My Little Pony's Justice 2 - Official MLP Thread v2

[Nix]

In other news, they made a blooper reel for The Friendship Games.

 

[Kevin]

I going to be honest, I didn't care for this episode at all. In fact, this might be the lowest point of Season 6 so far.

All that training and buildup and Rainbow makes a complete fool out of herself to the point where it becomes so cringeworthy and it didn't help that the whole "Rainbow Crash" bit got old fast.

Yes, it was her first day as an official Wonderbolt, and yes people do make mistakes on their first day, but she's better than this and has shown to be so.

The episode did have 2 strengths though, Ashleigh Ball's nailed it in her performance and how the episode addressed Rainbow's flaw and the support the Wonderbolts gave in regards to help her overcome it. At least finally Rainbow achieves her ultimate dream of becoming a Wonderbolt.

But other than that, it was a pretty meh episode for me.

[Echidna Adventurer CC14]

Hearing RD's AJ impression was surreal. XD

[MetalSkulkBane]

"cringe-worthy" is a good word to describe this episode. Lesson kinda makes sense, but they still use same nickname bullies used on her. And it never felt like a friendly banter.

Also, you know what is one thing that I'm a bit tired in this show? Something I call "Rule of Six". Rainbow fails 4 times being someone else, but she will try copying Rarity. 4 ponies failed to make friend with Maud, but fifth will try. Tantabus went through 5 dreams, he will walk through 6th. So many times we need to go though all mane 6 (or 5) doing same thing and it's mostly filler. Sure, sometimes it's kinda amusing (today's episode, when Rainbow was trying to learn for test) but usually we know what they will do: fashion, party, books and god damned apples. It's just easy way to kill few minutes of the episode.

[Nix]

This episode was fine other than Rainbow Dash being... well Rainbow Dash.  It's good that she finally managed to live her dream, and I think it makes sense that she'd regress to her more showboat tendencies when trying to make a good first impression for the team now that she's officially their equal.  It's a shame that Dash is completely unbearable when she acts like that though.

At the very least it was a lot better than last week's shit show.

[Dark Qiviut]

There's several degrees of mediocre and -20 degrees of awful. Since Wonderbolts Academy, Dash episodes have become Spike episodes. The only difference is Gauntlet of Fire is objectively good. Daring Don't, Rainbow Falls, and Tanks for the Memories are pitiful.

Newbie Dash easily competes with No Second Prances as season six's worst episode and may be the worst one after this season's done with.

What went wrong?

• Rainbow Dash's sense of maturity is completely nonexistent. One of her best traits is the ability to put her pride aside in favor of doing the right thing. WA is her best performance, because it put out the best in her from the middle onward. You knew it was about to come. Instead, she's become a very flanderized shell of herself with a monumental ego that has to be pegged time and time again. She marginalized her very own integrity by shooting it off early, embarrassing herself in front of the Wonderbolts, and being incompetent.
• Simultaneously, who can blame her? The Wonderbolts used a nickname that scarred her, and — what else is new? *eyeroll* — the Wonderbolts themselves were complete assholes! This is the third time that a group that she idolized acted like jerks in which she would want nothing to be a part of, yet she blows it aside. Consider Dash's history of when her confidence shatters. She wants to impress, but the more she gets hit with that insult, the worse her confidence gets, and the more she tries too hard.
• The dialogue is a mess. So much of it is contrived exposition. Again, when you exposit, you ruin the impact of the message and the overall. Show, don't tell, especially in child-friendly media. Take a good luck at how much the terrible dialogue ruined Rainbow Falls, Trade Ya!, EQG1, and McColts.
• The humor is a mess.

  The Spikabuse wasn't funny then and sure as hell isn't funny now. DHX, do the fandom a favor and knock this shit off!

  Pinkie Pie is flanderized again. *thumbs down* She's more than this.

  We're supposed to laugh at Rainbow Dash impersonating her friends, but it really failed. I don't know if the humor was in response to Dash's Twilight impersonation from Griffonstone or not, but whatever the case is, there is a huge difference between 'em. In Griffonstone, the joke worked because Dash was agitated when he impersonated her. In Newbie Dash, she impersonated them because she genuinely wanted to impress them. Consequently, Dash's impersonations in the latter comes across as cringeworthy and stupid, not funny.

• Jesus Christ, the moral. What the hell?!

  First off, let's talk about hazing, specifically rookie hazing. It's a very common tradition in many fields to "haze" newcomers. Hazing, for that matter, has had so many controversies. Some teams will haze rookies because to them, it's good ol' fun. But not everyone receives hazing very well because what comes across as good ribbing to the veterans can come off as bullying to the rookies. And when you look at the news articles of investigations related to hazing, the resentment is very valid. For several years, hazing has been on the news for really, REALLY bad reasons. People have been bullied, hurt, and killed by people who use these hazing rituals. A lot of the time, hazing deals with abusing someone under the context of "good fun" or "tradition." The abuse ranges from being taped up to a wall or pole to paddling to being raped. There's a movement to ban school hazing and some governments criminalizing hazing. Why? Because to haze is to bully, and it's not okay.

  What made this moral reprehensible is how Newbie Dash tolerates and embraces hazing.

  Why?

  "Because it's good fun."

  BULLSHIT!

  Rainbow Dash has every right to feel insulted and not take "Rainbow Crash" lightly. It doesn't matter if Spitfire or anyone else took their insult in stride. Not everyone does, and they have every right to say no. By being complacent, the episode tells the viewer their feelings towards insults don't matter. Words can hurt, and words can kill. Rather than ignoring it, be aware of it. Just because it's a common thing in the Wonderbolts's culture doesn't mean it's okay. Despicable moral!

In short, this episode is garbage!

[Strickerx5]

While today's showing wasn't that strong, I still found it miles ahead of what was last week's performance. The bulk of my problems for this episode can basically be summed up as "season 1 Dash". Can't say I've used this term in a couple of seasons...

She just seemed to had reverted back to her showboat ways and forgo all development she's gained on that front. This didn't seem like the Rainbow from the past few seasons but the Rainbow we were just meeting back in season 1. This lead to some routine plot points and a pretty predictable ending. Also, as some have already put, a lot of cringe moments as well.

Plus, way to play Spike up as nothing but comedic humor again... if you don't have anything for him to do in a scene just leave him out of it. The joke is old and just seems abusive at this point. He's been on a roll this season, don't stop that now.

Another con I noticed is that there were quite a few animation errors here. Background ponies were being copied and pasted to the point where it's something I would have expected from season 1 or 2. Hell, there was even a couple of shots of a blatant spitfire clone on screen with the actual spitfire right next to her.

It's a shame since the show's animation quality has been top notch as of late. I even noticed some left over storyboard content in some of the shots.

What happened here?

Though, that's not to say that I disliked everything that was offered here. I liked the overall moral of the episode. Going off my background in stage crew and other friendly shenanigans, nicknames from less than flattering situations are a common thing. Often or not directly from the people in the group that have been there the longest. While in Dash's case it might be a bit harder to take given that she's had experience with the name in the past, it definitely hit home for me as it's something I see almost daily. It can often be a way to quickly get yourself comfortable in a group since the worst is already out there and you're accepted (and can even have fun) for it. It made for a nice dynamic between Dash and the Wonderbolts for me.

Also, gotta say I love how all the ponies seem to be accomplishing their goals now. Just makes you realize how far the series has come and gives you a full sense of the ground that has been covered.

So yeah, overall this wasn't the strongest outing but definitely gave me something to think about. Though, I gotta wondering how much longer this show has? All of the main characters have basically accomplished their goals at this point so we might not be too far from the end. Pretty down thinking, I know, but it is something to note with episodes like these.

 

Also, as a side note:

2 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

So many times we need to go though all mane 6 (or 5) doing same thing and it's mostly filler. Sure, sometimes it's kinda amusing (today's episode, when Rainbow was trying to learn for test) but usually we know what they will do: fashion, party, books and god damned apples. It's just easy way to kill few minutes of the episode.

This. It's why I hold episodes in such high regard when they don't feel the need to shove every one of the main cast into it. While these situations can lead to some fun moments (hell, some of the best moments are from them) they do tend to act as nothing but filler and can ruin the pacing of episodes. We're in season 6 of this show. We don't need to know AJ's viewpoints of every current situation if she isn't directly involved in the plot. We can imagine what they'd be pretty well at this point. Leave some room for the other, less developed, characters to have some time in the light.

[AdventChild]

Newbie Dash marks a milestone where RD’s dream of being a Wonderbolt becomes a reality. Yet involves her making a fool of herself and regressing back to her S1 character and the Wonderbolts acting like jerks yet again by being bullies/hazing ‘for the fun of it’.

Yeah, I really didn’t like this one.

This episode started fine in the early few minutes of the first half but as it went on it was steadily going downhill fast.

Now let’s talk about the mane star and focus of this episode, Rainbow Dash. Just like last episode, character derailment strikes again as RD’s character development of being a bit humbler and deflating some of her ego seemed to have vanished to make this rather dumb plot to work. It just makes her look incompetent in the end along with her embarrassing herself. Sad thing is that she is better than this.

The Wonderbolts acting like jerks for the convenience of the plot… yet again! It’s getting ridiculous at this point. And RD idolizes these bullies? Honestly, I’d rather have her break off or even quit so she can make her own flyer troupe that have better attitudes (And with Blackjack and Hookers!). I’m starting to think Shadowbolts and Wonderbolts are interchangeable. Speaking of which, it ties into the (de)moral of this episode that seems to think hazing and insulting nicknames are okay which is rather insulting to the audience too esp. how controversial the subject hazing is. Not to mention not everyone will take such ‘names’ in stride and will probably feel left out and hurt or picked on regardless if it is just for fun or a nice ribbing. And didn’t feel like they did it in a friendly manner either. Also, this kind of behavior caused by her heroes in turn causes RD’s character to regress backward too.

The humor falls flat most of the time and just awfully written. From the unnecessary Spike abuse that we thought we’re moving from since Gauntlet of Fire to Pinkie Pie to RD’s cringe inducing imitation of her friends. And the Rainbow Crash thing gets old really quickly. I guess this is what you get when your newbie writer’s only credit is Without A Trace, a live action procedural drama, to do write an episode about cartoon pastel ponies. This probably should have been a joint project like with Dave Polsky doing the jokes/humor, might get somewhat better results.

So overall a milestone episode ruined by character derailed RD and jerk Wonderbolts done for the sake of the plot with tacked on awful humor.

[Strickerx5]

Welp, saw it coming with that early start but... yeah, it still sucks:

Mid-Season Hiatus Confirmed- Starts June 11th

Looks like we won't be getting back to the weekly schedule till around mid fall to early winter. Man, what's with shows and long breaks mid-season? I much prefer the long break and then a good half a year of non-stop episodes. But hey, if they need the time then take it. Also, I believe some prefer it this way so what can you do. Gives me time to catch up on other shows.

Though, I wonder if we're getting a EQG movie this year. That Everfree stuff has been advertised but I don't think a movie has been officially announced yet. Also, we're due for MLP movie news (the actual movie XD) any week now so I guess we'll have that to look into over the break.

[Kevin]

I saw that mid-season hiatus coming as well. We are getting another Equestrian Girls movie this fall. 

[MetalSkulkBane]

Anyone saw "A Hearth's Warming Tail" yet? Not the greatest, but much needed improvement over the last two.

Derpy is cute and Ghost of the Future was great, but episodes that adapt/parody classic stories rarely work for me. This one made a sin of somewhat ruining the moral.

1 Snow Frost is working hard "for the good of pony kind". The scene where everyone laugh at that notion is ridiculous.

2 In the book, future will be bleak because people would become bad. In MLP future will be bleak because Evil Spirits.

Basically, "The Cutie Re-Mark" was better Christmas Carol than this.

[Your Vest Friend]

Yeah, I'd have gone through with the spell myself regardless. Come at me, Windigo.

[Strickerx5]

*my exact reaction when I first saw the moon crest on the Future Ghost*

Spoiler

Ooooh it's a good day! I'ma get this out of the way now.

LUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh man! Did you see that awesome hoodie she was wearing!? I honestly thought the three ghost would simply just be members of the main six but what a fucking surprise! AND SHE WAS SINGING AGAIN!!!! OH THE IMAGERY, OH THE ANIMATION!!! YEEEAAASSSSS luna

*clears throat* Ok, now with that out of the wa- LUUUNNNAA -erm sorry, won't happen again. I thought the rest of the episode was pretty well done. Had some killer lighting and animation (especially after last week's) and some pretty catchy songs to boot. I'll especially highlight the later here since I've started to become a bit numb to a lot of the music to this show. I found it noteworthy in seasons 1-3 but it sort of just blended in from season 4 onward with only a few exceptions. Here, I was literally rocking my head in some areas. I also liked how the main six (and Starlight) were worked into this one. Each of them played a pretty interesting role.

Though, I guess my main problem with this episode really just stems to the actual plot. It's just another A Christmas Carol themed episode. It hits all the notes of it and doesn't do much beyond that to make it stand out from the multiple of other shows that have done it. It made for a pretty predictable tale.

But overall, I have to say I enjoyed watching this one. It might not have been revolutionary in its concept but its execution was well done. Definitely one I'll rewatch when the holidays comes around. Though, I have to question why they chose now to air this. Especially with the hiatus supposedly extending the season into winter. You'd think they'd just air the holiday themed episode there. Also, didn't we just get a holiday themed episode at the end of last season? Kind of weird... not to mention it further messing over whatever strands of a timeline this show had before now.

... but on to more important things, LUNA!

[Nix]

It's kind of surreal to have a Christmas episode in May.  Season 5 was off by 2 months or so, but this is just... damn.

The episode was a typical A Christmas Carol retelling; not much else to it honestly.  I'm not exactly sure how they went about picking the three spirits... I mean, Applejack, Pinkie, and... Luna?  I like Luna and all but she's sort of out of place with the other two... if only we had another two princesses who don't do anything.  I guess Luna was the most suitable pick for a song like that though; her delivery is cold and a bit haunting, which was perfect.

Anyways, I'm already getting sick of their go-to joke with Starlight this season.  You know the "remember the time when you were evil, oh man, hahahaha".

[Ducktor Naldush]

This episode was just your run-of-the-mill Christmas Carol adaptation, but since I love that story, I won't complain. It was good, and I will certainly re-watch it once Christmas comes around. Especially since I'm used to Christmas episodes in other times of the year that aren't Christmas. In Italy we dub things and broadcast episodes day-by-day, so you'll have Christmas episodes and other holiday-themed episodes close to each other.

Applejack is still best pony, by the way. 

[AdventChild]

So we have a Christmas episode….in May. Go figure.

Now how do I feel about this episode? Well, I prefer this over the last two episodes and I just find it to be okay.

I do like the visuals and some of the music as well as the parts with Pinkie/Ghost of Presents and Spike and some references.

Obvious problem with the pacing as it seemed to be fast and due to it being a musical and basically a 22-minute adaptation of a novel. As for the plot, it’s a pony version of A Christmas Carol. Need I say more? It basically hits the notes of the Charles Dickens classic without doing anything new to it other than add some Equestrian lore, making it plainly predictable esp. if you’re more familiar with the story and its many adaptations. Also, I’m more in favor of the animated Disney, The Muppet, and Patrick Stewart versions than this.

I do have some issues with the adaptation. The scoffing at Snow Frost’s notion of working “for the good of pony kind” felt really off and dumb. Also, the third act with the Ghost of Hearth’s Warming Yet to Come where the future is Windigo’s burying everything under snow didn’t have that strong of an impact compared to how the novel does it and kinda misses the point/moral of the original story. The Future part of the original is stronger as it shows what will happen if Scrooge doesn’t change his curmudgeon ways/attitude that he won’t be fondly remembered or be missed when he passes away and most will be joyous than mournful.

And still meh on Starlight, but also getting annoyed that her defining trait as well as a somewhat gag that she used to be evil. Isn’t this something we already went through with Luna/Nightmare Moon? It feels and gets too redundant and repetitive.

It’s a typical A Christmas Carol with ponies that does nothing much new, but gives some nice visuals and music and it’s a step up over the last two episodes.

[Dark Qiviut]

Quick review of The Saddle Row Review:

 

Another week, another great episode. The narrative style is very unique for the show, but given how it's around a review of her Manehattan boutique, having the ReMane Six and others being interviewed off in and out during the episode makes a whole world of sense. Mr. Stripes is very pushy, but he also means well for his daughter and wants her to be treated with respect. As nontraditional as her spoon idea was, she's not incompetent.

 

And this is where the episode works its wonders: the competence of everyone. When the ReMane Six played into their strengths, everything fell into place. When they didn't, everything went wrong. It borrows a little from Castle Sweet Castle this way, but the clever spin in the narrative style and the overall approach really freshened this episode. And by using their strengths, Rarity's new boutique apparently came out much better than even she anticipated.

 

The comedy is spot on. Rarity's freakout works, because she's stressed out. "NO SPOILERS!" works. Rainbow Dash's imitation works, because she's responding to annoying stimuli and the episode's backdrop is a lot lighter than Newbie Dash's. The Too Many Pinkie Pies references works so well. "Sweep" works. They don't sacrifice character or character dimension for it at all.

 

I'll write more when it's all processed, but needless to say, this episode really surprised me in a really good way. Easily one of season six's best.

[Nix]

This episode was actually great; Season 6's best episode by a landslide so far.  

Interesting framing with the episode's narrative; you'd expect from the beginning that the episode would be about the fallout that happens because of the interviews. but instead they show the interviews themselves and the story that the interviews are about.  I always got a kick when it cut back from the story as one the characters talked about the events that transpired; Twilight bragging about how she organized the botique in particular killed me.  There were a lot of good callbacks (like how one of Pinkie's clones apparently survived... that or EG Pinkie decided to take an impromptu visit to Manehattan for funsies), and they played each characters' strengths and weaknesses well, and discount Sunset is no where to be seen because fuck her.  Very good episode all around

On a minor note, I do like how we never actually hear Pon-3 talk.

[MetalSkulkBane]

This was fine episode to me, if a bit repetitive (the rule of 6 I mentioned before). A lot of great faces too, like when Twilight brags about her organization.

[AdventChild]

So after a Christmas episode last week we get an episode of Rarity furthering her fashion line.

I find it better than last week’s and it was a pretty okay one.

I liked the parts with Pinkie Pie along with the Vinyl Scratch party, some of Rarity’s meltdowns, Twilight’s Sweep remix, and points in the interview and the lesson.

The humor in this is hit-or-miss for me. The hits being the stuff I like already mentioned, but the misses for me are parts with Fluttershy and the raccoons and RD with the hiring and Stripes’ daughter, who I didn’t like much and didn’t find funny at all. I know it seemed to be the point, but could have easily replaced her with some other scenario. And it did feel slightly bloated with a lot of going on which affects the pacing a little. Also, getting kinda tired with the attention Manehattan is getting and would like to move on to a new destination. Can we get to Saddle Arabia and Trottingham this season please?

It does seem to feel like this and Newbie Dash that they’re ending some long running character arcs (even though I would prefer something else for RD than that episode). S6 does feel like the last thus far unless we get news confirming otherwise.

So overall a really nice episode with some good humor attached to it that is better than last episode.

 

[Strickerx5]

Wow, that was good. Like, really good. Can't remember the last time I enjoyed a Rarity episode so much. I think the one aspect of this episode that really got me is how they actually managed to put in all of the main six in without one of them feeling forced. Sure, some of the issues they were facing could have been easily been left out without the overall episode being too hindered by it but I'm definitely willing to let that pass when the humor surrounding it was top notch.

This episode also did a series first, if I'm not mistaken,  by starting the episode after the main event already having taken place. This made for some hilarious moments and dialogue (not to mention those faces like wow XD) but also kept from, what would have been, a predictable and by the books story. We already know that everything was going to work out in the end but the path getting there is what we're here to see. It's a common thing in shows and I'm actually surprised it took mlp this long to use it actually.

Another thing I liked about this episode (and also what season 6 has been doing in general really) is the way past events are casually brought up. Sure, you have some instances where it's purely a plot dump or kind of forced but here, none of it felt like that. It really did just feel like casual dialogue that people who haven't seen that episode won't miss but will be extra sweet for those who did. Also, that Pinkie clone gag was more hilarious to me than it had every right to be and has probably set up a ton of fan talk as we speak.

Overall, this might be one of the strongest episodes this season. Don't really have anything I didn't like about it really. I mean, the building owner's daughter had hit or miss humor but beyond that... yeah, a great episode in my book.

 

So I guess this wraps up Rarity's arc with her being a successful fashion designer in Equestria's biggest cities (from what we can tell). With RD being on the Wonderbolts now and the CMCs having their cutie marks... that sort of wraps up all the big arcs for the main cast at the moment. I mean, Spike still has the Dragon arc that they could easily go somewhere with (I'd personally love to see that happen actually) but as Advent said, this could easily be the final season. With it stretching to the end of this year and DHX supposedly working on the movie, we could see the series ending with the film. This is really all just speculation though and Hasbro could easily say this show is making too much money for the brand for it to end now (which I hope doesn't happen) but 6 seasons and a movie is a goal 99% of shows can never hit. I think I'd be fine with that.

[MetalSkulkBane]

I would really like it if this was the last season. Everything good must end, otherwise we end up with mess that are comic books or the Simpsons.

[Ducktor Naldush]

I would be fine with this being the final season. Everything is wrapping up, and it would be perfect to end it with the movie. Nothing lasts forever, and this show had a very good run.

 

[MetalSkulkBane]

Applejack's "Day" Off.  This is one of those episode that remind me I watch cartoon for 6 year old.

Wow the message was hammered to the ground. Hammered so hard it reach lava core, kept going and emerged in China.

But if kids these days are into fixing pipes then I guess they hit the spot.

[Strickerx5]

So that was... an episode, I guess. I can't even call it bad... just, uneventful. It just kept trying to hammer the same moral and running jokes into the ground. You know that one problem some episodes have of trying to do too much in a 22 minute time period? Well, this one had the exact opposite problem of not having enough to fill in the time slot. It's amazing too because apparently (going off of the credits) this episode had more people on it than a normal one. Guess they were probably scrambling to make something out of nothing...

It could be because I just don't find AJ that interesting of a character to begin with (especially compared to the others in this shows) but nothing she did here was good to me in any sense. I mean, you supposedly have one of the more reasonable members of the main six taking this long to find out that she has a major problem with her work load. The moral of the story (at least from what I saw) was that getting stuck in your ways can blind you from all the wrong you're doing and hinder your progress. Also, that it's much easier to see others problems as well. While this is a great lesson, I just find it ridiculous that AJ would go that long and not question the way she was doing things. Just made her come off as unbelievably thick here as a result. I mean honestly, she wrote that stuff down in steps! There should have been multiple alerts to her that something was off. It seems to be a return to a problem the show had a couple of season back in writing their characters to fit the story, rather than writing a story to fit the characters. You just end up with an off-character mess.

For the good, well... it's hard because a lot of it just blends in. I liked how Spike wasn't that much of a comedic character this time around. I also liked the varying pony designs in the spa. Plus, I'll give them points for not trying to shoehorn in every one of the main six. Though, I can't say that I recall too much beyond that. I wish we saw Twilight and Spike perform more of those ridiculous task AJ had.

Overall, while I found the moral to be a pretty great one, the episode surrounding it just ended up being dull. From the slow pace to AJ just being written poorly for the most part, it all just ends up being a pretty forgettable episode. Hell, I'm already starting to forget about it.