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

[DabigRG]

Decided to go ahead and watch Friendship University, since it was out there before it airs today.

Star Swirl was indeed traveling  the world all this time--alone, it would seem. This is the type of thing I recall thinking Starlight and/or some other characters probably could've done a while back and I'm glad they actually did follow up on this. In terms of the actual plot, he(and to an extent, Rarity for that matter) has relatively little screentime and emphasis beyond indirectly [] motivating Twilight, Neighsay, and the students.

Was a little surprised they used Rarity and not Starlight in this one until she got into Flam's class for incognito observation. And even then, I thought the sort of things she was doing there, as well the characters(Twilight, Chancellor Neighsay, Cozy Glow) and themes(Alternative Friendship School, Reformed/Non-threatening Villains, Disguises) involved, would've still a climate that would fit more with her--especially since Rarity was rather subdued in this one. Maybe if Stygian was here, they would've done that, although they would probably change the story a bit out of habit.

Chancellor Neighsay's presence here was indeed relatively brief, especially given we're already into the 2nd half of the season, though I actually kinda liked his use here. Once again invoking the Starlight 2.0 comparison I conjured, this episode used his status/skill to greenlight the titular establishment as a "proper" alternative/competitor for Friendship Lessons--giving him to air of being an overarching Big Bad for the Season without having him be the explicit focus of the episode. Though it's entirely possible that he really didn't know about Flim & Flam's secret scam, which somewhat leans back to the fact that despite his obviously [word for docile yet ominous] presentation, he's just a xenophobic education official. On a smaller note, he seems to quietly revere Star Swirl, which also prompts his exit from the episode. This admittedly confused me for a second until I remembered that he's a unicorn himself--doy!

Got a laugh out of the joke that Rarity suspected they were taking advantage of the similar character models for publicity's(?) sake.

I gotta say, I actually thought Flim and Flam were on the up and up, despite the fact that Neighsay was involved(although that admittedly makes more sense than his role would have you believe) and they're vaguely dickish behavior towards "Plainity" and Twilight. Even funnier is the understated reveal that their lessons were revealed to be from Twilight's Friendship Journal, although the show briefly tries to use it for some confusing suspense for later on(yes, I skimmed too far done an episode guide a while back, but it still makes no sense in context). The real scam was actually rather mundane and harmless at first glance, as Twilight inadvertently lampshades at the beginning by listing off their increasingly downsized plans and the episode even seemingly ends on the note that they can still keep their school as long as they return the [over]charged money.

[AdventChild]

This week’s episode is Friendship University or F U. Starring or shall we say guest starring Starswirl the Bearded and of course, with the title involves schooling yet again. *Sigh…

Outside of some stuff with the disguises, this one completely bored me.

As much as I wanted to see more of the Pillars, I wish they didn’t have to involve the school and that we get more insight of their adventures whether it be in the past or in the present. Hay, it would’ve been better to have Starswirl or another Pillar maybe tell one of the old stories during class that takes much of the episode instead. Starswirl was sidelined in this and more like a plot device instead.

The song was kinda forgettable. The Rarity and Twilight partner chemistry felt as dense as air as you could replace Rarity with any other pony for similar results. Maybe Stygian since Starswirl was involved would’ve been a better choice. Twilight not recognizing her work was basically plagiarized was weird. The ponies holding the Idiot Ball for not recognizing Twilight for a stupid joke. Also, not really caring for Naysayer or Flim Flam as antagonists in this.

A bland episode overall.

[Strickerx5]

This week saw the US release of Friendship University and honestly... can't say I was much of a fan of it. Though, strangely, that's not because I thought the episode was bad. I just don't have much to say about this one really.

Honestly, everything about this episode seemed sound to me. Flim and Flam returning is always a neat callback(though no AJ oddly enough) and the paring of Rarity and Twilight was a nice and rare (heh) event. I think I just wasn't really invested into the overall plot is all. You know from experience that F & F are troublemakers and that sort of kills any tension the episode could've raised. It raises a lot of interesting moral ideas with Twilight but never really follows through with them. I guess the combination of all these things just triggered something in my mind to not really engage with what was happening on-screen. Mostly because I really knew where everything was heading.

Overall, I wouldn't call the episode bad. Just really predictable and somewhat boring.

Some of Tabitha's lines definitely got a chuckle out of me though so there's that I guess. Rarity was a highlight in general. Odd that she hasn't really done much this season now that I think about it.

[AdventChild]

The End in Friend is this week’s episode or what I like to call Rarity and Rainbow bicker for nearly 20 minutes the episode.

So not a fan of this one. It’s like a lesser version of Non-Compete Clause but that’s not saying much.

Probably the only intriguing things were the frog monster.

With the premise, I would have expected an episode like this to appear between S1-S4, not this late in the game. The school class feels really shoehorned in and kinda disrespectful on Twilight’s part to exploit her friends’ dilemma as a lesson/field trip, even unintentionally so. What’s next? Pry into a private couple’s lives with their marriage on the brink of divorce and convince her students’ that they won’t? This school stuff is such BS.

As said before, much of the dialogue consisted of the two arguing with each other and I just didn’t find it entertaining or funny in the slightest. Just got annoying after a while. The third of the episode was predictable in its set up and rather mostly dull esp. with the message that have been done in the series before.

A less than average annoying episode.

[Strickerx5]

Imo, this was another very predictable plot line which sort of dragged on until the end there. You always knew both Rarity and Rainbow were going to become friends again and I think a greater emphasis was put on the moral than the actual events of the episode. I mean, it's an important thing to teach but really, this was really dull. Not to mention the overall resolution feeling pretty empty when you realize that it was just Twilight and Starlight pulling the strings to fix a problem that they caused tbh. Really, following the two around during their day was an abnormally stupid idea and almost out of character for Twi.

We've known these characters for too long to be entertained solely by their base traits and nothing more. It's when their traits work off one another that things become interesting (as seen towards the tail end of the episode) but when you're constantly just putting them at odds... eh. It's like that one part in most bigger plot lines when the main characters get into an argument. You know they're always going to make up and defeat the threat at the end so it literally makes the whole sequence drag on in most things. This episode is literally that one sequence, stretched into a 22 minute piece.

So yeah, overall a pretty weak episode. Not necessarily on the bad end of things but certainly too dull to warrant a re-watch.

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, AdventChild said:

 

With the premise, I would have expected an episode like this to appear between S1-S4, not this late in the game.

That was my thought as well.

Like, doing character combos you've mostly neglected is cool and all, but when it's on such a really basic premise in Season friggin 8, you're clearly doing something wrong.

1 hour ago, Strickerx5 said:

 Not to mention the overall resolution feeling pretty empty when you realize that it was just Twilight and Starlight pulling the strings to fix a problem that they caused tbh.

Ch'yeah, I realized that when Twilight and the kids followed them to the Buckball field.

[RedFox99]

34 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Like, doing character combos you've mostly neglected is cool and all, but when it's on such a really basic premise in Season friggin 8, you're clearly doing something wrong.

It's safe to say that the writers are starting to run out of ideas.

[DabigRG]

21 hours ago, RedFox99 said:

It's safe to say that the writers are starting to run out of ideas.

I mean, 8 seasons, you're bound to have issues, but this is a franchise with decades of material to rework and a generation that has so many concepts to still work with.

[Tornado]

I liked the Trixie episode.

 

*leaves thread*

[DabigRG]

2 minutes ago, Tornado said:

I liked the Trixie episode.

 

*leaves thread*

Which Trixie episode?

[RedFox99]

35 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Which Trixie episode?

The Road to Friendship I believe. It didn't air yet in America, but it's one YT. 

 

[RedFox99]

44 minutes ago, Tornado said:

I liked the Trixie episode.

 

*leaves thread*

Not to start something, but it feels like the writers are starting to overuse the "Friends argue and are no longer friends anymore, but they eventually make up" trope now. I mean we had around 3 or 4 episodes this season with that trope and the Movie did it as well. I mean from what I've heard it's more reasonable in RtF, but still...

[DabigRG]

22 minutes ago, RedFox99 said:

The Road to Friendship I believe. It didn't air yet in America, but it's one YT. 

 

Oh yeah, the episode where she's on tour or whatever?!

Been waitin on that one.

2 minutes ago, RedFox99 said:

Not to start something, but I feel the writers are starting overuse the "Friends argue and are no longer friends anymore" trope now. I mean we had around 3 or 4 episodes this season with that trope and the Movie did it as well. I mean from what I've heard it's more reasonable in RtF, but still...

That's a good sign.

[RedFox99]

1 minute ago, DabigRG said:

That's a good sign.

How so?

[DabigRG]

3 minutes ago, RedFox99 said:

How so?

I've been waiting for something else to happen between those two, particularly inverted, for a while now.

What is RtF, mind?

[RedFox99]

1 minute ago, DabigRG said:

I've been waiting for something else to happen between those two, particularly inverted, for a while now.

What is RtF, mind?

Road to Friendship. Though the actual name is On the Road to Friendship. 

[pastelspectre]

i havent watched the road to friendship or the washouts as they havent aired in america yet and i like to watch them as they come out, but i do look forward to them. to be honest i liked friendship university, but flim and flam got on my nerves as they always do in every episode they appear in. i also liked the end in friend. it was a cute episode, even if rarity is my least favorite out of the mane six (but she is starting to warm up on me.)

[AdventChild]

This week’s episode is On The Road to Friendship starring Starlight and Trixie…yay…woo….

A Meh one for me, though that’s mainly due to my indifference and dislike of these characters.

The things to like would be the backgrounds and world building and the unicorn that follows them.

Not a fan of the song. The writing and dialogue didn’t do much for me either as almost half is bickering and arguing which almost reaches The End in Friend and Non-Competitive Clause levels but granted not as bad. Still feels like that kind of writing and dialogue had been prevailing in this season and it’s getting tiresome IMO. It’s like many of the writers were copying on each other’s notes/scripts.

A so-so episode.

[DabigRG]

So, having seen the episode Road to Friendship, I can give a surprisingly quick statement of my thoughts.

I enjoyed the episode well enough, glad to see Starlight and Trixie get the spotlight again, but the overall plot felt...weird.

Like, the description on the guide itself was general enough, but ReddFox and a comment from one of Lily Orchard's latest videos gave away the fact that this is technically another friendship failure episode. To the episodes slanted credit, I've actually been wanting something like this to happen with those two from Starlight's end for a while, but at the same time, the actual breaking of their friendship doesn't happen until the "third arc."

Otherwise, the episode is primarily the sardonic antics of the two anti-heroes as they throughout what I assume is the Eastern part of Equestria, which I enjoyed quite well.

Kinda got the sense that Hoo'Far, the Saddle Arabian Unicorn who proposed the journey in the first, was a bit of a dick at times. Like, not only is he the catalyst of this plot, but he had been essentially following the two during their stops and was constantly trying to get Trixie's cart throughout the episode despite her objections and yet the final third seems to both place most of the blame on Starlight(who was ignorant of his attempts) and yet also have him somewhat smugly refuse to trade back without an extra appeasement. Luckily, the episode is pretty much all about not so ideal characters being snippy with and occasionally dicking over each other to humorous effect and Trixie's bond with the cart wasn't emphasized much beyond a couple of throwaway comments as anything too serious/personal, so it ultimately didn't bother me too much.

The song was catchy enough I guess, though the flow of it felt a bit erratic at times due to the varied speedtalk moments. Kinda got the sense the show was experimenting with different genres again, as it kinda reminded me of Rumble's(?) episode.

Also, three minor side things:

1. Am I the only one who wondered why Starlight(or Trixie, for that continuity matter) didn't just teleport the dang wagon at certain points?

2. Boy, did Cadence and Flurry Heart being at the beginning just invoke a color flash-bang with Starlight similar to the one from the third act(?) of Every Little Thing She Does, albeit nowhere near as eye-straining-ly close and prolonged. Rubs in once more that Starlight was not designed with her reformation and essential assimilation into the A-B-list cast in mind

3. TVTropes points out that like Starswirl and [spoiler for future episode thumbnail I saw floating around], Somnambula could've been in the episode as a middlemare between the unicorns since that was apparently her hometown. While I personally didn't mind her absence(especially since I completely forgot about the town), it is a little odd they didn't do that.

 

Btw, there are very vague/loose but still significant enough spoilers on the Characters Page of TVTropes, so be careful if you don't want those aspects of the ending spoiled. Even if one was kinda predictable to me, but the other is a a surprise that also takes some away in conjunction with the former.

[Strickerx5]

So I just watched the new episode (On the Road to Friendship) and uh... yeah, this was a weird one.

It was nice to see Trixie and Starlight's dynamic again and it was definitely intriguing to see the age old road trip struggle dynamic play out. Though, the overall plot of the episode was very left and right. Was the new character Hoo'Far (who's name I could only find from @DabigRG's post because I swear it's not said in the actual episode) suppose to be an antagonist or actually helpful? He causes one of the biggest problems in the episode but then directly helps solve it. And why was he so eager to get rid of his obviously better cart. Was it because of the size of it? It's never stated. It'd be like me giving away my modern gaming PC for some early 2000s laptop or some shit. His actions made no sense.

Not to mention the overall friction between Trixie and Starlight which is... imo, not enough to carry an episode's tension at this point. We've seen the two fight already and, real talk, their actions here are par for the course with road trips. Nothing major. Of course, Starlight giving away Trixie's cart can be seen as a big problem as it could have sentimental value but Trixie never makes that apparent. Starlight literally even moved her stuff out of it. Again, I get why Trixie might be mad but that's just me literally placing plot points in where the writers never did. The overall conflict wasn't handled very well to justify the lesson here.

I think it speaks volumes as to how strong of characters both Trixie and Starlight are and how well they generally play off one another (especially their VAs work here) that I still found this episode somewhat enjoyable. Everything surrounding them was off but their interactions literally just pulled the rest of the episode along.

So yeah, overall a pretty weird one that's only really carried by the two main characters in it.

The song was pretty good though.

[RedFox99]

I think this season alone contains more Friends Bickering episodes than most other seasons. TBH, I'm hoping we don't have any episodes like that in Season 9 because @AdventChild said, the trope is really starting get tiring, not helped that the Movie did it as well. 

Speaking of which, I think it's best

 

Gen 4 is ending with season 9 since the show has been running out of steam lately, and I don't see it lasting longer before it becomes like the Simpsons. 

[DabigRG]

Something I just thought of while doing some research: Didn't the Season 8 overview mention the introduction of Starlight's parents?

13 minutes ago, Strickerx5 said:

Was the new character Hoo'Far (who's name I could only find from @DabigRG's post because I swear it's not said in the actual episode) suppose to be an antagonist or actually helpful? He causes one of the biggest problems in the episode but then directly helps solve it.

It was only in the credits. They've had so many guest stars lately that I just check it out of habit.

And yeah, around the final commercial break, I found myself questioning that as well.

14 minutes ago, Strickerx5 said:

And why was he so eager to get rid of his obviously better cart. Was it because of the size of it? It's never stated. It'd be like me giving away my modern gaming PC for some early 2000s laptop or some shit. His actions made no sense.

 

I didn't really get that either.

Like, I guess he's supposed to have a genuine admiration of Trixie's craft, but yeah, it just seemed like he wanted it just because. It didn't help that he kinda sketchy about it.

The ending vaguely gives off the impression that he could've been a trickster mentor type character, but that obviously doesn't line up with his portrayal in the rest of the episode and would be a rather blatant asspull.

Ultimately, the general mood of the episode kept me from being annoyed with him, as his overall portrayal has him as being less petulant than Glimmer-Moon and he had even kind of a humorous retaliation when Trixie confronted him.

14 minutes ago, Strickerx5 said:

 

 Of course, Starlight giving away Trixie's cart can be seen as a big problem as it could have sentimental value but Trixie never makes that apparent. Starlight literally even moved her stuff out of it. Again, I get why Trixie might be mad but that's just me literally placing plot points in where the writers never did. The overall conflict wasn't handled very well to justify the lesson here.

Like I said, there were two or three throwaways lines here and there about it, but it was never really emphasized as anything very crucial to Trixie.

Hell, she even just plops herself in the middle of road after making Starlight leave, to which. We're clearly not supposed to take it that seriously.

Also, he even threw in a robe for Starlight to wear.

 

14 minutes ago, Strickerx5 said:

 

I think it speaks volumes as to how strong of characters both Trixie and Starlight are and how well they generally play off one another (especially their VAs work here) that I still found this episode somewhat enjoyable. Everything surrounding them was off but their interactions literally just pulled the rest of the episode along.

So yeah, overall a pretty weird one that's only really carried by the two main characters in it.

The song was pretty good though.

Yeah, kinda like the Rarity & Rainbow episode from a week or two ago and maybe the Celestia & Luna one from last(?) Season, this kinda seems like an episode we could've/should've gotten in a previous season to appreciate them properly.

Starlight in particular needed episodes like these to help vary things up with her usage wise, especially in her earlier seasons.

34 minutes ago, RedFox99 said:

I think this season alone contains more Friends Bickering plots than most other seasons. 

Which is weird, since that seemed to be what Season 5 wanted to be about.

At the very least, this one was more played for laughs and involves two characters who really would fit that setup more acceptably.

[RedFox99]

3 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Which is weird, since that seemed to be what Season 5 wanted to be about.

Really? I don't remember too much episodes where the characters bickered...

[DabigRG]

6 minutes ago, RedFox99 said:

Really? I don't remember too much episodes where the characters bickered...

Not so much bickering as friendships that are at risk of straining or have been unknowingly left in tatters and how Cutie Marks can just as easily ruin a life as they define it.

Admittedly, I don't recall every episode off the top of my head, but those seemed to be the general theme.

[RedFox99]

Just now, DabigRG said:

Not so much bickering as friendships that are at risk of breaking or have been unknowingly left in tatters and how Cutie Marks can just as easily ruin a life as they define it.

Admittedly, I don't recall every episode off the top of my head, but those seemed to be the general theme.

Oh, yeah with Starlight and Sunburst.