S03:E12 - Games Ponies Play

[Thewookie Wooker 64]

Rainbow's Daddy!

 

Cute Crystal Fillies.

 

Great Gags

 

All in all a fun episode to watch with very good animation.

 

Did a forget to mention, Rainbow's Daddy!!!

[draw-tastic 0]

Can anypony post a video link?

[TheTEChguy27 273]

I thought this was a pretty great episode! I liked how it ran parallel to Just For Sidekicks, haven't seen too many shows that have tried that as of late. I think the ponies were all very well within their roles in this episode, unlike a few others in this season. The story was a little predictable, but it was still very charming and enjoyable to watch. Also... RAINBOW DASH'S DAD/UNCLE/SECOND COUSIN TWICE REMOVED. That is all.

[Jaya 10]

Can anypony post a video link?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uavvaRgSF1o

 

it has a kinda low quality though...

[Steamgamer27 170]

I'm sure I wasn't the only person who thought the beginning of the episode was last weeks' and started to panic if I was watching the right livestream (Anyone who was on HaxMega that time knows what I mean lol). Thankfully it wasn't! I knew I would have raged if it had. Mirroring the last episode, that was genius!

Welp, so much for my guess that this was going to be a Rarity-centric episode. Although her part to play was significantly satisfying for me

Edited February 9, 2013 by Steamgamer27

[Yellow Diamond 7,569]

Princess Cadance: "That over there is a crystal mud bath, which relaxes your body and rejuvenates your coat. After the crystal mud bath I use a deep pore cleanser lotion. In the shower I use a water activated gel cleanser, then a honey almond body scrub, and on the face an exfoliating gel scrub."

 

I'll add some substantive reflection later, but for now I'll just make a thinly veiled American Psycho reference.

[Buttonmash1973 1,026]

This episdoe had been months worth waiting for even if it was not a Rarity episode, or an olympic episode.

 

Great to see more of the Crystal Empire though.

Edited February 9, 2013 by Ulrik Raben

[draw-tastic 0]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uavvaRgSF1o

 

it has a kinda low quality though...

Thanks!! It was so awesome!! /)^3^(\

[NavelColt 22,880]

Some initial thoughts.

 

-Love how Dash randomly pulls fillies into hugs. Also love how she's remaining perfectly in character with her classic aloofness to kids and their emotions, hell, emotional body language in general. Silly Dashie.

-Rarity got some screen time. Not an entire episode but better than nothing. Don't wanna hear whining, Rarity die-hards. Be happy this episode got some specific scenes for her, you could have had nothing at all the rate this season has been xP

-"Way to step it up, Rar'." Ponies love nicknames this season. Two episodes ago Flutters became the second Mane Six to ever refer to Best Pony as Dashie, and now we have this.

-Dat mane. No elaboration needed.

-"ERHMEGAWED, CADENCE WAZ SHOWIN' TWI TO BREATH IN AND OUT AND BE REGAL AND CALM LIKE A PRINCESS OH NOES".

-Pinkie was delightfully Pinkie this episode. The 'NO' exclamation, the dramatic fall into the mud gelatin, 'puddin' in the freezy', etc. Always nice.

-Mane Six Cheerleaders FTW

-Dashie would recommend the gymnasium. Heh.

-Wild Shining Armor appears. Uses extreme coaching. It's very effective. Crystal Ponies have fainted due to exhaustion.

-Dat window slide. Dat 'hmm, must have been my imagination' from Rarity. Priceless.

-'Speedy.' Like I said, ponies love nicknames this season.

-'Dat Mane' the Sequel: Tangled Rainbows.

-............................WE GOT THE WRONG PONY!?

-Pffft, Pinkie's response.

-Dashie, I think it's both mature and adorable that you're taking the blame and doing the official apologizing and explaining, but now the AJ fans are going to whine about how Honesty isn't your element, and that you should stick to what you're good at.

-^ That said, love her little referral to her flashback and heart-felt speech that followed afterwords.

-The solution to this problem didn't seem cliche or too easy. While I was a bit curious as to how the Games Inspector was going to be like 'yeah sure, you can have the games here' after her lack of a welcome, the fact that she has her eye out for unbiased and unrehearsed welcomes is both realistic and smart. I was fairly satisfied.

-Dashie...stahp. Your big, cute eyes...no...<333 Hnnnnnnnnnnnggg...

-Oh god she's hugging more fillies. Probably the same one. Dash, better not tell Scoots, you know, your sister who'd like all these hugs as well?

-Love the tie-in at the end. Smooth as silk. I wouldn't be against seeing this setup used again in the future for non-finales and openings.

 

Some afterthoughts.

 

Honestly, two things hit me about this episode more than everything else.

 

One of them is clear as day, and is lackluster at this point given that the entire scene was given over 23 hours ago. Dashie's flashback with her father at the announcement of the previous games was adorable as well as revealing.

• More Filly Dash is always needed.
• Having her dad revealed is not only a terrific thing for her character specifically, but it's also great to see a pegasi character actually have visible parents, at least. I know that's been bugging people for a long time now.
• Dash finally has a little flashback that wasn't Flight Camp. Expanding on her background a bit was really nice. We gathered from this flashback that her living with her parents in Cloudsdale's main city itself when she was a filly is more or less canon. My thoughts are that, from there, she moved out asap due to being the brash, independent tomboy that she is, and found her own cloud home separate from Cloudsdale, on the outskirts of Ponyville, as we've seen.

The second big thing to stick out for me was that, this was another fairly good 'Mane Six as a whole' episode. It was a casual storyline and all of them stuck together for most of the episode, and they all had their parts of course, especially Rarity who got her own subplot storyline with Cadence. Reminds me of our first adventure in the empire, back at the beginning of this season. I was also mildly surprised to see a new character with so very many speaking lines. Granted, I kinda figured this might be what happened, the 'mistaking the important pony for someone else' bit, but still.

[Kaidan 16]

I enjoyed the episode. Shining armor coaching was funny, and the fact that they never quite caught on that they had the wrong pony (I mean chicken cutie mark on a games inspector?) Got to see Dash's dad, Twilight learning from all her past freak outs, and previews of next weeks Twipocolypse

[NavelColt 22,880]

I enjoyed the episode. Shining armor coaching was funny, and the fact that they never quite caught on that they had the wrong pony (I mean chicken cutie mark on a games inspector?) Got to see Dash's dad, Twilight learning from all her past freak outs, and previews of next weeks Twipocolypse

 

I think it's ironic.

 

Twi learned from Cadence to shut up, take a deep breath and just relax, knowing that chances are, everything will turn out okay.

 

Where have I seen a fanbase that could use this advice? I wonder...

[Malakili 165]

I agree, There wouldn't be a Crystal Kingdom to host the games if Spike hadn't protected the heart from Sombra so it doesn't make much sense that he wasn't invited. But i guess he had fun making his Jewel Cak-... oh wait, that's right... Dragon greed. 

 

It actually seems pretty normal to me, I am sure he is invited to the actual Equestria Games but why would he be invited to this, I don't really know how to call it, thing to have the Games happen in the Crystal Empire? He wouldn't be of any help, as he said himself in Spike At Your Service.

[Batbrony 16,055]

I think it's ironic.

 

Twi learned from Cadence to shut up, take a deep breath and just relax, knowing that chances are, everything will turn out okay.

 

Where have I seen a fanbase that could use this advice? I wonder...

 

OK, this has nothing to do for me about whether or not I'm worried about Alicorn Twilight (which I'm not), but this was my initial reaction when they started breathing in and out...

 

 

Seriously, there was no set-up!  I mean, yeah, I get that Twilight was trying to calm down, but Cadence just went up to her and then they started breathing really deeply.  There was no set-up at all, like Cadence saying something like "Just breathe in and out," or "Twilight, relax!" no, they just looked at each other and started breathing!!! Go back and watch the clip, you'll see what I mean!  Not that it was bad, mind you, it just struck me as incredibly random and out-of-nowhere when I first saw it! 

Edited February 9, 2013 by Batbrony

[Mu Nova 66]

I liked it. The ceremonial headdress didn't seem all it cracked up to be, Pinkie's "NO"s and antics in the rotunda were meh, I was facepalming the entire episode at the the increasing obviousness that it wasn't the games inspector (though the execution on it was generally fine), and Cadance's animations in the beginning, as well of the delivery of some of her lines, were meh.

 

But, Pinkie was otherwise entertaining, we got more filly Dash and saw her dad, Rarity got to be important for once this season, the welcome cheer was pretty cool (for me, it was mainly the rainbow heart)... Shining armor coaching and getting hit on, lol. It was a fun episode.

 

Though the animation for Twolight's little relaxation exercise kinda annoys me. But the exercise itself is great--it's good to see Twilight in control of her freakouts. Will watch again. :U

 

Also, we do tie-ins now. Tie-ins are cool.

[featheredone 56]

hidden post content hidden

Edited June 14, 2022 by featheredone

[Betez 1,734]

Eh, it was alright. I like how they managed to tie in the the Mane 6's side of the story, but I feel like the rest of the episode could have been done better.

[Veylon 255]

So...the Games Inspector doesn't actually inspect anything game related? I mean, is there anything less having to do with the games than Cadance's headdress? I was half-expecting to have her turn up at the end, having inspected all the facilities anonymously, and be pleased that she was actually allowed to do her job without interference for once. At which point the Mane Five would be all "Oh, yeah, that was completely on purpose and not some bizarre case of mistaken identity!" And Rarity would still be trying to un-porcupine Cadance's hair. I also feel like a plot point was missed; who else is competing for the Games? Don't they deserve any sympathy?

 

As it was, it was kind of meh. Not bad or anything, and I very much did like the intertwining with Spike's episode. I liked the concept of having the games (assuming they happen) led up to like this with an inspector and (maybe) organizing.

[Circadian 1,273]

This was a pretty lame episode. Too predictable. Meh.

 

They needed to put the focus on a specific character more than they did. The plot was too generic for it to stand on its own like it tried to do.

[Coco Pommel 669]

Another good episode.

 

My only complaint is that Pinkie Pie has been flanderized so much it's not even funny. She has actually switched from being my most favorite of the mane six to the least.

[Kenny 232]

I wasn't a big fan of this episode. The whole conflict could have been avoided had they asked the impostor if she was the inspector. The ending felt pretty rushed, with the real inspector just making her decision on what the impostor experienced and not actually examining it for herself.

 

The only real salvaging points of this episode were getting a glimpse of Rainbow Dash's father and the parallel continuity with the previous episode.

[Shining Wing 201]

I'm surprised how many people liked this episode. Honestly, it wasn't much better than most of the other episodes. I seem to be one of the few people to not like this episode.

 

Some reasons why (And other nonsense)

• We waited for two weeks... for the other half of Just for Sidekicks.
• This isn't the episode with a certain Twi transformation. This means that Hasbro spoiled the finale weeks in advance. Good job, Hasbro.  <_<
• As Kenny said, they should've asked if that person was the games inspector. Just assuming things is what causes disasters like this.
• They said that they were trying to prevent story arcs, which is why we barely saw any of Luna during the entire series. But then they give us this.
• The parts from Just for Sidekicks were incredibly boring. We already saw that, can you at least shorten it?

Keep Calm and Flutter On plus Sleepless in Ponyville are much better than this episode. This one, however, is far from the best.

[Dr. Eggnog 203]

This episode was a little too sitcom-y but I liked it, it was funny.  Best parts were Twilight saying she wasn't worried and Rainbow grabbing that kid again at the end.

[Stellafera 3,836]

I was... not a fan. While I didn't expect it to be one of my favorite episodes from the synopsis, I didn't expect that I would dislike it. I did not have much fondness for Magic Duel, but it had a great opening sequence and at least felt like it knew what it was doing. 

 

Games Ponies Play was a mess, that's how I'd put it. It took me until around halfway through the plotline to figure out what was even going on, and it jumped around at random places like a spastic monkey. Why did Rarity have to be separated from the rest of the cast? Did she have a particularly important role or something? No, we just had a few random scenes with her not being involved with the story. It had a focus on Rainbow Dash only in the way that Keep Calm And Flutter On did, but turned around at the end and acted like it was a RD episode the whole time. Rainbow was strangely cautious, too. I mean, yes, Rainbow Dash has been suspicious plenty of times, and she tends to assume the worst in those cases. But she was acting like Twilight Sparkle this episode, not Rainbow Dash. 

 

By the way, is it just me, or was half of the scene with Shining Armor cribbed from Hurricane Fluttershy but using different flash puppets? It was eerily similar. 

 

So, what did I like? I liked the flashback and it confirms my belief that Rainbow Dash has good parents (or at least ones supportive of her passions) and that she wasn't an orphan, but was it necessary? No. It was really random and seemed to hint at a more personal storyline that was never followed. I liked the nods to Just For Sidekicks, but it would have been better if they did a Secret Of My Excess and show the opening scene from a different camera angle. There was one unqualifiably good aspect about the episode, and that was the music. I love the Crystal Empire leitmotif so much!

 

Maybe I'll like it more upon rewatch, since I know what's going on now. 

[pegasister101 39]

So what did you guys think of that little Gak mud bath in there huh? WEIRD right? I never really got the stupid Gak thing and now its in the show! Come on Hub! <_<  I was watching it live stream and I swear the chat box exploded when that came up.

Edited February 9, 2013 by pegasister101

[kirbyboi 588]

I thought this episode was pretty decent! Also had a little of Just for Sidekicks in there as well. Not my favorite, but it was still pretty good overall, but I don't have a clue on why we had to wait another week for one episode. ._. 

 

But I liked it, however, her chicken (or, shall I say Scootaloo) cutie mark kinda gave it away that she wasn't a game inspector. But still, it turned out pretty good. Kinda predictable, though. But I can't wait...and I can't believe we've only got one more episode! So I'm looking forward to it, I hope it turns out good.....