S08:E07 - Horse Play

[Buttonmash1973 1,026]

deleted

Edited May 9, 2018 by Buttonmash1973

[Truffles 2,033]

Upon thinking about it further, I guess this episode and "Honest Apple" are supposed to be the two extremes of honesty. In the latter, they showed the audience why it's bad to use unchecked honesty on others, and in the former (this episode) why you need to be honest with your friends.

I guess then the path to true friendship is found somewhere inbetween these two morals, since these two episodes are in opposition to one another?

[Thrond 3,263]

15 hours ago, Truffles said:

Upon thinking about it further, I guess this episode and "Honest Apple" are supposed to be the two extremes of honesty. In the latter, they showed the audience why it's bad to use unchecked honesty on others, and in the former (this episode) why you need to be honest with your friends.

I guess then the path to true friendship is found somewhere inbetween these two morals, since these two episodes are in opposition to one another?

"Honest Apple" was more about trying to appreciate, or at least not comment on, things you don't understand, which I think complements this episode's storyline about Celestia not understanding acting. 

[Soren Peregrine 4,606]

I know there are a lot of things you could complain about in this episode, but I don't even really care because it was a freakin' Celestia episode!!! What more can I say? 8/10!

[swordsman 192]

every weekend i go out and shoot my HK usp airgun, play with my swords and play COD.  that weekend all i could think about was what i just saw and there was no shooting that day only going online and looking at Princess Celestia.

 

to me it show a side of Princess Celestia that we have never seen before. also seeing her prancing

[cuteycindyhoney 13,306]

Celestia prancing for joy was worth the entire episode! I love how the princess of the sun is rapidly gaining a personality. A quirky one, at that. I also loved Spike's director outfit. Rarity outdid herself with that!

I found it delightful how Celestia, although she tried, couldn't act her way out of a wet paper bag. Another plus? An actor pony named Raspberry Beret! I'm sure Prince would have been delighted with her.

The episode may have been a little silly, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself watching it. The Trickster Princess didn't let me down in the final scene ether. 

Edited May 28, 2018 by cuteycindyhoney

[JCKane 345]

Gotta say, I really enjoyed this episode for a number of reasons. First of all, I find it funny that I had been wondering about how the sun was raised before Celestia was born.  I mean she was clearly born and there was clearly a time before her based on various evidence including StarSwirl's mention of seeing her as a young filly.  And funny this answers that question.  Granted, now I have to wonder first of all, why didn't they just leave the sun up all day and not bring it down... ok there could be consequences but still... and how long were they raising the sun in that way?  Was there a time when the sun raised itself and then it magically stopped?  How did they not run out of unicorn's before then?  And if the strain of raising the sun caused the unicorn's to get fully drained for life (what it implied) yet not Starswirl… why didn't they just add more unicorns?  I mean seriously can you imagine all the unicorn's they had to go through for EACH DAY?  there was a group of them too and 365 days in a year (assuming anyways) then that's a lot of unicorn's going magic less.

Anyways, I also enjoyed how Celestia was a bad actress and I liked how they were able to throw in a 'Honesty's the best policy' despite Twilight should of known better at this stage... because it WAS Celestia and Twilight still has her freak outs when it comes to what should and shouldn't be done when it comes to her.  And I enjoyed how Celestia got a bit more time in the sun in this episode  

[Allen 1,387]

It was supposed to be a good show, but at the ending part it went successful for Fluttershy to visualize as Princess Celestia to raise the sun and made the crowd cheer including Princess Luna at the audience. That's how it's done this way!  Princess Celestia, don't give up being a princess of Equestria of raising the sun! We still want you to raise the sun every 12 hours for the day!

Edited June 9, 2018 by Allen

[Buttonmash1973 1,026]

On 4/3/2018 at 2:13 AM, R.D.Dash said:

When this episode is going to air, this going to be one of the best episodes of the season, I still think some people are going to be disappointed with Twilight.

I also think it was one of the best this season, so far

[Senko 459]

One's versary why do I feel Pinky is just making up an excuse for a party as she missed the millenia celebration. Celestia talking about her childhood friends putting play's actually brought a tear to my eye given they've all been dead for centuries, did like the "Did she just prance" part and Twilght jumping at the "warm guiding voice over her shoulder".

Did Dash just accidentally perform a Sonic Rainboom? At the rate her speed seems to be increasing (given the first time we saw it she had to practice to pull it off) she may one day break the light speed barrier and go back in time.

Snicker so we get to see Celestia's Royal Canterlot Voice like her sisters, although her acting rather reminds me of William Shatner's Star Trek performance.

I LOVED Twilight's begging wings pose when asking for suggestions and Dash's "Did I do a great job advertising for this thing or what . . . sorry."

[Here No Longer 5,276]

I really don't know how to feel about this episode. It started really, really badly but ended really, really well.

 

The Good

• This has probably the most personality in Celestia during any episode in the show's run.
• The moral is pretty universal, and is just the kind of moral Twilight needed.
• The last 6 minutes in general. My only problem was what they did to Spike. Otherwise, it was a perfect solution to an episode that was sloppy otherwise (I'll talk about that when talking about the issues with the episode).
• Celestia prancing. Seriously, that was downright adorable!

 

The Bad

• Twilight was done really, really badly here. She lied to Celestia about her acting skills just because she didn't want to offend her... Really? She wasn't alone either. The rest of the mane six's lines were just so... freaking... lazy, especially Rarity and Pinkie.
• The Spike abuse here is just... awful. Not to mention, the way that they facilitated it made it clear to me they rushed production of this episode a bit.
• I have issues with the "1111 years since she rose the sun" thing, partially because she wouldn't have been born yet, and partially because there's NO WAY it has been 111 YEARS since the pilot as that would suggest... I also have issues with other plot inconsistencies, but that's the main one.
• A LOT of ugly, nightmare fuel level facial animations. I think I will not get half of those faces out of my head, and I wish I could.

 

I think I have an unpopular opinion here in saying the episode... was just okay. It would be a terrible episode in my book if it weren't for the episode putting personality into Celestia and if the ending didn't make up for some of its issues. But it can't make up for all of them. This is probably the worst Twilight has been since "Twilight Time" and the inconsistencies with what we know of the Equestrian timeline. I know this isn't entirely a serious plot episode, but it's still egregious.

 

I would call this a 6/10 episode.

 

 

 

Edited August 1, 2018 by A Cynical Millenial

[Dark Qiviut 22,379]

28 minutes ago, A Cynical Millenial said:

Twilight was done really, really badly here. She lied to Celestia about her acting skills just because she didn't want to offend her... Really? She wasn't alone either.

Twilight was in the wrong, but her actions are also understandable. Celestia gave so much of her time and effort to help teach and raise Twilight that Twilight feels indebted to her. Creating a play for Celestia is one teeny way to repay her and wants oh so much to make sure it works with Celestia leading the role. She lied to her because she doesn't want to disappoint herself, Celestia, and the audience.

28 minutes ago, A Cynical Millenial said:

The Spike abuse here is just... awful. Especially in the last 6 minutes I had just mentioned in "The Good" part.

As much as I railed on Spikeabuse over the years, Horse Play doesn't fit that role. Despite getting tomatoes thrown at him, he takes it very casually, and eating the "free food" really relaxes the tone.

28 minutes ago, A Cynical Millenial said:

I have issues with the "1111 years since she rose the sun" thing, partially because she wouldn't have been born yet, and partially because there's NO WAY it has been 111 YEARS since the pilot as that would suggest... I also have issues with other plot inconsistencies, but that's the main one.

You're looking for a nonexistent inconsistency. Celestia and Luna are at least a thousand years old, but they ruled much longer than that. Both sisters were adults when Discord was encased and eventually when Luna was sealed. When Starswirl and the other Pillars vanished, they were under his tutelage while ruling Equestria simultaneously. And according to The Journal of the Two Sisters, Celestia and Luna were coronated despite not having cutie marks at their age; their eventual abilities to raise the sun and moon, respectively, with no effort later on earned them their cutie marks.

Edited August 1, 2018 by Dark Qiviut

[Here No Longer 5,276]

1 minute ago, Dark Qiviut said:

You're looking for a nonexistent inconsistency. 

That's quite the accusation (that I would never expect someone as mature as you normally are to make), and it could not be more wrong. I was not looking for an inconsistency, as I was finding something inconsistent without really realizing why it wasn't exactly inconsistent. Frankly, if anything that statement seems to me like you may be trying to create an issue where one doesn't seem to exist.

Nonetheless, there is still the issue about the fact I find there to just be no way that it has been about a century (counting the filly years where they hadn't raised the sun and the moon. need to edit that part in the original post) over the period of the show. There's hardly even been that many episodes. Either I'm wrong about that length of time, or there is more than certainly an inconsistency there.

[Dark Qiviut 22,379]

1 hour ago, A Cynical Millenial said:

That's quite the accusation (that I would never expect someone as mature as you normally are to make), and it could not be more wrong.

I wouldn't say something like that without a reason. The criticism is very muddled and doesn't make sense.

The show established that the ones-versary is when she first raised the sun. If 111 years had passed since the pilot, then the year Celly sealed her sister was also the first year she started raising the sun and not much time passed when Discord was defeated or when Starswirl disappeared (the latter already established as more than 1,000 years between disappearance and rescue from limbo). That doesn't make sense, because it crunches time (and the sisters' ages) into a condensed block. Several years had passed between the day Celestia first raised the sun and the night Celestia sealed Luna.

When Celestia was first introduced, she was already more than thousand years old, and the show long established visually that neither Celestia nor Luna age quickly. Up till Horse Play, the canon never properly narrowed down their exact ages, and that's by design. For all we know, they could be 1,300 years old or even older. (I personally believe they're approximately 2,000 years old, but that's headcanon territory.) The show established they were adults when they first beat Discord, but their childhood backstories remain a mystery. It's more than possible for Celestia and Luna to be more than 1,130 years old, and the canon gives plenty of leeway to that.

Lastly, we don't know how many years technically passed from the pilot to Horse Play, but a century is too far-fetched. We have no established calendar or annual seasonal pattern, yet we can hypothesize that at least two years have passed.

Its lore is vague, but it fits into the timeline.

Edited August 1, 2018 by Dark Qiviut

[Senko 459]

10 minutes ago, Dark Qiviut said:

I wouldn't say something like that without a reason. The criticism is very muddled and doesn't make sense.

The show established that the ones-versary is when she first raised the sun. If 111 years had passed since the pilot, then the year Celly sealed her sister was also the first year she started raising the sun and not much time passed when Discord was defeated or when Starswirl disappeared (the latter already established as more than 1,000 years between disappearance and rescue from limbo). That doesn't make sense, because it crunches time (and the sisters' ages) into a condensed block. Several years had passed between the day Celestia first raised the sun and the night Celestia sealed Luna.

When Celestia was first introduced, she was already more than thousand years old, and the show long established visually that neither Celestia nor Luna age quickly. Up till Horse Play, the canon never properly narrowed down their exact ages, and that's by design. For all we know, they could be 1,300 years old or even older. (I personally believe they're approximately 2,000 years old, but that's headcanon territory.) The show established they were adults when they first beat Discord, but their childhood backstories remain a mystery. It's more than possible for Celestia and Luna to be more than 1,130 years old, and the canon gives plenty of leeway to that.

Lastly, we don't know how many years technically passed, but a century is too far-fetched. We have no established calendar or annual seasonal pattern, yet we can hypothesize that at least two years have passed.

Its lore is vague, but it fits into the timeline.

I'm working on a timeline at the moment (up to season 7 so far) incorporating both the comics and the series based on holiday celebrations I hope to have a decent idea of how many years the series has been running in another couple of weeks. Back to work tommorow so I'll have less time to watch/read.

[Dark Qiviut 22,379]

Just now, Senko said:

I'm working on a timeline at the moment (up to season 7 so far) incorporating both the comics and the series based on holiday celebrations I hope to have a decent idea of how many years the series has been running in another couple of weeks. Back to work tommorow so I'll have less time to watch/read.

Cool! Can't wait to see it.  

[Senko 459]

4 minutes ago, Dark Qiviut said:

Cool! Can't wait to see it.  

Its a work in progress and I'm currently thinking I'll need to go back over the comics to try and reorginize it into a chronlogical order as I've done for the series rather than just noting the number of times a holiday comes up. So far though the lead one is Hearth's Warming Eve with an episode in season 2, 5 and 6 as well as 2 occurances in the comics giving a total of 5 hearth's warming eve's or 5 years.

[Here No Longer 5,276]

27 minutes ago, Dark Qiviut said:

I wouldn't say something like that without a reason. The criticism is very muddled and doesn't make sense.

The show established that the ones-versary is when she first raised the sun. If 111 years had passed since the pilot, then the year Celly sealed her sister was also the first year she started raising the sun and not much time passed when Discord was defeated or when Starswqirl disappeared (the latter already established as more than 1,000 years between disappearance and rescue from limbo). That doesn't make sense, because it crunches time into a condensed block. Several years had passed between the day Celestia first raised the sun and the night Celestia sealed Luna.

When Celestia was first introduced, she was already more than thousand years old, and the show long established visually that neither Celestia nor Luna age quickly. Up till Horse Play, the canon never properly narrowed down their exact ages, and that's by design. For all we know, they could be 1,300 years old or even older. (I personally believe they're approximately 2,000 years old, but that's headcanon territory.) Their childhood backstories remain a mystery. It's more than possible for Celestia and Luna to be more than 1,130 years old, and the canon gives such leeway to that.

Lastly, we don't know how many years technically passed, but a century is too far-fetched. We can hypothesize that at least two have passed, but we don't have an established calendar or seasonal pattern. For all know, when Luna was unsealed, she only first raised the sun about 1,105 years ago.

Its lore is vague, but it fits into the timeline.

I am still having trouble figuring out the actual reason. All I'm seeing here is an excuse, to be honest. Maybe it's because I posted something you didn't like and you had to go on the attack or maybe it's because you misperceived the nature of my post because it didn't agree with your opinion, I don't know. Either way, in the 5 years I've been here between this and my old account, I've seen you do something like this a very small number of times. But an accusation made in the fashion like that? That's a first. 

I accounted for those years in the approximation in the post you just quoted. It would still likely be an unreasonable length of time by my count, but yet again, I may not be allotting enough years for the gap between the first raising of the sun and Nightmare Moon.

Didn't reinstate that argument, but I don't believe as you do for the reasons you say. I'm more inclined to believe from what I've heard from you and in the episode that they're more likely to be just around 1130 years old, as they started raising the sun and moon when they were still fillies. That is, of course, if there's more to corroborate what this episode says about the backstories of the two.

It has been at least 4 years, actually, considering that there have been four Hearth's Warming episodes (Hearth's Warming Eve, Hearthbreakers, A Hearth's Warming Tail, and Hearth's Warming Club). Although the last of those four would be 7 episodes from this one, the first was in the second season, so it could be assumed that the time between Friendship is Magic and Hearth's Warming Eve is longer than the time between this episode and Hearth's Warming Club.

It could be made to fit into the timeline, but the fit in my opinion it isn't a snug fit. The ambiguity of how old Celestia was when she first raised the sun and how long it was before Luna turned into Nightmare Moon make it a little difficult to make a perfect fit out of it. The backstory of them is a bit muddled.

Edited August 1, 2018 by A Cynical Millenial

[Thrond 3,263]

8 hours ago, A Cynical Millenial said:

Nonetheless, there is still the issue about the fact I find there to just be no way that it has been about a century (counting the filly years where they hadn't raised the sun and the moon. need to edit that part in the original post) over the period of the show. There's hardly even been that many episodes. Either I'm wrong about that length of time, or there is more than certainly an inconsistency there.

I think the thousand years is meant to stretch far beyond the show’s time span. Am I misunderstanding you? 

Edited August 1, 2018 by AlexanderThrond

[Dark Qiviut 22,379]

9 hours ago, A Cynical Millenial said:

It has been at least 4 years, actually, considering that there have been four Hearth's Warming episodes (Hearth's Warming Eve, Hearthbreakers, A Hearth's Warming Tail, and Hearth's Warming Club). Although the last of those four would be 7 episodes from this one, the first was in the second season, so it could be assumed that the time between Friendship is Magic and Hearth's Warming Eve is longer than the time between this episode and Hearth's Warming Club. 

That's a good point regarding the timeline, as HW is an annual event.

9 hours ago, A Cynical Millenial said:

I accounted for those years in the approximation in the post you just quoted. It would still likely be an unreasonable length of time by my count, but yet again, I may not be allotting enough years for the gap between the first raising of the sun and Nightmare Moon.

I disagree with it being unreasonable, due to how slow Celestia and Luna age.

1. They were still young the day they were coronated, but also old enough to have cutie marks.
2. As they grew up, they realized their ability to raise the sun and moon effortlessly and earned their marks.
3. About a century from that point in time, Celestia sealed Luna into the moon with Tirek's imprisonment, Star Swirl's disappearance, and Discord's invasion somewhere in between.

That said, I'm posting mostly fluff here and complicating Horse Play's lore more than I should've. Horse Play's lore's quite straightforward and mostly relies on us combining our own imaginations and Equestrian logic to put it together.

Edited August 1, 2018 by Dark Qiviut

[bigbertha 414]

This episode has one major problem that runs through the entire episode. Celestia acts like an idiot. She acts like she's never interacted with other ponies before, especially when she's getting acting lessons. Normally this would ruin an episode for me, but I think this episode is hilarious. There are many issues in this episode, and if someone didn't find this episode funny, those issues would probably ruin the episode for them, but for me, I love this episode.

Score: -10/10

Edited August 15, 2018 by bigbertha

[Varrack 1,080]

This was funny. Celestia, being the almighty princess of Equestria, could not act in the most basic of ways. Twilight's dilemna of disappointing her former mentor and delivering the hard truth to her is understandable and all too familiar to those of us who have ever been dishonest (which should be all of us).

I don't have much to say beyond that. The "good news! Free food" line cracked me up. Plenty of other notable moments in that ep as well.

[MLPFanatic34 3,234]

I loved this episode especially seeing Celestia act like such a goofball throughout. Twilight constantly lying to her former mentor was understandable and I loved seeing everyone's reaction to Celestia's poor acting. 9/10 episode.

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

I forgot to mention this but...

Trollestia strikes once again!

[qwerE 96]

I just figured out that Celestia is super adorable! I loved seeing her wacky side this episode. Twiley was really cute, too.

The ending was extremely unrealistic, though. Changing the play in the last minute is one of the worst things you can do to a play. There's no way Fluttershy could've acted out the mane actress without any practice. Acting isn't that easy- even the most experienced actors need at least a week of practice.

Still, I don't think it ruined the episode. I just wanted to point it out because I've been practicing for a small play, and learned how hard acting can be.

Looks like I wrote a long complaint, but I actually loved this episode. Nothing's better than a cute princess duo!