Dark Qiviut

Mr. Rogers is such an international treasure that can never be duplicated. But out of everything he ever did in his show, perhaps the best moment is when he met then-10-year-old Jeff Erlanger, who became paralyzed when he was under a year old due to spinal tumors. This moment below is unbelievably sweet and will make people shed a tear. Please, watch it all the way through. You won't regret it.

I already watched it when it was leaked, and my thoughts remain the same. Non-Compete Clause is crap. AJ and Rainbow Dash were completely OOC here, especially the latter for putting her focus on winning Teacher of the Month over the Student Six's safety while rowing. Thank God FIM's a piece of fiction, because had it be real-life, the school and Twilight might've had their plots sued for negligence. This episode features easily my bottom moment of the season: Yona nearly drowning. You'd think for a second that Dash and AJ would stop acting competitive with each other, grow the fuck up, and learn to be teachers. Instead, they continue to qualify one of Neighsay's strongest criticisms of the School: AJ and RD act completely unqualified. You two, this isn't Fall Weather Friends; at least you two weren't that close at the time, and the stakes were much lower. Had they remained competent and in character, that canoeing accident wouldn't have happened, and Yona wouldn't have to have her life saved. The dialogue itself is lousy. Clunky, forced, and painfully unfunny. To make it worse, this episode feels a lot like filler. After thy learned how their competitive behavior got in the way, they started arguing again, and it was all back to square one. The only saving graces here are Twilight calling Dash and AJ out for their shit (and threatening to take over the field trip after Yona nearly drowned) and Dash and AJ getting nominated for TotM — them risking that reward will make them think about how stupid they behaved on the trip. Overall, a major thumbs down.

Have to agree with a brony ep reactor (Truck Drivin' Brony, TBE). It makes so much sense for Starlight to be the School Counselor. She's been through so much throughout her life and learned so much since Twilight took her under her wing. She can really relate to a lot of people within the school regardless of race and will be able to utilize her experiences to help others when they're stuck or feel down.

An opinion is always up to question. Not only do I strongly disagree with your claim that Starlight hasn't had good episodes so far, but also firmly argue your claim outright. (That said, I'm not as upfront or hard-lined as I once was.) The Crystalling: This is easily one of the more low-key and slower-paced two-parters out there, but the roles involved made sense. For Starlight and Spike, this was the birth of their chemistry, and the way they behaved and interacted with their environment and each other created good moments. Starlight, for example, met Sunburst for the first time since they split up, and Sunburst's life, like Starlight's, wasn't pretty and quite reclusive because he saw himself as a failure for not being able to live up to his potential as a filly. All Bottled Up: One of the more underrated episodes of the show. Of the premiere episodes for S7, I'm of the group who considers this one to be the better of the two. Trixie's behavior made complete sense. Why? Because she performed complicated magic for the first time since probably ever. Everything Trixie does is illusion-related, and even then she's raw when it comes to this field. Her ability to transport and transfigure objects is a very new experience for her. She got carried away, but her reaction is understandable. Meanwhile, Starlight learned from Every Little Thing She Does by correcting its primary problem: going for broke as a last resort instead of the first. SG and Trixie fell out during No Second Prances, and Starlight feared that yelling at her and being verbally abusive to her will cause their friendship to fall out again, probably for good this time. Her desperate decision to bottle up her angry magic took a major toll on her, because she was so emotionally exhausted. Her actions had major consequences. To Change a Changeling: Unlike the others, this episode doesn't handle Starlight's role as well as it should've. Starlight's snappy judgment of Pharynx as a lost cause was out of character of her, and her decision to lure the Maulwurf to the Changeling Kingdom was very reckless. The good thing here is Thorax called her and Trixie out for this, and the episode treated what they did as wrong. When comparing it to other episodes in S7, this was her worst appearance, but it's okay at worst. But other parts were really strong. The dialogue very early had a boatload of organic chemistry, and Trixie's and Starlight's jabs at each other were really hilarious. But Pharynx (and his relationship with Thorax) was the true star of the episode. Pharynx is a lot like an old grandpa, who dislikes how much it's changing. But his grumpy behavior is very believable for a very key reason: Under Thorax's rule, the Kingdom lost their ability to fight and defend their hive against invaders, and the Maulwurf is well-known in the kingdom. He didn't change because he doesn't want to lose his warrior skills and put their lives in danger. TCAC began a major trend for the rest of the season. Rather than painting Pharynx as entirely in the wrong and Starlight/Trixie and the hive in the right, "Both Sides Have a Point." To echo a post I wrote offsite: Several episodes in the second half were written under this vision, and almost all of them came out in the better for it. Uncommond Bond: This was one such episode to operate under this trope, and the script allows the audience to empathize both Sunburst and Starlight, depending on your perspective. To start with Starlight, Sunburst was her only friend, so she was justifiably excited to make up for lost time and be with him. She wants to bond with him better by trying to find things in common with each other, only for her to be bored with them and be left behind as Sunburst bonds more and more with Twi, Trixie, and Maud. To echo a friend offsite, the episode demonstrates her growth and development both from others and during UB very subtly. Even at the cost of her own enjoyment, she allows Sunburst to have a good time with her friends, showing us as an audience her growth from Every Little Thing and even A Royal Problem here. US seeing her becoming more and more demoralized as Sunburst bonds with others makes us relate to her on a very emotional level. Her decision to magically recreate their pastime as fillies was disturbing, but not performed in a way that suggests she's stuck in her old tactics. She wants to bond with Sunburst and is desperate. So when he rejects her offer to bond, it becomes soul-crushing. OTOH, Sunburst doesn't outshine or ignore her from malice, and he's not acting like an asshole to her. Sunburst shared several interests with her friends and bonded with them naturally. Their hobbies matched his liking, and he shared that with them. He got carried away, but the episode makes it clear he didn't overshadow SG with ill intentions. He really likes her and considers her a really good friend, and sometimes friends argue or have friction. When he works with Maud, Trixie, and Twilight to utilize their strengths and create a life-size game of Dragon Pit, it was done because he cares about her, and the way SG was written earlier shows that with a clear, sympathetic picture.

Every character has at least two good episodes, if not more. Starlight has The Crystalling, All Bottled Up, To Change a Changeling, and Uncommon Bond (one of S7's best). All four are good. And Starlight is the best written of the Mane Eight last season. Her appearances were much more frequent in quantity, but her characterization showed growth and was the most consistent in overall quality without a poor role. Unlike S6, she feels like she belongs with not just the ReManing group, but also the rest of Ponyville. Everything she learned for the last two seasons culminated into Shadow Play, her best appearance and role so far.