S07:E16 - Campfire Tales

[BrawnyCharger 512]

I thought it was good. I enjoyed the stories and the references to various world mythology:

AJ's legend: Arthurian/Viking/Medieval legend.

Rarity's legend: Japanese legend.

RD's legend: Roman Empire legend.

[Sparklefan1234 170,792]

I didn't understand what they were going for with "Campfire Tales", honestly.

 

Rainbow Dash's story seemed like the writers forgot she was there until the script was about to be sent off to be animated because,

 

it felt like her story got the least amount of development & screentime, IMO.

 

Other than that, I thought the episode was "nice." to quote Fluttershy from "Suited for Success" 5/10, IMO.

 

Edited August 27, 2017 by Sparklefan1234

[Babyyoshi309 1,829]

Exposition... Exposition...

 

[GrimGrimoire 4,973]

If Flyders become real, none of us would ever go outside again.

Other than that it was an OK episode. Nothing bad about it, but did not jump out at me much either. Maybe because dealing with a lot of other stuff at the same time.

[Dark Qiviut 22,402]

15 minutes ago, Ganondox said:

It has nothing to do with the progress in the series, her boastfulness in this episode was just too forced. It just came across as unnatural, no matter how big her ego is. 

I can see that in a way, yet I'm unsure what you mean. Can you explain why, please?

6 hours ago, King Clark said:

Another thing that annoys me about Campfire Tales is that there is way too much narration over the stories. Usually what happens in an episode like this (or anything like this, really) is that the story teller will give a brief summary of the background to the story so you have an idea of what's going, then the story takes over because we no longer need to hear anymore information. That's not what happens here. All three stories have the narration for basically the entire time. It's all just explaining the story rather than letting it speak for itself. I found it annoying and pretty distracting if I'm being completely honest.

All that narration was a pretty big problem here. FIM ain't pre-CGI Thomas. It's fine if done to enhance the fairy tale or explain things in brief detail to quicken the pace, such as when the townsponies in AJ's story rejected leaving their homeland. But when you use their narration to tell the audience what they feel and how they react to certain events that's evident on screen, that's overkill. Let the visuals, characters, and their reactions tell the story for them, and you can transfer back by using an audio fade-in to indicate that they were narrating the story.

4 hours ago, bluseymoe said:

Honestly, you people constantly complaining about her "ego" is more annoying than her actual "ego". Just get over it. She has a lot of confidence. There's literally nothing wrong with that.

 

Also, you apparently didn't pay attention to her moments with Scootaloo. How can you not love her for that? Some people are absolutely souless, I swear.

1. It's possible to like a character and dislike how much one quality predominates others, it's written contrivedly, or exaggerated. If the writer takes one trait and writes it so much to the point of drowning out other qualities, it can turn that character into a one-note cookie cutter. DHX has a history of this in the past with Fluttershy between Luna Eclipsed and RF, Twilight for most of S4, Dash between seasons 4 and 6, and AJ since S6 (though not since Honest Apple, thankfully).
2. Just because a person criticizes an aspect of the episode doesn't mean he, she, and they dislike or hate that character. King Clark's my friend, and I don't appreciate you throwing baseless assumptions about him.

[Jeric 46,851]

5 hours ago, ImpctR said:

How do they know the exit is not a huge waterfall they may not survive by just floating along the stream - this part was entirely not written well imo as, they just go without knowing and not a single precaution was used. Otherwise the place looks so interesting! 

I'm guessing they would have heard a large waterfall due to acoustics in the cave combined with the slope that would have suggested a bad drop. They would also have some idea of the surrounding topography from the last trip(s). Put both together and that explains it nicely. 

5 hours ago, ImpctR said:

Where do they appear? I did not hear the name well but somewhere in Cloudsdale?  - this is believable shortcut and the adventure part was good, just the going into the unknown felt rushed.

Same place as Sleepless in Ponyville. I'm going to butcher the spelling if this is punny ... but it's called Winsome Falls. 

[Foxy Socks 2,599]

I loved how they did it! It was a fun episode, and their stories added so much to the expanding world of Equestria. I like the different themes they had too, and showing more how the sisters bond together.

[Jeric 46,851]

1 hour ago, GrimGrimoire said:

If Flyders become real, none of us would ever go outside again.

They will still find a way ... they can be persistent and even deceptive

See? There's not escaping them. 

 

Also ... 

@PathfinderCS

 

 

[Ashen Pathfinder 16,161]

Just now, Jeric said:

They will still find a way ... they can be persistent and even deceptive

See? There's not escaping them. 

 

Also ... 

@PathfinderCS

 

 

I swear to King Aspen Jeric there will be deer-pun-based retribution for this. D:

[Dark Qiviut 22,402]

C&P'd from my status:

Quote

Campfire Tales = my biggest guilty pleasure this season.

I really like it. Plenty of good situational comedy, but hurt by the excess narration over the fairytales and treating Scootaloo's claustrophobia as mostly a joke.

 

[Jeric 46,851]

1 hour ago, Babyyoshi309 said:

Exposition... Exposition...

 

Nah. I mean the narrative v/o component was nowhere near as comprehensive to consider it bad writing. It's the writers using simple incluring techiques (something Doug Walker has yet to touch on in contrast to other uses of the rhetorical device). It's typically allowed when you introduce completely new cultures and environments within a shortened segment. While there are more artistic ways of going about it, incluring is generally seen as completely acceptable  -- especially when compared to cold open exposition that the show has done previously. 

[The Nth Doctor 662]

What on earth have Scootaloo's parents been doing that their daughter is a nervous wreck and scared of confined spaces?

And Rainbow Dash once again doesn't notice Scootaloo's terror.

Sister of the Year right there.

[GiFTGewEhrSCHutzen-4 8,828]

It was a good episode. I did enjoy the story telling parts in this episode, specially the one with Mistmane and Rockhoof.

Also, how in the heck can you do shadow puppetry with just hooves?

Edited August 27, 2017 by VEnoM-NinJA_4

[Star Petal 215]

The stories they told were kind of boring, but the CMC were just cute enough to pull this from being a 2 star episode to a 3. 

7 minutes ago, VEnoM-NinJA_4 said:

It was a good episode. I did enjoy the story telling parts in this episode, specially the one with Mistmane and Rockhoof.

Also, how in the heck can you do shadow puppetry with just hooves?

Holy Hoofing Horse Feathers kid! You are just NOW FREAKING QUESTIONING THAT?! Wow...just wow..I mean. Ok ok ok...look. Not sure if you remember but I just want to point this out so you can feel silly for even questioning the ponies ability to make shadow puppets with their hooves lol. 

Ok, remember how Applejack and Pear Butter can play the gutiar with their hooves? Rarity can make birds nests? They can tie knots, play the MOTHER HOOFING PIANO for celestia sake! 

 

I mean, Once you realize they can play the piano...is....do we even really need to keep questioning the ponies ability to do anthing with hooves that they shouldn't be able to. 

 

Even if you had fingures, the shapes they were making are also impossible to do with hands and fingers too. We just have to stop questioning the "how" and just accept the fact that they just "can" because they feel like it! I mean...come on! THE PIANO!!!!!!!  

[Music Chart Fan 819]

Overall, I don't really see anything egregiously wrong with this episode, but it didn't do much to hold my interest, either. The legends are somewhat trite (although Rarity's is the most developed) and essentially disconnected (as of now, at least) from any current events in the show. Perhaps the legends contribute a little to the Mane Three's characterization, and expand the lore of the show a bit, but not really enough to make the legends much more than mildly entertaining. And sure, there are a few nice sisterly interactions in the episode, but the CMC also grated a bit at times, too. I don't have any major overall points to make about the episode, so I'll just go through my observations in (mostly) episode order.

To start off, I suppose it's kind of a stereotypical thing to do to tell fictional "campfire stories" around the fire, but I don't recall my family and I doing that much. We've been camping many times, and spent many nights sitting around a campfire, but as I recall, we would either play some verbal group games, or talk about things we saw on the trip, or just talk about stories and memories from our own lives. So I guess I may not relate much to that aspect of the episode.

Rainbow Dash can apparently punch and kick swarm clouds of the flyders and they make a smacking sound as though they're a single solid unit.

I'm a bit surprised by both the sheer number and the aggressiveness of the flyders. They don't just want to eat the food, they bite the ponies and shoot webs at them with the apparent intent of keeping them from running away. Do they normally travel in a large predatory swarm like that? Did the ponies inadvertently disturb a nest of them or something?

I noticed (and commented about) this same thing back in "Sleepless In Ponyville", but the campfire only consists of a few sticks, which I would expect only to produce a small flame and probably burn out within a minute or so. Why not show a campfire consisting of actual logs? Also, Applejack "relights" a roaring fire by rotating a stick on top of another stick for a couple of seconds. I mean, sure, friction can be used with something like a bow drill and a fire board to produce an ember, which is then placed in highly flammable tinder and slowly built up into a fire, but it's definitely not easy.

Is it really a good idea for all of them to be snuggling with the fresh flyder bites they all have? Although I don't know, the bites and even Rainbow's major swelling vanish within a minute or so.

It's kind of funny that Apple Bloom has a "favorite part" of a story that only takes about 3 minutes to tell in the first place.

When Applejack says "something magical happened" and Rockhoof transforms into his stronger self, did Applejack mean that literally?

It's a bit odd that Sweetie Belle says that "there is no camp to go back to" and "all our hard work is ruined" when it appears that the flyders cast webs on their tents and stuff. Do the flyder webs make their camping gear unusable and unfixable, such that the best (or only) course of action is to abandon it entirely?

What are the chances that the rocks of the walls of that particular cave have easily visible gold in them?

In Rarity's legend, lack of beauty seems to correspond to looking (or even being?) old, basically. But would that necessarily have to be the case? Couldn't the characters lack beauty while still looking their age?

I'm not so sure that Rainbow's rock slide would actually prevent the flyders from getting in the cave if they were determined to do so. I wouldn't necessarily expect the rock slide (with various, mostly large rocks) to create a perfect barrier with no gaps large enough for any flyders to get through.

Doesn't Flash Magnus's plan assume that the captured pegasi will just be left behind in the cave without any guard or anything, such that they could easily and quickly escape? Who's to say that the captured pegasi won't be guarded, or that the dragons won't take the captured pegasi with them, or that the captured pegasi won't be restrained such that they can't escape quickly enough?

The fireproof shield that Flash Magnus doesn't even look large enough to protect his whole body. Plus, if it's made of metal, wouldn't it get extremely hot after the dragons repeatedly breathe fire directly on it?

Rather than all of the ponies just jumping into a flowing river with unknown hazards and an unknown destination, would it have been possible, say, for Rainbow to fly ahead and see where it would go? Or at least for Rainbow to fly above the river in case of some disaster occurring? And I would think the waterfall at the exit of the cave would definitely be a serious risk, and something that should be investigated first before jumping down it like a water park ride.

Finally, I think the actual lesson of the episode is to be prepared to deal with bugs when camping. Apple Bloom says that the more the six of them go camping, the better they get at it, but apparently they have more to learn yet, since they seem not to have used any, say, bug repellent or mosquito net to eat under. When my family and I have gone camping, we bring bug spray that we apply to ourselves, plus slow-burning bug repellent coils that we put on the picnic table when we're going to be around for a while. I will note, though, that we never dealt with an aggressive swarm of bugs like the flyders in this episode.

[CypherHoof 26,483]

1 hour ago, Music Chart Fan said:

Overall, I don't really see anything egregiously wrong with this episode, but it didn't do much to hold my interest, either. The legends are somewhat trite (although Rarity's is the most developed) and essentially disconnected (as of now, at least) from any current events in the show. Perhaps the legends contribute a little to the Mane Three's characterization, and expand the lore of the show a bit, but not really enough to make the legends much more than mildly entertaining. And sure, there are a few nice sisterly interactions in the episode, but the CMC also grated a bit at times, too. I don't have any major overall points to make about the episode, so I'll just go through my observations in (mostly) episode order.

I assume this is meant to introduce the Legends to non-comic readers so they won't be surprised when they are a plot device later.

 

1 hour ago, Music Chart Fan said:

To start off, I suppose it's kind of a stereotypical thing to do to tell fictional "campfire stories" around the fire, but I don't recall my family and I doing that much. We've been camping many times, and spent many nights sitting around a campfire, but as I recall, we would either play some verbal group games, or talk about things we saw on the trip, or just talk about stories and memories from our own lives. So I guess I may not relate much to that aspect of the episode.

It's a trope, you have to sorta go with it now; not sure that has EVER happened in the real world, although seen it referenced in some books on scouting?

 

1 hour ago, Music Chart Fan said:

Rainbow Dash can apparently punch and kick swarm clouds of the flyders and they make a smacking sound as though they're a single solid unit.

I'm a bit surprised by both the sheer number and the aggressiveness of the flyders. They don't just want to eat the food, they bite the ponies and shoot webs at them with the apparent intent of keeping them from running away. Do they normally travel in a large predatory swarm like that? Did the ponies inadvertently disturb a nest of them or something?

I noticed (and commented about) this same thing back in "Sleepless In Ponyville", but the campfire only consists of a few sticks, which I would expect only to produce a small flame and probably burn out within a minute or so. Why not show a campfire consisting of actual logs? Also, Applejack "relights" a roaring fire by rotating a stick on top of another stick for a couple of seconds. I mean, sure, friction can be used with something like a bow drill and a fire board to produce an ember, which is then placed in highly flammable tinder and slowly built up into a fire, but it's definitely not easy.

Real world physics, meet cartoon logic. But seriously, even leaving apart the meta that we only see characters struggle to light a fire if it's a plot device, we don't know that special trees in equestria don't leak a volitile and easily ignited sap when freshly cut, which burns with extreme heat until the sap runs out, purely for the convenience of campers. Expecting real-world physics in a world where talking ponies can do things with their hooves that we struggle to manage with both hands and specialized tools is probably a bit optimistic

 

1 hour ago, Music Chart Fan said:

Is it really a good idea for all of them to be snuggling with the fresh flyder bites they all have? Although I don't know, the bites and even Rainbow's major swelling vanish within a minute or so.

It's kind of funny that Apple Bloom has a "favorite part" of a story that only takes about 3 minutes to tell in the first place.

When Applejack says "something magical happened" and Rockhoof transforms into his stronger self, did Applejack mean that literally?

Seems that way in the animation, but I suspect that's just how AJ was imagining it. If the character's special power was digging related and he had just gotten his cutie mark (he hadn't; I checked </twilight>) then it would make sense that he suddenly "stepped up a gear" and could dig insanely fast because cutie magic. That said, Cadence's CM started to pulsate after she got the crystal heart from spike, so maybe there is an activation condition for some cutie marks?

 

1 hour ago, Music Chart Fan said:

It's a bit odd that Sweetie Belle says that "there is no camp to go back to" and "all our hard work is ruined" when it appears that the flyders cast webs on their tents and stuff. Do the flyder webs make their camping gear unusable and unfixable, such that the best (or only) course of action is to abandon it entirely?

Maybe she was exaggerating for comic effect, or some Rarity had rubbed off and it was "all ruined, darling! totally ruined, beyond repair" because it wasn't pretty any more?

 

1 hour ago, Music Chart Fan said:

What are the chances that the rocks of the walls of that particular cave have easily visible gold in them?

In Equestria? where you can kick a rock and gems, already cut and polished, simply tumble out?

 

1 hour ago, Music Chart Fan said:

In Rarity's legend, lack of beauty seems to correspond to looking (or even being?) old, basically. But would that necessarily have to be the case? Couldn't the characters lack beauty while still looking their age?

Bear in mind this is Rarity's legend, hence we are looking at her imagination. If she literally just sacrificed her beauty, then she may have simply looked like a plain, not particuarly unattractive pony afterwards; or she may have sacrificed her youth, and hence looked older.  Doesn't reflect well on Rarity though that she thinks looking old and looking unattractive are the same thing.

 

1 hour ago, Music Chart Fan said:

I'm not so sure that Rainbow's rock slide would actually prevent the flyders from getting in the cave if they were determined to do so. I wouldn't necessarily expect the rock slide (with various, mostly large rocks) to create a perfect barrier with no gaps large enough for any flyders to get through.

certainly possible if some loose earth slipped as well. RD appeared to do AJ levels of damage to that entrance there.

 

1 hour ago, Music Chart Fan said:

Doesn't Flash Magnus's plan assume that the captured pegasi will just be left behind in the cave without any guard or anything, such that they could easily and quickly escape? Who's to say that the captured pegasi won't be guarded, or that the dragons won't take the captured pegasi with them, or that the captured pegasi won't be restrained such that they can't escape quickly enough?

Yup. Reckless, poorly thought out plan. No wonder it appealed to RD.

 

1 hour ago, Music Chart Fan said:

The fireproof shield that Flash Magnus doesn't even look large enough to protect his whole body. Plus, if it's made of metal, wouldn't it get extremely hot after the dragons repeatedly breathe fire directly on it?

I am assuming it is an artifact, and hence magically protected. It could have been larger than RD imagined it, or even a physical token for a zonal shield such as unicorns can project (note, Sweetie Belle had such a shield during the Flyder attack) so no dragon fire ever actually touched the artifact anyhow.

 

1 hour ago, Music Chart Fan said:

Rather than all of the ponies just jumping into a flowing river with unknown hazards and an unknown destination, would it have been possible, say, for Rainbow to fly ahead and see where it would go? Or at least for Rainbow to fly above the river in case of some disaster occurring? And I would think the waterfall at the exit of the cave would definitely be a serious risk, and something that should be investigated first before jumping down it like a water park ride.

They were a bit optimistic, yes. Pinkie wasn't even there

 

1 hour ago, Music Chart Fan said:

Finally, I think the actual lesson of the episode is to be prepared to deal with bugs when camping. Apple Bloom says that the more the six of them go camping, the better they get at it, but apparently they have more to learn yet, since they seem not to have used any, say, bug repellent or mosquito net to eat under. When my family and I have gone camping, we bring bug spray that we apply to ourselves, plus slow-burning bug repellent coils that we put on the picnic table when we're going to be around for a while. I will note, though, that we never dealt with an aggressive swarm of bugs like the flyders in this episode.

They were an unexpected hazard, which AJ remarked upon. It might even have been part of the function of the lamps Rarity put up, and simply ineffective on Flyders.

[JH24 385]

Re-watching the episode, and I have to say those fly-ders are legitimately scary. They're like spiders and wasps combined. They can bite and sting, they can tie up their prey and were actually intending to eat everyone in the cave. 

===

As for Rainbow Dash, she was just being herself, and I was a little suprised by the discussion about her boastfulness/confidence in this episode. I mean, we just had "Fame and Misfortune." Personally I felt RD was great in this episode, yeah, she was a little overconfident, but that's who she is. 

It's funny how I had trouble getting used to her character in the first few seasons. But now I enjoy almost every episode she's in. She has matured and grown so much, she also seems to be more composed, more humble, less inclined to get angry, less impulsive and more patient (Like she was with Zephyr and Quibble. I'm not sure the RD from season 1 or 2 would have tolerated them as much) while still being herself. 

While she still has an "ego the size of a whale," I just feel they're showing it in a much more enjoyable way. She still thinks highly of herself at times, but she's more relaxed about it, and she does it more in a jokingly manner. She gives other ponies praise and support (like in "Top Bolt" where she admitted Sky Stinger and Vapor Trail are really amazing flyers and could be the best flyers the Academy has ever seen) Rainbow showed humility in "Newbie Dash" when she realized what she had done. She felt truly sorry and would accept the consequences no matter what they were.

"My confidence comes off as cocky. But it gives me the courage to fail."

For me personally Rainbow is a character who has traits that can be easy to define at first glance. At the same time Rainbow Dash, beneath her exterior of "coolness and being awesome," is a complex character. She has a heart of gold and I feel that of the Mane 6, her character is among the most developed. I can't shake the feeling there's still a lot we haven't seen from her, as if we only scratched the surface.

 

We also have to keep in mind her parents are partly responsible for who she is today. By always cheering her on and telling her how amazing she is, they helped mold her character and personality as she grew up.

 

 

 

Edited August 27, 2017 by JH24

[Zel 56]

Yeah... a meh episode for me. The idea was good, the execution was not to my taste... Rarity was fine, Sweetie, Appleboom and AJ too but boy Rainbow and Scootaloo were poorly written in this episode. I know Rainbow has a massive ego, and I'm fine with it but when most of her lines during an episode are "I'm awesome", "Oh I like to talk about me !", "Even if this story wasn't about me, it wasn't bad." it's just ridiculous. 

For Scootaloo I wonder if the writter for this episode only saw once Sleepless in Ponyville before writting this episode. The previous camping episode wasn't about Scootaloo being a scaredycat, it was about the fact that even though she's supposed to be the tough one of the bunch she was also allowed to express fear. Here all she does for almost the entire episode is to be an over the top frightened character which got annoying very quickly. I know it was also a way to make Rainbow's story more relatable to what was happening but I seriously think it could have been tuned down a little because Scootaloo was really too jumpy.

I think this problem was aggravated by the fact that Applebloom and Sweetie were very calm on the other hand. They're fillies too and they were shown at multiple times to be able to be scared too. But they were just fine with almost everything during this episode. It was so weird to see Scootaloo panic like this when the other two CMC didn't...

As for the stories in themselves... it was the best part of the episode. Rarity's story was the best, very cool location, very cool characters, a good message overall. AJ's story was a bit on the ridiculous side  and the ending came out of nowhere, the characters were... less memorables especially the guards which were... yeah... Rainbow's one was the most classic overall, nothing really original or interresting about it. I think the most cool thing about all of these are the fact they clearly inspired the three ponies, how they see the world and how they act.

Maybe the legends would have been much more interresting if they were given much more time to be told. Here it was obviously rushed so it was a bit difficult to feel really something for these characters or to be invested.

A meh episode as I said. Don't think I will be watching it again soon u_u

Edited August 27, 2017 by Zel

[FirePuppy 735]

This episode was justnot my taste. Too many new characters, not enough background ponies or old-time secondary characters.

Edited August 27, 2017 by FirePuppy

[Lambdadelta 1,462]

This ep served nothing but a connection to the comic, a set-up for the story arc, by itself, this episode is 'useless'. If i need to read the comic to understand this episode, this episode will fall.

The animations looks good, the fight scenes better than A Royal Problem, some funny "ugly" facial expressions. 

I really like Mist Mane story because i watched too many Chinese dramas and a lot of them are driven by woman's jealousy, and Mist Mane solved the problems by giving up her beauty, that is a great sacrifice because the youth and beauty are so important to Asian women (hench, the setting in the story is Chinese-like), they can feel abandon, depressed, jealous just because they get old and ugly (that why villains in Chinese dramas are the concubines who get old and want to kill anyone who take away her king). Mist Mane is so kind and foolish at the same time , that's tragic...  that Sable Spirit, that bitch wasnt deserved beauty, in any chinese dramas, those kind of characters usually dies and NEED TO DIE, they are my most hated archtype characters of chinese drama. Mist Mane is the true inside beauty.  Unicorn lores are usually the best one in the group. 

A fun episode for the sake of telling stories, if you dont care about those stories, this episode will fall but i like those stories and those legend ponies so it's enjoyable to watch. I give it a 6/10. 

Random: The camping setting should be about ponies telling horror stories... They need a theater to tell those epic stories to everypony.

Edited August 27, 2017 by Lambdadelta

[JonasDarkmane 19,785]

Alright, time to offer my own perspective upon this episode. 

 

I must say, I LOVED IT!!  (Yes, I am an easily pleased person). 

 

To start it all off, I liked that the sisters were all having a camping trip again. If I did not know what was about to come, I would not have been as hyped, but SOMEONE had to hype me up about vikings. When those flies came in to wreck the camp and they got trapped in the cave, I knew it was going to be more about stories than it was going to be about the main characters themselves. 

 

When it came to the first story, boy was I not disappointed. I liked the first story particularly because of my own bias. Seeing viking-like cultured ponies was a bit of an "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" moment for me (no raiding doors, but eh, good enough). I loved their hairstyle and their clothing style, it was fitting. However, when it came to the volcano, it was even more of an "eeeeeeeeeeeee" because then it resembled more of Icelandic Viking style more than anything else. When Rockhoof dug that ditch and diverted the flow of the lava, it felt even more Icelandic than anything else (and me being Icelandic, you can guess it.... got me to "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" even more). We in Iceland have had to deal with eruptions and lava flows for centuries, often working on diverting the flow of the lava or slowing it down with water for people to escape.

As for the character of Rockhoof himself, I am going to have to be more honest and fair here. He was kinda thrown at us and his story progressed way too fast. I actually do read the comics, but I have not read his comic or any of the others, so I did not really who he was. That he suddenly just became strong because of his bravery seemed more to be the part of moving the plot/story forward to end it quickly more than anything else. Despite that, I enjoyed the story very much. 

 

Over to the more Asian themed story, the Legend of Mistmane, was incredible in my opinion. I felt that was the strongest story out of all of the three. It did not feel as rushed as the former legend. It was better established who Mistmane was and it can be explained how she gained some of her powers (magic school, duh). So the story for me, did not feel as rushed. I like how Mistmane made a personal sacrifice of her own beauty to make everything else beautiful again. I like the message it conveyed. You don't have to get stuck up on making yourself beautiful, you can always beautify everything else around you. 

 

As for the last one, Flash Magnus. For me, it felt a bit rushed as it did with Rockhoof. We had Flash Magnus, a brave pegasus Private (I assume) who was ready to sacrifice himself for his friends and fellow soldiers. There was little to establish there. Dragons kidnap friends, he wants to save em, is given the plot device to which he can survive against the dragons, saves the day. For me, that was mostly all what I got out of the story in that one. However, I still liked it as it was action packed and I liked that we did not have some incompetent general/captain who would not listen to his fellow soldiers, but actually took into consideration what they had to offer (why do I mention this? Well, this show has a tendency to punish and show people in a bit of higher/upper status to be assholes. It gets cringy, honestly). 

 

That is what I have to offer from a critical viewpoint. However, it did not change the fact that I did enjoy all of the stories, with my snacks and drinks as I mentioned earlier I would get. To me, they have awoken an interest in me to go and find these comics and read them all, all of the stories :). I was entertained throughout the entire episode, so I say this episode was awesome

 

That is all I have to say. I usually don't write that much about episodes, as I often have very little to say, especially when others offer better viewpoints that I often agree with. But I blame @Jeric here for me doing this 

 

Anyways, this was great. Have a mead (cider) and raid some doors!!! 

 

 

[FizzyGreen 909]

Pretty nice episode. While the Flyders kind of came out of nowhere i liked them needing to do something else as they weren't able to return to their camp. As for the stories, they were pretty basic but still nice to listen and watch. You don't always need to most complicated things for them to be good.

Anyways, this was a pretty solid episode, where classic stories are told in pony form, nice to watch. I also liked how after the stories they just went back to their camp but instead made something different of the situation. So that was pretty good at the end.

 

I give a 4/5

Not something extremely utterly amazing, but pretty solid.

[Music Chart Fan 819]

8 hours ago, CypherHoof said:

Real world physics, meet cartoon logic. But seriously, even leaving apart the meta that we only see characters struggle to light a fire if it's a plot device, we don't know that special trees in equestria don't leak a volitile and easily ignited sap when freshly cut, which burns with extreme heat until the sap runs out, purely for the convenience of campers. Expecting real-world physics in a world where talking ponies can do things with their hooves that we struggle to manage with both hands and specialized tools is probably a bit optimistic

I appreciate the effort, but I'm not sure that that explanation passes the Occam's razor test. What reason is there to believe that the animators for this episode actually intended to be lore-building with the decisions not to show logs burning for the campfire, or to show Applejack relighting the fire with almost no effort, especially considering that there's no, say, dialogue or other indications of that being the case? It doesn't look to me as though those two things are being played as humorous gags, either. Would a simpler explanation be that the animators just goofed, or that they're deliberately not depicting the building of a campfire accurately for safety reasons, so that kids watching this episode don't try (and perhaps succeed) to make a fire and hurt themselves?

Regarding the issue of physics in the world of Equestria, it seems to me that, as a general baseline, our familiar physics on Earth also apply in Equestria, with certain defined exceptions - magical abilities, talking ponies, etc. So, for example, when the ponies emerge from behind the waterfall, we expect them to fall down and splash in the water, and they do, because Equestria has gravity comparable to ours, water with essentially the same physical properties as ours (density, viscosity, freezing point, etc.), a climate comparable to ours, etc. I would think that viewers would have a much harder time following and relating to the show if the familiar laws of physics were to randomly change or not apply for no good reason. So, with that in mind, seemingly arbitrary deviations from familiar physics often stick out to me, and prompt me to wonder if there's a good reason why they occurred.

[CypherHoof 26,483]

8 minutes ago, Music Chart Fan said:

I appreciate the effort, but I'm not sure that that explanation passes the Occam's razor test. What reason is there to believe that the animators for this episode actually intended to be lore-building with the decisions not to show logs burning for the campfire, or to show Applejack relighting the fire with almost no effort, especially considering that there's no, say, dialogue or other indications of that being the case?

Still think you are overthinking it. At the "animators for this episode" level, they were probably given a storyboard with a time budget, where they had to relight the fire, in under 5s, by AJ rubbing sticks together.  This is the same fire that can apparently be grabbed by a non-magic-using pony and thrown into the middle of the cave, complete with its ring of stones, as a single unit, so it obviously has some properties that wouldn't apply to a normal camp fire in this world. 

  It was also extinguished by excluding air (a layer of web covering it over) so could still be extremely hot at the core, and just need oxygen to get to it to re-ignite - the spot that the stick rubbed against was smoking immediately the stick touched it and glowing within a second or two after that, so that's plausible. So, Occam's razor actually cuts the other way around in this case - the answer isn't "I don't understand how this works, so it must be an animation error, not how it really works" but "this is what happened and was probably written that way; the simplest explanation for why it works that way is probably correct" and sadly, in a world where magic exists, "A Wizard did it" is a perfectly valid explanation. Not literally of course, but I could certainly imagine that you could make a potion that gives wood the characteristics we actually see in the show, even if it doesn't naturally grow like that.  It only becomes an issue if at some future time it becomes a plot point that it DOESN'T work like that, without explaining why that case differs from this one.

[Zachary 5,521]

I really Like this episode.

The Flyders is Scary, I really Enjoyed the Stories.

9/10