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

[MetalSkulkBane]

One: I didn't seen a Equestria Girls 4 yet, but is it me or FIM stopped making new villains? Even last two are Sunset 2.0 (doomed to be reformed) and guy from original cartoon.

Two: I'm bloody tired of 2-parters focused on Starlight.

Over all it was better than Flurry Heart, but it would really had to work hard to not be. Idea of taking 4 back group ponies isn't bad and I do like constantly changing home of Changeling (blowing it up was very mean of them). Too bad Thorax is still boring. His whole personality can be summed up as 'nervous'. Starlight continues to be shadow of better characters, so half of the group is meh. Discord and Trixie were fine, although I'm really not a fan of "Dicord bad comedian" thing. In theory it sounds fun, making powerful, trolly, Dicord a loser at something, in practice it's watching him make intentionally bad jokes. I kinda liked Fluttershy scene. Sure it didn't made sense (just grabbed him, you transforming show-offs), but it was the closes thing this show made to psychologically messing with someones head (at least since Discord debut...eh).

If it sounds I'm looking down at the show, it's because I kinda am. Imminently after it I watched episode of "Wander over Yonder" and I had much better time. I don't know if show got worse, novelty run out or something, the point is I'm tired of ponies. There for I'm quitting while I'm a head. I'll still watch the movies, maybe even 2-parters, but unless Hasbro announces end of the series, I'm not touching normal episodes.

(Although if something I really should see comes out, I would be grateful if someones let's me know.)

[Strickerx5]

10 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

If it sounds I'm looking down at the show, it's because I kinda am. Imminently after it I watched episode of "Wander over Yonder" and I had much better time. I don't know if show got worse, novelty run out or something, the point is I'm tired of ponies. There for I'm quitting while I'm a head. I'll still watch the movies, maybe even 2-parters, but unless Hasbro announces end of the series, I'm not touching normal episodes.

(Although if something I really should see comes out, I would be grateful if someones let's me know.)

I absolutely see where you're coming from man. I've stopped watching a multitude of shows for the same reasons. It'll happen to all of us at some point. I think it's safe to say that pony has gone on for... a hell of a lot longer than most of us ever envisioned it going. Whether it has gotten worse over the years... personally, I wouldn't say so. Well, I mean seasons 1 and 2 are still pretty much on the top if I were to rank all the seasons at the moment but I do think the show has been pretty leveled throughout (also I can't quite pinpoint whether that's nostalgia talking or something). Though, I will say that a fatigue is probably starting to set into the general audience as a whole. I mean, how could it not with over 140 episodes? I don't know about you all, but I certainly lost track of specific episode names and details around season 5.

I've just always taken things week by week and have only watched the episodes when I feel like it. Really though, it's an example of even a good thing being tiring at some point.

I'll definitely notify you if anything groundbreaking happens man. (i.e) anything with Luna in it. XD

[TwiggyXXX]

Just a questi9n but how many of you are in the mlp forums?

Sent from my LG G4 using Tapatalk

[Strickerx5]

Uh oh, look out everyone. Cause we just got our first look of Gen 4 SEAPONIES! (oh, and a bunch of characters from the movie too)

Spoiler

(don't know why the quality of this one is so bad)

 

Wait, don't we already have cats in the sho-... well at least his design looks spiffy.

 

Well then, let me go down the list here and try to predict their roles in the movie. We got the new best friend, the new best friend who doesn't want any friends but secretly really does, the random side character who isn't really plot important but is there, the guy you think will be the bad guy but is actually really nice, the wild card (I'm seriously really interested on where they're going with this one), and... "Queen"... By Hasbo's logic, the villain.

 

Also, there's a lot of royalty on here. Heh, though, it's not like they're all about to upstage Celestia and Luna again right? Haha, like, they're not going to be given more prominent roles in this movie alone than the first two royals we ever saw have gotten in 6 seasons right lol...

... i swear if celestia and luna don't get their own episode is season 7...

 

[Meta77]

More ponys

[Strickerx5]

Oh wow... the time might finally be upon us. (Source)

Spoiler

A GD Celestia episode as I live and breathe.

If this is true then it's about damn time. Seriously, she was in the first two parter and she's just now getting her own episode?

 

Apparently Hasbro just held some press conference recently and a lot of news about the movie came from it. Such as the number of songs in the film, some more promotional art with the new art style, and some small character descriptions. Everything but a darn trailer basically. Though, I like that they're not giving too m uch away. I think it's good to introduce the new characters before going any further.

 

Though, if that wasn't enough pony news, apparently Hasbro has already confirmed an 8th season for next year... oh, and the 7th season starts airing in April. Dear lord, I've never heard of a show getting this much future confirmation before. They're sort of jumping the shark but I'd be lying if I wasn't excited to see what's coming.

[Your Vest Friend]

Also some of the spoilers include confirming the fact that Rainbow Dash and Applejack's parents are still around.

[Strickerx5]

11 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

 

  Hide contents

Also some of the spoilers include confirming the fact that Rainbow Dash and Applejack's parents are still around.

 

Wait, where did you hear about that last part? Because if that's true... that's going to be a major blow to a lot of fan theories.

[AdventChild]

Sadly, things are looking less chaotic for S7 as John De Lancie has tweeted that he might not be in this upcoming season. So fans of Discord (like me) are going to be disappointed in this news. Sure, his recent episodes hasn't been that great, but still was a positive and entertaining nonetheless.

https://www.equestriadaily.com/2017/02/john-de-lancie-doesnt-think-he-is-in.html#more

 

Also, some worrisome news on the merchandise and toy front with plenty of third party toy producers have cut ponies from their production lines.

https://www.equestriadaily.com/2017/02/my-little-pony-licence-dropped-for.html

https://www.equestriadaily.com/2017/02/ny-toy-fair-fun-not-doubled-funrise.html

Sounds like Hasbro is taking a risk of carrying the pony load all by itself. Though could be temporary just around the time for the movie and for movie promotions. If Hasbro is focusing on bring in more to quality to their toys, then fine. However, if Hasbro can't keep up with the quality and even quantity in demand equally with these third party companies, then it'll probably hurt them in the long run. And as they say, that they rely on toy sales rather than ratings even for the show so....eh heh...yeah...

[Strickerx5]

1 hour ago, AdventChild said:

Sadly, things are looking less chaotic for S7 as John De Lancie has tweeted that he might not be in this upcoming season. So fans of Discord (like me) are going to be disappointed in this news. Sure, his recent episodes hasn't been that great, but still was a positive and entertaining nonetheless.

 

Sounds like Hasbro is taking a risk of carrying the pony load all by itself. Though could be temporary just around the time for the movie and for movie promotions. If Hasbro is focusing on bring in more to quality to their toys, then fine. However, if Hasbro can't keep up with the quality and even quantity in demand equally with these third party companies, then it'll probably hurt them in the long run. And as they say, that they rely on toy sales rather than ratings even for the show so....eh heh...yeah...

Huh, that's really odd to hear. Discord has become such a main recuring character that it's hard to think of a season without even an appearance by him. Though, I guess I would have said the same thing about Zecora a couple of seasons back and look how many episodes she's been in recently. With all the characters in this show, I guess it's just inevitable that some  are going to get lost in the chaos for a while.

 

As far as the toys are concerned, I can't say I was ever too into any of them to begin with. I'm not worried too much though. From what I've see with sales figures, all it takes is a new princess figure to put sales through the roof...

Spoiler

And the movie has one/ two coming already.

 

[Penny]

Wouldn't AJ's parents still being alive be a retcon? Remember in an earlier episode (in season 3 I think?) they had those two little shooting stars to pay tribute to them being dead (or something like that)

[Nix]

2 minutes ago, Penny said:

Wouldn't AJ's parents still being alive be a retcon? Remember in an earlier episode (in season 3 I think?) they had those two little shooting stars to pay tribute to them being dead (or something like that)

They also didn't show up to the reunion that the entire Apple family showed up for.  Honestly, them being alive would make the Apple Family Reunion episode really dumb.  Applejack's whole goal was to make the reunion special because you never know who's going to make it to the next one.  Combine that with the imagery they employed twice with the shooting stars, and it's easy to infer that she suffered some sort of loss and that was her motivation for why she feels the need to make it special.

Without it, it's just AJ being a dumb silly pony, and that's stupid.

But then again, we got that shitshow in Season 6 where she was revealed to be the dumbest farmer in the world, so anything's possible these days I guess.

[Kevin]

Lots of Season 7 news!

First, Jim Miller has tweeted that the premiere date is April 15th.

Second, we have a clip:

They're basically picking up right where Season 6 left off. Did they sure bring the whole gang together for this one!

The first two episodes are called “Celestial Advice” and “All Bottled Up,”. Here's the synopsis:

 

Quote

In the back-to-back premiere episodes titled “Celestial Advice” and “All Bottled Up,” Twilight Sparkle agonizes over Starlight Glimmer’s future and receives some much-needed advice from her very own mentor – Princess Celestia. While the Mane 6 are on a friendship retreat, Starlight Glimmer loses Twilight Sparkle’s friendship map. Afraid her anger might get out of control, Starlight Glimmer casts a calming spell while the ponies search for the lost map.

Source

[pastelspectre]

can someone fill me in on AJ and RD's parents being dead bc..i just finished s6 yesterday and..i'm very confused on the death part of their parents???? i probably sound dumb sorry

also, i am sort of looking forward to season 7. discord is one of my favorite characters, so i am sad to see he won't be in it too much. but at least we will still have fluttershy, she is also one of my favorites. i just hope season 7 turns out better than season 6 bc season 6 was pretty lackluster in my opinion. also i am looking forward to the movie, seems like we have lots of good actors and actresses.

also there are new EG shorts coming out in the summer or something right? if so then i am definitely looking forward to those bc to be honest at this point i'm preferring EG to FiM... oops.. :c

[Kevin]

Well that was certainly a change of pace. Instead of a 2 parter big event happening, we get two episodes right off the bat.

Let's start with the first one. It's a clearly a Twilight/Celestia episode and to say there were many emotions is an understatement. This is the bonding between Twilight and Celestia that I wish we'd gotten more of, but better now than never. Spike keeping everyone in check and Discord is his antics is always a hoot.

With the second episode, I absolutely love the chemistry between Starlight and Trixie. They clearly work well off one another and I hope to see more of their interactions in the future. It looks like the show is taking Starlight in the direction that it took Twilight when she was first starting out, but that's ok since I personally love character development in general.

[Strickerx5]

Hm, well this was certainly an interesting approach to start a season. These two episodes did a lot of things I loved and a lot of things that have been a growing problem over the last few seasons. Actually, can we even call this a two parter? Here I thought The Cutie Map was a tame start to a season. I guess these two episodes serve to set up where the main cast is currently at but it doesn't go any further than that. If anything, I'd even say the first episode is the only one that really sets that up and the second one is just the first execution.

I guess this is our first 1 episode season opener. Huh, guess this will just be my thoughts on two episodes then.

First Episode:

Now, I had a bit of a mixed feeling going into this first one. When the name of it was first announced I was under the impression that this would be our first full on Celestia episode of the entire series. Then, I came to find out that this was the first episode airing and my hopes did die a bit. I thought there was no way in hell they'd leave the main six out of the opener like that  Well, it turns out that I was right on both fronts. Celestia is, thankfully, a well done and prominent part of this episode but the focus didn't fall directly on her. Though, I can't say that was a bad thing in this case.

The overall episode was actually really well done. The interactions between Celestia, Twilight and Spike were amazing. You had Twilight being her overly worrying self (a trait that's sort of been lost over the past few seasons that I'm glad is back). Celestia who is actually being active in leading Twilight and gets her own character building in the process, and Spike as the snarky audience view. Honestly, while I love what this episode did for the first two, Spike really stood out here. I think the writers are finally really understanding how to make him exist in a show full of off the wall characters without him being a punching bag. He's been around the block at this point enough to know what's a serious issue and what isn't, even when the other characters don't. Here he realized that Twilight was overreacting and threw shade accordingly. To jump ahead a bit, he does this in the second episode too and I loved it just as much. I hope this side of him continues.

Anyways, while I think the characterization here is a new high for the series, that's not to say the entire episode was without fault. It highlighted and, at times, blatantly called out the issue that Twilight is becoming a Celestia 2.0. While the problem doesn't really hurt this episode, it does speak to an overarching issue the series is already in. For the most part, Twilight's role in the show is done. She has no real goal now and it seems Starlight is here to take her place as Twilight 2.0. Without any real purpose, it's apparent that she often is just the means for an explanation dump in episodes. Not a good look for a main character to have. I feel that this issue could worsen now that she's not even teaching Starlight that much anymore. Now this all depends on how these characters are written going forward (if they all keep the same charm seen here then it could be a non-issue) but going off the past seasons or so... it's a bit worrying to see them acknowledge the trend and simply laugh about it.

Also, I'm not 100% on DIscord here. Some jokes landed well and others... not so well. I like how they're using him as not just a "oh, is he going to do something evil again?!" character but more as someone who's just there to point out imperfections in a situation he's forced to stay in though (less be turned into a statue again).

Overall though, this was a grand episode. Everyone's characterization was on point and it was simply fantastic to see the show use Celestia as a character and not just as an information dump. Plus, the rest of the episode was well written both humor-wise and emotionally. It also serves as a nice appetizer for a full on Celestia episode that I hope we get later this season. plz DHX

And, of course, Luna. A+

Second Episode:

Eh, don't really have too much to say on this one. Seems like Trixie is fully here to stay and while I did find her a bit annoying for the most part, it did serve the moral of the episode well. Though, I have to say this episode did get quite a few laughs from me. The whole song bit was so meta that it was hard not to smile about it. Even Trixie got a few jokes in. Like

"Girl doesn't need well made cakes. Fuck her, I can make teacups walk Beauty and the Fucking Beast style. Give that Book horse a bag of pretzels. Book horses love pretzels."

Anyways yeah, just don't have too much to write about it here. A good, standard episode to add to a not so bombastic, but great nonetheless, opener.

[Dark Qiviut]

Two mini-reviews:

Celestial Advice:

Strength:

1. Excellent characterization of Spike, Twilight, and especially Celestia. All of them are within their characters, but like I wrote in the past, "in character" isn't enough. They need to be likable and relatable. Here, you can understand where they're coming from.
   
   Twilight acted like any sensible teacher, mentor, or caring friend would. She really worried about Starlight's well-being and fretted about what could happen.
   
   Spike understands Starlight's intellect. She knows how smart and resourceful she is and is more than capable of doing the right thing.
   
   Celestia can relate to Twilight's predicament, and I'm sure many of us do, too. During a series where Celly had really, REALLY awful performances (notably TCE, Keep Calm, No Second Prances, ACW, and To Where), to have her most positive appearance since The Return of Harmony is a major breath of fresh air.
   
   On top of that, excellent callback to season two where ponies were using Celestia's name in vain like we do with God.

Negatives:

1. The pacing at the end is some of the worst in the entire show. Everything built up and then suddenly, the status quo is hammered in in the final 90 seconds. It's way too rushed.
2. Speaking of pacing, Starlight's progress and development happened way too fast and confined to exposition. Like I wrote in my To Where review, Starlight was a major change to the status quo. As such, more time needed to be put in to really develop her. But DHX's bad habits along with writing terrible characterization of her really hurt her credibility. Here, she just graduates, and then she doesn't. Sure, she did a really good thing by completing changing the Changeling Kingdom, but it'd be much better if the audience can SEE this development progress throughout season six. Why? Because you give the ceremony a sense of earning. Her ceremony doesn't feel earned at all. In short, the characterization and pacing flaws from last season affected the writing here.
3. Discord. He was a completely unlikable jerk. He may not be the completely likable dude, but at least show a little character growth to suggest that he does care for Fluttershy's friends. Every joke surrounding him doesn't land because of his lousy characterization.

While it's a major improvement compared to To Where (the show's worst finale), it's still a step down from The Crystalling.

———

All Bottled Up:

Originally called it above-average. Well, I take it back. This was much better watching it a second time.

Strengths:

1. Starlight. She needed a really strong performance after poor outings in Every Little Thing and To Where. ABU is her best outing since The Crystalling. She was strong when she needed to, angry when he needed to, tired when she needed to, and sad when she needed to. Her characterization was a row of colors (and, no, not just red). She felt like a character that people can empathize to.
   
   While past episodes sometimes told us she grew, we get to SEE it very clearly. If you recall Every Little Thing She Does, she controlled her friends against their will as the first resort; in what was trying to replicate Lesson Zero's success, that didn't work. Here, she literally bottled up her anger as a last resort. Every time Trixie did something that made her angry, her anger became more and more uncontrollable. Starlight knows this, but feared getting mad at her would fracture their bond. Considering what happened in the past (both with each other in NSP and herself in ELTSD), it's understandable. She couldn't risk that.
   
   Even though it was wrong for her to bottle up her anger, you can see where she's coming from, and there are actual consequence to hr choice. Every time she got mad, her expression, personality, and facial expression changed. Her hair frayed and wilted. Her eyes drooped. Overall, there was no life into her personality. To keep her temper under control emotionally and physically drained her. In other words, her character growth from ELTSD was used to the Sister Writers' advantage, not ignored.
   
   She and Celestia were the best characterized in these two episodes, but I'm more impressed by Starlight's for the reasons above. And Starlight's hairdo wilting at the jewelry store is my favorite moment of both eps.
2. The pacing here is much more improved over CA, too. With one exception midway, everything flowed from one point to the next much better. The ending didn't feel rushed, cramped, slow, or nonsensical. Everything, including the Friendship Retreat, mattered.
3. The Friendship Retreat broke away from the moody A-plot. Yeah, the B-plot had some humor, but it was also quite serious and heavy. Sometimes when you have a plot this heavy, you need something to occasionally break away to relax the plot a bit. The B-plot is very relaxed and tenseless.
4. On top of that, fantastic moral. Sometimes when you bottle up your anger, that anger can manifest itself into making you do things that'll you'll regret. A big strength in maintaining a healthy friendship is the ability to be honest, yet constructive with those you care for.

Weaknesses:

1. The B-plot, while counterbalancing the A-plot, is contrived. Twilight's mildly flanderized here, and you have a stereotypical-looking and sounding stallion who acted like he couldn't care less about his job. Secondly, it kept interrupting the A-plot, which slowed the pace and put it at a standstill. You can maybe relax the tension in the A-plot without stopping it to complete the B-plot.
2. Trixie becomes flanderized. After she accidentally teleported the Cutie Map, she stopped caring about that, was so oblivious to Starlight's anxiety until late in Act 2, and cared more about other things immediately. Her change in personality feels too sudden and implausible. If there was a conflict between trying to find the map and slowly becoming too mesmerized on extracurricular things, then it could work a little better. Like an improved Cart Before the Ponies.

Nevertheless, a really great episode that I grew to appreciate more the second time. Originally, I thought Celestial Advice was better. Now I believe the opposite.

[AdventChild]

Well, hiatus is over and time for S7 to start with a non-two-parter. Interesting to say the least, but does it do much for a premiere?

Eh, not really.

First off, this episode feels like an epilogue or part 3 of S6’s finale than really like an opener to me.

I guess the things to like is Spike along with Discord at points who acts devious as to show some villainous intent only to be subverted at the end. Still don’t like those changeling designs.

The humor felt lacking and the focus and pacing felt disjointed as well esp. with the whole graduation bit feeling rushed near the end.

My feelings towards Starlight haven’t much changed either even in the episode after, but I’ll talk about that later. Yet it doesn’t feel that she deserved that kind of graduation IMO with how rushed it felt. But thinking about it more, there goes the potential of Ex-Equal town becoming the second base for friendship lessons/char interactions if she chosen moves back there along with more world building.

One of the continuity breakers of this one is how Twilight is still a blank flank in one of Celestia’s classes whereas she clearly obtained it along with passing the entrance exam to admit into the academy as seen in The Cutie Mark Chronicles back in S1. It could be an animation error, but unless we get confirmation that it is, I’m still calling it a continuity breaker.

But the big issue that is the becoming of Celestia 2.0 and how this episode seems to be solidifying it despite poking fun at it tend to make it feel the possible status quo. Twilight’s character arc feels complete with nothing more to achieve while Starlight seems to be shaping up into a Twilight 2.0, taking her place and role. Speaking of which, Celestia’s ‘character development’ feels like they just injected some of Twilight’s traits into her to make the whole “Like Mother(Mentor), Like Daughter(Student)” connection.

Though it would make better development if Celestia recalls another student in her earlier years other than Twilight that she had those exact feelings about letting someone go to bring some history into it and reference to Twilight’s departure as well which would be better than those fantasies if the episode had more focus. And so it’ll feel more of a Celestia episode than what we got. Regardless, I still like to see Celestia try to hold an episode on her own without Twilight and crew and maybe with a new batch of chars. 

All Bottled Up stars Starlight and Trixie…. yay…woo….*cough

So you probably already know I feel about this pair of chars in that I don’t much care for them.

Bulk Biceps is probably the only thing I liked about this episode while everything else fell rather flat for me.

Well, I do feel slight sympathy for Glimmer but that’s only because of how insufferably obnoxious they made Trixie for most of the episode to point of flanderization and for the plot’s sake. But of course, like with most Starlight eps is her use of magic to create trouble than solving it. The subplot with the Manes at the Escape feels more like padding/filler for time and the song is rather meh.

Overall, this premiere felt somewhat lacking for me and didn’t help that it had to star Spotlight Stealer Glimmer and these episodes didn’t do much to change my opinion on her. Also, the whole X Char becoming Y Char 2.0 seems to be more cemented into the series status quo doesn’t help matters either.

[Dark Qiviut]

Note: This review is for season 6 as a whole. Prepare for some rearranging and unapologetically unquoted copy-and-pasting of my own text from my past overviews.

---

So, with season seven arrived, and since I did two others (one for S5, the other for S6's first half), why not for the entire season?

---

Episodes

Bottom-6:

1. Newbie Dash:

   Easily the worst episode of the season and one of the three worst of the series. Rainbow Dash’s far more rational than to willingly force Scootaloo to take part in a task she should know she can’t do. On the other hand, she had every reason to feel the way she did; she’s incredibly sensitive to what people say and think about her, and for her idols to induce a trauma-triggering insult makes her feel justifiably hurt. Unfortunately, the script makes fun of her and shoots her down every time she becomes hurt. Once more, the Wonderbolts are assholes; when they call her “Rainbow Crash,” they don’t hint friendly banter, but nagging, which in turn worsens the training for the event. Ever single “nickname” was incompetence-laden and not verbally pleasing. Lastly, the moral of tolerating and embracing hazing (which governments have cracked down because people sometimes died in them) “because it’s good fun” is one of the worst of the entire show.

   On top of this, this is a milestone episode: Rainbow Dash officially joins the Wonderbolts. Joining the Wonderbolts has been her lifelong dream, which she stated midway in FIM, Part 1. It’s a major change in the status quo! If this was a common slice-of-life episode, then the quality of the writing won’t sting. But this is like Equestria Games or Spongebob’s Truth or Square: Newbie Dash reminds the audience that she’s joining the Wonderbolts and how important her dream is. You can’t separate it from this torture porn. You can’t skip this episode, because it concludes an arc.
   
   Magical Mystery Cure is nowhere close to this level of quality, and I eventually grew to appreciate and respect it more thanks to this trash.

2. PPOV:
   
   What — the — hell? What do I have to say about this piece of shit! The characterizations of Rarity, Pinkie, and AJ are abonimable; even though they're angry at each other, they each crossed the line when they blatantly lied to both Twilight and Spike about what happened while giving the other two really mean characterizations. It was played really seriously that they may no longer be friends. Well, if they shit-talked about each other behind their backs, I don't know. Twilight's conclusion for this entire conflict is also hamfisted and doesn't actually solve what happened.
   
   PPOV has some of the worst characterization in the show; no one is worse than Applejack. She completely betrays her biggest quality as a character by bastardizing Rarity as an uptight diva and, to make it worse, Pinkie Pie as an idiot who can't tell what's the sky or the ocean. She may not always be the most honest, but at the very least she respects them! She's so out of character here. So pathetic. A reinforcement of how low she was written. She's much worse here than in Somepony.
   
   For a long time, I said Rainbow Falls is the worst written episode of the show, and maybe it still is. For now, thanks to its awful characterization, sucky "humor," and the most half-assed resolution of the show, I argue PPOV's worse.

3. 28 Pranks Later:
   
   Only watched the first few minutes, and I'll never watch it ever again.
   
   Clearly, the people who worked on it had zero idea why Mare Do Well is objectively awful. It's like DHX looked at a couple of comments, added zombies to interest people, and that was it. Sure, they called her out at the castle, but it wasn't fully because of how cruel she was towards Fluttershy, but because her jokes were simple and "lacked effort." Dash's extreme jokes were partly their responsibility for encouraging her to do them and then just letting her perform them without any effort to stop her!
   
   Rainbow Dash takes part in the worst opening of the entire show. She pranks Fluttershy with dialogue suggesting she knows quite well that Fluttershy hates being pranked. This isn't like Mare Do Well, where she states, "I hate being alone" after the RM5 were cruel pieces of garbage. Not here; she's so out of character, I could fail this piece of shit even if the rest was good. But nope! Everyone in Ponyville decided that it was best to scare the bejeezus outta her by making her the victim of such an elaborate prank and make it so real that it'll scare Dash witless. What's more disgusting is, like Mare Do Well, the RM5 (and all of Ponyville here) are the GOOD GUYS! We're supposed to cheer when they scare her! This isn't something "true friends" will do! In my opinion, this zombie prank is crueler than MDW, because everyone went into such depth into it and carefully crafted it.
   
   And to make THAT worse, there's a really offensive "eye for an eye" moral (worse than MDW's), explained later in the review.
   
   This episode rips off MDW and is worse than MDW.
   
   I won't cut it any plainer. This garbage is intellectually offensive and potentially harmful to children. It deserves censorship.

4. To Where and Back Again:
   
   MMC isn't good, but is nowhere near as bad as the haters make it out to be. To Where is worse.
   
   Starlight's reason for choosing Trixie over Twilight is out of character. She saw Trixie as a closer friend than Twilight even thought Twi and Star have much closer and better chemistry. If Starlight chose Trixie to move away from her level of comfort and feels more comfortable spreading to broader goals, why not. Her reasoning makes no sense.
   
   This whole two-parter is dependent on the rest of the season to show how far Starlight, Trixie, and Thorax have grown. Unfortunately, Starlight only took part when the show dictates it (including having her involved centrally in three — including the two-parter — following Tail), and Thorax and Trixie were each in one. TWaBA depends on their growth throughout the season and tries to convince the audience that they developed leading up to it, but they had little growth, no growth at all, or were poorly written leading up to it. Secondly, DHX tells the viewer that Starlight changed; she's NOT the character for DHX to stick to their "I-choose-to-follow-the-arc" habit. Unfortunately, she was written both poorly not written into the eps at all sometimes.
   
   Lastly, the other season finales showed how the main characters were kidnapped. Not only did DHX not show it here. There was ZERO explanation to how. Their kidnapping drives the entire story. What's the glue that holds the kidnapping and rescue missing together? HOW they're kidnapped. When the glue's missing, everything falls apart. This huge plothole greatly affects the story quality and is its biggest flaw.
   
   In short, show, don't tell.

5. No Second Prances:
   
   This isn't unorganized, but it does have big problems, particularly in charcterization. Twilight and Trixie were on good terms after they split up in Magic Duel, but Twilight acted really out of character when she tried to sabotage Starlight's friendship with Trixie. Being very worried I can get behind, but there's no reason for her to get in their way and try to break them up. Then, you had poor characterization around, from Mrs. Cake freaking out at Starlight in Sugarcube Corner, Starlight forcing Big Mac to speak against his will (that "joke" sucked badly), and Celestia visibly acting like she doesn't want to be actually at Twilight's castle when she's much more polite than that. Confalone usually writes pretty good characterization, so poor characterization really sticks out.
   
   The climax implicated that Trixie was attempting to kill herself, while Twilight and Starlight watched. Guys, she’s attempting a trick she can’t do on her own, and she’s not in the right of mind. Do something the second she tries to enter the cannon!

6. Flutter Brutter:

   There aren’t many episodes where it becomes very difficult for me to sit through at any point. Flutter Brutter eclipses Princess Spike as the most difficult. And the biggest reason is because Zephyr Breeze takes everything that I hate about a character and amplifies it. He’s a complete creep towards Dash, obnoxious, a combination of the diva and freeloader stereotypes, completely destroys his parents’ prized possessions with complete disregard for importance, and manipulates her friends just to get out of very simple tasks.
   
   Despite being a major hate sink, the episode flip-flops its tone to suggest that he deserves sympathy. If he was supposed to be so hateable like what some claim, then why did they write him to be sympathetic in the second half? If he was likable, not a stereotype combo, and actually tried his best to succeed, then his efforts when he does succeed will feel far more rewarding. On top of that, the morals (fearing failure and fearing his or her first step towards doing something) are fantastic, but attaching a freeloader stereotype to it to suggests that everyone who lives with their parents are as lazy as him when in fact it’s not even true. And the overall quality of this episode is such a shame because Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are excellently characterized.

Dishonorable Mentions: Stranger Than Fan Fiction, The Cart Before the Ponies.

---

Top-6:

1. The Times They Are A Changeling:
   
   The one big problem this episode has is the exposition, often coming in some awkward places. But everything else is done so right.
   
   Spike's strong, flawed, boastful, vulnerable, and brave when needed to. The episode hammers in how he's "The Brave & Glorious" in response to his heroics in TCE and Equestria Games (sometimes to a fault), but that doesn't change how he not just actually lives up to the title, but challenges those when he's confronted. During a series where his character comes at the expense of story quality, this was the second in as many where he was in character and likable.
   
   Thorax is fantastic, and in a show where the males are traditionally stupid, evil, jackasses, or many/all of the above, it's a refreshing change. But that's not what makes him a character. Like Spike, he has the strength, kindness, vulnerability, and anger when he has reason to.
   
   "A Changeling Can Chang" = S6's best song.
   
   And more importantly, this is an episode where, like Bridle Gossip and Dragon Quest before it, racism or xenophobia is the central theme. However, unlike those two, Times succeeds in every way. Due to past experiences, Cadance, Twilight, and especially Shining Armor have very real reasons to be wary of and hate changelings. (Only God knows what Chrysalis did with SA while Cadance was locked underneath Canterlot. *shudder*) Their hatred for changelings is treated as wrong, but the episode also sympathizes with them. Unlike DQ and BG, everyone came out of it for the better.
   
   Spike's best characterization as a character in the entire show. Best Spike episode, bar none.
    
2. A Hearth's Warming Tail:
   
   Of the episodes in this list, it has one of the thinnest (albeit serviceable) stories, and one told parodied time and time again: A Christmas Carol. But FIM isn't merely a storytelling medium. It's a visual and sound medium, too. AHWT takes serious advantage of it with its amazing songs, incredible animation, humor when needed, and excellent set design. Applejack, Pinkie, and Luna are excellent choices to represent the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, respectively. Each song tells a story in themselves and helped progress the episode smoothly, especially Luna’s Future.
    
3. The Saddle Row Review:
   
   Compared to the more-heavy-handed works over the past three seasons, this was a huge change of pace and the status quo. TSRR forgoes the traditional FIM formula and parodies the traditional reality TV format by cutting the story into the ReMane Six and Plaid Stripes answering questions from Buried Lede, who in turn writes a review for Rarity’s Manehattan boutique branch, Rarity for You. The sharp dialogue, lighthearted tone, and excellent timing of their jokes makes this episode one of the funniest of the series. To read more about my analysis of the comedy and dialogue, click here.
    
4. The Fault in Our Cutie Marks:
   
   On Your Marks was a good follow-up to Lost Mark, but it didn't quite set up what the CMCs could do in their journey of helping others get the Marks is. Fault did that and did it very well. Everyone was REALLY good. Twilight was good as a tertiary character. But the CMCs continue to show why they're some of the best and the most consistent characters in the show. They try to help Gabby, but worry about disappointing and hurting her, because she seriously wants to get a Cutie Mark even though griffons can't. But they were able to tell her the truth, which in turn made all four come out of it for the better.
   
   Gabby, BTW, excellent.
   
   This episode establishes the lore that griffons never get Cutie Marks. But DHX decides to double down on it by not giving Gabby one. Sometimes FIM will stretch or break its own continuity for the sake of the story, but they stuck to their rules and created an excellent solution (craft her a tangible one).
   
   And the main moral — "There's no such thing as not being capable of having a lifelong goal or dream" — and secondary — "Not visibly showing their passion doesn't mean they don't love it" — are excellent and clever responses to their own lore and Ed's story theme.
    
5. Gauntlet of Fire:

   The three main flaws in this entire episode are Garble still being a stereotypical (albeit much more threatening) bully, Celestia and Luna being plugged in as mouthpieces for exposition, and thrusting in Twilight and Rarity to merely be the vessels to force the audience into a reaction. Aside from that, the rest of episode easily overcomes the three flaws in many ways, particularly four huge strengths.

   Dragon Quest destroyed dragon lore, but GoF fixed it by making the dragon race competent and not a sexist representation of society.

   Spike, Ember, and Torch are really well written here. Instead of writing Spike as that usual “Spike-is-a-buttmonkey/idiot/scapegoat” role, Lewis and Songco treat him like an intelligent, competent character and use his strengths to both win the tournament and bridge the relationship between ponies and dragons.

   Neither concept of masculinity nor femininity are written to be better or more important than the other. Princess Ember and Spike have qualities considered “masculine” and “feminine,” respectively, but both sides of the conflict are treated as equally valid, and characters can still keep these concepts while still developing and understanding the other side.

   Instead of treating Dragon Land as being completely inferior than Equestria, the ponies and dragons are written to being able to understand and learn from each other.

6. Viva Las Pegasus:
   
   Outside of The Cutie Map, all of S5's Map episodes were poor. S6's Spice Up Your Life has both a really good (Pinkie) and insulting (Rarity being completely OOC, Zesty = straw man).
   
   Fortunately, the other two Map eps this season are very good. This one, though, is the best.
   
   Flim and Flam? Hilarious.
   
   Gladmane? Hilarious and smart.
   
   The stars, though, are AJ and Fluttershy. One big problem with previous Map episodes is (with the exception of Griffonstone) one or both of the characters were flanderized, OOC, or pointless until when the time was right. Not here. Both AJ (easily her best episode of the season) and Fluttershy were on point. Even though they had to solve a friendship problem, their characterizations weren't sacrificed for the sake of the story. Burke and Wyatt understood them and took advantage. Secondly, they solved their friendship problems by predominantly using their strengths over their weaknesses, a refreshing change of pace.
   
   Sometimes when the villain is defeated, it's because he gloats like an idiot. Here, Gladmane gloats, but with reason. Flim, Flam, AJ, and 'Shy tried to dupe him into revealing his con, but he outwitted them. Fortunately, Fluttershy has Plan B: activating the intercom. Very nicely done backup plan. XD

Honorable Mentions: On Your Marks, The Crystalling.

---

S6 episode ranking (in order):

1. The Times They Are a Changeling: A
2. A Hearth’s Warming Tail: A
3. The Saddle Row Review: A
4. The Fault in Our Cutie Marks: A-
5. Gauntlet of Fire: A-
6. Viva Las Pegasus: B+
7. On Your Marks: B+
8. The Crystalling: B
9. Top Bolt: B
10. Dungeons & Discords: B
11. Where the Apple Lies: B-
12. The Gift of Maud Pie: C+
13. Every Little Thing She Does: C+
14. Applejack’s “Day” Off: C
15. Buckball Season: C-
16. Spice Up Your Life: C-
17. The Cart Before the Ponies: D+
18. Stranger Than Fan Fiction: D
19. Flutter Brutter: F
20. No Second Prances: F
21. To Where and Back Again: F
22. 28 Pranks Later: F
23. P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View): F
24. Newbie Dash: F

---

Top-13 episodes (in order, updated):

1. The Best Night Ever
2. Crusaders of the Lost Mark
3. Amending Fences
4. Sisterhooves Social
5. The Cutie Map
6. Party of One
7. Testing Testing 1, 2, 3
8. Pinkie Pride
9. Suited for Success
10. Lesson Zero
11. Sleepless in Ponyville
12. The Times They Are A Changeling
13. Flight to the Finish

Honorable Mentions: A Hearth’s Warming Tail, The Saddle Row Review, The Cutie Re-Mark

---

Bottom-13 episodes (in order, updated):

1. One Bad Apple
2. Bridle Gossip
3. Newbie Dash
4. Dragon Quest
5. P.P.O.V.
6. The Crystal Empire
7. Rainbow Falls
8. 28 Pranks Later
9. Princess Spike
10. The Mysterious Mare Do Well
11. Owl’s Well That Ends Well
12. The Show Stoppers
13. Putting Your Hoof Down

Dishonorable Mentions: Boast Busters, Appleoosa’s Most Wanted, Trade Ya!

---

Moral

Bottom moral:

28PL: If one person acted cruel to you, it's a-okay to be more cruel back.

When judging it on its own merits, MDW's moral of not gloating of your successes is fine, but is botched by poor execution. You can't do that here. 28PL glorifies people's lust for revenge and encourages people this. This moral alone is bad enough. FIM is supposed to teach kids lessons of friendship! Celestia forbid some kid takes this to heart and does something they'll regret! Newbie Dash's moral of hazing was awful, but is mostly accidental. Here, they're explicitly okaying the idea of revenge!!

Fuck this moral!!!

Dishonorable Mention: Even if what he or she says insulted you or hurt your feelings, as long as it’s in “good fun,” everything is okay (Newbie Dash).

---

Top moral:

Flutter Brutter: Sometimes the hardest part of your idea is your first move. You don’t know where it’ll go or if you’ll like it in the end. The fear of the unknown is real and valid.

In the beginning of a Joy of Painting episode (originally thought to be from the 17th series, it’s actually from the early minutes of Snowy Morn in the 19th), Bob Ross decided to let go of his realistic approach to landscape painting: Often, people don’t know what to do before laying that brush on the canvas. The purpose of the painting is for people to relax, enjoy painting, and not be afraid to use your imagination. Their give is fearful, which represses their ability to lie out their ideas. It’s normal to have this fear. It seems like Zephyr not only feared failure, but also the unknown.

Honorable Mention: If you have a passion, pursue it. There's no such thing as not having a lifelong future (Fault in Our Cutie Marks).

---

New characters:

Characters that appeared on screen prior to S6 (even when in the background) don't count, so no Sunburst, and so on.

Bottom-2 new characters:

1. Zephyr Breeze: Outside of Sunset and Radiant Hope, the series's worst character, period.
2. Quibble Pants: A stereotype of "like-the-old-hate-the-new" superfans. Later, his intelligence is removed just to hammer in some humor and (even after all the blatant proof that this is very real) STILL believed that Cabaleron and the temple he and Dash were trapped in were still part of the con experience. Halfway through, they write Quibble (who's pretty intelligent) out of character.

Dishonorable Mentions: Zesty Gourmand (A stereotype of critics and a straw character), Mr. Stripes (Sleazy and cookie-cutter, albeit funny, landlord).

---

Top-4 new characters:

1. Thorax: I already summarized why he's such a good character earlier, so I'll do it again. What makes him such a fantastic character is he's likable, three-dimensional, and human. He has his strengths, flaws, strong personality, and so on. Give people a good character, and they'll root for him.
2. Princess Ember: An embodiment of a character with qualities society calls “masculine,” but not a character written to be flat or a stereotype of “masculine” people or characters. Despite not featuring any of the physical qualities of a leader Torch expects, she’s a dragon with intangible, tangible, and mentally strong qualities. People male or female can relate to her conflict and desire not to let her species/culture down.
3. Gabby: Absolutely adorable. But despite being able to be great at everything, she's not a Mary Sue. Why? Because despite being good at everything, that isn't what her goal is. She wants to get her Cutie Mark and help spread the Magic of Friendship to whoever she bumps into and wants to hear. To her, a CM is a mark of not just pride, but evolution, too.
4. Sky Stinger: He is a much better Zephyr Breeze. Is he cocky? Absolutely. But why is he cocky? Because he successfully achieved amazing goals to qualify for the Wonderbolts Academy…while having had no idea that Vapor Trail (a better flyer than him) directly impacted his performance. But when he was forced to face the truth, his whole world crumbled. But when he thought his dreams were over, he still worked hard in the Academy to exceed expectations.

Honorable Mention: Vapor Trail, Tender Taps, Angel Wings, Coriander Cumin.

---

Mane Eight (Spike and Starlight count):

Bottom M8 character:

Applejack. ADO was an all-around-average episode, but when she revealed her tedious method into feeding the pigs, she looked really dumb and incompetent. For the rest of the season, she went downhill. Each of the adults suck royally in Cart, but AJ was the worst by her blatant flanderization (constant focus on tradition), acting like a complete idiot, and treating Apple Bloom like shit. And if that's worse, she was one of the ponies responsible for convincing AJ to "put more effort" into her pranks. And to make THAT worse, she blatantly lies to Twilight with sexist/classist and ableist interpretations of Rarity and Pinkie, respectfully. Some of her worst appearances in the entire show come from this season, PPOV being the worst of all-time.

Dishonorable Mention: Rainbow Dash.

---

Top M8 character:

Spike. Give me less episodes with higher-quality roles than a character who surfaces so much with more average or poor roles. Spike’s lone bad role this season was his usual buttmonkey status in Newbie Dash. Other than that, he had his best season. The Crystalling, Gauntlet, Tail, Times, and Dungeons & Discord are all episodes with respectable roles at worst and excellent roles at best. Gauntlet and Times are by far his best roles and best episodes of the entire show.

Honorable Mention: Fluttershy (the only other solid character that season).

---

Full M8 rank (in order):

1. Spike
2. Fluttershy
3. Pinkie Pie
4. Starlight Glimmer
5. Twilight Sparkle
6. Rarity
7. Rainbow Dash
8. Applejack

---

Moment:

Bottom-3 moments:

1. The Wonderbolts reveal to insulting her out of “good fun.” Seriously? Seriously?! The Wonderbolts pull this shtick on her, rub it in her face to remind her not to screw up, and they had no idea that the more she heard it, the worse Dash became. And at the end, they reveal that they do it to everyone. Protip: Just because everyone does it and others have worse insults than “Rainbow Crash” doesn’t dismiss the Wonderbolts of their insolence! Even if you’re a part of a fraternity, you’re entitled to not tolerate abusive subcultures. Yes, the WB are a military, but guess what? I don’t give a damn. The fact that the WB revealed this and the moral implicating a tolerance for hazing is dangerous to kids!
2. Zephyr destroys her parents' prized possessions. If there's one moment to officially call Zephyr become the show's worst character, this is it. He destroyed his mom's flowers and father's cloud collection without any shame. All he cared was lying his lazy ass on the couch without even doing as much as readjust a picture frame. Simply destroying an heirloom accidentally can trigger lifelong guilt. To repeat it, Zephyr destroyed them intentionally.
3. Rainbow Dash pranks Fluttershy. To repeat from earlier, RD targeting her completely contradicts continuity dating back to Griffon the Brush Off (Pinkie reminding her not to prank her, which Dash listened). 28PL not only didn't give a shit about continuity; it doubled-down with dialogue by Dash suggesting that she KNEW her friend hated being pranked and went after her, anyway.

Dishonorable Mentions: Starlight and Twilight watch a suicidal Trixie enter the cannon moments after breaking their friendship up, Quibble Pants states that the tiled organization is something only "a true fan can appreciate," Applejack lies to Twilight and Spike about the ship accident, Fluttershy's rant (while giving the audience grotesque facial expression) in Buckball Season.

---

Top-3 moments:

1. Spike standing up for Thorax. The little dragon had such an amazing season with such great moments, but this one tops them all. Think about how important this is to him as a character. Equestria and the Crystal Empire royal family hates the changeling kind for understandable reasons, but Spike not only befriends one, but also stood up for him in front of Cadance, SA, Starlight, Twilight, everyone. He willingly sacrificed his reputation to stand up for him and do the right thing.
2. "NO SPOILERS!" TSSR is a comedic genius. Rarity's hilarious line foreshadows the rest of the episode's hijinks.
3. The CMCs tell Gabby she can't get a Cutie Mark. On the surface, this moment is completely crushing to Gabby. She seriously believed she was going to get one, only to find out the hard truth. This moment is heartbreaking, but it's heartbreaking for the right reasons, and the heartbreak helps lead to the excellent moral later.

Honorable Mentions: Vapor Trail tells Sky Stinger the truth, Spike interrupts his tale to continue searching for Sunburst, Fluttershy outs Gladmane, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie join "Guys' Night" to conclude Dungeons.

---

What I want for Season 7:

1. Stop shitting on AJ, Rarity, and Dash! Nuff said, McGreevy!
    
2. Better development for Starlight, and don't do it a couple of times within about eighteen episodes. Remember, she's a good guy now and part of the mane cast. Skipping several episodes and hoping the audience will buy into thirty seconds of vocal babble only treats the audience (including kids) like kids. Don't.
    
3. Steer clear from the stereotypes, and better research your material. To C&P from my S5 review:

   Quote

   [Stereotypes are] a shortcut and a major flaw in this show. If you're going to use stereotypes, then why the hell should I believe you care about the quality of your work? This show is supposed to teach people (especially kids) that people are more than just false representations, but this show sometimes screws this up badly. Put in some effort into your tropes!

   And as for researching, please understand your implications! I dictate it far too often why unfortunate implications hinder this show to the point of it being part of my reputation here.

4. As always, less dogshit episodes and more awesome ones instead. More quality consistency, please!

5. More attention paid to the pacing. Crafting good exposition is a work of art. DHX, you ain't that good at it. We as people are more programed to pictorial visuals, so they have more inherent impact than words. To show us respects kids and the medium of animation as a whole, and it helps impact the pacing, too.

6. More good new characters. Like every season, there are poor new characters. However, season six didn't have that many. Whatever characters were introduced, they were perfectly fine for the most part. Sunburst, Tender Taps, Ember, Gladmane, Vapor, Plaid. Even Flurry Heart's decent. More good new characters, the better this show will be.

7. More episodes of the characters at their best. One huge change of pace in Season 5 was its lack of reliance of the characters overcoming a flaw within themselves. Pinkie Pie, Rarity, the CMCs, AJ, and Twilight all used their best qualities as dominant vessels in the conflict to solve a problem. When the episode isn't good, they're the highlights. Gauntlet and Viva did that, too. Each of the Mane Eight have strengths; put them into good use more.

---

Verdict:

While S5 is the crème de la crème (including three of the five best episodes), S6 is among the bottom. Personally, I have S6 a little below S3 as the worst. There are three really great episodes, but none of them are among the ten best. Meanwhile, when S6's episodes got bad, they were REALLY bad. Many mistakes from last season weren't just repeated. New ones were added, including ripping off older episodes with a lack of understanding of why they worked. Newbie Dash: the worst status quo masher of the series. Lots of characters feel less developed and become more flanderized and/or OOC, Rarity, Dash, and AJ the worst offenders. Such a shame, too, because it went off to its best start since Season 2. Overall, a disappointing season. Hopefully, season seven fixes things.

[Kevin]

I have to come out and say it, I wasn't a fan of today's episode. The whole "can't take care of the baby" plotline has been done to death, heck we had it already with Baby Cakes. The only redeeming thing about this episode is Spike. I love how he's going back to his "keeping others in check" personality like how he was at the earlier era of the series and I hope the writers keep it up!

[AdventChild]

So this week’s episode is Flurry of Emotions or what I liked to call it Baby Cakes 2.0 because it is basically that, more baby shenanigans.

I think the only thing to like about is some moments with Spike and Pinkie, but it is not enough to save the episode.

Second to Starlight, Flurry is one of the newer characters I don’t like. Still don’t like her design compared to the Cake foals and just cute fodder and a plot device to cause trouble. Not to mention with her high in magic like Starlight being a Twilight clone just in baby form.

And Shining and Cadence being plot devices yet again is starting to drag. Even that parts with the art show felt like it came and went and felt superficial. It’ll probably be better if the episode centered around the two instead and with a better premise.

Twilight doesn’t fare better here either. All the whole best auntie crap slightly annoyed me and it felt like her character took steps back. Speaking of Baby Cakes, it seems she had forgotten the advice she told Pinkie about taking care of foals and how unpredictable they can be esp. unicorns. Also, missed a golden opportunity of an incidental age or body swap spell with Twi and Flurry that could have mixed things up a bit and made it more interesting.

The episode is your stereotypical “taking care of the baby” plotline that has been done to death even already been done in this series that makes this feel more of poor rehash than anything else just replace Pinkie with Twilight and the Cake foals with an alicorn.

[Strickerx5]

So, Baby Cakes 2.0 was pretty ok for the most part. I think we all saw an episode like this coming the moment the character was announced. While it follows a widely used trope, it did get a few laughs from me. I do kind of like the new combination of over-achieving, borderline unreasonable Twilight with her newer, more mature character type. It was nice to see as I've been a bit wary of her over the past few seasons. That and Spike continuing to shine. His down to earth view of the situation is hilarious and is something I hope continues.

On the subject of Flurry Heart... eh, I'm still really on and off with her. While I still don't really like the alicorn angle here, the bits of characterization she adds to the perfect pony, buy our toys, couple of Cadence and Shinning is a bit of a welcomed sight here. Though, am I the only one that feels like the writers don't really know what to do with her? Like, there are moments here when she generally acts like she's trying to help (like in Sugar Cube Corner when she tries to get Spike and Twilight's attention about the Cakes fighting), almost to the point of her acting well beyond her age, and then you have the baby moments. It was really odd.

Also, one other thing I found off with the episode was that Flurry was never really questioned on her actions. I know she's the baby but you'd think some form of "No, stop, don't do that" or something would have been brought up without it being quickly snatched back (like it was towards the end) because "oh she's a baby and she's crying". I know it's a little thing but... it just seems like a bad lesson. Though, I really just can't put my finger on why it bothered me so much here. Maybe because I know my parents would have disciplined the hell out of me even at that young age when I acted out like that? Like I realize she's still incredibly young, but that's the sort of stuff that sticks ya know? Though, I think I'm well over analyzing this XD. I did like the last moral about how you should spend quality time with someone though.

So yeah, overall this was an average episode for the most part in my eyes. Not too much wrong, though not a lot to praise.

[pastelspectre]

i actually quite liked the new episode this weekend. sure it was a baby cakes 2.0 but it was still cute and done in a different way bc flurry heart is an alicorn. and like someone said i think we saw this coming since she was announced as a character. it was a cute and good episode for me in my opinion, and flurry heart is probably my..4th or 5th favorite character in the mlp franchise so..that might be why i didnt mind it so much lol.

[Eevee of the Everstone]

Hmm .... I require something to stamp my place in this topic ....

That will do.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

Late response, but despite Flutter Brutter being a meh to bleh episode, I still find it funny that Fluttershy is apparently the assertive one in her family.