S04:E03 - Castle Mane-ia

[cmarston1 5,965]

Even though I am not a big fan of Josh Haber's episodes, I ended up really enjoying this episode.

I found it to be pretty fun and had some good comedic elements.

Plus it was nice to see more interaction between Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

[ChB 18,574]

Sorry if this has been posted here, already, but I love this Scooby-Doo parody of this episode:

 

[Sparklefan1234 189,166]

Sorry if this has been posted here, already, but I love this Scooby-Doo parody of this episode:  

 

"And the mysterious "Pony of Shadows" is really....Old Mare Pinkie?!" 

 

Edited September 25, 2016 by Sparklefan1234

[ChB 18,574]

"And the mysterious "Pony of Shadows" is really....Old Mare Pinkie?!" 

 

 

Pinkie: Who are you calling "Old"?!

 

[Sparklefan1234 189,166]

Pinkie: Who are you calling "Old"?!

 

Whoops, Sorry, Pinkie! 

 

It was in reference to "Old Man Jenkins" from Scooby Doo.

 

I love "Castle mane-ia" it's so underrated IMO. 

Edited September 26, 2016 by Sparklefan1234

[ChB 18,574]

Whoops, Sorry, Pinkie! 

 

It was in reference to "Old Man Jenkins" from Scooby Doo.

 

I love this episode it's so underrated. 

 

I know. I just had to make that G3 reference.

 

Yeah, I like this episode.

[Sparklefan1234 189,166]

 

 

I know. I just had to make that G3 reference.  

 

I know you know, Y'know? LOL 

 

This is my favorite part:

 

[Moony the Cat 3,720]

I think its a bit unbelievable, that all of the Main 6, just so happened to visit the Castle at nearly the same time but at least this Episode had a good sense of Mystery to it.

I like to believe that Trixie was the shadow at the end, because it kinda looked like her hat and i think it fits her character if she would play Tricks on the Main 6 just for fun.

[Thrond 3,272]

I like the continuity hooks here. It picks up on the premiere with Twilight's attempts to learn about the crystal box thing, and it sets up the rest of the season with the friendship journal. Part of me wishes the show did this kind of thing more often. Otherwise, it's just a silly and amusing episode with a moral which maybe isn't indicated enough by the actual story. I like how friendly Applejack and Rainbow's rivalry is, and Fluttershy makes a decent foil for Rarity here. All of the characters are a bit too exaggerated here, but hey, it allows all the amusing silliness to happen, so that's not so bad. As a nice little piece of fluff to set up some story threads, it works just fine. I think the moral here is just that history helps you understand the world around you more, which as a history buff I definitely appreciate. History is cool. I have no idea what the crew was thinking with the cliffhangers this season, though. The Pony of Shadows stinger this episode is horribly unnecessary. 

Score:
Entertainment: 8/10
Characters: 7/10
Themes: 8/10
Story: 7/10
Overall: 75/100

[bigbertha 417]

This episode is so much fun. I love the Castle of the Two Sisters because it brings a very dark atmosphere with it. This episode has some of the best atmosphere of the entire show and it really helps to make the episode more entertaining. The jokes are all really funny and the cinematography is a lot more interesting here when compared to the rest of the show. It really helps to add to the dark atmosphere. Pinkie annoyed me a lot on my first viewing, but she got much less annoying upon rewatch.

Score: 10/10

[Meushell 52]

This was a fun episode. I enjoyed watching Twilight read about the things that scared them. The shadow character at the end was interesting. Given some of the comments here though, it sounds like they didn’t follow up on it. That’s too bad.

[Twilight Luna 31,516]

Its a shame the castle of the two sisters has been dropped from the series. It would be nice to know if they got it fixed up or found anything interesting in it or what Twilight did with all the books there.

[qwerE 97]

Just another entertaining episode. Jokes were funny, especially the twist at the end.

nice overall!

Edited October 21, 2018 by qwerE

[cuteycindyhoney 13,345]

I love this episode. I don't even know why, but when Rarity says "She's with me!" it always makes me laugh.

 

 

[bigbertha 417]

This episode is okay. The design of the Castle of the Two Sisters is nice and creepy and the atmosphere helps to keep the episode fun to watch. That's especially important here since the characters are pretty one note. All of them have one gag that repeats through the entire episode and while that would be bad in most other episodes, the unique atmosphere and the escalation of the gag helps to keep it from being too boring, though none of them are that good. They all have their moments of feeling too repetitive, but most of them are kept fun. Rarity especially has some very fun moments.

I'd say the worst part is Fluttershy since she has no reason to be here. Some people would say that the entire situation of all of the mane six being at the same place at the same time is too contrived, but I disagree... except for Fluttershy. Rarity can just use her magic to get tapestries that are higher up making Fluttershy pointless. And all she does is scream and worry about Angel with no escalation, except for the gag of Fluttershy thinking Angel died. 

There are other problems too. While I don't think the initial set up is contrived, it certainly makes no sense how nobody hears each other in this castle when most of them are screaming at the top of their lungs for most of it. And there's the set up of the spiders that goes nowhere. And there's Pinkie who has her annoying voice on which ruins every scene she's in. 

Overall, there are a lot of things going for this episode as long as you don't think about it too hard. On the surface, it's a fun little story about the mane six scaring each other in a creepy castle. But sadly there are a lot of problems that keep it back from being fully enjoyable. 

Score: 6/10

[starlightglimmerlove 10]

this episode is really funny. they were crazy about the (ghosts ) in the castle

but if im in the castle, i think i will frek out like them

[Justin_Case001 4,943]

Spoiler

 

I loved this one.  A ton of fun.  I love spooky, Halloween-y kind of stuff.  So, was the "real" pony of shadows at the end actually Tirek?  It must have been, because the actual real Pony of Shadows was still imprisoned in limbo with the Pillars.

[ZiggWheelsManning 16,499]

Rarity using Fluttershy to deal with stuff for the wrong reasons and of course those spiders.  

[Astralshy 31,262]

Good and funny episode. The interactions between the mane six especially between AJ and RD were the best part for me.

 

On 2020-10-21 at 6:10 PM, Justin_Case001 said:

 So, was the "real" pony of shadows at the end actually Tirek?  It must have been, because the actual real Pony of Shadows was still imprisoned in limbo with the Pillars.

I had the same thoughts in my head when I recently rewatched it.

[JMTV99 1,364]

I thought the episode was decent. Not great, but not bad either. Sure, it can be a bit predictable and repetitive, but at least I did laugh some of the jokes here and there. It's interesting that we get see more of abandoned Celestia and Luna's home since has been rarely used in the show.

[bigbertha 417]

This episode looks fantastic. I think the atmosphere carries this episode. It gives the whole episode a sense of tension even when the writing kinda sucks. There are a lot of individual shots that genuinely impressed me which is not common for this show. The camera usually doesn't do anything interesting outside of a couple visual gags. I especially love the shot of Twilight mentioning the organ and then the camera goes down, past Rarity and Fluttershy, to the organ, and then has Rainbow and Applejack run past.  

I still stand by season 4 being the best looking season of the show and this episode is one of the best examples.

Also Rainbow Dash is a lesbian and it's great

Edited December 22, 2021 by bigbertha

[Hadrien 964]

For an episode which the titles riff off Castlevania, this really didn't have anything to do about that. So all the girls need to go to the ancient castle for one reason or another, ends up spooking each other because of Pinkie. Yeah, that makes sense. I like when the episode have some creative intent behind it, and having 3 separate plot, with different teams crisscrossing each other is very entertaining to me. The shenanigans were funny and it was pretty fun seeing Pinkie Pie being the mastermind of the girls fear, very unwittingly.

7/10, pretty good overall !

[Antiyonder 1,825]

YouTube upload of the episode:

[Night Sky 1,592]

This episode really reminded me of scary or haunted house episodes from all kinds of different cartoons from back in the 1990s. It isn't a rip off of any of them but it sure captures the essence of the old magic. In the old way, in the old style. 

The twist doesn't even ruin it because even though I love here Pinkie Pie can be downright scary. 

 

[MLP Golden Breezie 1,509]

I really liked this episode! the funny thing was that Applejack thought Rainbow Dash had given up and said "I think I won" while Rainbow Dash disappeared who knows where. while Rarity gets angry with the old castle saying that it is rude.

at the end of the episode there was the pony of shadows and it was not a legend. I'm surprised that Spike said that it is just a legend. I really liked this episode and I would watch it again and again!