S09:E04 - Sparkle's Seven

[BornAgainBrony 2,397]

33 minutes ago, Dark Qiviut said:

Quite a clever use of passed time and travel is shown through the Sibling Crown. Back when they were young, it was pristine. Now it's cracked, dented, and busted. Really shows how long he kept it and the toll the travel took on it.

Apparently, he liked it a little too much since he last won it years ago.

Am I the only one who felt it was a "Friends" reference?

Anyone else remember the Geller Cup?

[Allen 1,387]

Now we have the 200th episode of My Little Pony! Thanks to our pony voice actors for sharing their stories in this episode too!  I like this! We believe that Spike is a true Sibling Supreme at the last part of this episode at this competition. Shining Armor is no deceiver to this. It came up with Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends to make this up with plans to obtain that kind of crown. Things goes wrong, and things goes right again.

I enjoyed this episode and it was great for their kind of stories too! 

[Ganondox 899]

The ending managed to catch me off guard, though I should have seen it coming a mile away. Luna was acting very suspicious. Because of the ending with Spike this episode was much better than I was expecting. 

[Dark Qiviut 22,383]

*AHEM!* YO!

I already linked it in the OP, but I recently posted the "Pick a Flaw" thread for the episode!

If y'wanna participate, have fun!

[Cash In 22,231]

That was a pretty ridiculous episode, but that's probably what I like the most about it. It was quite interesting to see the inner works of Twilight and Shining Armor's sibling rivalry and how they chose to have one final battle for the Sibling Crown. I'll admit, seeing such intricate plans go in to play, when Equestria isn't facing impending doom, was pretty amusing. Well, at least the castle will finally have somewhat sufficient security.

I'll give it to Spike, he really pulled one out of the bag. Recruiting Luna was a stroke of genius and it was a pretty neat twist to see him claim the crown. It was also pretty nice to see Zephyr Breeze and Maud Pie again, even if it was for a short while.

I'll also say that this episode has definitely sprung a lot more opportunities for possible emotes/reactions on the forum.

[ImpctR 155]

7 hours ago, Jeric said:

It was an actor appreciation episode. They called in the main voice actors that have been with the show from go and asked them what they always wanted their characters to do. They all gave their ideas and then the writers crafted a story to tie all the ideas together. 100 was for us. 200 was for them. They actually got story writing credit too 

I see, thank you. Good they got their recognition. To me, though, the message of the episode is not relevant, so the episode passes as a filler.  

[qwerE 96]

This episode was really, really fun. Props to all the writers who did their best to make the 200th episode of FiM a memorable one!

This episode had a really great concept, along with nice execution. I was so pumped up about everthing when Shining Armor explained the game and wasn't dissapointed at the end.

What made this episode so fun to watch? Jokes, the story, and the twist - pretty much everything.

 

Here are some of the jokes I liked.

Twiley pudding face (that face is so cute)

Pink space pony

Twilight going "But there's more than that! ..Okay it's exactly that"

 

When compared to 'Slice of life', I'd say I like this one much more. This episode had a more interesting plot, in my opinion. It's not that I hate 'Slice of life', but that episode was more like a review of memes and a shoutout to the community, than an actual episode with a storyline. That was also fun in its own way, but I prefer normal episodes like these.

[JH24 385]

I liked the episode. Some parts dragged on a bit too long but overall it was entertaining and fun. The ending was satisfying and I was surprised how this turned into a Spike episode near the end. Luna on the throne petting a goose was priceless.

You can tell they had a lot of fun with the facial expressions.

Edited April 21, 2019 by JH24

[DonMaguz 1,023]

What a funny and silly episode, it's definitely the best one of the season so far.

Shining Armor and Twilight's rivalry came out of nowhere, but it still managed to be believable as a sibling's dynamic.

Luna's and Celestia's passive aggressiveness is starting to get boring, their expressions are great and the twist at the end worked perfectly, but their lack of communication definitely deserves a facepalm after so much time.

Shining Armor's letter and Rarity stepping up as the mastermind were hilarious moments.

 

10 hours ago, Truffles said:

That's brings up an interesting possibility - that she idolizes her friend and imagined herself as having this past with such an alter-ego. After seeing the episode again, it does appear either some or all of her story is a fantasy, based on her expression to Rainbow's questioning it:

It would fit in with her wanting to move to the city as a filly, as chronicled in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles." Perhaps in addition to being more "cosmopolitan," living in the city would have presented more opportunities for her to start a singing career? Since there was no mention of her singing in Manehatten back then, it adds credence to the idea that this alter-ego is all just wishful thinking on her part, even if she probably does have the raw musical talent to pull it off.

That's exactly what I thought about AJ's alter ego and past. It really fits with her cutie mark story and her fillyhood friendship with Rara. I also liked that, even when her cover was immediately blown by Shining Armor and her distraction plan was of little help, she still managed to take her opportunity and steal the guard's badge that Rarity used later during Twilight's plan.

Dash and Zephyr are great, I can't stop laughing at his absurd assumptions about Dash's interest on him. Rarity's face when hinting Dash to charm him was the best one of the episode!

Pinkie's plan to travel to space fits her wtf personality and helped in nothing to the overall plan.

Spike's and Fluttershy's spy attempt was actually pretty good, I really liked how Shy stated that they needed to glide and prevent flapping to avoid the geese's detection.

The plot twist was great and much needed Spike love was an amazing way to end the episode.

Overall, the episode was the first great one of the season, not to be considered into the all time favorites yet, but a great one still. The season has started well and is rising up, I hope this keeps going for the next episodes.

Kudos to the VA's and the editors for such a silly episode!

Edited April 21, 2019 by DonMaguz

[Princess Cheese Dorito 7]

I thought that this was a fun episode and Spike being their "brother" I felt was very touching. Spike always felt like family to the Mane 6, especially Twilight, and this episode captures it well. The Sibling Rivalry competition was also fun to watch. If only we could participate. 

[bwrosas 252]

Because it was good/decent episode , I decided to add #MLP200 to a DVD Compilation, along with #MLP100 and #MLPBESTGIFTEVER

Comments are Welcomed

#MLP200 #MLP100 #BESTGIFTEVER #4K #UHD #4KUHD 

Produce_13.mkv

2 hours ago, Princess Cheese Dorito said:

I thought that this was a fun episode and Spike being their "brother" I felt was very touching. Spike always felt like family to the Mane 6, especially Twilight, and this episode captures it well. The Sibling Rivalry competition was also fun to watch. If only we could participate. 

"Brother" To Twilight and Shining Armor. Friend to the others, and perhaps more to Rarity

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,824]

Where do I even start with this one. Ocean's parody right from the beginning. And who knew that Spike was the biggest inside job all along! A thing so simple...but I honestly had a feeling when Luna was making those expressions. Really glad to see Spike getting a full treatment...I feel he could be the runt of the litter in a few episodes...

[bwrosas 252]

One of my favorite moments/scenes 

Spoiler

 

 

[Sonic5421 423]

For being the 200th episode of the series, I gotta admit, I do like what happened in it. Shining Armor wanted to finally decide if either Twilight or he was Sibling Supreme, and at the same time, wanted to test the castle defenses to make sure they were ready for a future attack. Luna was against it, but Celestia ignored her advice, and in the end, Spike was able to outsmart Shining Armor and Twilight while helping Luna prove to Celestia that they need to consider all threats, both exterior and interior, when setting up defenses, leaving both sisters to walk off, barely containing their anger at each other over what happened, while Shining Armor and Twilight were more lenient with Spike, accepting he was Sibling Supreme after all.

For the 200th episode, I give it a 9.5/10, maybe a perfect 10, as my score.

[Truffles 2,033]

FUN FACT #2: Back in S1E01, Spike told Fluttershy his entire life's story. Therefore the competition between Twilight and Shining must have been mentioned. It puts Twilight's sour mood at the end of his story in a new light since Spike likely brought up the fact that Shining had been the last winner of the Sibling Crown and never returned it. (If you hadn't noticed, I'm having too much fun retconning all of these events back into the earlier parts of the series. XD)

 

20 hours ago, Dark Qiviut said:

Quite a clever use of passed time and travel is shown through the Sibling Crown. Back when they were young, it was pristine. Now it's cracked, dented, and busted. Really shows how long he kept it and the toll the travel took on it.

Apparently, he liked it a little too much since he last won it years ago.

Now I have this mental image of him wearing it in the Canterlot barracks when he was coming up through the ranks because he wanted to feel like a king. XD
Speaking of when they were young, I love all these shots we got of them together:

Spoiler

 

That last one is kind of interesting in that it implies Twilight Velvet looked after Spike while Twilight was in class, which is different from the ideas put forth in the IDW comic where she had to drag him around school in a papoose. (Its true the comic isn't canon but was the only thing we had to go on until now.) I suppose both could be true if these scenes portray  events after the comic, and Velvet took a bigger role in caring for Spike.

This is the one that is the most adorable and most heartbreaking, however:

He really, really wanted to be included in their little competition, since even then he wanted to be a part of the family even though he was a dragon and not a pony. Some real feels here when I saw this. Also, it's worth noting dragons are competitive by nature (according to Ember) so it makes perfect sense he would want to compete.

In hindsight, I should have realized Spike would be the one to get the crown right at this scene, as it was clear he wanted to win and would be his reward at the end of the episode.

Finally, it's interesting to compare the old baby Spike model to the new one. Here it is for reference:

The most striking difference is the size of his eyes. They were smaller and more proportional to the rest of his head, much like how he normally looks in the show. I guess DHX decided larger eyes are cuter, though I have to say he's plenty cute for a baby in his S1 flashback.

[Sepul-Coloratura 762]

I think this episode cleverly dodged the pitfall of most "fanservice episodes" and "all star episodes". It's because of these reasons.

1. It tackled an unexpected and less obvious but necessary subject (checking Canterlot's defense system). We weren't asking "Why are we doing this?"
2. It focused on what the show was about instead of what it isn't. It wasn't about the end of the world, it was about the relationship of the family. It was about brothers and a sister playing a game. They turned something that could go too serious and fanfic-ish into something less epic and lighthearted.
3. The characters were there for a reason. Most of the characters were doing something irreplaceable by other characters and the cameos did fit the context.
4. Instead of making things predictable and move according to the obvious equation and make the audience wait for the obvious thing to happen, they presented the story by moving the story forward as the viewer's recognition of the situation expand, i.e. making the audience feel like being with the ponies and make the characters alive.

Honestly after watching episode 3, I thought if episode 4 wasn't good, I was going to give up all hope for the whole show. Usually they put the best material in the first two episodes after the premiere. Thankfully, they can make nice episodes indeed. I hope they keep up the good work and I hope they do even better and make the final season of the show great.

Edited April 22, 2019 by Sepul-Coloratura

[BritishBrony2012 796]

Is this 200th episode? I don't feel it like with 100th. Feel let down but that just me.

[okapillon 148]

On 4/20/2019 at 10:47 AM, Dark Qiviut said:

It had to be, or at least was St. Germain's idea. Watching Luna act like an over-the-top villain (with the "cat" goose and score) is one of the funniest moments of the series.

Literally LOL'd.

. .  .is it a goose? for some reason its appearance is rather reminiscent of a vulture than a goose.

[Dark Qiviut 22,383]

Just now, okapillon said:

. .  .is it a goose? for some reason its appearance is rather reminiscent of a vulture than a goose.

Eeyup, that's a goose. Only with teeth.

[okapillon 148]

3 minutes ago, Dark Qiviut said:

Eeyup, that's a goose. Only with teeth.

.  ... .oooh toothy goosie! nifty keen cool beans.

[okapillon 148]

On 4/20/2019 at 3:16 PM, ImpctR said:

 

I liked Flutterspy, references from not sure where (other than some generic spy shows)

 

  Hide contents

 

Power Ponies reference? 

 

... . .the shot kind of reminds of a scene in this movie called  "Entrapment" . ..think it might be the lasers.

[Lambdadelta 1,462]

This 200th episode is nothing like 100th episode, it made me love it without any fanservice at all. The plot twist is just insane, I don't expect Spike could go that far, he tricked me good. First 9/10 episode of this season, can they top that in the next 3 episodes? I want a combo of good stuffs.

[DonMaguz 1,023]

21 minutes ago, Lambdadelta said:

This 200th episode is nothing like 100th episode, it made me love it without any fanservice at all.

Ep. 200 was all about VA-service, and it was hilarious.

[Music Chart Fan 819]

Overall, I would probably say that I found this a just okay episode. Wacky antics, overexaggerated faces, and hammy voice acting aren't generally my type of thing, so I don't particularly care for much of that stuff. I don't really relate to the "sibling rivalry continued into adulthood" premise, nor do I buy into the idea that all of Shining Armor's ideas were going to be a serious and permanent upgrade to the Canterlot castle's security. But there are parts of this episode I found amusing, including Rarity's and Rainbow's roles in the first plan, Spike's and Fluttershy's talking and working together, and the twist that Spike and Luna made a deal to steal the crown out from under everybody else. And while Spike has said, for example, that Twilight is his family as recently as "Father Knows Beast", I suppose it's still nice to have Twilight and Shining Armor clarify that Spike is "the little brother we've always had".

To start off, I've seen some reactions to the premise of this episode along the lines of "Yep, sibling rivalries never really die" or "Yep, siblings are gonna be siblings and compete with each other". But, in contrast to that, I find it weird that adult Twilight and adult Shining Armor are still apparently this invested in, and eager to participate in, a sibling competition from when they were younger and still living in the same household - particularly one which was originally facilitated by their parents, and which is all for the "reward" of an artificial title (and a toy crown to go with it). That seems to me like the kind of thing that kids might care about and think is important when they're young and don't necessarily have bigger things to worry about. But then those kids would leave that behind as they get older, realize better what is and isn't important, and live in different circumstances where that kind of thing just doesn't really matter any more.

I have a big family of eight siblings, and most of the nine of us are now at least in our twenties. And yeah, as kids, we argued, fought, and competed with each other over things like who was or wasn't following our parents' rules, who got to use limited resources like computer or game console time, who had to do which chores, who was better at doing certain activities, etc. But these days, we generally don't feel the need to compete with each other or prove who's better to each other or to our parents. If one of my siblings made a serious-sounding proposal that we do some activity, with the outcome proving who is "sibling supreme" once and for all, I would find that rather pointless and ridiculous; I would ask why we couldn't just hang out or do something together without the pretense of proving who's best forever. So, throughout this episode, I couldn't help having those "Why are we doing this? Why are we taking this so seriously?" questions in the back of my mind.

On a related topic, Twilight tries to give the excuse to the rest of the Mane Six that doing this is "to protect Celestia's castle", and I've also seen people saying or believing that all these lines of defense for the Canterlot castle (designed by Shining Armor) were serious and were going to stay even after Twilight's and Shining Armor's little competition. But that's not the impression that I got from watching this episode; it seems to me like this gauntlet of defenses would be untenable to keep around the castle for the long term. Do the residents of Canterlot and the castle, and the potential visitors to it, really want the airspace above and around Canterlot castle to be nearly unusable, permanently? Is it really feasible or desirable to keep the tunnels below the castle sealed permanently? Who would be paying for the permanent doubling of the ranks of security? Do Celestia and Luna really want a permanent floor trap, activated at the slightest touch, right in front of their thrones in the throne room? And do Celestia and Luna really want biting and very loudly honking geese taking up permanent residence in the throne room? If the geese's honking can be heard "all the way in Ponyville", then presumably everyone in Canterlot can hear them. Do all of them really want to hear the honking every time the geese are agitated?

Finally, Spike's and Luna's plan was apparently to get the Mane Seven to do things "the Twilight way" (as Spike suggested later), so that everyone would be in the throne room, and Shining Armor would then gloat and believe that he had won, providing the opportunity for Spike and Luna to steal the crown from under all of their noses. But then that would mean that the first (non-Twilight) plan would need to be sabotaged. Spike's puncturing the hot air balloon ended up sabotaging Pinkie's role and Applejack's role (sort of). It didn't really stop Fluttershy and Spike, but I suppose Spike might have planned to sabotage his and Fluttershy's role later. But how were Rarity and Rainbow supposed to be sabotaged? Was the closing of the "seedy juice joint" supposed to have stopped Rarity and Rainbow, and the pony who pointed them to the secret tunnel entrance actually ruined Spike's and Luna's plans? But if that's the case, then why did Luna follow through with putting Zephyr as the guard to the secret entrance? Wouldn't that arguably make it easier for Rarity and Rainbow to get in the secret entrance if they found it? Or if Rarity and Rainbow were intended to find and get into the secret tunnel entrance, then what? The only obstacle the two of them really encountered once inside was getting lost and tired of looking around, which didn't look to be facilitated by Spike or Luna. Wouldn't it be possible that Rarity and Rainbow could find their way to the throne room from the tunnels relatively quickly and take the crown? Or would Luna have had some other means of stopping them if they got that far?

Now here's the rest of my miscellaneous observations:

I don't know what Starlight and Twilight are doing in the office at the beginning of the episode. Starlight appears to be levitating papers from a stack, one at a time, over to Twilight so Twilight can hoof-stamp them, while both of them are smirking and not saying anything. So what are these papers that Starlight is levitating, and why is she staying in the office to levitate them?

When Starlight tells Twilight "Guess that explains your love of charts", I thought of how I kind of love charts too, as my user name suggests, though for different reasons than because I used to "chart" my progress in an inter-sibling competition.

There are students at the school when Twilight and Spike rush off to Celestia's castle, which suggests that the school may not be (fully) closed in this episode. Despite this, Twilight and Spike just run off to Celestia's castle, seemingly without any plans as to who's in charge or anything. I do wonder how long they expected to be gone; if it was only a few hours or so, then the school could probably just continue running without the two of them.

The Mane Seven do seem to spend at least a day making and executing the plans to infiltrate the Canterlot castle throne room, though. Perhaps this episode, or at least the latter part of it, just happened to occur on a weekend or something when the Mane Seven wouldn't have any particular obligations at the school (or elsewhere, for that matter)?

Both Twilight's and everyone else's plans seem to rely a fair bit on the castle guards being incompetent and easily distracted, but I guess that's been shown (or assumed) to be the case multiple times in the show before.

Pinkie wants to be the Mane Seven's "eye in the sky" lookout...from space? How far away does Pinkie plan to be? How good is her eyesight from that kind of distance? And how would she communicate even if she saw something? That's not to mention that she apparently thinks that all that's needed to survive in space is a glass dome on your head. Every other part of this plan seems to be serious, so why isn't Pinkie's part of it apparently being taken seriously?

In the flashback about "Apple Chord", we see her playing on a big stage, and when Granny Smith, Big Mac, and Apple Bloom try to peek in to see from the doorway, the security pony slams the door shut. So "Apple Chord" is a fairly big star, but she couldn't get VIP passes, or even just regular tickets, for her own family members for her own performance?

Would any of the guards particularly care about "Apple Chord"'s giving a "farewell performance"? Is that supposed to be a particularly good distraction? Or is it no better than any number of other potential distractions that could be made instead?

In the imagining of what Fluttershy and Spike would do as super-spies, isn't the usual purpose of the grid of lasers like that to detect intruders? And if so, wouldn't breaking the continuity of the laser beams, even in the process of destroying them, trip an alarm and cause them to be detected? The episode acts as though the grid of lasers are intended to be weapons in themselves, such that reflecting the lasers back causes them to explode.

As the first plan is being executed, Twilight repeatedly talks about aspects of the plan out loud in a normal voice, even after she was told by Shining Armor that the security around the castle is doubled, and guards are within sight distance of where Twilight is talking.

I'm not particularly a fan of the way that Rainbow was dressed/made up to "distract" Zephyr in this episode. I think Rainbow has "cleaned up" better in other episodes before. Perhaps she could even pull off just wearing her Wonderbolts uniform - if Zephyr is going to brag about looking good in uniform, maybe Rainbow could do the same.

Also, while Rainbow's forcing herself to interact with and distract Zephyr was amusing, I also can't help having some misgivings about it. Is it really a good idea to encourage Zephyr in his false belief that Rainbow really has feelings for him, but she just can't admit it, so Zephyr needs to "encourage" Rainbow by continuing to try to get intimate with her, despite her apparent disgust and protestations?

Finally, in Spike's voiceover at the end of the episode, he says "all Luna had to do was float the crown over to me", but on-screen, we see Luna teleport the crown over to him.

[Truffles 2,033]

11 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

If one of my siblings made a serious-sounding proposal that we do some activity, with the outcome proving who is "sibling supreme" once and for all, I would find that rather pointless and ridiculous; I would ask why we couldn't just hang out or do something together without the pretense of proving who's best forever. So, throughout this episode, I couldn't help having those "Why are we doing this? Why are we taking this so seriously?" questions in the back of my mind.

I think the real sore spot for Twilight (and Spike) is Shining kept the crown to himself and didn't share it with her over the past several years. Twilight won the (monthly?) competition several times, so she may have felt slighted that he took it and hid it from her. (I don't know for sure if he really hid it from her, but it since it didn't show up in "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows" when she dug out all of his childhood items, he must have been keeping it in a secret location in the palace at the Crystal Empire.

(Of course, the real reason is that DHX didn't know any of this at the time of Cadance being pregnant, but now it has to be the default explanation since this is the new lore. XD )

11 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

I've also seen people saying or believing that all these lines of defense for the Canterlot castle (designed by Shining Armor) were serious and were going to stay even after Twilight's and Shining Armor's little competition. But that's not the impression that I got from watching this episode; it seems to me like this gauntlet of defenses would be untenable to keep around the castle for the long term.

I have to take Celestia's statement about Sombra's return at face value, and they are planning to keep whatever security ends up being proven reliable there permanently, or at least until whatever threat which managed to raise Sombra from the dead is dealt with. (Though you're right some of it is impractical, more on that in a bit.) It could be that Celestia and Luna know more about what is going on than they are letting on and they are not revealing more in order to prevent a panic. (I'm not sure keeping Twilight and Cadance in the dark is wise if that's the case, though.)

11 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

really want the airspace above and around Canterlot castle to be nearly unusable, permanently?

Since the castle is just one building in Canterlot, presumably the fans wouldn't affect the regular populace - and even then only pegasi. Only the princesses and guards would be majorly inconvenienced by all these fans since they are the ones who arrive and leave by air via the various landing spots available. I guess they'll just have to huff it like earth ponies and unicorns to get in and out of the castle.

11 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

Is it really feasible or desirable to keep the tunnels below the castle sealed permanently?

I'm not really sure why they have so many ways into the castle that bypass security in the first place. I could see good reasons to have several secret exits in case the castle is overrun and the princesses have to flee. But these tunnels are very obvious to anyone walking by, and I'm surprised they weren't bricked up right after Chrysalis' defeat in S6.

11 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

Who would be paying for the permanent doubling of the ranks of security?

When it comes to the royals, who pays for anything in this kingdom, really? XD

11 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

Do Celestia and Luna really want a permanent floor trap, activated at the slightest touch, right in front of their thrones in the throne room? And do Celestia and Luna really want biting and very loudly honking geese taking up permanent residence in the throne room?

These two are the only things that don't make sense. They make for a great bit of storytelling, but from a practical matter I'm not sure they would work out, either. The geese would poop and honk at every visitor who came to see the royals. The princesses would trigger the trap door and fall into the pit like Spike and Fluttershy did. In fact, these two security measures seem to be designed to protect an inanimate item and not two living beings, in this case the Hard-Won Helm. So in this regard I agree these two may have only been designed for the contest.

11 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

 It didn't really stop Fluttershy and Spike, but I suppose Spike might have planned to sabotage his and Fluttershy's role later.

Spike and Fluttershy's role was extra tricky. He wanted them to be sabotaged as another reason to switch back to Twilight's plan, but it had to do it in a way that didn't get them caught in the process. If they were caught and detained, there would be no chance of Twilight's plan even getting off the ground. It was fortuitous Rarity and Rainbow happened along and triggered the escape.

11 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

 But how were Rarity and Rainbow supposed to be sabotaged? Was the closing of the "seedy juice joint" supposed to have stopped Rarity and Rainbow, and the pony who pointed them to the secret tunnel entrance actually ruined Spike's and Luna's plans? But if that's the case, then why did Luna follow through with putting Zephyr as the guard to the secret entrance? Wouldn't that arguably make it easier for Rarity and Rainbow to get in the secret entrance if they found it?

The patron pony who walked by said it was always closed at that time, so presumably he's not another plant by Luna and it really was closed. It is curious Spike and Luna would make it easier for Rainbow and Rarity to get in by using Zephyr. Unless Spike has his own version of Pinkie Sense and knew he'd need them to get out of the trap door pit, it seems strange to allow the both of them to get into the tunnels since having them fail outside (where they could flee more easily) would be beneficial.

11 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

When Starlight tells Twilight "Guess that explains your love of charts", I thought of how I kind of love charts too, as my user name suggests, though for different reasons than because I used to "chart" my progress in an inter-sibling competition.

Indeed.

11 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

Despite this, Twilight and Spike just run off to Celestia's castle

And for the second time this season we see Twilight and Spike flying in a rush all the way from Ponyville to Canterlot. Both of them having wings sure makes for convenient travel. XD

11 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

That's not to mention that she apparently thinks that all that's needed to survive in space is a glass dome on your head.

And she didn't seem to know using a hot air balloon to get to space isn't ever going to work. If it were hydrogen, she could get pretty close, though. But yeah - the air requirements would be an issue. Maybe Twilight knew her plan was silly from the start and was simply humoring her? Whatever height she did manage to get to, it would have worked out in terms of acting as a lookout.

11 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

So "Apple Chord" is a fairly big star, but she couldn't get VIP passes, or even just regular tickets, for her own family members for her own performance?

Maybe in her fantasy she didn't want the imaginary versions of her family to find out about her alter-ego, either?

11 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

The episode acts as though the grid of lasers are intended to be weapons in themselves, such that reflecting the lasers back causes them to explode.

It's Spike's fantasy, so explosions and lasers are right in line with a teenage male. I can attest.

11 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

Is it really a good idea to encourage Zephyr in his false belief that Rainbow really has feelings for him, but she just can't admit it, so Zephyr needs to "encourage" Rainbow by continuing to try to get intimate with her, despite her apparent disgust and protestations?

Good point. Hopefully this little exercise won't cause problems for her down the road....

11 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

Finally, in Spike's voiceover at the end of the episode, he says "all Luna had to do was float the crown over to me", but on-screen, we see Luna teleport the crown over to him.

Another animation error? Storyboarding error? Ran out of time to actually animate the crown floating over? XD Or perhaps when they did storyboard it, the layout artist realized it would be hard for the Helm to stay hidden from Shining since it would be floating in front of the direction he was facing and it was decided to not bother re-recording the dialogue?

What I find interesting is how much the plan relied on Luna being there at the end. Spike did predict Shining would gloat, and presumably both of the princesses would be by his side to officiate - and that meant Luna would be there as the ultimate card up his sleeve. But couldn't have Luna teleported the Helm out to Twilight before any of the plans even started? I suppose that would mean Luna would get the Helm and not Twilight, but in terms of testing would it not be just as valid an "inside threat" as the way it actually played out in the episode? A lot less fun, I suppose.

EDIT: Duh on me. I forgot about the shards blocking teleportation outside the castle. And trying to get it to someone inside the castle but outside the throne room would be risky with the extra patrols.

Maybe Luna didn't expect Spike to spill the beans as to how he got the crown and was thinking she could simply keep the "security hole" a secret, and when it came time to do the plans herself like she wanted in the first place, she'd simply include inside threats as a factor?

Edited April 23, 2019 by Truffles
Realized there was a hole in my plan. Lol.