An episode a day Marathon

[Cash In 21,543]

It has seriously been over a month since I last updated this? Wow, time sure flies. Nonetheless, I've still be doing the marathon...with a few unfortunate gaps.

Since my last update, I have since S4 E11 (Three's a Crowd) to S5 E11 (Party Pooped). I enjoyed all of these episodes in some aspect, Equestria Games was probably my least favourite - It wasn't a bad episode in my eyes, it just felt a bit underwhelming, as it was teased for a while. Twilight's Kingdom is definitely the most epic episode to me. The battle between Twilight and Tirek was seriously intense and while I already knew what the outcome would be, I was still pumped. Slice of Life may also be an episode full of pandering, but I still loved it because of how stupid and random it is. As for other episodes I loved - Tanks for the Memories, Twilight Time, Testing, Testing 1,2,3, Pinkie Pride, Party Pooped and Castle Sweet Castle (Which I did cry to, at the end. It's a long story).

I actually used this marathon as an excuse to watch S4 again, as I had mixed feelings about it when I first watched it. While I declared it as my least favourite season long ago, that is definitely not the case now .

 

[Cash In 21,543]

Alright, I've seen the rest of Season 5 (Ammending Fences) to the fourth episode of Season 6 (On Your Marks). I seriously enjoyed a lot of these episodes - especially the streak of Rarity episodes, Ammending Fences, Scare Master, Crusaders of the Lost Mark, The Mane Attraction and The Hooffields and McColts. As a matter of fact, I've went out of my way to rewatch a few of them, seeing as I already enjoyed them so much. I did enjoy Season 5s finale and especially Season 6s premiere. It really allowed us to see Starlight Glimmer in a different light and let us appreciate her character and experiences.

[CypherHoof 26,479]

2 hours ago, Cash In said:

Alright, I've seen the rest of Season 5 (Ammending Fences) to the fourth episode of Season 6 (On Your Marks). I seriously enjoyed a lot of these episodes - especially the streak of Rarity episodes, Ammending Fences, Scare Master, Crusaders of the Lost Mark, The Mane Attraction and The Hooffields and McColts. As a matter of fact, I've went out of my way to rewatch a few of them, seeing as I already enjoyed them so much. I did enjoy Season 5s finale and especially Season 6s premiere. It really allowed us to see Starlight Glimmer in a different light and let us appreciate her character and experiences.

  I really love the Rara character, and am sad they haven't seen fit to include any future episodes with her (ok, I get it; she is a guest star - albeit, not THAT well known a one - and hence has to be budgetted for, but I am guessing given she is openly a pegasister, she wouldn't be as insistant on a large paycheque...)

  Crusaders is MASSIVELY rushed; I think it needed to be to fit into the 22 minute timeframe, but while Diamond Tiara's song makes me tear up when I hear it, there is a lot off about this redeption - she is/was a self-entitled bully and clearly ENJOYED being a self-entitled bully; that isn't an uncommon pattern (so no doubt many of the target audience will relate) but in the human case, that is because it is part of a culture that rewards such behaviour.  You could make a case that ,for most of equestria, that IS how it works; the cliques in Canterlot and Manehatten show this on a number of occasions. But in ponyville, things are different, and they are visibly different. Diamond Tiara (and to a lesser extent, silver spoon) stand out by NOT meeting those cultural expectations, and even her own father repeatedly pushes her in that direction.  So, despite all this pressure and all these examples, Diamond Tiara has still been consistantly a bitch... but we are meant to believe she didn't really WANT to, and it is all her mother's fault? erm... no.

  Given the different picture we see of Filthy Rich in EqG though, I have to wonder how sincere he is about this in FiM; I want to believe he is genuinely a much nicer pony (because, well, ponyville and pinkie) but am concerned he is just putting out a persona as a PR exercise. If the latter were true, then DT's "reformation" could well be an equally insincere projection; after all, DT believes her special talent is "getting other ponies to do what I want" and if she were now trying a more subtle approach rather than leaning on her sense of entitlement, that would make more sense in context.

(The CMC getting their cutie marks is awesome though, of course - despite the fact it had been obvious for some seasons that they had been missing the point, and despite the fact they CONTINUE missing the point in their attempts to find cutie marks for other ponies. Youtube has some awesome blind reactions to the reveal, too

 

 

Edited March 9, 2019 by CypherHoof

[CypherHoof 26,479]

2 hours ago, Bas said:

Was Filthy Rich really a meanie in FIM? I am asking because he even went against Tiara when she made fun of Granny Smith.

No, and that's the point; in FiM, Filthy Rich makes a point of being part of the community, and showing respect to the Apple family whose zap apple jam his family's fortune was based on. Over in EqG/LoE though, he is the main antagonist which makes him an odd choice - They could have done with a number of canterlot or manehatten ponies, or just a generic "banker" character, without having to give Filthy a drastically different personality.

[Cash In 21,543]

I've completed Season 6 and I enjoyed almost every episode. It is often deemed as one of the worst seasons, but I enjoyed most of what it had to offer. I'm not sure where I would rank it, seeing as I have two more seasons to go.  I really liked the finale - To Where and Back Again. Is it because it stars a bunch of secondary characters? Sure, but it was an interesting experience and I hold no regrets.

On to Season 7!

[CypherHoof 26,479]

1 hour ago, Cash In said:

I've completed Season 6 and I enjoyed almost every episode. It is often deemed as one of the worst seasons, but I enjoyed most of what it had to offer. I'm not sure where I would rank it, seeing as I have two more seasons to go.  I really liked the finale - To Where and Back Again. Is it because it stars a bunch of secondary characters? Sure, but it was an interesting experience and I hold no regrets.

On to Season 7!

Yup. I especially liked that Discord called them on being secondary characters, too

[CypherHoof 26,479]

Some thoughts on S6...

I Loved the premiere - Flurry Heart, and Starlight finally blowing up on Sunburst being highlights. Starlight in early episodes is too unintegrated into the group though - either she is the episode focus, or you don't see her.  Trixie doesn't show well in this season, but then when does she ever?

Gauntlet is one of Spike's best outings; lots of character development, and Ember is an awesome new character.

Hearths Warming is one of the best episodes in the whole series (in my opinion of course) - a great analogy to Starlight's past, some great one liners ("you DO know you are doing your pinkie pie voice?") and Luna's epic solo.

Thorax's entrance was another great development piece for Spike, and of course plays nicely into the finale.

ELTSD though... .ulgh. Its like watching a train wreck. You know there is going to be tortured metal and screaming, but....

[Them's Seeing Ponies 282]

2 hours ago, Bas said:

ELTSD?

I already got issues remember which ep title is for which plot, so please don't even abbreviate them lol!

Every Little Thing She Does.

As for Cypher's analysis, I concur that ELTSD simply doesn't work in a number of ways, chiefly in that the episode slathers an excessive surplus of wacky 'comedy' onto its unusually dark subject matter (the protagonist, in the context of a kids' TV show, brainwashing her mentor's friends), which leads to a somewhat dissonant and unintentionally disturbing air (in that the episode veers into comedic territory almost as a means of avoiding addressing Starlight's moral issues, which is pretty egregious again considering the episode's subject matter and the fact that the narrative imbalance leads to Starlight's remorse lacking buildup and thus projecting a more insincere air, causing Starlight to appear more unlikeable than was seemingly intended). I'm not exactly a fan of S6 as a whole (although A Hearth's Warming Tail has some of the series' best music and animation by far and Spike's characterization in multiple episodes (even of the non-focus variety) was a pleasant surprise) but the botching of this episode in particular (one of a surprising few S6 episodes to focus onto Starlight's arc and the only one in the season to address her warped morality and equally warped perception of it head-on, which should have been a major component of her development) hurts the most amidst S6's lower-ranked episodes (in my opinion).