My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club

[b_jonas]

Thank you for watching MLP for three whole seasons with me, ponythread. It's been great to discuss all the episodes with you so far, and I hope you'll stick around for the next season.

Some random thoughts about MLP.

1. It's been two and a half seasons since we've seen Moondancer now. I wish she returned with a significant speaking role.
   > Discord: Discord, your friend Twilight says that she's your pal, but she never writes and she never pops in for a visit. Now that she's a princess, maybe she's decided that she's too good for you.
   > Moondancer: I know exactly what you're talking about.
2. In EG1, how did Spike in dog form manage to stack all those books to make a makeshift bed in the library? Must be really dexterous with his paws. Of course, it's funny when Twilight then tells Spike „I've been walking on two legs and picking things up with these [hands]!”
3. I was wondering about Principial Cinch's role in EG3. Is she just the stereotypical evil headmistress who calls in favors from all her students, or is she actually very competent and very evil? Did she purposefully try to alienate Twilight from all potential friends so that she's easier to control?
4. Compared to the timeline of S6 and S7, when do you suppose EG5 E3 Mirror Magic happened? I'm not even sure anymore if it's before the S7 finale.

[Adderbane]

Spoiler: Lil' Day Breaker!

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That is adorable...

Someone on YouTube is attempting to remake The Prince of Egypt with ponies. This'll be interesting...https://youtu.be/6AM5aOOECGY

[b_jonas]

There's a few more of the EG5 summer shorts since I've last looked. First, a list of each of them, with spoilers for the older shorts (the numbering is provisional).

Spoiler: List of EG5 episodes and shorts

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Three full-time (half-hour minus ads) episodes.

• EG5 E1 Dance magic (The Rainbooms and the Friendship Games team from Crystal Prep try to win a prize for best music video)
• EG5 E2 Movie magic (Someone sabotages the production of the Daring Do movie)
• EG5 E3 Mirror magic

At least twenty Summertime Shorts so far, there may still be more coming and I don't know how many. Variable length, from two to seven minutes. I don't know the official order so these numbers might be wrong.

• EG5 Q1 Make up shake up (Rarity does make up on Applejack's face)
• EG5 Q2 A photo booth story (Photo Finish takes photos of Rarity with wings)
• EG5 Q3 Raise this roof (Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom do some dancing)
• EG5 Q4 Steps of pep (Pinkie Pie teaches Fluttershy to cheer)
• EG5 Q5 Mad twience (Musical short, Twilight creates a robotic dog companion for Spike)
• EG5 Q6 Monday blues (Musical short about how Twilight and Sunset hate Mondays and how much better it is together, with epic bad hair)
• EG5 Q7 Pet project (Sunset sees how much fun all the rest of the Mane Six has with their pets, so gets his own pet)
• EG5 Q8 Subs rock (Principal Celestia tries to hold a course as a substitute teacher, but keeps getting called away for school principal duties)
• EG5 Q9 Shake things up! (Musical short, Applejack makes shakes)
• EG5 Q10 The art of friendship (Pinkie distracts others in the school fine art club)
• EG5 Q11 The Canterlot movie club (The Crusaders watch the Daring Do movie in the cinema, they retrieve Pinkie's toy Gummy from a slot machine)
• EG5 Q12 Epic Fails (The girls talk about minor past annoyances.)
• EG5 Q13 Get the show on the road (The Rainbooms repair a minibus by magic.)
• EG5 Q14 Leaping off the page (Rainbow Dash is so deep reading a Daring Do book that she doesn't notice the outside world.)
• EG5 Q15 Coinky-dink world (Pinkie Pie is playing matchmaker in an old timey disco bar)
• EG5 Q16 Good vibes (Students in Canterlot High do random kind acts to each other)
• EG5 Q17 The finals countdown (Twilight helps the rest of the Rainbooms study for exams)
• EG5 Q18 A fine line (Sunset Shimmer queue for a video game)
• EG5 Q19 Overpowered (Something about Zephyr Breeze)
• EG5 Q20 School of rock (Maud Pie does a presentation about rocks. Pinkie and Twilight try to make it more interesting.)
• EG5 Q21 Star crossed (Twilight Sparkle and Timber Spruce have a date.)
• EG5 Q22 Pinkie sitting (Pinkie Pie babysits a very quiet girl)
• EG5 Q23 Queen of clubs (Applejack and Rainbow Dash compete in how many school clubs they are members of)
• EG5 Q24 A little birdie told me
• EG5 Q25 My little shop of horrors
• EG5 Q26 Display of affection
• EG5 Q27 Super squad goals

Now watching the new shorts.

Spoiler: EG5 Q24..26

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EG5 Q24 A little birdie told me. (Trixie accuses Fluttershy with cheating.) I don't like this one.
EG5 Q25 My little shop of horrors. (Twilight waters Principal Celestia's plants and they start to sing.) Ok, I don't really understand what happened here. What was it really that made the plants behave so strange?
EG5 Q26 Display of affection. (Rarity must produce a window display for the shop, but she doesn't have inspiration.) Meh. Average.
EG5 Q27 Super squad goals. (A superhero comic about the Rainbooms catching a jewlery thief.) This one is utterly silly, but acceptably fun.

Update: fixed description of Q21. Thanks for pointing out the error, Aotrs.

[Adderbane]

Now watching the new shorts.

Spoiler: EG5 Q24..26

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EG5 Q24 A little birdie told me. (Trixie accuses Fluttershy with cheating.) I don't like this one.
EG5 Q25 My little shop of horrors. (Twilight waters Principal Celestia's plants and they start to sing.) Ok, I don't really understand what happened here. What was it really that made the plants behave so strange?
EG5 Q26 Display of affection. (Rarity must produce a window display for the shop, but she doesn't have inspiration.) Meh. Average.
EG5 Q27 Super squad goals. (A superhero comic about the Rainbooms catching a jewlery thief.) This one is utterly silly, but acceptably fun.

Spoiler: Shorts

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Agree about 24, but Fluttershy's "Make my day" moment was pretty funny.

In 25 Twilights watering can was contaminated with one of the magic bolts that leaked through the portal at the end of EQG4. Another one was infecting the mirror in Mirror Magic. You see it briefly at the beginning of the short.

26 had good Rarity moments, "One does not become a diamond without pressure!"

[Aotrs Commander]

The thing that irriates me about all thes shorts it ehy are such a nuisence to track down.

(So thank you b_jonas, for keeping tabs and making the list so I have to do less leg work!)

'Spose I better catch up...

Spoiler: shorts 15-27

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Coinky-dink world: Yeah. Something about this made me just a tad uncomfortable. Dunno what, but yeah. The nonsense lyrics? The... I dunno. Yeah. I just felt a bt unsettled.

Good vibes: CMC in EQGH haven't changed I see... (That was, as they say, more betterer.) Though... Fluttershy I don't think a... squirrel is a good hairpiece under... Any circumstances... (And apparently EQG Trixie is marginally less self-centred that pony Trixie...) I gotta ask though... ALL of them work in retail? Really? REALLY? Is that... Like, a more US thing or what?

The finals countdown: So... The finals are multiple-choice...? Keh? What... Is this another US thing, because when I were there age, I was doing... Probably A levels at that point, GSCEs minimum (I mean, they have jobs, right? What's the minimum age for that stateside (approximately, I know it likely varies)? Now, granted, I went to a small private school as my secondary school (largely because the senior schools in my catchment area had bad reputations and my parent were concerned that my... Sheer bloody-mindedness to go the exact opposite way from the crowd (combined with my living body's relative fragility), but I had proper exams twice a year, where you had to y'know, write proper naswers and stuff. Am I just Old or what...?

A fine line: Oookay. So what I take away from this is maybe the so-called "AAA" game industry in EQD is a shambolic mess of money-grubbing shovelware like here OR... Seriously, games are like, that mainstream in EQG...?

Overpowered: Girls, avoiding Zepher qualifes as a proper emergancy. Pinkie Pie is apparently Party Gambit. I can dig that, And, wait, the more you use your powers, the more they supercharge? What? That's... I call HAX! I want MY powers to do that! And you say that's a bad thing! (Also, did Plot just Happen...?)

School of rock: Philestines! Maud is both hilarious and informative. (I mean, no, really, I'd quite happily listen to Maud talk rocks. I, at any rate, am always happy to learn stuff, andf there's nothing quite like chatting with an expert. (And you can tell - even through her deadpan - Maud is terribly enthusiastic.)

Star crossed:b_jonas, that wasn't Starlight Glimmer. I... was sorta of disappointed actually, that would have been considerably more hilarious. As it was... Yeah, Timber is gonna get set of fire by the fanbase, ain't he?

Pinkie sitting: *skulldesk*

Queen of clubs: Trixie plays D&D? I... Huh. (Actually... Only girl in a small group of socially awkward boys (it IS Snips, Snails and Mac), yeah I can see that pandering to her ego a little bit.

(Also "young farmer's club...?" Are... Are you AB and Big Mac the only members of that club, AJ...?) Sunset and Cloud Kicker fence? Okay...

DERPY is in the science club? I dunno whether to feel deeply impressed or deeply terrified.

No, both.

Definitely both.

Rarity... Ha ha ha what?

A little birdie told me:The frack age group are these girls?! The finals are done as multiple choice quiz and yet Fluttershy is putting stuff on the board that I, as a former degree-level engineering student, am hard-pressed to frickin' understand! I mean, it's been a far few years and I'm rusty, but what? And Trixie... That. Wasn't. Trig. I DO bloody know what trig looks like - it's one of the things I DO use infrequently still. That had... logarithms in it, and I'm not even sure off the top of my head what all the symbols were. Just... What in the hell?

My little shop of horrors: Twilight, as also a former gardener... Leaving side actual gardening is more about killing stuff and chopping it up, seriously, you are supposedly smart HOW DO YOU MISS DANCING AND TALKING as being unremarkable. Thank frack AJ has her head screwed on straight. (Also, Celestia is right.)

Display of affection: Um Sunset, pretty sure graffetti is like against the law or something...?

Super squad goals: So, did that happen or... Because I totally want that to be a thing.


Mixed bag as usual from... Eh to okay. (They are too short to get anything above that.)

But I have to ask. At this point, we've had, like well over an hour of shorts. Couldn't we have just had, like, three episodes instead...?

[DigoDragon]

Spoiler: Shorts

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Agree about 24, but Fluttershy's "Make my day" moment was pretty funny.

Spoiler: EQ Girls Shorts

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Apparently everyone is used to Fluttershy talking to birds? Like, really talking to them? Yes? Well okay then.

Spoiler: shorts 15-27

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Queen of clubs: Trixie plays D&D? I... Huh.

Spoiler: EQ Girls Shorts

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I've been playing D&D a long time and I am not surprised to see someone like Trixie into the game.

[digiman619]

Alright, everyone now that the season is over, what are your top 5 and bottom 5 episodes of the season? Let me start:

TOP
#5 Discordant Harmony: Discord is always awesome, and seeing him trying to change himself so Fluttershy liked him more... and almost killing himself in the proccess. I also liked the "Although Fluttershy/Discord never mentioned it, I'm pretty sure she/he likes/hates gravity"bit. Great Fluttercord fodder, and a delight through and through.
#4 Marks and Recreation: Seeing a colt being anti-cutie mark was a really interesting idea, though one wonders what would have happened if this episode happened in Season 5 (Evil Glimglam would love to help you get rid of that... unsightly mark...). I also like the reason why; it wasn't your classic Peter Pan I-don't-want-to-grow-up story, it was a fear that his cutie mark would lead him down a path he didn't want to go... which is a fic waiting to happen, but whatever. I also liked that they didn't give in to temptation and have Rumbleget his mark at the end of the episode.
#3 Shadow Play, Part II: You'll see what I thought about Part I in a minute, but Part II was a lot better. While it had a lot of characters to juggle, there were tons of continuity nods and they managed to keep with their central message without it seeming forced. This was a legit problem about friendship that felt important, not "Let's go save a restaurant" like we've seen before. Of course, the Pillars will have a strange new world to explore, though I doubt we will get the "existential crisis because almost everyone I ever knew is dead" that people in such a situation would have.
#2 The Perfect Pear: Before you chew me out, while this is without a doubt the best episode of the season, it's not my favorite. They clearly can't say "The Apple Parents are dead" because of their rating, but this is as close as they can get. You can just feel the emotion in this episode. Seeing Burnt Oak talking about Bright Mac and him tearing up at the thought of sharing more stories is really touching. Felicia Day and William Shatner do amazing performances here. Just thinking about it again is legitimately making me tear up. But that amount of emotion takes the right mood; you can't just plop it on like any other episode (which is why having it be the last internationally episode and having the whole of the hiatus to wait for more was so bad).
#1 A Royal Problem: I'm not the biggest Starlight Glimmer fan (as my bottom 5 will show), but Glimmer was needed here; This situation called for someone familiar with cutie marks enough to make the switcheroo and someone not connected with the princesses as to be impartial. While Twilight no doubt has the mystical might enough to make the switch, she wouldn't see any blame on Celestia's part and well, Nightmare Moon was a thing before for a reason, guys. That and Daybreaker is deliciously hammy and a blast to watch. We're all agreed that she's the cause of the Ashlands timeline, right?

As for the other list...

BOTTOM

#5 Daring Done?: Yeah, it set up Somnambula and the Sphinx is cool, but "One area is fully aware that Daring Do is an actual person, but the rest of Equestria thinks she's fictional" just felt dumb. Also, sometimes things end Dash. I thought you already learned this lesson. This one just had a solid "meh" permeating through it for me.
#4 All Bottled Up: This had no reason to exist. Directly after Celestial Guidance (more thoughts on that for a bit), this seemed desperate to push Starlight Glimmer. Trixie felt Flanderized here; she comes off as a Valley Girl who can't see things that are blatantly obvious, which painted her as Callous and stupid, as opposed to the normally funny vain. There were a few funny bits and a part that kind of foreshadowed The Perfect Pear if you squinted, but all it proves is "Glim Glam's first answer to problems is to magic them away", which we already learned last Season when she mind-controlled her friends in Every Little Thing She Does. It was just unappealing.
#3 Fame and Misfortune: I'm going to get some flack for this, but it felt kind of mean-spirited. I mean, the 'fans' were painted rather unflatteringly and they were never dealt with, so it felt incomplete. Ironically, this episode would have worked better with Glimmer being the foil and getting called out for not being one of the Mane 6. It's not the worst "poke fun at the audience" episode I've seen, (Teen Titans Go! remains the champion of that), it just felt rude.
#2 Celestial Advice: While I'm not holding the teasers making it look like something really awsome was happening with Sunburst and Glimmer only for it to essentially be a dream sequence, the whole thing reeked of character shilling. "Let's spend the whole episode talking about how awesome Starlight Glimmer is!" I don't hate her, but the focus they put on her is a pet peeve as I'm a WWE fan and the constant shilling they did of Romana Reigns left a horrible taste in my mouth whenever I see it character shilling in anything else. That and the who premise of this episode was "The student is ready to graduate; is the teacher?" and Twilight asking Celestia's advice, only for her to do the exact opposite thing that Celestia did when she was in the exact situation with Twilight.
#1 Shadow Play, Part I: Twilight is holding the Idiot Ball throughout this entire episode; them accidentally re-releasing the Pony of Shadows was a blatantly obvious consequence that she should have realized would have happened. The finding of the artifacts felt incredibly rushed and it all felt like that they threw it all together to get the second half ready. Honestly, this would have been way better as a pattern for Season 8; In the premiere, Twilight finds the book and decides to bring the Pillars back, gets the artifacts over the course of 8 episodes, and gets the Pillars back for the midseason finale, and the second half is the pillars fighting back against the Pony, letting us know them better before the final battle, which was actually quite good as it was. The set-up just failed incredibly hard, though.

[Derjuin]

Alright, everyone now that the season is over, what are your top 5 and bottom 5 episodes of the season? Let me start:

Before I list mine, I totally agree on Celestial Advice. A Twilestia episode should be a Twilestia episode, not:

x1000

It's hard for me to remember most of the episodes, as outside the top/bottom 5, they're kind of a nebulous web of okay-to-good. Overall, though, I think I like S7 the best so far. Let's start with the bad and go up from there:

BOTTOM 5:
∞: Fame and Misfortune. This is why. I'm personally not upset by the episode, but I know a lot of folks were, and not even the writer wanted to do the premise - execs even turned down a nicer version with a good ending, and just pushed the premise instead.

5: Hard to Say Anything. I dunno. It has ups and downs, but the downs feel really down low and the ups aren't really all that high. Feather Bangs was pretty great though. I suppose this is one episode that I dislike just because it makes me cringe uncomfortably, which makes it hard to watch even once. Celestial Advice could occupy this slot too, which hurts as I am 200% a Princess Celestia fan, but I've already listed off why I dislike it.

4: Not Asking for Trouble. I wasn't really enamored to the yaks the first time around, and while this one was a bit better, it wasn't by much. I'm not a big fan of the subterfuge Pinkie employed to fix the yaks' home, but I guess it was the only way to fix it as Rutherford was too stubborn to actually do anything about it. For me it's watchable, but I didn't get a lot of laughs out of it except for Pinkie's shenaniganry.

3: All Bottled Up. I'm not really even a Starlight or Trixie fan, but this felt mean to Trixie's characterisation. Yeah, she is relatively self-important, but she seemed way out of it in this. Or maybe this is how she actually is, and she really is just super manipulative and terrible. Either way, someone who frequently shows up with another character who's basically a main character now probably shouldn't be a supremely crappy individual. HOWEVER, some of her antics were quite funny, so I wasn't not-entertained, at least.

2: Daring Done?. Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. GM Berrow is kinda hit and miss on her books, some of them are super great (Celestia and the Summer of Royal Waves) and some of them are... well, Luna's princess book is probably the first pony merch I've ever regretted getting. The episode was pretty meh. The focus of the episode - Daring Do doing her thang and getting backlash for it due to the aftermath- was a pretty noble idea, but it just wasn't pulled off well. Oh yeah Somnambula and the Sphinx were spawned in this slurry too so that's neat. I could watch it again.

1: A Health of Information. I just feel like Twilight was unfairly charaterized here. This is Twilight "Hyperventilating" Sparkle we're talking about. There are times where she can be organized, but really I don't see her being this slow, cautious or observant when someone's life is actually on the line. Poor charaterization on one character's part made this an annoying episode, but I like the message at the end. Am I doing this countdown right? Is #1 on the list of the Bottom 5 supposed to be the worst of the bottom 5, or the best? Anyway, several S7 episodes could sit at this spot, I just dislike Twilight's characterization more than most other "meh" episodes.

TOP 5
5: Rock Solid Friendship. I like episodes that feature additional fluff for Starlight - for example, that she likes kites. That's neat! I'm not opposed to her being among the mane 6/7/8, just episodes that try to paint her as "Twilight, but minus the nerdy parts" because that's the best part about Twilight, why would you make a character that's Twilight minus the best part. Also Maud shows up, but again is unfazed by things going on around her. I still say her best appearance was in her intro episode, because that tough exterior broke when she got worried about Pinkie.

4: Parental Gluidance (Glideance?). I enjoyed this episode a lot, from Fleetfoot to Dash and her parents and Scoots' nutty ideas for how to get to Cloudsdale. Many silly times were had, and a lot of heartwarming ones too, especially the ending. The ending probably got this into the top 5, actually.

3: Triple Threat. Fun and full of memes and good messages for almost everyone involved. Steve continues to be a neat character. I mean, it's hard to say what I didn't like about this episode, because I don't remember disliking anything in it. I could definitely watch it again.

2: Shadow Play. The first part is kind of janky but the second definitely picks it back up and makes it great. The background music is pretty sinister in a lot of parts, and we get a look at what is probably the most hopeless/desolate part of Equestria so far, minus ofc alternate equestria's New Jersey ashlands. The Pony of Shadows kind of reminds me of Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door with its Shadow Queen, and where Stygian found the source of its power.

1: A Royal Problem. It's a Royal Sisters episode and it actually focused on them and wasn't garbage. Of course it's my number one for the season.

0: The Perfect Pear. Uh... where to begin. I fully believe - in my personal opinion that could easily be wrong - that this is the best episode not of the season, but of the SERIES. I had to fight through tears to see the whole thing, because I teared up bad when I got to the song, and lost it when Bright Mac proposed. Yeah, it's Romeo and Juliet paint-by-color, but Romeo and Juliet didn't have likeable characters that were also pastel ponies and a fantastic framing device and excellent voicework and I could go on for days. I've seen this episode more times than I've watched the entire rest of the season. More times than I've watched Sweet & Elite and Suited for Success, my previous favorite episodes, combined. I just really, really like it.

[Aotrs Commander]

BOTTOM 5:
∞: Fame and Misfortune. This is why. I'm personally not upset by the episode, but I know a lot of folks were, and not even the writer wanted to do the premise - execs even turned down a nicer version with a good ending, and just pushed the premise instead.

That's... A little disturbing, actually. I didn't have that much of a problem with the episode (aside from the lack of Spike, who ought to have been there, since he effectively WROTE IT)... But in light of that... You have to ask what the rational of the people behind the episode were. It does seem that Larson was given his marching orders by SOMEONE to do that episode the way it was done. And it does suggest that someone had an axe to grind, or were so up there own arse about their idea they wouldn't listen to any counter. Which suggests to me that whoever was behind that may not have had the show's best interests in mind. (The cynic in me wonders if it was indeed some contemptuous executive wanting to score points off winding the fandom up.) This is pony, not TTG (where the pitch-black humour in tonally okay with self-referential humour)... And now that I think about it, that's a valid point; that plot would not be out of place (complete with the non-conclusion) in TTG (the details would be harsher, no doubt; Larson was still writing tonally pony).

[DigoDragon]

Steve continues to be a neat character.

I know a legit review someone has watched. ;)


I'm finding myself agreeing with most of the list choices so far, so let me try and categorize other episodes.

The Bad Ones--
A Flurry of Emotions: Yeah, I'm a parent. Bad parenting episodes annoy me. It's so "paint by numbers" on how this episode plays out. Twi babysits flurry. Twi ignores Flurry. Twi realizes her mistake after Flurry cries. Look, if you had previous engagements, say something! Heck, where's Pinkie Pie? Ask if she's free because Luna knows Pinkie can babysit too. Share the load so Flurry gets the attention she's begging for.

Forever Filly: Okay, I get that you wanna spend time with your sister Rarity, and you miss the fun things you did with her when she was younger, but come on, listen to Sweetie Belle! She's older and her tastes have changed! YOU'RE A BLOODY FASHION DESIGNER HOW DO YOU NOT RECOGNIZE WHEN TRENDS CHANGE?! It's so obvious that Sweetie Belle does not want to do these things and Rarity just turns a blind eye every time. So congrats writers. You successfully wrote a bad Rarity episode.

Honest Apple: Someone slap Rarity for picking AJ. And then slap AJ for ripping apart someone's work in the literal sense. Just. No.


The Good Ones--
Fluttershy Leans In: Not a bad lesson on artistic vision. Flutters had a grand idea, but she let her friends pick the wrong people to execute that vision. This is why you gotta vet your help on big projects. Anyway, Flutters sticks to her plan and manages to turn it around without too much drama. Everyone is understanding, and the animals get the sanctuary they need. Not bad!

Hard to Say Anything: Standard Two guys like same girl plot, but it's pretty funny to watch. The humor carries it and in the end everyone wins. Even me cause that musical battle at the end was silly fun. I wouldn't recommend the CMC to play matchmaker for anyone, but half their ideas weren't completely terrible. I mean, terrible yeah, but they could have done worse. Also, kinda think the Big Mac/Sugar Belle ship is pretty good. I'm okay with that.

To Change a Changeling: I like world-building, and seeing how the changelings are doing post-reform is a nice change of pace from the usual ponies. Poor Thorax is doing his best to lead and his brother just doesn't help. It's definitely a better Starlight/Trixie dynamic than... sigh, All Bottled Up. I don't think I'll ever get used to the new changeling design, but... well I stopped hating them with this episode. Guess they're cute in their own way. Changelings being cute and silly!

Also, Trixie Tuesday:

Spoiler

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[Derjuin]

Just found/watched Lullaby for a Princess. How I feel atm:

Spoiler

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But also, wow, that was really fantastic. I love how fluid the animation is, and the headcanon idea (even though it's not really valid anymore as Discord happened before NMM and we saw that) that Celestia using all the elements is what gave her mane the four different colors.

[Pi Pie]

Equestria Girl Shorts Reactions

Spoiler: 24-27

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EG5 Q24 A Little Birdie Told Me. Trixie's acting was interesting. This kind of proves that everyone at CHS knows about the magic and has no problem with it since they believe that Fluttershy can talk to birds. Also, Twilight's help with the studying has probably helped.
EG5 Q25 My Little Shop of Horrors. This reminded me of the My Little Pony Gen 1 episodes with the plants invading the pony lands. In those episodes, the plants absorb the nutrients of the land causing it to turn barren. The plants were stopped by the ponies along with some giant talking crabs. Gen 1 was weird.
EG5 Q26 Display of affection. Tabitha again displays her skills with Rarity freaking out. The "Flanksie" piece was interesting because there is a fanfiction story with Octavia as a street artist that uses spray paint for art. I believe that her street name is also "Flanksie".
EG5 Q27 Super squad goals. I really want to know if this episode is real or just Sunset Shimmer's creation.

I'll list my favorite and least favorite episodes from S7 later.

[DigoDragon]

Luna: "Celly, lookie what I found!"

Spoiler: Celestia: "Luna, eww!"

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[Pilum]

You’d think after all this pony I wouldn’t be surprised by cuteness when standard archetypes are translated to PastelHorse, but Captain Steela from the latest Legends comic is just so adorably badass. That’s all.

[Alabenson]

Well, time to jump on the best/wort episode list bandwagon.

Starting with the worst, when I went over the list again I found I didn't even particularly dislike the episodes on my list. These were just the episodes that I felt had the most glaring issues when compared to the others.

5: E24, Uncommon Bond; I think my main issue with this episode boiled down to Starlight's odd fixation with the board game as the primary thing she and Sunburst had in common. It just felt that she wasn't really trying to find any other common interests that they might have had and that lack of effort hurt my investment into the conflict of the episode.

4: E4, Rock Solid Friendship; The biggest issue here is how tightly Pinkie Pie was gripping the idiot ball for the duration of the episode. I realize that Pinkie Pie tends to lose most of her self-awareness when the subject of making friends comes up, but this episode took that obliviousness to extremes. On the other hoof, se did get some very nice characterization for both Maude and Starlight, so I can't judge this episode too harshly.

3; E25 & 26, Shadow Play; This episode had a number of major issues, ranging from Twilight's juggling the idiot ball, to the wonky pacing issues, to the problems with introducing far too many essentially new characters at once. But the problems that put the season finale on this list were it's problems with telling rather than showing and its villain's complete lack of credibility. If nothing else, Shadow Play highlights how a villain can make or break an episode. The Pony of Shadows had virtually no screen time and he spent most of the time he was on screen either blustering about how much evil he was going to do or having his rump handed to him, the latter robbing the former of any real impact. All we have to go on as to how threatening the situation is is the way Starswirl kept talking up the PoS as some great monster, but at no point are we ever shown that he's a threat. Even in the flashbacks, we never actually see the PoS do anything villainous. Not helping matters were the fact that show completely ignored the many other options available to the characters beyond yanking out the EoH, such as the other princesses, their rainbow-powered forms, or freaking Discord. I'm not saying they actually had to use any of those options, but a throwaway line as to why they couldn't would have been nice.

2; E5, Fluttershy Leans In; The main reason that this episode landed below the finale comes down to the fact that I never really felt anything was really at risk here. Fluttershy has a vision, the ponies brought on to execute that vision screw it up, so she tries again. I can't even say Fluttershy really learns anything from the episode because at no point does Fluttershy have any difficulty standing up for herself once the problem made itself known. A good story needs conflict and quite frankly I don't think this episode was able to deliver on that front.

1; E14, Fame and Misfortune; This episode is a good example of how difficult satire can be. The framing device of the episode had a lot of promise, but the execution in many areas was rather poor and often bordering on being mean-spirited. Not only that, but the episode didn't really seem to have a clear idea of what it's message was which left us with a confused mess.

[Adderbane]

Spoiler: shorts 15-27

Show

Good vibes: CMC in EQGH haven't changed I see... (That was, as they say, more betterer.) Though... Fluttershy I don't think a... squirrel is a good hairpiece under... Any circumstances... (And apparently EQG Trixie is marginally less self-centred that pony Trixie...) I gotta ask though... ALL of them work in retail? Really? REALLY? Is that... Like, a more US thing or what?

The finals countdown: So... The finals are multiple-choice...? Keh? What... Is this another US thing, because when I were there age, I was doing... Probably A levels at that point, GSCEs minimum (I mean, they have jobs, right? What's the minimum age for that stateside (approximately, I know it likely varies)? Now, granted, I went to a small private school as my secondary school (largely because the senior schools in my catchment area had bad reputations and my parent were concerned that my... Sheer bloody-mindedness to go the exact opposite way from the crowd (combined with my living body's relative fragility), but I had proper exams twice a year, where you had to y'know, write proper naswers and stuff. Am I just Old or what...?

But I have to ask. At this point, we've had, like well over an hour of shorts. Couldn't we have just had, like, three episodes instead...?

Retail is one of the few sectors that'll hire high school workers part time anymore. It's generally either that or fast food.

It's been a while since I was in high scool, but there was a big nationwide push for standardized testing around 2000, which generally requires multiple choice questions. Since education standards are set on a state by state basis, things vary a lot, but in general, most of the big exams are going to be multiple choice. Math is usually an exception though, since you can objectively say whether or not an answer is correct.

The shorts allow them to turn ideas that aren't enough for episodes into content. I'd rather have a bunch of shorts than try to stretch something out for twenty minutes.

My thoughts on episodes:

Spoiler: Worst

Show

Shadow Play: I'm sure the writers could create a better reason than: Twilight wants to say hi to Starswirl. They really should've been collecting the artifacts all season; for such a significant character as Starswirl, they could've at least made a bit more effort in buildup.
A Health of Information: Too many idiot balls.
Honest Apple: This is the kind of poor character writing that the townsponies are complaining about in Fame and Misfortune.
Campfire Tales: Aside from introducing the three characters, there's not anything significant happening. The only reason this isn't in last place is the character and setting design was kind of neat.
Fluttershy Leans in: Not much really happened here. Fluttershy hires workers, gets mad at them, and replaces them. There's no real growth or much of anything here.

Spoiler: Best

Show

A Flurry of Emotions: D'Awwww!
Discordant Harmony: This gets overshadowed by by being right between A Royal Problem and Perfect Pear, but it's an excellent Fluttershy/Discord episode, and both characters are at their best.
Rock Solid Friendship: Generally Pinkie Pie annoys me when the episode focuses on her, but this exploration of her relationship with Maud was excellent. It's nice to see what goes on behind Maud's stony demeanor.
A Royal Problem: Finally got a Celestia/Luna episode, and they did it well. Daybreaker is awesome.
The Perfect Pear: The great risk with something like this is you won't live up to the expectations your fanbase has created for it. This did.

Spoiler: Fame And Misfortune

Show

This was kind of weird and can't really go on my worst list. I agree about it feeling mean-spirited (and we know they can do better because of Stranger than Fan-Fiction), but on the other hand, there were some great moments. Upset Rarity is almost always a good moment.

[Alabenson]

Alright, I was able to post my bottom 5, now onto the best of the season (I had to post these separately due to issues with posting while I'm at work). To be honest I thought overall season 7 was very good. The bad wasn't really all that bad (there isn't a single episode in my bottom 5 that I would hesitate to re-watch) and the good was amazing.

5: E21, Marks and Recreation; Not only was this a great overall CMC episode, but it helped clarify what cutie marks really mean to the ponies that get them. Yes, Rumble was a frustrating brat and the rest of the campers were kind of dim for following him, but his concerns echoed sentiments I've seen in fanworks from time to time so I like that the show took the time to answer the issue.

4: E12, Discordant Harmony; What I love about this episode was how it gave us a side of Discord that had been hinted at before but never really came through clearly, and that was how much Discord really values Fluttershy as a friend. We've seen evidence that Discord cares for Fluttershy, but it always was either a side-note or was overshadowed by his otherwise jerkish behavior. Here, though, we get a peek into Discord's though processes and see that not only does Discord really care for Fluttershy as an individual, but that he actively wants to be a better draconequs for her sake, which is the sort of character development that I love to see.

3: E7, Parental Glideance; This episode explains so much about Rainbow Dash's personality. I had a few theories about what sort of ponies Rainbow Dash's parents would be, but 'screaming Rainbow Dash fan-ponies' never occurred to me, yet in hindsight makes perfect sense. And while the episode had plenty of solid humor, it also included some subtle poignancy about Scootaloo's home life which gave it some terrific depth.

2: E13, The Perfect Pear; I don't know what I can really say about this episode that hasn't been said already by pretty much everpony in the fandom. The whole star-crossed romance of Applejack's parents was handled perfectly, but what really put it over the edge was seeing the effect their memories had on both their friends and the Apple siblings themselves. The only complaint I can muster about the episode is that at times it could be a little too predictable, but as I've said before when it comes to MLP it's not whether it's been done before but how well it does it.

1: E10, A Royal Problem; Dear freaking Celestia this episode was long overdue. An episode that finally gave some real solid characterization to Princess Celestia herself as well as expanded on her relationship with Princess Luna. Add to that giving us Daybreaker and ballerina Twilight and this episode was definitely one of my favorites, not only of the season but also of the series itself.

[Aotrs Commander]

Don't really have a top or worst five epsiodes; I'd have to go back through the thread and work it out from what I posted about them (and I can't be bothered...!)



Though I will say, unlike most of you, Perfect Pear didn't hold that much weight with me. I know a lot of you have said it's one of the best episodes of all time, but while it was certainly well-executed and a good episode, the subject matter largely sort of missed me.

I do think there was maybe a little bit too much of the idiot ball being passed around this season, and we could have done with a few more adventurer-y ones (but we could have done with that since, basically, season two).

I reckon my highlight this season were Celestia Getting Episodes, Starlight Glimmer is Still Evil amd Spike is Best Diplomat. Also, that last Pinkie episode (which is recent enough that I remember laughing a great deal).

I watch (well, listened to as I worked on the M114) Dawnsomewhere's analysis of the show and while I don't agree with everything he said, I think he's entirely on point about the villains. In that... They need to stop redeeming them, becauase then there are not any villains. And no villains = no threat and no threat = the loss of the greater scope of the world. (It is noticable that the world seems a lot safer than it did in season one, and that's not a good thing.)

Also, they REALLY need to stop Worfing Celestia, because you do that too often (especially when they never ever shw her winning) and it totally ceases to have any meaning. We need a Celestia episode in season eight where Sombra comes back properly (and completely ruins those dreadful comics that did him in the process) and the first he does is START by taking out Twilight/Starlight/Discord and the Mane Six, forcing Celestia to be the one that has to svae the day for a change.

That would actually work well, since the stakes are high - the protagonist have been beaten (scary) and it's down to the (by action if not intent) the incompetant lower-deck numpties (i.e. Celestia as shown in the show) to have to save the day, with her track record of total failure. Serious.

Retail is one of the few sectors that'll hire high school workers part time anymore. It's generally either that or fast food.

It's been a while since I was in high scool, but there was a big nationwide push for standardized testing around 2000, which generally requires multiple choice questions. Since education standards are set on a state by state basis, things vary a lot, but in general, most of the big exams are going to be multiple choice. Math is usually an exception though, since you can objectively say whether or not an answer is correct.

That just seems so odd and a bit pointlessly to me. Multiple choice things are WAAAY easier than written answers (as evidenced on the occasions before I went to university and thence joined the Aotrs I did the odd one for a placement or something) compared to all the exams I'd done prior. I mean, that literally tells you the answer, all you have to do is pick it...



Urrrgh. So, I have made it through 3/4 of the campaign in Ashes of the Singularity, where it had been almost Starcraft II-ish in the gauging of the difficulty... and the last two missions were a difficulty cliff. I set one right down to the bottom difficulty out of annoyance and managed it, but the current one... Is psuedo timed and when I tried on Easy (after several tries on normal so I had some idea what to do) I ended up ragquitting when the AI hit me with four near-simultaneous attacks having given me basically no time to put any defences up. (And walkthrough os Ashes are apparently not-existant, aside from a few youtube ones which are not especially helpful, since it's basically just someone playing the mission.) So I went to Starock's forums (and saw that it isn't quite just me, a gentleman vetern player had just posted a thread on what he felt the problems with the campaign were...)

[Pi Pie]

Multiple choice tests.

Commander, there are some advantages to multiple choice tests to consider.
1) They are a lot faster to grade. This can save a lot of money. It can also make it faster to get results.

The best example of this was a website that came with my high school physics book for homework. I could work on the assigned problems at home and click the multiple choice answer. If the answer was incorrect, the program could guess where I went wrong based on the answer selected and suggested how to approach the problem. This provided immediate feedback and allowed me to learn without having to wait several days.

2) They are potentially subject to less bias. If a grader knows a student's paper either through a name, penmanship. writing style, etc. then that grader could consciously or unconsciously alter the grading style.

Now if we had computer programs that could grade written work, that would diminish the advantages of multiple choice tests, but we are not there yet.



S7 episode thoughts

Bottom 5
A Health of Information. This one bothered only because of Twilight's uncharacteristic calmness. Zecora is dying with only days to live and Twilight is more concerned about breakfast. The lesson of taking your time and not pushing yourself past limits is useful, but it was presented so poorly.
Fame and Misfortune. I had the same problems with this one as the rest of you.
Daring Done. It had so much potential. Considering the consequences of adventurer's actions could be fascinating. Instead, we are one again struck by how gullible pony herds are.
Forever Filly. This was just cringe inducing in places.
Shadow Play. This would have been much better had it been better set up throughout the season. My view of this one may change depending on what they do with Starswirl and the rest of the Old 6 in future seasons.

Top 5
Secrets and Pies. This was my favorite because it was simple cartoon antics. The humor and purity of this episode will keep me coming back.
All Bottled Up. Unlike many people, I enjoy the unreformed Starlight Glimmer. Also, tea cups.
A Flurry of Emotions. This was not a great episode originally. However, DWK's review of the episode was hilarious and makes this much better. The deep, possessed voice for Flurryheart was excellent.
A Royal Problem. The setup was forced. However, Starlight Glimmer fits in perfectly for this episode. Also, it brought us Daybreaker.
Triple Threat. Again, forced setup with obvious plot. However, Ember was fantastic. Thorax's shape changing was also fun especially since this came out before To Change a Changeling.

Honorable mention, The Perfect Pair. While I found this episode to be good for a Romeo and Juliet story, it did not move me as much as the rest of ponythread.

[Forum Explorer]

So fanfiction quote of the day

Jessie: "Whenever you have a choice between success and vengeance," she advised. "Go for the revenge. There's always a door open for success, but only a narrow window for payback."

It explains so much, and I clearly need to read more Pokemon fanfiction.

[DigoDragon]

The Pony of Shadows had virtually no screen time and he spent most of the time he was on screen either blustering about how much evil he was going to do or having his rump handed to him

Befitting a villain who's initials come out to be P.O.S.

We need a Celestia episode in season eight where Sombra comes back properly

Eh, I disagree. One thing worse than a redeemed villain is a villain brought back from the dead after the heroes slayed 'em. Leave him in the grave and use one of the still-living unreformed villains Equestria still has. I'd build up one of the lesser baddies. Trixie got interesting when she obtained the Alicorn Amulet. Imagine someone like Garble gaining competence and deciding to stage a coup.

2) They are potentially subject to less bias. If a grader knows a student's paper either through a name, penmanship. writing style, etc. then that grader could consciously or unconsciously alter the grading style.

Also, if the student has bad handwriting, the grader might misread their answer and mark it wrong when it was correct (this happened to me lots of times and I had to appeal a bunch of grades).

[Pi Pie]

We need a Celestia episode in season eight where Sombra comes back properly

Eh, I disagree. One thing worse than a redeemed villain is a villain brought back from the dead after the heroes slayed 'em. Leave him in the grave and use one of the still-living unreformed villains Equestria still has. I'd build up one of the lesser baddies. Trixie got interesting when she obtained the Alicorn Amulet. Imagine someone like Garble gaining competence and deciding to stage a coup.

How many villains do we have left in Equestria that could come back and be a threat that have not been reformed or killed?

Spoiler: S8 Spoiler

Show

We know that Chrysalis is coming back in Season 8.

It is hard imagining a threat to the mane 6, Discord, Starlight Glimmer, and the royal sisters. Add in the allies of the dragons, yaks, changelings, and potentially the original elements of harmony, and most villains are going to have a problem.

[Aotrs Commander]

How many villains do we have left in Equestria that could come back and be a threat that have not been reformed or killed?

It is hard imagining a threat to the mane 6, Discord, Starlight Glimmer, and the royal sisters. Add in the allies of the dragons, yaks, changelings, and potentially the original elements of harmony, and most villains are going to have a problem.

Which is kind of the issue.




Oh, hey, Firefox v57 and Mozilla? You see the digit? Yeah, that one. I tell you what, would you like to spin on it, spin on it until you squeal like pigs on a honeymoon? Ta. Because if the level of arrogant contempt you're going to show to people is going to be like that (e.g. a user interface that is going to be impossible for Nanny to read or use, after no warning to the general user (who, I dunno, uses your browser a good 16-18 hours a day every day) that you're going to break everything and have no customisation options) and say "yeah, people have said the text is too small, so our team might have fixed in 'a few months'"), I am looking for a new brower, you [Aotrs Censor Warning: the following text has been automatically censored from voice-to-text operation as being unsuitable for children, adults, equines, undead or eldrtich horrors beyond the concept of space/time. We apologise for the inconvenience.]



And having one of the Stardock devs come into the thread I posted yesterday and say "yeah, sorry, our bad, we did a rebalance and we aren't good at pretending to be newbies; I've fixed the timning on the lower difficulty levels, but so you don't have to wait for the next patch, here's the mission file you can download and manually install," and a good game og UCDR vrs Strayvians tonight, I'd been in such a good mood, too.

[DigoDragon]

How many villains do we have left in Equestria that could come back and be a threat that have not been reformed or killed?

Tirek if he breaks out again, and Ahuizotl if he can get a nice powerful artifact (and you know Equestria is practically tripping over crazy powerful artifacts since season 3).

Spoiler: Dear Princess Twilight...

Show

[b_jonas]

Tirek if he breaks out again, and Ahuizotl if he can get a nice powerful artifact (and you know Equestria is practically tripping over crazy powerful artifacts since season 3).

Ok, let's count.

• Chrysalis is almost certainly out there and I was already surprised she wasn't in the finale. She'll be back with a small army of renegade changelings forever.
• Tirek breaking out of Tartarus is overdue, yes, and he'll be stronger this time.
• Flim and Flam could come back with a new plan any time.
• The yaks. I know they're friends of the ponies now, but it seems they can get angry quickly, and can cause a lot of damage by stomping.
• Starlight Glimmer. If she decides the become evil, she could cause a lot of trouble. She could use magic to erase Hearts and Hooves day and cause the Windigos to return just to see if it's possible, or just decide to take over the world for fun.
• Suri Polomare might be pretty angry at Rarity's success, and she seems competent enough to do organize some very annoying act of vengeance.
• Gladmane. I think he could organize some followers.
• The Maneiac wasn't defeated forever. Yes, I know she's only in a comic book, but then Daring Do is also only in books.
• The Sirens, they might find the portal to Equestria now that it's open all the time and return, and cause some trouble even without their pendants.
• The dragons. Not the incompetent teenage dragon tribe that Ember rules, but the ancient ones like the spirit dragon Ugin or Nicol Bolas.
• Wind Rider.
• Zesty Gourmand.
• Svengallop.
• The flyders.
• The twittermites.
• The diamond dogs.
• The vampire fruitbats.
• The buffalos, if somepony messes up the pie they send to Chief Thunderhooves and he takes it as an insult.
• The gryphons. Maybe some of them are more organized than the ones in Griffonstone.

There's probably more that I forgot about. Also, if any of these isn't powerful enough alone, they can just try to break the Crystal Heart or damage the Tree of Harmony to cause trouble. Wait, does the Tree of Harmony even exist yet? I thought it evolved to the tree chest castle in S4 E26, but after S7 E26 I'm no longer sure.

I exclude these:

• I don't really count Ahuizotl or Stalwart Stallion, I don't think they'll cause much trouble for Equestria as a whole, they'll just keep fighting Daring Do.
• Daybreaker (Nightmare Celestia) is also unlikely.
• The cows. They can get scared of snakes and trample everything again, but I'm sure the ponies can stop them now.
• Discord. He'll cause trouble, but won't be as dangerous as a villain.

[Pi Pie]

Flim and Flam could be interesting although they would not be a true threat to Equestria.

Imagine Celestia and Luna traveling to Los Pegasus. They are there for a break from their royal duties, a bridal party, or something else.

Flim and Flam are somewhat reformed in their new casino taking care of guests. When Celestia and Luna walk in, Flim and Flam try to restrain themselves. They want to show the princesses a good time as proper high rollers.

However, old habits die hard. They cannot help themselves and create a plan to empty the royal treasury, ascend to alicorn status, or something else.

Flim and Flam trick Princess Luna. Pincess Luna is embarrassed and tries to hide her problems from Princess Celestia.

Eventually Princess Celestia finds out and intervenes with Princess Luna. Problem resolved.

[b_jonas]

Flim and Flam are somewhat reformed in their new casino taking care of guests.

I don't think Flim and Flam would stay in any one enterprise such as the casino for long. They might set up a successful entertainment empire, and get rich from it, but then they'll move on to other plans while leaving Las Pegasus in the hoofs of some competent manager, just like Rarity does with her Canterlot and Manehattan stores.

Now of course, if they get wind that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are visiting Las Pegasus, then the royal sisters will find that Flim and Flam just happen to be in for a completely unconnected surprise inspection in the casino.

[Aotrs Commander]

Huz-freaking-zah. After only seven damned years of looking, I finally found a pony advent calender.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Huz-freaking-zah. After only seven damned years of looking, I finally found a pony advent calender.

I'm ... surprised. Places like Aldi were selling them back in 2014

[Aotrs Commander]

I'm ... surprised. Places like Aldi were selling them back in 2014

Didn't have a local Aldi back then (we do now; which was, actually, where I found it); and I think the last couple of years, I got stuff from Sainsbury's (which have never had them in).

(Unless I did and I've utterly forgotten.)