S05:E12 - Amending Fences

[S.F. 1,560]

I personally throughly enjoyed this episode, I'd wanted to meet Moon Dancer since I first saw Friendship is Magic pt1 all those years ago, so was pleased that she finally made an appearance! But I think the surprise of the episode was Minuette (I still think of her as Colgate though   ), she has managed to rocket from being 'just a background pony' to being one of my favourite characters!

 

The continuity was also very welcome, as well as explaining why we still see Twi's Canterlot Friends in and around Ponyville.

 

All in all, one of the best episodes of this season, and it definitely ranks among episodes from all seasons!

[Dolphanatic 298]

So your saying that because Twilight said her brother was her best friend forever, means she can't have other friends? Now, I don't remember the episode all that well, but I'm pretty sure that she could easily have friends. Everything here seems perfectly canon to me. Then again, I do just watch it and enjoy it rather then pick it apart. I let others do that. Anyway, my point against your point, is that just because she said her brother is her best friend, doesn't mean she can't have other friends. (Anyone going to say anything against me should remember I can't remember Canterlot Wedding well and I probably missed something's in Amending Fences)

 

BBBFF's opening lyrics would beg to differ.

 

"When I was just a filly, I found it rather silly to see how many other ponies I could meet. I had my books to read, didn't know that I would ever need other ponies to make my life complete"

 

Need I say more?

[Jangocoolguy 433]

That was rather entertaining

 

I liked the shout outs to the first episode, Twilight's original name/concept, and even Tara breaking out that old voice

 

It's kinda neat they bought up Twilight's roots of being a friendless, anti-social creature before moving to Ponyville (thought Shining and Cadence make that somewhat muddled), and she wanted to reconnect to ponies of her past...though I kept thinking "Uh, you were trying to prepare for Nightmare Moon's return. If you'd gone to that party she'd would be ruling Equestria about now..."

 

Oh, and it's gonna be fun watching the herd make a fuss about no more Colgate!

[Truffles 2,033]

BBBFF's opening lyrics would beg to differ.

 

"When I was just a filly, I found it rather silly to see how many other ponies I could meet. I had my books to read, didn't know that I would ever need other ponies to make my life complete"

 

Need I say more?

 

To be fair, I tend to think that Twilight treated her past friends as more "acquaintances", especially if they were the ones that offered their friendship to Twi and not the other way around. I can easily see Twilight agreeing to this and thinking to herself in a "Sure, whatever...." moment. But the episode's flashbacks leave that detail up to the viewer, though it's hinted at by how much she stays buried in her books.

 

Also the song itself is kind of wrong from what was just brought up in the message above:

 

It's kinda neat they bought up Twilight's roots of being a friendless, anti-social creature before moving to Ponyville (thought Shining and Cadence make that somewhat muddled)

 

Technically Cadence really was her friend, and that was discovered in the same episode as the song.   So I'd tend to put any error on the song lyrics and not "Amending Fences".

[Luffyiscool 397]

BBBFF's opening lyrics would beg to differ.

 

"When I was just a filly, I found it rather silly to see how many other ponies I could meet. I had my books to read, didn't know that I would ever need other ponies to make my life complete"

 

Need I say more?

Twilight's wording here doesn't concretely discredit this episode.

"Seeing how many other ponies I could meet" implies the desire to seek out acquaintances and make an effort to befriend others.

It's like someone saying "I found it rather silly to see how many episodes I could watch".

That wording does not rule out the possibility that they'd seen one or two episodes, it just means they weren't interested in doing the whole thing.

 

Pre-pilot Twilight had friends, but didn't value the friendship itself as above her studies.

And she found the notion of gathering as many friends as possible silly, like the song says.

It does not discredit the idea of her having acquaintances at all. They may have even been the ones who came to her, being classmates and all. 

As long as they didn't get in the way of her studying, Twilight would have no reason to chase them off. 

 

"didn't know that I would ever need other ponies to make my life complete"

Again, this does not imply that her friendships with the Canterlot group didn't exist. 

She had them, but she just didn't place them on the high pedestal that "making a life complete" would entail.

 

It's like saying "I didn't know that I would ever need ice cream to make my life complete".

It doesn't mean that you've never eaten ice cream. It just means that you didn't think it was wonderful enough to complete your life.

 

 

If anything, the whole conflict of this episode can use that lyric as SUPPORT. 

The lyric you posted, showcasing Twilight's stance on not needing other ponies, is exactly why she made some hurtful decisions to her friend circle.

Because she didn't think the friendship was as important as her books. 

 

You see what I'm driving at here?

[Hocus Pocus 636]

I.... Really liked this one, actually. It was refreshing to see this one especially after I didn't quite care for the last two episodes.

[manic 121]

Although I guess it's to be expected by now, I breathed a sigh of relief when they mentioned Lyra was now living in Ponyville, and explained that she regularly visited Canterlot, which explained her presence/absence in this episode and as a BG pony in other episodes! Good job keeping things straight writers! Also it's these little things and attention to detail that make Equestria seem more like a living breathing world rather than a stage.

Edited July 6, 2015 by manic

[Jora 164]

1.) colgate, 2.) MoonDancer is ADORABLE !!!!! love her glasses. 3.) yes i actually like the Eye Brows 4.) this was actually the first time i have seen a *inside out* pixar style writing level out of this show. 5. was that actually Glimmer, because if so i like her as a villain even more now, watching, waiting, finding her weakness's to break her emotionally. this is turning out to be pretty bad ass..

 

 

now if they *again* keep THIS level very of Feelz-y top of the line writing this show will go on for a long time

 

 

i may write a fimfic in where Glimmer brain washes MoonDancer and uses her *hatred* for twi turn that 10 fold and have moonie attack twi. i could see Moon being just as strong magicly as twi seeing as we have never seen twi use her own OP alicorn magic. but thats just a thought 

[StitchandMLPlover 930]

BBBFF's opening lyrics would beg to differ.

 

"When I was just a filly, I found it rather silly to see how many other ponies I could meet. I had my books to read, didn't know that I would ever need other ponies to make my life complete"

 

Need I say more?

Those lines do not contradict "Amending Fences" at all. judging from the flashbacks she talked to these girl ponies in school but never fully considered them friends or hung out with them unlike her brother who she truly hung out with. The song never says she had no friends, she only implies she just had very few(she had Cadence at the same time in her life as the song flashbacks) and didn't care if the friendships worked or not because she was more busy reading books. 

Edited July 6, 2015 by StitchandMLPlover

[RandomInsanity 2]

For M. A. Larson.......... that was meh......... I loved the nogalistic feeling but I personally think season 5 is going in a bad direction 

[NotoriousSMALL 1,984]

Something to add to what I said previously, that ending is really heavy. And Spike finally being able to hand Moondancer the gift was great and it felt like closure. After all these years (well... for them it's only been one year, which is kinda dumb but i digress) it finally happens.

[Mesme Rize 15,683]

For M. A. Larson.......... that was meh......... I loved the nogalistic feeling but I personally think season 5 is going in a bad direction 

 

Could you maybe elaborate a bit more? You don't really explain any of the problems of the episode, which dosen't make your opinion very believable.

[Shawn Parks 1,798]

Wow, full circle. Who'd have imagined that a pretty throwaway scene in the pilot would have made it into a full-blown and meaningful episode?

 

 

I almost called it a throwaway scene as well, but then I thought that it was actually pretty important character arc moment to establish that friendship was not a priority in Twilight's life.

[Thaliel 116]

Poor Lyra, she didn't receive a role in this. The fact that Moondancer uses the same manestyle as Twilight was somewhat irritating

[LHfunk 422]

BBBFF's opening lyrics would beg to differ.

 

"When I was just a filly, I found it rather silly to see how many other ponies I could meet. I had my books to read, didn't know that I would ever need other ponies to make my life complete"

 

Need I say more?

As others have mentioned, this just shows that then she didn't see the value of friends. She had some, but didn't really know what friendship really meant.

[Poetic Stone 1,040]

I liked this episode alot, and it did address the issue, and I am impressed...lol.

[Zhortac 1,474]

This episode has a hidden secret new ship!

[PittyPaws 118]

Wow. I wasn't expecting to see another pony who was a G1 reference, but it was cool that they did this. I guess Applejack isn't the only G1 pony in Equestria. 

I wasn't expecting to actually see Moondancer in G1 form because I thought Hasbro had lost the rights to use most of the G1 characters with the exception of Spike 

and Applejack.

 

There are some similarities between Past Twilight and Moondancer in that they are both obsessive about their studies, but there is also a big difference. Twilight avoided socialisation because she simply didn't have time for it while as Moondancer did so out of resentment. 

 

Off topic note: Moondancer was my first G1 pony. 

[Qsphere580&9/5 10]

So far this is my favorite episode of the season. There's just so much to talk about!  I loved the call back to the first episode. How Minuette, Lemon Hearts, and Twinkleshine reappear saying they often visit Ponyville and Twilight never noticed. Finally got to meet moon dancer, which at that point i realized this was the pony recolor that M.A. Larson wanted to do for episode 100. Overall I loved how Twilight struggling repair the friendship between her and Moon Dancer. This episode had the right amount of drama and comedy, which I just Loved. Hope to see more excellent episodes like this! 

[maarlepoo 6]

This episode is actually quite relatable for me. Again, it reinforces the fact that nopony, not even the ruler's protege and Princess of Friendship, is perfect, although the actual interactions/dialogue etc. don't quite accurately reflect reality (of course, you have to simplify some things for kids, who are, after all, the intended audience to begin with).

 

I'd like to think that Equestria is a somewhat more idealistic depiction of Earth, though it is definitely not a utopia. It's simply a more savoury society where true kindness and friendship exists in greater abundance than it does here.

 

I liked how Moondancer acts as an image of what Twilight would've become if she hadn't been called to make friends in Ponyville. The similar mane/tail style particulary reflects this well.

 

Great episode in my opinion.

[Flutter's lover <3 8,205]

Just finished watching this episode.It was pretty good.

 

This one hit pretty close to home for me. I lost most of my friends after Elementary School.We all went to different High Schools and kinda lost connection with each other. This was also back when the internet wasn't really a social place. We either called each other or just walked to their house and knocked on the door.

 

Watching this episode, made me remember all the friends I had backin Elementary school...I wanna get to know them again. It's been so long...

[Ayvid_Reader 77]

I loved seeing who Twilight Sparkle was before the show! I loved how she had a friend who had put herself out there and got hurt, but Twilight didn't want that to stop her from having friends. I love that Twilight felt bad once she realized how bad of a friend she use to be and wanted to fix it. Not because she is the Princess of Friendship, but because she knows now how important those friends were to her growing up and getting her to where she is.

[Lambdadelta 1,462]

How irony, Twilight is THE PRINCESS OF FRIENDSHIP and she forgot those people's name, who she call them a "friend"?   ha, ha ha   Princess of Friendship...  

[Seamore Sandwich 471]

I love how they went back and found a loose end to tie up. Doing stuff like this keeps the show progressing forward, rather than having episode after episode where the events are completely isolated from each other, like other shows do.

[manic 121]

I almost called it a throwaway scene as well, but then I thought that it was actually pretty important character arc moment to establish that friendship was not a priority in Twilight's life.

 

Sure. What I mean is that in the pilot, the only reason the ponies were there was to say the line in order to establish Twi's not-friendliness. I'm glad that now thanks to this episode it's something more