Dumbest moment in Friendship Is Magic

[Thrond 3,258]

My biggest complaints about this series tend to arise when I find a character to be annoying or some recurring element of the story to be tedious. One of my least favourite episodes is "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows," and I have zero complaints about it aside from the simple fact that there's absolutely nothing to it other than a single joke which goes on forever and ever and ever. Still, there are times where I've seriously questioned what the writers were thinking with specific storytelling decisions. 

 

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!

All they needed to do was say the name "Ms. Harshwhinny" once. One single time and the episode would be half as long. This is probably my pick for the show's dumbest moment. How am I supposed to believe they never said the name even a single time? 

 

Otherwise, I have to go with "Magical Mystery Cure." All of it. Cutie marks = destiny? Uh, no. Twilight having exclusively earned princesshood because of something which is either not exclusive to her or which the show never focused on? Bullshit. Her friends experienced just as much personal growth as her, and they didn't become alicorns. This also extends to other episodes. "The Crystal Empire": Celestia presenting saving the Empire from Sombra as a "test?" Um, no. That's ponies' lives you're playing with. "Princess Twilight Sparkle": The Tree of Harmony? Horrible. Apparently, Twilight's choices didn't even matter, because it was foretold that she'd become a princess long before she was even born! God, everything immediately surrounding Twilicorn was terrible. 

 

On the subject of "Princess Twilight Sparkle": Cliffhanger in an irrelevant flashback. We know how it's going to turn out, we know it's a flashback, and it has nothing to do with anything else in the story, so there's no tension, and yet it's played for an emotional cliffhanger. Why?!

 

"It's About Time" used to be my biggest pick, but Twilight's completely baffling reasoning - she infers the "great pony war" from future Twilight's dishevelled appearance, and yet her taking on that same appearance for mundane reasons somehow doesn't disprove that theory - can be explained by sleep deprivation. Still, I can't forgive that it shows us the entire cold open a second time. This is why I don't praise Larson like you lot do. 

 

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

I honestly thought "28 Pranks Later" addressed my main complaint with "Mare-Do-Well," as it didn't spend a disproportionate number of scenes humiliating her, but they still sorta dropped the ball with her characterization in that episode. I would have accepted it if the episode hadn't made some of the pranks so extreme, or if it hadn't made her seem only interested in amusing herself. 

 

"Newbie Dash" is a waste of potential, but it fascinates me, and the more I think about it, the more I respect what it was aiming for. I don't particularly like how a lot of it was executed, but in many of those places I don't really know how to fix it. Would the military-inspired Wonderbolts really care all that much about Dash's childhood bullying? I don't think so; dunno what other chain of events could lead to them taking her concerns seriously. Fuck knows how the writers thought this was the right context for the impersonations, though. That's a fun idea. Save it for a situation where it wouldn't be unwatchably embarrassing. 

 

Really though, I'm not as perturbed by this simply because I haven't enjoyed Rainbow's characterization since at least "Rainbow Falls." I'm certainly still annoyed, because I sorta like both of the above episodes and think they could be way better if they got Dash right, but I'm sort of numb to it at this point. 

when her entire motivation ... is that her friend got his cutie mark, and they apparently never saw each other again.

Nah, that's just the initial incident that caused her to distrust cutie marks. She probably grew an anti-cutie mark confirmation bias from there.

 

 

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.

Twilight literally had no choice but to convince Starlight to abandon her crusade and give her a second chance. And having them punish her when she gets back strikes me as not only invalidating the episode's message (that those who do wrong can still learn to do right), but also as not being something which this show would ever do. 

[Megas 27,172]

Nah, that's just the initial incident that caused her to distrust cutie marks. She probably grew an anti-cutie mark confirmation bias from there.

 

 

Twilight literally had no choice but to convince Starlight to abandon her crusade and give her a second chance. And having them punish her when she gets back strikes me as not only invalidating the episode's message (that those who do wrong can still learn to do right), but also as not being something which this show would ever do. 

1) It'd help if they added more than that, but as it stands now, it's still an incredibly weak motive

 

2) I wouldn't have much of a problem if everything wasn't handed to her on a silver platter. Immediate forgiveness? Complete friendship with the mane 6? Twilight's student? Forgiveness from equal town?

 

It's bullshit, nothing feels earned at all. And on top of that it's a massive missed opportunity for storytelling(i.e., Starlight earning the trust of the remane 5 with a dedicated episode each ala Zuko after Day of Black Sun from Avatar)

[Aurora Glimmer 494]

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.

Beat me to it. Aside from her laughably bad backstory, this is the biggest problem I have with Starlight Glimmer.

Edited September 13, 2016 by Silvestra Spooner

[Wind Chaser 4,767]

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!

I second this. The entire episode was a cheap comedic plot that was predictable from the first few minutes. The entire second act I spent waiting for the inevitable rather than enjoying the comedy. The moral at the end was ass-pulled from a quick scene early on in the episode that was not revisited at any other time during the episode, and on top of that the ending was a total cop-out, but probably more realistic than you think considering Rio de Janeiro actually got to host an Olympics.

 

I still consider it the worst episode of the series, mainly because everything that could go wrong with an episode of this series happens here. No character progression, a boring, predictable, and minimal plotline, an unelaborated moral, no consequences for anyone's actions, and not focusing on the message. It was an episode more fitting for an 11-minute screwball comedy cartoon than MLP.

[Sunny Fox 5,935]

How about Princess Celestia's "brilliance" in Twilight's Kingdom? Let's send reformed villain Discord to capture Tirek. He's the best choice because he can sense magical imbalances... I'm sure he won't be tempted to join forces with Tirek... What's that? He just joined forces with Tirek? Quick, let's create a gigantic magical imbalance by giving Twilight all our magic! That'll outfox 'em! It's okay, because Tirek doesn't know about the fourth princess, only Discord knows that, so it's a flawless plan... oh, wait, NO IT'S NOT! How can we improve our odds... okay, let's NOT warn Twilight's friends about Discord's defection, because that'll put them in danger. It's not like they can be used as hostages or anything...

[The Nth Doctor 655]

"Hey, remember that Equalist who led ponies astray, forcibly removed our Cutie Marks and tried to erase us from history? Let's forget all that happened and embrace her with open hooves!"

[silvadel 1,393]

Rainbow Dash knowing nothing about the history of the wonderbolts, and then her unique learning method in Testing 1-2-3.

[Wind Chaser 4,767]

How about Princess Celestia's "brilliance" in Twilight's Kingdom? Let's send reformed villain Discord to capture Tirek. He's the best choice because he can sense magical imbalances... I'm sure he won't be tempted to join forces with Tirek... What's that? He just joined forces with Tirek? Quick, let's create a gigantic magical imbalance by giving Twilight all our magic! That'll outfox 'em! It's okay, because Tirek doesn't know about the fourth princess, only Discord knows that, so it's a flawless plan... oh, wait, NO IT'S NOT! How can we improve our odds... okay, let's NOT warn Twilight's friends about Discord's defection, because that'll put them in danger. It's not like they can be used as hostages or anything...

I second this as well, it seems as if all the episode was set up for was the fight scene and just to get Rainbow Power into the show for once.

 

I'll add in a Worf facepalm just because.

 

[Sunny Fox 5,935]

And there's the part of Daring Don't where Daring is fighting off Ahuizotle's cats,

and Rainbow is all like... "Hey, DD, d'you want your (effing!) hat back?"

 

Don't help out or anything... and this was the mare who kicked a dragon in the face once.....

[Sri Aegislash 21]

Don't help out or anything... and this was the mare who kicked a dragon in the face once....

This reminds me of something about Rainbow Dash

• Rainbow Dash kicked a dragon,
• Destroyed a barn by flying through it
• Is the most physically active of the Mane 6,
• A Wonderbolt
• An equivalent to an Olympic athlete (Equestria Games)
• Can fly at Mach 5- Mach 10 speeds (Sonic Rainboom)
• Helped fight a bugbear
• Has helped hold off an army of changelings that looked like her friends.

Yet despite all these feats and some experience in life and death scenarios, she was scared of some slow moving cookie zombies in 28 Pranks Later. I thought it would have made sense of Rainbow Dash taking a weapon and swatting any nearby zombies in self defence or she could of flew out of the barn with no injury and go to another town to call for help.

 

I apologise for taking this episode a bit too seriously.

[Dynamo Pad 10,809]

I would have to say Pinkie Pie making Fluttershy cry in Filli Vanilli. The other members of the mane 6 were understanding of Fluttershy being afraid to sing on stage and didn't question it further. Pinkie though went on a rant of the worst case scenario if Fluttershy sang on stage. She did it again near the end of the episode and both times drove Fluttershy to tears. Pinkie is one of my favorite characters and I would like to think she knows her friends very well. Though it felt like she spoke without thinking and completely disregarded Fluttershy's feelings in that episode.