S09:E06 - Common Ground

[Ganondox 899]

It's funny, I have zero interest in sports so I get apprehension whenever I see the word "Buckball", but I've really liked both episodes. I didn't like Quibble Pants much in his first appearance, but I liked him here. The moral was a given, but I found it very interesting how they covered this topic in a show like this, and I really liked the character dynamics. 

[Sonic5421 423]

As the episode marking the return of Quibble Pants, this time joined with his real life second wife and daughter from his first marriage voicing Quibble's special somepony and her daughter, I really enjoyed it. I understand that Quibble just wanted to be a good father figure to Wind Sprint, and it took him accepting to learn a few things from her to finally establish a connection and good relationship with her.

Nice to see Rainbow Dash still supporting Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Snails as they hold on to their championship title in Buckball, along with Snips trying his own means to earn some extra profit off it, and helping out Quibble as well.

Great episode, so I'm giving it a 9.5/10, maybe a perfect 10 as my score for this.

[Lambdadelta 1,462]

Few things I want to talk about this ep:
. From moment I saw Quibble's family, I knew my QuibblexRainbow ship was sunk FOREVER. ;c
. His family is very diverse, Earth pony, Pegasus and Unicorn, perfect for a Buckball game, clever idea.
. Snail didn't even try now, he is too OP. Quibble Pant is the worst earth pony ever, he cant even lift 2 books. God must trade his strength for his sharpy tongue.
. A nice sequel of Buckball Season, my favorite episode, it's good to see ponyville trio become famous sport ponies... and Snip makes a profit out of it...….

.A nice 7/10.

It's my first watch, maybe there will be something I missed.

*Reading transcript to find out what dialogues I am missing*

Quibble: But Wind Sprint is, and her dad was some big athlete, too. I-I can't compete with that. I really want things with Clear Sky to work out, but if Wind doesn't like me, I-I might as well give up.

………....How can I miss it? Wow, that makes this ep three times better. Quibble is the worst earth pony ever but he's a man, or a Stallion. This ep deserves a 8.5/10.

[Senko 459]

I do find myself wondering on rewatching it whether the ponyville ponies are more famous as Buckball champions or multi-time saviors of Equestria?

[Senko 459]

2 minutes ago, Bakugou Is My Man <3 said:

I didn’t like Quibble Pants in his original episode and I didn’t like him in this one. I can admire his strong desire to be able to relate to Wind Sprint but I just don’t like him. He annoys me and i’m really not sure why. Not to mention, he looks hideous when viewed frontally. He almost looks human and that disturbs me.

 

Petty comments aside, I like that this episode dove into a topic such as becoming used to a potentially new parent. I never thought I would see something like this. 

Great now I'm not going to be able to get it out of my head that he's a human who fell into Equestria during the friendship games when Twilight was ripping holes in reality and just adapted to his new life. . . Would also explain how he's such as bad earth pony come to think of it.

[Barnstormer 112]

Aside from the premiere, this season's just been very meh or outright disappointing for me. Like I know not every episode is gonna be about the stuff that went down in the premiere, but the way they made it seem in pre-season marketing was that there was gonna be more of a focus on that, which I was looking forward to. But we've had not a single episode on the subject yet, and a good number so far have been about things characters already learned in the past (Twilight's OCD and panic, the School six not arguing to the point of calamity) or were just filler (Twilight's heist).

I haven't watched this episode yet, but the description just isn't 'revving my engine', which sucks cuz I love Patton. Next week's episode is about middle/high school BS, seemingly (school dance), and possibly lessons that have already been expressed by other stories (stay true to yourself/just be who you are), and then FINALLY the week after that we get another peek at the villains...and then we go back to 'normal' episodes for at least 5 weeks...which brings us to episode 13 in a 26 episode season, after which (meaning s9e14 onward) I can't find any titles or descriptions, until the first part of the finale, which reads:

Spoiler

Episode #9.25

Final Rainbows Part 1 Meet Queen galaxy star Solar Lunar is the like to Royal Princess Trio in the Mane 6 Defeat Grogar and mean Mane 6 same thing to Final Rainbows Song.

 

.........thanks IMDB for that stellar grammatical checking job, there; did the 'Does Bruno Mars is Gay?' author write that one for you? Dunno why all the other descriptions you have read just fine, but whatever -_- Anyway, that's one episode in an entire half season where we see what's going on with the villains, and if they keep that track record, that means we get ONE more episode before the finale showing how the villains are planning to do whatever it is they do, in the middle of a bunch of (again, to me) very meh episodes. So unless they change something, the finale's gonna seem like it came from nowhere, and I'm not going to be very enthused about the other episodes.

 

From looking at the descriptions for what's ahead, I see only one besides Frenemies where I'm actively interested (The Last Crusade), 2 where I'm not actively interested but am thinking 'this could be good, depending' (Going to Seed and Sweet and Smoky), and 3 that fall into either the 'filler' or 'they learned this/showed this lesson already' categories I mentioned earlier (She's all Yak, Student Counsel, and Between Dark and Dawn).

 

I dunno, maybe the second half will switch it up and be primarily about Grogar and co., but....

 

I just hoped for better from the final send off of the show :/

[BastementSparkle 20,326]

11 minutes ago, Barnstormer said:

Aside from the premiere, this season's just been very meh or outright disappointing for me. Like I know not every episode is gonna be about the stuff that went down in the premiere, but the way they made it seem in pre-season marketing was that there was gonna be more of a focus on that, which I was looking forward to. But we've had not a single episode on the subject yet, and a good number so far have been about things characters already learned in the past (Twilight's OCD and panic, the School six not arguing to the point of calamity) or were just filler (Twilight's heist).

I haven't watched this episode yet, but the description just isn't 'revving my engine', which sucks cuz I love Patton. Next week's episode is about middle/high school BS, seemingly (school dance), and possibly lessons that have already been expressed by other stories (stay true to yourself/just be who you are), and then FINALLY the week after that we get another peek at the villains...and then we go back to 'normal' episodes for at least 5 weeks...which brings us to episode 13 in a 26 episode season, after which (meaning s9e14 onward) I can't find any titles or descriptions, until the first part of the finale, which reads:

  Reveal hidden contents

Episode #9.25

Final Rainbows Part 1 Meet Queen galaxy star Solar Lunar is the like to Royal Princess Trio in the Mane 6 Defeat Grogar and mean Mane 6 same thing to Final Rainbows Song.

 

.........thanks IMDB for that stellar grammatical checking job, there; did the 'Does Bruno Mars is Gay?' author write that one for you? Dunno why all the other descriptions you have read just fine, but whatever -_- Anyway, that's one episode in an entire half season where we see what's going on with the villains, and if they keep that track record, that means we get ONE more episode before the finale showing how the villains are planning to do whatever it is they do, in the middle of a bunch of (again, to me) very meh episodes. So unless they change something, the finale's gonna seem like it came from nowhere, and I'm not going to be very enthused about the other episodes.

 

From looking at the descriptions for what's ahead, I see only one besides Frenemies where I'm actively interested (The Last Crusade), 2 where I'm not actively interested but am thinking 'this could be good, depending' (Going to Seed and Sweet and Smoky), and 3 that fall into either the 'filler' or 'they learned this/showed this lesson already' categories I mentioned earlier (She's all Yak, Student Counsel, and Between Dark and Dawn).

 

I dunno, maybe the second half will switch it up and be primarily about Grogar and co., but....

 

I just hoped for better from the final send off of the show :/

I'm not gonna comment on your opinions on the episodes themselves, personally I've enjoyed them all, but that's subjective. But what exactly is "Filler" in a show like this? How can there be "Filler" in a primarily episodic slice of life based show? If you don't like the episode fine, but it's a bit weird to call it filler.

[Barnstormer 112]

45 minutes ago, BastementSparkle said:

I'm not gonna comment on your opinions on the episodes themselves, personally I've enjoyed them all, but that's subjective. But what exactly is "Filler" in a show like this? How can there be "Filler" in a primarily episodic slice of life based show? If you don't like the episode fine, but it's a bit weird to call it filler.

Generally/for past seasons, I'd agree.

Like I said, from the pre-season marketing it seemed like the majority focus was gonna be on the clash between the two sides (Mane 6 vs Grogar and company). Again, I get that not every episode was going to be about that, but the frequency of that story arc popping up is spread out so far it kind of ends up feeling like filler in something like, say, DBZ, where you're just like 'GET BACK TO THE DAMN STORY/FIGHT ALREADY.' I also mean there seems to be a number of episodes that aren't following the villains and the conflict with them, that (from the descriptions anyway) also don't seem to have a lesson in mind, they just seem to be there to reach the total episode count they were aiming for...in other words, filler. It's a SOL show, but it's SOL that's also trying to share moral or life lessons. When the majority of episodes are focusing on everything but what you marketed as the main arc of the season, and then some of those also seem to have no lesson, which is the main point of the show....yeah, it starts to feel the same way as filler.

Sparkle's 7 is an example of what I'm talking about. It's not focused on the overarching season plot, and near as I could tell there was no lesson it was trying to share. It was just....there. Ie., filler. As filler goes, it wasn't *bad*, but it 1) also didn't really get me hyped, and 2) just adds to me wondering when we're gonna get back to the overarching season plot.

Did that clear up what I mean? (Genuine question, not being snarky, and I ask cuz I'm reeeeally tired so I might not be expressing my thoughts in the clearest way).

Edited May 6, 2019 by Barnstormer

[Music Chart Fan 819]

Overall, I find this episode kind of a mixed bag. Clear Sky is a nice character, and there are some cute family moments; I can relate to Quibble's lack of knowledge and aptitude about sports (although the episode is very over-the-top about how bad he is), and to his interest in hobbies that most other people probably don't care about; and I appreciate Rainbow's trying to be helpful in her somewhat misguided way. However, it seems like the lead story about the family dynamics going on here could have been given more episode time, rather than filling the middle of the episode with a bunch of "nerd can't play sports" stereotypes, which I didn't find terribly entertaining. And one message of this episode seems to be that Quibble should have just been himself when trying to bond with Wind Sprint, but with her attitude, I don't know if even that would have worked. I don't have any experience with stepparents or stepchildren, but I can't help wondering whether Clear Sky could have improved the situation earlier by being a little more proactive.

To start, it's easy to look at what Quibble and Rainbow do in this episode and second-guess it, and part of the message of the episode seems to be that Quibble's pretending to be a "sportspony" when he isn't put Wind Sprint off. For example, when Quibble asked Rainbow to "talk him up" to Wind Sprint, I didn't take that to mean that Rainbow should pretend that Quibble is "pretty sporty". I thought that meant more along the lines of saying that Quibble's a cool guy, fun to hang out with, etc., which at least might have been more believable. Or arranging for Wind Sprint to meet Fluttershy and Pinkie doesn't seem like an inherently bad idea, but I don't know why it had to be tied to trying to prove that Quibble is "sporty". Why couldn't it just be like, hey, Quibble knows Rainbow, who's friends with Fluttershy and Pinkie, so Quibble arranged for Wind Sprint to meet them because he knows that she would like that, and he wants to do nice things for her? And yeah, I don't see any way that the halftime playing against Team Ponyville made any sense, especially when Rainbow had already seen that Quibble is utterly incompetent at even attempting to play. No amount of having Fluttershy and Pinkie throw the game would help that.

However, I don't know if any attempt by Quibble to bond with Wind Sprint would have worked, given her attitude toward him. Quibble apparently tried to bond with Wind Sprint over things that he likes - Daring Do, comic books, roleplaying games - and that didn't work. So okay, the argument might be that he needs to take an interest in what she likes, rather than trying to get her to like what he likes.  However, we would think that Quibble's planning this whole trip to the Buckball Hall of Fame and the tournament would be a sign that he's trying to take an interest in what she likes, but that didn't seem to be good enough, either. Wind Sprint had a bad attitude about this trip from the beginning, and she's hostile toward Quibble almost every time she sees him.

So I can't help wondering whether this whole situation could have gone better if Clear Sky were a little more proactive. How long has Wind Sprint's attitude toward Quibble been an issue? What have Clear Sky and Quibble tried to do about it? Had Clear Sky ever talked to Wind Sprint about how no one is asking her to forget her dad, but that Clear Sky is asking Wind Sprint to have reasonable expectations about a potential stepdad, and to give a stepdad a chance? Clear Sky does something like that near the end of the episode, but it almost sounds like it's the first time it's been brought up. Should a talk like that have already occurred earlier? (And with how hostile Wind Sprint was to Quibble throughout the episode, I don't know if she would have turned her attitude around as much as she did after that brief conversation with her mom.)

On the other hand, Clear Sky sees Quibble repeatedly trying (and failing) to ingratiate himself with Wind Sprint, but in these repeated situations, she basically just tells him some variant of "you don't need to try so hard" and leaves it at that. If Quibble is clearly still concerned, then could Clear Sky have suggested some alternative course of action to convince him to stop? What if Clear Sky had told Quibble something like "Wind Sprint probably needs more time to warm up to you, and I'll try to talk to her about that one-on-one later. For now, let's just try to enjoy what we can together with the three of us"? At one point Clear Sky tells Quibble that "everything's gonna be fine", but Quibble certainly doesn't seem to think so. What makes Clear Sky think that, and could she share that with Quibble to assuage his concern?

Finally, on a different topic, I do relate to how Quibble has no knowledge or aptitude about sports, and how he's interested in hobbies that most other people probably don't care about. I don't follow sports, either, and know very little about them. But it seems like, for people who do watch and follow them, sports are often an easy topic of conversation to strangers, and are something that's relatively normal to like. When people have asked me what I do for fun, and I say with honesty that I compile music popularity charts from past decades, I've gotten my share of strange looks, or polite acknowledgements followed by changing the subject. Other people have sometimes taken some interest in my talking about music charts and popular music from past decades, but usually only after I've already built up some good will with them. And of course, that whole topic wouldn't be something that kids would understand or care about, so I can relate to Quibble's situation in that respect, too.

Now here are the rest of my miscellaneous observations:

When do Fluttershy and Pinkie (and perhaps Snails) have the time to train and play as professional buckballers, especially such that they're the championship team? And is Rainbow (and possibly Applejack) acting as a coach? I guess we can add another commitment to the list of things that the Mane Six do.

Fluttershy says "I can't believe the ponies of Appleloosa built this place", and Pinkie adds "Yeah, especially after their team lost to us". I'm sure there are many examples of professional sports teams that don't win (and sometimes don't even come close) year after year, and yet their home cities still spend millions and millions of dollars on building new stadiums (and upgrading/maintaining existing ones).

Fluttershy also says "I never thought I'd get to be in anything like a Hall of Fame", with Pinkie replying "Me neither", but they're Elements of Harmony, and they're already enshrined in stained glass in Canterlot castle. Is that close enough?

How common are tents emblazoned with Daring Do's cutie mark? Is there a whole line of Daring Do outdoor equipment?

Clear Sky's handkerchief tied around her neck reminded me of the tea salespony that Discord talked to in "Discordant Harmony", who also wears one. And then, by coincidence, we actually see the tea salespony behind the counter in the museum later. So it looks like she may work two jobs.

When Rainbow suggests that Quibble might find meeting Daring Do more amazing than Clear Sky, at least Clear Sky is cool about it, and doesn't, say, get upset at the idea that she might not be the most amazing pony that Quibble has ever met. But when Clear Sky says "When it comes to describing your special somepony, a little exaggeration's normal", I can't help wondering if it would be better not to have a cultural norm whereby deliberately exaggerating about one's significant other is considered normal, or even expected.

When Rainbow talks to Wind Sprint inside the museum, it's only when Rainbow mentions that she's a Wonderbolt that Wind Sprint recognizes her as Rainbow Dash. I thought that Rainbow has a pretty unique and recognizable appearance, but I don't know, maybe Wind Sprint doesn't follow the Wonderbolts (or the news) closely enough to recognize Rainbow on sight.

In the "race" with Snips, Quibble apparently thinks that he's running, but then we see that he hasn't advanced down the track at all. So what, did he just run in place? He does know how to run with forward motion, right?

When the announcer describes the halftime show as "buckball's biggest stars take on a team of fans just like you!", the funny thing is that there probably are a fair number of fans that, like Quibble, have little to no athletic ability.

If Pinkie's and Fluttershy's moves on the buckball field are so predictable that they occur (with given conditions) 83% or 92% of the time, then couldn't the opposing teams come up with effective countermeasures for those moves? It looks like Team Ponyville may be getting too complacent!

On 5/4/2019 at 10:41 PM, Truffles said:

Also interesting is Rainbow Dash spilling the beans to Clear Sky and Wind Sprint that Daring Do is real. Or does everyone already know she's real and alive?

That's an interesting point. In "Daring Done?", Rainbow says to Daring Do that "most ponies don't know that you actually are Daring Do and that the stories are real", and the article in the Ponyville Chronicle only refers to her as the author A.K. Yearling. Of course, Daring Do has had interactions with the residents of Somnambula in southern Equestria, at least, but they may not have really told people in other places in Equestria about Daring Do. So it's possible that Daring Do's being real is still not widely known. But Clear Sky and Wind Sprint don't seem surprised or anything when Rainbow mentions meeting Daring Do, so Quibble may have told them already. His adventure with Rainbow and Daring Do was probably one of the most exciting events of his life.

[BastementSparkle 20,326]

12 minutes ago, Barnstormer said:

Generally/for past seasons, I'd agree.

Like I said, from the pre-season marketing it seemed like the majority focus was gonna be on the clash between the two sides (Mane 6 vs Grogar and company). Again, I get that not every episode was going to be about that, but the frequency of that story arc popping up is so spread out so far it kind of ends up feeling like filler in something like, say, DBZ, where you're just like 'GET BACK TO THE DAMN STORY/FIGHT ALREADY.' I also mean there seems to be a number of episodes that aren't following the villains and the conflict with them, that (from the descriptions anyway) also don't seem to have a lesson in mind, they just seem to be there to reach the total episode count they were aiming for...in other words, filler. It's a SOL show, but it's SOL that's also trying to share moral or life lessons. When the majority of episodes are focusing on everything but what you marketed as the main arc of the season, and then some of those also seem to have no lesson, which is the main point of the show....yeah, it starts to feel the same way as filler.

Sparkle's 7 is an example of what I'm talking about. It's not focused on the overarching season plot, and near as I could tell there was no lesson it was trying to share. It was just....there. Ie., filler. As filler goes, it wasn't *bad*, but it 1) also didn't really get me hyped, and 2) just adds to me wondering when we're gonna get back to the overarching season plot.

Did that clear up what I mean? (Genuine question, not being snarky, and I ask cuz I'm reeeeally tired so I might not be expressing my thoughts in the clearest way).

 It did clear it up, yeah, thanks. That said, I think it's generally a good idea to separate trailers and marketing from the actual show. Even when the trailers first started showing up I assumed most of it was just gonna be the premiere and what do you know, that was exactly how it was. The trailers and marketing hyped up something that was probably never actually intended to be the case. Maybe it won't change your opinions on the episodes, but I'd try treating the rest of the season as if it was just another season of MLP, don't worry too much about the arc or what you originally thought it might be. Maybe you'll like how it plays out or maybe you won't.

 As for "Sparkle's Seven" it didn't really have much of a moral you're right, but it was the 200th episode and the point of it was to write a script based on what the voice actresses for the main characters had always wanted their characters to do, that's why they get credits at the start for writing. So, the episode definitely wasn't just "There", it served a purpose, a different one from usual, perhaps.

 Also, Episode 3 did follow up on the destruction of the tree, and episode 4, the whole thing about tightening the castles defenses was because of King Sombra's return and invasion, so it's not like the premiere has been ignored, it's been kind of sprinkled in with the normal stuff.

[Senko 459]

1 hour ago, Music Chart Fan said:

When the announcer describes the halftime show as "buckball's biggest stars take on a team of fans just like you!", the funny thing is that there probably are a fair number of fans that, like Quibble, have little to no athletic ability.

If Pinkie's and Fluttershy's moves on the buckball field are so predictable that they occur (with given conditions) 83% or 92% of the time, then couldn't the opposing teams come up with effective countermeasures for those moves? It looks like Team Ponyville may be getting too complacent!

I don't think complacent is the right word since none of them are actually playing from the mindset of "champion athlete competing to win" but rather "Weee this is fun" or ". . ." or "? ? OHOIWR#@#@r(*hkls bzzzzzz" depending on which pony's mind you're reading at the time. They're not spending time training to maintain their championship just showing up, playing for the fun of it and winning. They'd be just as happy if they lost so long as they had fun. It's probably where the other 17 or 8 percent comes in because they're playing on instinct they'll go with the same fun moves unless they have a reason not to such as an opponent being in position to block it. So while you have an 82% chance of Pinkie making a typical move in a typical circumstance when you move to act based on that it drops to zero because she then respond to you.

[Lucky Bolt 35,063]

I really enjoyed this episode. I say the show could use more episodes focusing on family situations like this. 

[Burning Dusk 46]

I loved this episode. I loved how it uses a Step Dad arch and tried to make content that people understand and perhaps give fathers who are watching with ttheir step daughters a message too. I love it when this show has irl Issues and shows the problems and solutions.  

[Drunkfrank 1,125]

11 hours ago, Barnstormer said:

Aside from the premiere, this season's just been very meh or outright disappointing for me. Like I know not every episode is gonna be about the stuff that went down in the premiere, but the way they made it seem in pre-season marketing was that there was gonna be more of a focus on that, which I was looking forward to. But we've had not a single episode on the subject yet, and a good number so far have been about things characters already learned in the past (Twilight's OCD and panic, the School six not arguing to the point of calamity) or were just filler (Twilight's heist).

I haven't watched this episode yet, but the description just isn't 'revving my engine', which sucks cuz I love Patton. Next week's episode is about middle/high school BS, seemingly (school dance), and possibly lessons that have already been expressed by other stories (stay true to yourself/just be who you are), and then FINALLY the week after that we get another peek at the villains...and then we go back to 'normal' episodes for at least 5 weeks...which brings us to episode 13 in a 26 episode season, after which (meaning s9e14 onward) I can't find any titles or descriptions, until the first part of the finale, which reads:

  Reveal hidden contents

Episode #9.25

Final Rainbows Part 1 Meet Queen galaxy star Solar Lunar is the like to Royal Princess Trio in the Mane 6 Defeat Grogar and mean Mane 6 same thing to Final Rainbows Song.

 

.........thanks IMDB for that stellar grammatical checking job, there; did the 'Does Bruno Mars is Gay?' author write that one for you? Dunno why all the other descriptions you have read just fine, but whatever -_- Anyway, that's one episode in an entire half season where we see what's going on with the villains, and if they keep that track record, that means we get ONE more episode before the finale showing how the villains are planning to do whatever it is they do, in the middle of a bunch of (again, to me) very meh episodes. So unless they change something, the finale's gonna seem like it came from nowhere, and I'm not going to be very enthused about the other episodes.

 

From looking at the descriptions for what's ahead, I see only one besides Frenemies where I'm actively interested (The Last Crusade), 2 where I'm not actively interested but am thinking 'this could be good, depending' (Going to Seed and Sweet and Smoky), and 3 that fall into either the 'filler' or 'they learned this/showed this lesson already' categories I mentioned earlier (She's all Yak, Student Counsel, and Between Dark and Dawn).

 

I dunno, maybe the second half will switch it up and be primarily about Grogar and co., but....

 

I just hoped for better from the final send off of the show :/

Episode 3 and 3 were both literally about the fallout from Sombras attack. Tf? 
Also don't use the word filler if you don't know what it means or how to apply it to different types of shows, MLP doesn't have filler. This isn't Game of Thrones or even Steven Universe where there is a grand narrative that takes the center stage. It's a character driven show about learning lessons, as long as it features characters learning lessons...it's not filler. Also, every season trailer is about the premiere and maybe a few episodes after that, it's not the season's fault you didn't catch on to the trend started with the season 5 trailer. This is a textbook case of judging something for not being what you wanted and not judging it for what it is.
Back in the day I expected the season 4 finale to be the return of the changelings and that we would get hints of it through Equestria Games...I was wrong as wrong gets and I still loved it because I looked at what it was rather than what I wanted.

Does every finale feel out of nowhere to you? Because besides a few exceptions like Shadow Play and School Raze, the primary plot is completely disjointed from the rest of the season, at least here we are getting buildup to what the villains are doing, something that is unprecedented for the show. 

[FlareGun45 2,221]

On 5/6/2019 at 2:55 AM, Barnstormer said:

I can't find any titles or descriptions, until the first part of the finale, which reads:

  Reveal hidden contents

Episode #9.25

Final Rainbows Part 1 Meet Queen galaxy star Solar Lunar is the like to Royal Princess Trio in the Mane 6 Defeat Grogar and mean Mane 6 same thing to Final Rainbows Song.

 

 

That's fake - I can tell that's fake. You don't even hafta ask Big Jim! That's not the finale!  

[Steel Accord 6,660]

Tiny thing but they seem to be comparing the sport to baseball, which is fine. Yet I see more similarities to basketball. I mean, 3 on 3, putting the ball in a basket.

[Steel Accord 6,660]

That was actually a lot more impactful than I thought it would be. The fact that Patton was joined by his real life daughter in Wind Sprint and I just found out his second wife in Clear Sky really made this something special. I mean God bless that family, seriously.

Second of all, I kind of got where he was coming from. I myself am not a sports guy but the one time I get in the spirit is at the baseball game with my Dad and brothers.

Third of all, Dash was on point this whole episode. Her deadpan corrections to Qwibbles slang flubs were hilarious and how she was able to help without being pushy AND she had the emotional maturity to point Qwibble in the direction of just talking to Windy.

[Truffles 2,033]

On 5/6/2019 at 2:54 AM, Music Chart Fan said:

But Clear Sky and Wind Sprint don't seem surprised or anything when Rainbow mentions meeting Daring Do, so Quibble may have told them already. His adventure with Rainbow and Daring Do was probably one of the most exciting events of his life.

That makes perfect sense, and would explain why he'd feel safe spilling the beans in front of Rainbow Dash. Though I still wonder if Daring Do really wants to be outed like that. XD

 

On 5/6/2019 at 2:54 AM, Music Chart Fan said:

If Pinkie's and Fluttershy's moves on the buckball field are so predictable that they occur (with given conditions) 83% or 92% of the time, then couldn't the opposing teams come up with effective countermeasures for those moves?

On 5/6/2019 at 4:08 AM, Senko said:

So while you have an 82% chance of Pinkie making a typical move in a typical circumstance when you move to act based on that it drops to zero because she then respond to you.

This part of the conversation brings up an interesting point: Perhaps Ponyville has players who have an advantage that none of the other teams can duplicate, so there's no need to ever change their strategy since it (probably almost) always ends up winning the game for them? Specifically, can Pinkie use her Pinkie Sense to figure out what the opposing team is going to do next? If Fluttershy uses her stare, is that legal? I'm not sure what special abilities Snails has but it wouldn't surprise me if it gives him a big advantage as well. XD

This reminds me of the balance issues many real-time computer strategy games have, causing companies to spend years releasing patches to get things right. Perhaps buckball is so new there are issues with the rules that always give Ponyville an advantage over other teams?  

[Music Chart Fan 819]

41 minutes ago, Truffles said:

This part of the conversation brings up an interesting point: Perhaps Ponyville has players who have an advantage that none of the other teams can duplicate, so there's no need to ever change their strategy since it (probably almost) always ends up winning the game for them? Specifically, can Pinkie use her Pinkie Sense to figure out what the opposing team is going to do next? If Fluttershy uses her stare, is that legal? I'm not sure what special abilities Snails has but it wouldn't surprise me if it gives him a big advantage as well. XD

This reminds me of the balance issues many real-time computer strategy games have, causing companies to spend years releasing patches to get things right. Perhaps buckball is so new there are issues with the rules that always give Ponyville an advantage over other teams?

Yeah, that's a really good point, I hadn't thought about it that way. Oftentimes "metas" can develop in multiplayer RTS games, FPS games, etc., whereby certain characters, weapons, or strategies end up dominating the others, such that the "meta" can't be countered effectively, and players feel limited in their choices if they want to have a chance of winning. As a result, developers try to tweak the rules or the character/weapon stats and abilities to re-balance the game and make the other characters, weapons, strategies, etc. viable. And if buckball is a relatively new sport, then there may still be "exploits" or overly dominant strategies that the rules haven't taken into account. Maybe whoever's responsible for the professional buckball rules could refine the rules in consultation with the author(s) of the buckball almanac, since they seem to have spent a lot of time analyzing the game - although, for all we know, those may be the same person or people!

[Senko 459]

11 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

Yeah, that's a really good point, I hadn't thought about it that way. Oftentimes "metas" can develop in multiplayer RTS games, FPS games, etc., whereby certain characters, weapons, or strategies end up dominating the others, such that the "meta" can't be countered effectively, and players feel limited in their choices if they want to have a chance of winning. As a result, developers try to tweak the rules or the character/weapon stats and abilities to re-balance the game and make the other characters, weapons, strategies, etc. viable. And if buckball is a relatively new sport, then there may still be "exploits" or overly dominant strategies that the rules haven't taken into account. Maybe whoever's responsible for the professional buckball rules could refine the rules in consultation with the author(s) of the buckball almanac, since they seem to have spent a lot of time analyzing the game - although, for all we know, those may be the same person or people!

The flip side of that is that this isn't a game where you can "patch a pony" because they're OP its real life (such as it were) where certain ponies are naturally more capable at the sport e.g. Pinkie and Fluttershy fairly easily beating Dash and Applejack two very active sporty ponies and yet only beating the Appleloosa team by one point. We know they keep winning and are champions but we don't know by how much those victories are scored it could be very close games in some cases. The interesting part to me is what happens when a pony discover's their special talent is Buckball.

Edited May 8, 2019 by Senko

[BornAgainBrony 2,397]

16 hours ago, Music Chart Fan said:

Yeah, that's a really good point, I hadn't thought about it that way. Oftentimes "metas" can develop in multiplayer RTS games, FPS games, etc., whereby certain characters, weapons, or strategies end up dominating the others, such that the "meta" can't be countered effectively, and players feel limited in their choices if they want to have a chance of winning. As a result, developers try to tweak the rules or the character/weapon stats and abilities to re-balance the game and make the other characters, weapons, strategies, etc. viable. And if buckball is a relatively new sport, then there may still be "exploits" or overly dominant strategies that the rules haven't taken into account. Maybe whoever's responsible for the professional buckball rules could refine the rules in consultation with the author(s) of the buckball almanac, since they seem to have spent a lot of time analyzing the game - although, for all we know, those may be the same person or people!

Based on the museum it looked pretty old. 5 stages of transition for design of the ball which was originally an apple (if I'm remembering the shot correctly). This sounds like a sport that has roots as old as Golf, which was originally played with.rocks and tree branches.

Really though, Ponyville's advantage may just boil down to the Elements rather than some other issue with the rules. Now I'm not much of a sports fanatic. I can enjoy watching games but I don't follow any team or study it intensively, but I also once was going to be a video game developer and one of the first things we learned was basic game theory which went into everything from chess to soccer. And I'm going to be honest. I love the basic idea of buckball, but from an out-of-character meta perspective, it seems to me that its rules and mechanics weren't very well thought-out beyond, "We need to come up with a ball game that has a position for each of the tribes."

I briefly toyed with the idea of a buckball video game and realized that it would probably be terribly boring (as likely, would be watching the game in a realistic sense). Some of this may simply be due to a better variant of the game being much more costly to animate, but that's a lot of speculation. There are no goal tenders and almost no opportunity for intercepted passes/shots. Each point is arguably won at the faceoff. Get the ball, pass, score. Rinse, repeat. The ball isn't going to be in play for more than a couple seconds between faceoffs. Even with the outer circle limiting where the Unicorns can catch from, the basket is easily within range of the Earth Ponies at the center of the field, requiring almost no lateral movement on the part of the Pegusi. I quickly hit a point where I found myself wanting to enhance the game to make it more engaging. Larger teams, a wider field of play. Borrowing from basketball, Pegusi/Earth Ponies can't move horizontally while in possession of the ball. A defensive Pegasus position to make more of a challenge with coordination between Pegusi and Unicorn. Every pass must be made between air/ground, never ground/ground or air/air.

These problems aren't made apparent in the show because of some really good complexity editing. But if you were to just show the action on the field from a static location without fancy cuts? It'd be terribly redundant. In the case of FiM, this really doesn't matter much, but the issues are there. But then, these pale in comparison to issues (which are blatantly shown on screen) with Quidditch, and that's the flagship sport in the most popular fantasy series since 'Lord of the Rings.'

************************************

Now, my two cents on the episode itself though. It made me so very happy. My only minor nitpick was the way Dash looked at the filly almost condescendingly, or as some kind of paranoid agent. "And who... is... THIS?"  That seemed wildly out of character to me and I just can't imagine Dash ever having that kind of a knee-jerk reaction to someone she's never met before, especially a foal.

That aside, this is the best Rainbow Dash episode I've seen in a very long time, and she wasn't even technically the lead character. It brought me back to the early seasons when I first fell for her. The more compassionate side of RD that we haven't been shown much of lately. Undying loyalty, unwilling to give up on a friend, and even trying TOO hard to help.

[ImpctR 155]

On 5/6/2019 at 9:28 PM, RyanMahaffe said:

Also don't use the word filler if you don't know what it means or how to apply it to different types of shows, MLP doesn't have filler. This isn't Game of Thrones or even Steven Universe where there is a grand narrative that takes the center stage. It's a character driven show about learning lessons, as long as it features characters learning lessons...it's not filler. Also, every season trailer is about the premiere and maybe a few episodes after that, it's not the season's fault you didn't catch on to the trend started with the season 5 trailer. This is a textbook case of judging something for not being what you wanted and not judging it for what it is.

The reason why lately it looks like filler episodes, that I will say objectively, as I will mention episodes that were OK to me even though not my type.

Episode 200 like episode 100 is just made for the anniversary of reaching that other 100th episode. Sparkles's seven were expected to be such episode without much things happening that would prepare the reasons for the next episodes or the finale. This was accepted, and as a nice surprise, they made use of this separate episode to actually prepare some part of the story for finale and other continuing episodes from the premiere. It is the testing of defenses for Canterlot. Without that part the episode would have still been OK, knowing it is an episode of celebration.

The Point of No return felt like a regular episode. and IMO when we have that premiere, they certainly cant revolve all 26 episodes around the villains, such slice of life episodes are to be expected and that's totally fine. The only thing is, plenty of Twilight episodes and twilighting which is getting tiresome but still, this episode holds up to the standards of such episodes within a season.

 

Now with this episode Common Ground, 2 in 3 episodes are celebration or devotion to something. Sure, it's only 2 episodes so far but ... when I can't relate to Patton in any way, turning an episode that could have been used to help not rush the finale would have been better.

 

Like what I am expecting from the season: Have multiple episodes related to the premiere, and the SoL episodes to be the outcome, the epilogue of other little stories such as maybe Sugar Belle and Big Mac marrying, or any such kind, perhaps seeing Tempest, maybe some conclusion for Daring Do (if we didn't already see that with Daring Done), and so on. When much worse things happen to people in life, losing more people.. I do not like someone pushing their own tragedy as if deserving more attention than that of others. That's the kind of message I am getting from this episode. And that at expense of story time. This episode was a total filler, there's so much world already that episodes would not be enough to show more of mount Eris, or the Yaks or the most recent new world, the Kirins and they could have episodes around those more or even new stories like Silverstream and the Wonderbolts/w Washouts - brilliant setup to make a Rainbow dash episode, some even mention addressing Scootaloo from CMC's. Nope, make an episode with such a BG pony like Quibble pants that has no much relevance in a final season.

Edited May 8, 2019 by ImpctR

[BornAgainBrony 2,397]

7 hours ago, ImpctR said:

 I do not like someone pushing their own tragedy as if deserving more attention than that of others.

Ehh.. huh? WHO is pushing their own tragedy?

[Justin_Case001 4,888]

(Volume warning--little loud.)

Spoiler

 

Sums up my reaction quite well.

What's poning, ponles?!

Holy macaroni, dude!  I'mma hafta make room in my top five! 

Seriously, I'm blown away.  Just blown.  I actually think this episode may have just nudged Testing 1, 2, 3 out to become number 5 in my all time top five list.  What a wonderful surprise!  This is a special day indeed.  I got to give this episode one of my very rare "love it" votes.  I save those only for the very best of the best.

There's really not that much to say, actually.  Ironically, the best episodes tend to be my shortest reviews.  It was just wonderful, plain and simple.

Firstly, I love that they revisited buckball, albeit it was a tad jarring to suddenly have team Ponyville playing in this big tournament.  It's like, "what?  Huh?  We haven't seen them play in like two seasons and suddenly they're famous champs?  Wha?"  But that's not a criticism of this episode.  I've always wished that this show did a better job of continuously developing the plotlines they've previously established, rather than dropping them and starting new ones.  Like... if I had been in charge, I probably wouldn't have done the school of friendship at all (not that I don't like it--I do.  Really, I do!), but instead, I would have spend S8 developing previous plotlines, such as Rainbow's Wonderbolt career (it keeps her busy, she says?  Huh.  It'd be nice to actually SEE IT for a change ), Rarity's expanding fashion empire, Fluttershy's dream of singing (Oh yeah, 'member that?), and of course team Ponyville in buckball.  They do spread themselves pretty thin on this show, so when we get a re-visitation of something like this, it inevitably comes with the jarring sort of feeling that there is a piece missing.  But that's just the nature of this sort of show.  I really am very happy that we got to return to buckball and see that the team is still playing.  And Snails is just so cool.  I love that guy.  Can't get enough of him.

That's really about it.  I mean, I could caption the obvious, but it hardly seems necessary.  Eh, I'll do it anyway--A single mother, a [presumably] deceased father, a new boyfriend hoping to become part of the family, and a troubled child who feels like he's usurping her father's position.  Damn, man, that may one of the most mature, genuine, and useful topics they've ever tackled!  Incidentally, I assumed that Wind Sprint's dad was dead due to the way she was talking about not forgetting him, but then Clear Sky was speaking in the present tense about loving them both, so... I'm not sure whether they're just supposed to be divorced, or he's dead.  It's usually left up to your interpretation on this show.  Not that it really matters in the context of the episode.  Either way, same great message, and even more special that it was Patton Oswalt's real family.  What a gem.

Great humor, great characterization, phenomenal, touching message.  I am so thrilled that we got this episode.  I am routinely frustrated by the way they handle the big ticket items, such as the Tree of Harmony, but episodes like this one are the reason I'm here.  The standalone emotion/family oriented episodes like this and Perfect Pear are invariably my favorites, and I think it's where the series truly shines.

And, there's one more positive little message this episode give us!  If a loser nerd like Quibble can find a special somepony to love him, then there's hope for all of us!  Right?  ...heh heh... right??

... .... heh....   ...  right?

 

...    ...  ....right?

Spoiler

*EDIT* Oh yes, almost forgot; @Kyoshi, I know you decided to jump ship, and I respect that, but dude, you missed out on such a great one.  One of the series best, imo.  I recommend that you consider at least watching this one.

Edited May 9, 2019 by Justin_Case001

[Roughshod 719]

I knew I wasn't going to like this episode when I started and I was right.

The End.