Dumbest moment in Friendship Is Magic

[Dark Qiviut 22,500]

Friendship Is Magic has had many, many, many great or amazing moments over the years. Conversely, there are many, many, many moments so dumb, you wonder what was going on when DHX was writing and editing the product.

 

So, here's the question: In your opinion, what's FIM's stupidest moment? It can be from the show, comics, or EQG. Name the moment and please put in effort to explain why. Leave the drive-by declarations in your Word document!

 

---

 

None get any dumber than during the interrogation scene between Vice Principal Luna against Twilight in EQG1.

 

The reason why: the photos:

 

None of the photos are photoshopped. Snips, Snails, and Sunset all delivered framed "evidence" of Twilight destroying property by using photos that were cut out and glued on top of each other! Even worse is Luna completely believed them and needed Flash Sentry to come in and save Twilight's hide! She had no idea they were framing her! This sorry side-plot and sorrier excuse of a moment made Luna and Sunset look very incompetent. Everyone came out of that scene looking worse than before. This moment caused EQG1 to jump the shark.

Edited September 12, 2016 by Dark Qiviut

[Luminance 2,186]

"Slice Of Life" was honestly pretty dumb.

[The Coffee Pony 1,390]

Well damn, DQ ya beat me to this thread!!

 

Anyway yeah you really can't get any dumber than glued on photographs however I a close second is Radiant Hope spending 1000 years with the Umbrum and in all that time she never once figured out their true nature! Never once did she catch on that she was being manipulated and yet Cadence managed to figure it out instantly.

[Luna the Great of all the Russias 3,015]

@@Dark Qiviut, I guess it's good that they live in a cartoon world; they don't have to worry about changing the lighting of something to make it look like they were in a place they weren't.

 

For me would be Mysterious Mare Do Well. Why couldn't they have at least try telling Rainbow Dash that they felt she was being too arrogant before they went about putting her down? The episode made the rest of the Mane6 look terrible. I felt more satisfaction from an alternate ending someone wrote involving Rainbow getting back at the rest of the Mane6 and making them feel terrible for what they did.

[Dark Qiviut 22,500]

"Slice Of Life" was honestly pretty dumb.

Please re-read the OP. Why is it dumb, and what moment in the episode do you believe is the dumbest and why?

[GeekySonic 1,150]

I want to say, when Rainbow Dash pranked Fluttershy, left her in tears, and waved it off like it wasn't a big deal. Not just because it was a cannonball to my favorite ship, but it REALLY tore down Dashie-senpai.

 

It is hard to justify her as my favorite at times like that.

[Dark Qiviut 22,500]

Well damn, DQ ya beat me to this thread!!

 

 

Anyway yeah you really can't get any dumber than glued on photographs however I a close second is Radiant Hope spending 1000 years with the Umbrum and in all that time she never once figured out their true nature! Never once did she catch on that she was being manipulated and yet Cadence managed to figure it out instantly.

It's an excellent second choice. There's a big difference between naivety and idiocy. Hope was dumb and had no idea all this time she was manipulated! Cadance figuring it out very quickly makes her look so much worse.

[Guest90210 3,569]

Pick any moment in "Owl's Well That Ends Well". In said episode, The Mane 6 treat Spike like a stranger. Rarity gives Owlicious a gem after just meeting him, similar to the one she gave Spike for being special to her. Twilight has Owlicious do Spike's chores, making Spike feel useless. Twilight then says that Owlicious is only around to help during the night!... Except for the fact that most of the episode takes place during the day. The Mane 6 pass off Spike's legitimate reasons for being upset and sad as a "fit of jealousy".

 

... What? No! This is ridiculous. Owl's Well does the Mane 6 an injustice - opting to completely destroy their characterization, especially Twilight. Rarity should know how much that gem meant to Spike. Twilight should know that Spike's concerns are genuine. Even Fluttershy of all ponies, would understand why Spike got upset. Owl's Well dumbs down the characters to some of their lowest points, and the episode suffers in quality because of it.

Edited September 12, 2016 by Rivendare

[Ethan Tran 950]

It's an excellent second choice. There's a big difference between naivety and idiocy. Hope was dumb and had no idea all this time she was manipulated! Cadance figuring it out very quickly makes her look so much worse.

you all missed the point, when Sombra made her his Queen/Empress, she agreed to that. so she's really don't care was they bad or good.. all she wanted to be with Sombra. so i guess she kinda knew all that time, but they where playing with her to get free, so they keep it very conspiratorially.

but what i don't understand is why Sombra didn't freed them (Shadow Ponies, they look pretty cool actually.. they reminded me of something i seen.. but don't remember what or where) the first time he enslaved Crystal Empire.. he knew where to look for them and still didn't do that.. maybe he was interrupted by Celestia or sth like that.

[Megas 27,871]

RD taking her friend's advice wrong and imitating her friends in an attempt to get a better Nickname. Newbie Dash seemed to pride itself into completely embarrassing the character, and considering this was an episode tons of people were waiting for since the beginning, I have absolutely no clue why the writers thought this was the right episode to do it

 

 

 

I want to say, when Rainbow Dash pranked Fluttershy, left her in tears, and waved it off like it wasn't a big deal. Not just because it was a cannonball to my favorite ship, but it REALLY tore down Dashie-senpai. It is hard to justify her as my favorite at times like that.

 

 

While I can't speak for everyone, between 28PL and Newbie Dash, taking a giant shit on her WB arc with such a poor cap off and making us relive one of the shows' worst episodes while doing fuck all to address that episode's problems other than "lol zombies!!1!", S6 has almost convinced me that the current writing team really hates her fanbase

[heavens-champion 1,905]

"Slice Of Life" was honestly pretty dumb.

Agreed. Although, I didn't mind Octavia speaking.

[Guest90210 3,569]

Another one that contends for the top spot that I thought of:

 

Games Ponies Play. After seemingly an entire day's worth of showing the "Game's Inspector" around, the gang realizes that the entire time, they were leading the wrong pony around, and that the real Game's Inspector was left behind... Okay. No. I'm sorry, but the Mane 6 isn't this clueless and careless, especially when the matter is as important as they make it out to be. I find it hard to believe they wouldn't ask who Mrs. Peachbottom was a single time during their entire tour. Then, during the same scene in which they realize their bizarre mixup, they're rewarded for messing up!

[Dark Qiviut 22,500]

I want to say, when Rainbow Dash pranked Fluttershy, left her in tears, and waved it off like it wasn't a big deal. Not just because it was a cannonball to my favorite ship, but it REALLY tore down Dashie-senpai.

 

It is hard to justify her as my favorite at times like that.

The moment looks even worse when the open and interrogation heavily implicated that Dash pranked her while knowing she hated being pranked. *scoff* DHX, bravo. You took a crap on one of the show's most dynamic characters. *smh*

[The Coffee Pony 1,390]

you all missed the point, when Sombra made her his Queen/Empress, she agreed to that. so she's really don't care was they bad or good.. all she wanted to be with Sombra. so i guess she kinda knew all that time, but they where playing with her to get free, so they keep it very conspiratorially.

 

So basically "What I'm doing is wrong. I know what I'm doing is wrong. But I'm going to do it anyway!" and how does this make everything better?

 

I mean look, no matter what way you slice it, Hope's the bad guy. Either through being an idiot (which is the most likely option because when Cadance instantly figured out what Hope couldn't in 1000 years, Hope was genuinely shocked), delusional or still willing to commit high treason even though she knows what she's doing is wrong, making it hard to sympathize with her.

[Number62 1,264]

Really, Celestia and Luna exist just to look stupid anytime some kind of problem came up, and it's hard to be more unbelievable than the mentioned photos in the first Equestria Girls. I also don't know how Sunset managed to cut the edges around Twilight so neatly and leave out the obviously different background.

 

Another notable example with Celestia is in "Twilight's Kingdom". She knows Discord is unreliable but sends him away anyhow? And there was no backup plan in case he happens to not follow through? Way to represent a competent leader. Luna and Cadance even go along with this idea without question which is self-explanatory. And they're all surprised when he inevitably betrays them. To make things worse, what do the non-Twilight alicorns do when Tirek continues his rampage? Just transfer it all to Twilight, and now he only has to go to one pony to instead. Hiding and devising another plan wasn't an option? Nevermind that Twilight probably can't handle that much raw magic, so transferring the magic to a more suitable host wasn't an option. The alicorns also couldn't have just jumped Tirek, especially in his weaker state? Was he really that strong after getting a few ponies? I doubt his absorption ability would've been troublesome, or if that was still a concern, the alicorns could've tried a sneak attack. Discord wouldn't even be needed for the attack.

 

Edited September 12, 2016 by Number107

[Unlikeable Pony 2,699]

Friendship Is Magic has had many, many, many great or amazing moments over the years. Conversely, there are many, many, many moments so dumb, you wonder what was going on when DHX was writing and editing the product.

 

So, here's the question: In your opinion, what's FIM's stupidest moment? It can be from the show, comics, or EQG. Name the moment and please put in effort to explain why. Leave the drive-by declarations in your Word document!

 

---

 

None get any dumber than during the interrogation scene between Vice Principal Luna against Twilight in EQG1.

 

The reason why: the photos:

 

None of the photos are photoshopped. Snips, Snails, and Sunset all delivered framed "evidence" of Twilight destroying property by using photos that were cut out and glued on top of each other! Even worse is Luna completely believed them and needed Flash Sentry to come in and save Twilight's hide! She had no idea they were framing her! This sorry side-plot and sorrier excuse of a moment made Luna and Sunset look very incompetent. Everyone came out of that scene looking worse than before. This moment caused EQG1 to jump the shark.

Can a movie jump the shark in its FIRST appearance?

 

Its more that the next movie jumped the shark by not having that level of idiocy.

 

 

I want to say, when Rainbow Dash pranked Fluttershy, left her in tears, and waved it off like it wasn't a big deal. Not just because it was a cannonball to my favorite ship, but it REALLY tore down Dashie-senpai.

 

It is hard to justify her as my favorite at times like that.

AGREED SO FREAKING HARD.

 

 

Goddamned, This season with its new writers really just are not doing a good job with dash. This is probably the worst season for dash so far.

 

 

RD taking her friend's advice wrong and imitating her friends in an attempt to get a better Nickname. Newbie Dash seemed to pride itself into completely embarrassing the character, and considering this was an episode tons of people were waiting for since the beginning, I have absolutely no clue why the writers thought this was the right episode to do it

 

 

 

 

 

While I can't speak for everyone, between 28PL and Newbie Dash, taking a giant shit on her WB arc with such a poor cap off and making us relive one of the shows' worst episodes while doing fuck all to address that episode's problems other than "lol zombies!!1!", S6 has almost convinced me that the current writing team really hates her fanbase

agreed.

I'm hoping we get a good episode in top bolt, because the ONLY good dash episode this season has been stranger than fan fiction

 

but what i don't understand is why Sombra didn't freed them (Shadow Ponies, they look pretty cool actually.. they reminded me of something i seen.. but don't remember what or where) the first time he enslaved Crystal Empire.. he knew where to look for them and still didn't do that.. maybe he was interrupted by Celestia or sth like that.

They explained that. Sombra has a monologue with Radiant hope next to the door about why he never opened it. He's had the door ready to go for a long time but he fears deep down that he's not a monster because of his species, but because of who he IS. Basically, he's fine with being evil so long as he can blame his species, but he's worried that when he opens the door he'll be the MOST evil of them all, which would more or less shatter his self esteem by confirming that he *deserved* to be hated by all the ponies at the orphanage and lied to by Amore.

[Babyyoshi309 1,829]

"Slice Of Life" was honestly pretty dumb.

 

HOW DARE YOU SAY ONE OF MY FAVORITE EPISODE WAS HORRIBLE WITHOUT EVEN PROVIDING EVIDENCE?  

Edited September 12, 2016 by Babyyoshi309

[Justin_Case001 4,907]

None get any dumber than during the interrogation scene between Vice Principal Luna against Twilight in EQG1.

 

The reason why: the photos:

Oh, you don't have to explain.  It's EG.  That's reason enough. 

 

Well, I'm not sure if it really counts as "dumb", per se, but I'll take any chance I can get to gripe about the manner of Zephyr's existence.  I still can't believe they total rickalled him, just inserting him into everyone's memories as if he had always been there, leaving the audience to wonder if they had been watching the same show all along.  Instead of having the mane 6 go, "Yup, that sounds like good ol' Zeph," they could have at least said, "Oh, you have a brother Fluttershy?  I didn't know that.  How come you never talk about him?"  But noooooooooooooooooo.

 

Here, I'll pick another in case that doesn't qualify as dumb.  How about Rainbow impersonating her friends in the Wonderbolts?  She would never do something like that, even at her low points.  It was one of the most out-of-character moments of the show, imo, and one of the biggest "what were they thinking?!" moments.

 

*EDIT*  You know what?  I really want to come back and add this moment (yeah, I picked the funny one because why not?):

But I'm talking about the real moment.  Honestly, why AJ couldn't have said "Those two pegasi will catch you" is f*cking beyond me.  It would have been easier and faster for Celestia's sake!  It was so dumb.  They were obviously stretching to find a way for AJ to demonstrate her element.  Think harder.

Edited September 12, 2016 by Justin_Case001

[Unlikeable Pony 2,699]

Oh yeah, can I go with Celestia in The crystal empire? Because Gambling the lives of an entire EMPIRE just for the sake of testing her favorite student is beyond idiotic.

The fact that sombra, on his own, doesn't even seem powerful enough that three alicorns couldn't trump him easily while some guards search for the heart makes it even more mind boggling.

 

 

Oh, you don't have to explain.  It's EG.  That's reason enough. 

 

Well, I'm not sure if it really counts as "dumb", per se, but I'll take any chance I can get to gripe about the manner of Zephyr's existence.  I still can't believe they total rickalled him, just inserting him into everyone's memories as if he had always been there, leaving the audience to wonder if they had been watching the same show all along.  Instead of having the mane 6 go, "Yup, that sounds like good ol' Zeph," they could have at least said, "Oh, you have a brother Fluttershy?  I didn't know that.  How come you never talk about him?"  But noooooooooooooooooo.

 

Here, I'll pick another in case that doesn't qualify as dumb.  How about Rainbow impersonating her friends in the Wonderbolts?  She would never do something like that, even at her low points.  It was one of the most out-of-character moments of the show, imo, and one of the biggest "what were they thinking?!" moments.

 

Given how it was the very first episode ever done by the writer of that episode, its kind of easy to understand why it happend; not that I LIKED that, but its easy to see how such a screw up would occur.
It doesn't seem like the Older staff members have much of a system to indoctrinate new writers into the show and characters.

[Luminance 2,186]

Well here it is... I liked the episode but then it's not for me, it's for the fandom. Seeing all the fanon references becoming reality is really a great way for Hasbro to dedicate something for the fans of the show but here's the thing, I wasn't in the fandom yet when I saw SOL. It wasn't all lost when I saw it for the first time but I was saying to myself, "Slice of Life" will be the episode where the Bronies either feel ok with or not. It's not a bad or good episode but it's rather an episode I can look back at and feel like it shouldn't been done, personally.

 

The background ponies spoked and that's great but for only one episode were they may never be heard of again? Derpy and Doc Whooves shipping is alright but then it's out of nowhere, Lyra and Bon Bon's very close "friendship" feels forced just to made canon, Celestia and Luna finally portrayed liked normal citizens and all of that forget the gifts? I'm seeing here is just questioning how this episode could of been and not what we really wanted all along. I was hoping for another great episode of FiM and I liked how this episode realized to me that how the an episode can can go it's own way to change for better or for worst.

[Jeric 46,867]

Pick any moment in "Owl's Well That Ends Well". In said episode, The Mane 6 treat Spike like a stranger. Rarity gives Owlicious a gem after just meeting him, similar to the one she gave Spike for being special to her. Twilight has Owlicious do Spike's chores, making Spike feel useless. Twilight then says that Owlicious is only around to help during the night!... Except for the fact that most of the episode takes place during the day. The Mane 6 pass off Spike's legitimate reasons for being upset and sad as a "fit of jealousy".

 

... What? No! This is ridiculous. Owl's Well does the Mane 6 an injustice - opting to completely destroy their characterization, especially Twilight. Rarity should know how much that gem meant to Spike. Twilight should know that Spike's concerns are genuine. Even Fluttershy of all ponies, would understand why Spike got upset. Owl's Well dumbs down the characters to some of their lowest points, and the episode suffers in quality because of it.

This would be mine as well. Add to all your on the nose comments is this - Spike and the mouse was idiotic planning and went too far to be able to effectively drive the point of the moral home. The Mane Six missed the mark, Spike overreacted, and this was the worst 'jealousy moral' presentation in almost any animated show.

 

The episode should have been named 'Empathy Takes a Vacation".

[cmarston1 5,960]

I generally consider myself to be pretty lenient when it comes to the show.

I love MMC, enjoy the first EQG film, and I am a fan of that overall franchise, don't hate the 28 Pranks episode, or MMDW, 

But if there is one thing that I really don't like, which I have made pretty clear by now, is Starlight Glimmer's reformation from the end of season 5.

I found her backstory lackluster, and it makes it hard to take her seriously as a villain who was praised for being "morally complex" and other things like that, the analysis community gave the episode praise for, when her entire motivation for torturing ponies by actually brainwashing them (them mane 6 and the characters introduced in the Cutie Map), forcefully removing their cutie marks and their inner most parts of the mane 6's beings, assimilating them into your doctrine, planning on forcing said ideology across Equestria by force, actively trying to ruin somebody's life, royally screwing over time and space leading to the world being royally screwed up, several murder attempts, and assaulting children is that her friend got his cutie mark, and they apparently never saw each other again.

That is literally all we knew at that point in time.

And I find it insane how she obtained no punishment for who knows how many human rights violations she caused by the end of the season.

Than there is the ridiculously quick time it took for the mane 6 and the equal 4 to forgive Starlight for everything that she did.

Even though I rather like the song, redeeming her through a montage was a bad idea to be honest.

We never got to see her have to work in order to gain forgiveness from the people that she has really hurt in the past, which is what a character reformation arc should be all about.

Why should I get invested in a character when I don't get to see her face any consequences to her actions or really struggle?

If they really wanted to redeem Starlight Shimmer, than they should have handled her redemption like that of how Peridot's from Steven Universe ended up being.

Another bad part about this would be that outside of Spike and Twilight we don't see her interact with any of the main cast like at all, and she hasn't really done a lot this season either.

If they had episodes throughout the season where Starlight interacts and bonds with each of the mane 6 individually, growing attached to them, and slowly developing into a better person, leading to the events of the finale, I would have liked her character and arc a lot more.

Edited September 12, 2016 by cmarston1

[Dark Qiviut 22,500]

 

 

And I find it insane how she obtained no punishment for who knows how many human rights violations she caused by the end of the season.

Yet, what good would it do for FIM to punish Starlight? Starlight was crying for help because she's broken inside. Starlight trusted Twilight into believing that there's a glimmer of hope in putting her life back together. For Twilight and the entire council to punish Starlight would translate, both to the audience and show itself, that they manipulated Starlight. FIM is not that kind of society; it's far more proactive in its approach to discipline.

 

Exiling, jail, house arrest, forceful guidance, or any form of reactive punishment won't work: You'll only go back to square one. Everyone comes out for the worse if they take a sentencing approach. Twilight becoming Starlight's teacher and Starlight accepting it is the best solution.

[PoisonClaw 8,166]

So... are you look for just dumbest moments in the show? Cause if we can include the comics, then I've got even more fodder to tear into. I've harped on Root of the Problem enough that doing so would be beating a dead... er, tree, by this point, so I'd like to bring your attention to the ending of the Reflections arc.

 

Make no mistake, I don't hate this arc. The Somblestia shipping wasn't that bad, however because of said shipping this arc ended up being a ton of wasted potential, which leads to two incredibly stupid moments. First off, the final act has both Celestias duking it out, and the Mane 6 initiate their plan to use the Elements of Harmony to imprison the Evilestia in crystal. Ignoring the fact that the Elements do not work that way, said plan somehow begins to work, but there's a hitch: because the dimensions are beginning to collide, the connection between the two Celestia causes the Princess to begin being imprisoned in crystal as well. What follows is an, admittedly, heartfelt scene where Celestia submits to her fate if it'll save both worlds, and tearfully asks Twilight to look after Equestria in her stead.

 

Obviously, Celestia isn't going to die here, but what they do next makes no sense. AltSombra suddenly jumps in and blasts the Mane 6 (which he shouldn't be powerful enough to do) and steals the Elements, channeling all six of them despite the fact that the Elements are useless without their chosen Bearers and proceeded to drain the evil out of the Alternate Royal Sisters, and transfer it to himself, again pointing out that the Elements do not work like that. Not only that, but this some how fixes everything, not just purifying the Alternate Sisters, but stopping the dimensions from colliding and sending everyone back to their respective worlds. 

 

The second dumbest moment is the presence (or lack their of) of the Alternate 6. The covers build them up as this force the Mane 6 will have to compete with, and in the second issue, the six of them are arrested by guards minutes after crossing through the mirror because their counterparts are wanted fugitives. That's the last we ever see of them until the very last page of the last issue, where they openly mock anyone who thought they were going to show up, as if the writer was Nelson from the Simpson's going "Haha!".

 

Cause that's a great way to endear yourself to your fans, call them idiots!

 

As for the show... maybe it's just cause they're fresh in my mind, but the last two season seemed to have a few, like Rainbow's imitations of her friends in Newbie Dash, or Twilight's actions in Second Prances when she was untrusting of Trixie for no real reason. Or I could be lazy and say Mysterious Mare-Do-Well and be done with it. 

[Castle Bleck 19,390]

Most of the frigging cast being pointlessly OOC in Rainbow Falls.