference was nice. 
• "You charmer"

Best thing about the episode

 

The lessons and depth that this episode had, about forgiveness, about how greed can be a social death, and that the path to friendship can indeed be a long and winding road, at least for someone like Gilda. Also, Griffonstone has a long journey of renewal ahead of them. 

 

 

 

Didn't like

 

Only change I would have made was the Pinkie baking soda commercial. It felt out of place during the moment.  

[Shanks 10,816]

I don't think calling the griffons greedy applies here, at least not in today's age. Griffinstone is in complete shambles. There's very little to eat there, and the economy is horrible. They ask for bits any way they can because they need them.

I can understand desperation but remember when Rainbow Dash asked for help that Griffons first response was "got any bits?" That is not just depseration, that is actual greed.

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,161]

Poll is up!

 

Also, best episode of the season for me!

[Castle Bleck 19,361]

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.

Edited May 23, 2015 by A.V.

[Jeric 46,851]

At first I thought maybe the reason why Rainbow Dash and Gilda were friends was because it takes a jerk to like a jerk but now it makes sense.

 

Also interestingly enough, it made Gilda's first appearance more robust as it can be viewed that she didn't grow up with a whole hell of a friendly environment. Alone, afraid, and without a friend ... and she bonds with RD. Years later she likely felt that bond threatened in much the way Discord did last week, albeit more subtly. 

[baba_booey 4,302]

Loved it. Gilda was developed well, the history behind Griffonstone was interesting, the characterization was great, and it had feels.

 

Gilda's officially my 3rd favorite MLP character gg no re.

[cider float 2,538]

The best part of this episode is that it brought back some of the charm from Season 1 and 2. Thanks for that writers.

[Dark Qiviut 22,415]

I can understand desperation but remember when Rainbow Dash asked for help that Griffons first response was "got any bits?" That is not just depseration, that is actual greed.

Still have to call it desperation. Remember, the economy is terrible. They need it any way they can to make end's meet.

[WriteCodes46 178]

-All Griffons are jerkasses confirmed.

-Rainbow Dash once again does everything wrong, breaks a bone, and nearly dies by falling (irony much?).

-Gilda is now redeemed, but alone, and Griffonstone is still a 4th world town. But at least they got The Magic of Friendship®.

 

That said, the backstory of the Griffon Empire is really interesting, and I hope we get to see the place again in the future (hopefully a bit more developed, thanks to the magic mentioned above).

[Allen 1,387]

Gilda appears in this episode once again and it takes place in Griffonstone with Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash.

 

Gilda is used to be friends with Rainbow Dash when she's a filly in Cloudsdale in the scene above. Finding the lost treasure at the bottom of the canyon would be a good idea for them to investigate. 

[Dynamo Pad 11,321]

I found this episode quite enjoyable and very interesting. It was interesting to see that only certain members of the mane 6 can be called from the map to go to certain areas from around Equestria. I also loved Twilight's reaction to not being called on by the map and what she wanted to do when she got to Griffinstone. Rainbow was acting like Twilight and the way her mane looked like Twilight's for a few seconds was amazing. Seeing Griffinstone I thought it was going to be a giant kingdom even from the history we learned about, but it still looked cool and it was nice to see a new area visited by the mane 6. It was interesting to see Gilda again and it was good to see they didn't forget what she did in "Gilda the Brushoff." One thing I liked about this episode was how Pinkie and Rainbow tried to handle things while on their mission. I can understand Rainbow's side as she couldn't forgive Gilda for what she had done to her friends while in Ponyville. I also liked Pinkie in trying to help Gilda because after what she went through when she first met Gilda, it seemed that she didn't want to stay in the past and to be in the present and look towards the future in helping Gilda and the rest of the griffins in restoring their kingdom in their own way. The way that Gilda was portrayed in this episode and the development she got I respect Gilda a lot more now. I actually liked this episode a lot seeing Gummy at the end was really funny and I didn't expect it until the last second. 

[Sazama Ichida 2,367]

Pretty good episode overall. It’s more than clear now that AKR writes Pinkie better than most, including McCarthy. I've been waiting for an episode where she saves the day like in Swarm of the Century, so this was a bit of a breath of fresh air, even though it wasn't quite on the same scale.

 

As for negatives,Twilight was unbearably annoying in this episode. Of course we, the audience, have never heard of Griffonstone before, but naturally, she is already well-informed about it, as well as every little facet of its culture.

 

*eyeroll* Okay, whatever. Not sure why I would have expected differently. At least she won’t be accompanying them to save the day and come up with the solution to the issue at hand, right?

 

…right?

 

“Twilight literally wrote a book of what we need to do in Griffonstone.”

 

Oh, well, of course she did!  Why wouldn't she expect them to be completely lost and clueless without her?  She apparently doesn’t even trust them to know how to get there themselves.

 

“Oh, thank you so much, Mother Twily! We really appreciate you for holding our hooves through this whole thing since we can barely tell left from right ourselves! Maybe later at lunchtime you can cut the crusts off of our PB&J sandwiches and stick the straws in our juiceboxes! Oh, and after lunch, you can read us a story while you tuck us in bed for a long nap after our very first friendship mission without you!” 

 

*sigh* 

Well is there anything wrong with going to great lengths to help 2 of your closest friends? Because that's all she was doing. She was only trying to help.

[Cleverclover 1,526]

How is her being informed about Griffonstone annoying? So people who know their history are annoying? As a history major, I'm offended.

 

But moreover, this is a way of getting information across the audience - you know, exposition?

 

Also, why are you so pissed that she gave them a guide book? Is it really that unreasonable for her to give her friends advice on how to deal with a new place that they know NOTHING about? Come on dude, at this point, you're hate for her is ridiculous and honestly obnoxious.

 

Her being informed of Griffonstone wasn't that annoying. It just didn't surprise me that, once again, this was the method used for learning about something we didn't know before, just like the sirens in Rainbow Rocks. It's as if Twilight has literally become a walking exposition machine, as if her being a walking deus ex machina wasn't bad enough. 

 

The guidebook was annoying simply because Twilight clearly feels the need to handhold them through the entire thing. As if she doesn't trust them to handle the mission themselves without screwing up in some way. 

Edited May 23, 2015 by Cleverclover

[cider float 2,538]

Get ready for Gilda stuff on the internet. And maybe Gilda toys by Hasbro are going out now.

[Megas 27,651]

New favorite episode of the season. Loved world building and the Griffons. Loved seeing Gilda back, and she had probably the best redemption between the ones seen so far. Rainbow and especially Pinkie were great. Also loved Rainbow's Twilight impression. Loved the backstory between Gilda and Dash. BTW, little Gilda is fucking adorable

 

Edited May 23, 2015 by Megas75

[Sazama Ichida 2,367]

Also interestingly enough, it made Gilda's first appearance more robust as it can be viewed that she didn't grow up with a whole hell of a friendly environment. Alone, afraid, and without a friend ... and she bonds with RD. Years later she likely felt that bond threatened in much the way Discord did last week, albeit more subtly. 

Yeah and at first I was gonna say she seemed like the only character who was more unlikeable than Rainbow Dash but now I can understand it in her case. I don't dislike Gilda anymore now. Sometimes if a person is a bully it's because they themself were bullied in their childhood so they act like a bully as a defense mechanism. Same case with Babs Seed.

[Lightwing 12,973]

Her being informed of Griffonstone wasn't that annoying. It just didn't surprise me that, once again, this was the method used for learning about something we didn't know before, just like the sirens in Rainbow Rocks. It's as if Twilight has literally become a walking exposition machine, as if her being a walking deus ex machina wasn't bad enough. 

 

The guidebook was annoying simply because Twilight clearly feels the need to handhold them through the entire thing. As if she doesn't trust them to handle the mission themselves without screwing up in some way. 

What you are doing is literally looking for any inch of information that allows you to call Twilight "a Mary Sue". What she only did is create exposition of the concept, one of the oldest concepts in cartoons ever, and you are treating it like if it was a Deus Ex Machina action, which is far away from the truth.

 

Now you are just looking for reasons to hate on Twilight, even reaching limits of pointing simple actions that, if they were made by other characters, I completly bet that they wouldn't bother you.

 

Edit: and, in fact, that scene was completely ON CHARACTER, as Twilight is, by nature, and always be, a nerd that likes to dig on information. (Thank you, Jeric)

When you literally fight the characterization of a main character, you should know that you went too far.

Edited May 23, 2015 by Lightwing

[Castle Bleck 19,361]

Still have to call it desperation. Remember, the economy is terrible. They need it any way they can to make end's meet.

 

But did the Griffon have to do it in such a b***hy way?

 

I mean, there's pragmatism... and then there's sociopathy.

[Jeric 46,851]

Well is there anything wrong with going to great lengths to help 2 of your closest friends? Because that's all she was doing. She was only trying to help.

Agreed. I also loved seeing her let out her nerdy side again, and since she couldn't go, the best she could do is prepare. Loved Twilight in this one.

[BastementSparkle 20,326]

 

The guidebook was annoying simply because Twilight clearly feels the need to handhold them through the entire thing. As if she doesn't trust them to handle the mission themselves without screwing up in some way. 

 

I dunno. If I was about to send two of my best friends to a place they've never been to and know nothing about on a trip that maybe has the potential to get dangerous, I'd probably want to help them too? She knows a lot more about Griffonstone than them, it only makes sense for her to share her knowledge in some way if it could be useful. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie aren't all-knowing beings, that book could have been really helpful.

Edited May 23, 2015 by BasementPoneh

[StitchandMLPlover 930]

That... that Gilda story... the feels are getting to me. Also I told you so that duo pairings episodes were the best. Having all the ponies go out on the adventure really dilutes the material. With just two of them there's plenty of good stuff to put in there.

 

Finally Twilight showed her obssession with books again, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were an awesome duo. Also something tells me that cyclops goat monster could be from G1 or something?

The cyclops goat monster thing looks a bit like Tirek which might be why he feels like he is from G1. 

[Mesme Rize 15,683]

Her being informed of Griffonstone wasn't that annoying. It just didn't surprise me that, once again, this was the method used for learning about something we didn't know before, just like the sirens in Rainbow Rocks. It's as if Twilight has literally become a walking exposition machine, as if her being a walking deus ex machina wasn't bad enough. 

 

The guidebook was annoying simply because Twilight clearly feels the need to handhold them through the entire thing. As if she doesn't trust them to handle the mission themselves without screwing up in some way. 

 

Do you even know what the word annoying means?