Dethroning Moment of Suck (Darth Wiki)/Western Animation/My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Difference between revisions
Dethroning Moment of Suck (Darth Wiki)/Western Animation/My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (view source)
Revision as of 12:54, 5 February 2021
, 3 years agono edit summary
(ROOTPAGENAME, SUBPAGENAME links and categories) |
No edit summary |
||
Line 69:
* I have to say, that I was a bit underwhelmed by the finale episode "A Canterlot Wedding: Part 1". I know [[Remember the New Guy?]] isn't a horrible trope, but I just couldn't feel anything towards Shining Armor. He's a cool guy and all, but establishing that he was pretty much Twilight's brother seemed like it was pushing it. Also the way Twilight accused Cadence seemed a bit uncharacteristic of her. After the previous episode, where she spent time not jumping to conclusions, she just decides to accuse her because she's meaner than usual. I empathized with her, but her methods just seem like Lesson Zero again. The thing that ticked me off the most was the shunning of Twilight. Yes, she was unreasonable, but just abandoning her doesn't solve much either. Especially Celestia's blatant lack of understanding.
*** I was concerned about how the second season finale would turn out, with it apparently introducing two new Mary Sue-ish characters with [[Remember the New Guy?|shoehorned life-long connections to Twilight]], but I had faith in the production team and hoped for the best. It seemed my fears had been quelled by the mid-point of part 2, with the introduction of a menacing new antagonist complete with villain song, and possibly one of the best action sequences of the whole series. What irked me about this episode, however, was the way in which the conflict was resolved; with Princess Celestia and the mane six captured and changelings running rampant around Canterlot, Cadence and Shining Armour use their love for one another to fuel a shockwave that sends all the changelings flying out of the city (Queen Chrysalis allows them to do this, scoffing at the concept despite [[What an Idiot!|using that same love moments ago to defeat Celestia]]). Now my problem isn't the use of the [[Power of Love]] in and of itself (as if the [[Power of Friendship]] as any less sappy), but with the Elements of Harmony, at least we got to see Twilight bond with each of her friends and learn about their virtues. Here, we're given two undeveloped characters, told they love each other because, um, they're both nice, and their love is powerful enough to set off the spell. I think the writers did their best with what they were given to work with, but this just feels like a really lame way to wrap things up.
== Season 3 ==
* "Too Many Pinkie Pies"
** Sothalic: It doesn't matter how many times the implications of what happened to the clones hit by Twilight's spell are theorized upon, and what would had happened if the real Pinkie was hit, the fact remains the supposedly well-taught and careful pony fired a dangerous, perhaps even lethal spell with reckless abandon without any safety measures. No secondary test in case the last Pinkie turned out to be braindead and unable to react to anything, no study of the effects of the spell. Twilight assumed the real Pinkie, a friend she is supposed to know isn't known for her willpower and focus would, faced with the threat of banishment/death, act as she told her. Switch the banishment spell for a gun and we've got something that looks like a particularly vicious trap from the Saw series. Twilight wasn't acting anywhere near what she should had, no safeties, no second thoughts at banishing the real one, just fire away, over and over, and expect your friend to "Win" the game.
** gophergiggles: To me, this episode was downright terrifying. This could have been the premise for a psychological horror. Firstly, it's troubling that they used a test that the real Pinkie Pie stood a very good chance of losing instead of, say, simply questioning them or even studying the behavior of the clones which acted ridiculously different than the real one. Yeah, Pinkie Pie is annoying and energetic at times, but never that bad. Secondly, how Twilight was just so comfortable zapping the clones into oblivion. The episode very clearly established the clones were fully sentient and had a full range of emotions; they simply were born only a few hours ago and so they hadn't had time to learn what was and wasn't okay and simple right and wrong the way the real Pinkie Pie did. In a show where fantasy creatures are the norm and so much emphasis is put on friendship and acceptance that the bloody spirit of chaos and disharmony gets a chance at redemption, it was downright jarring to see a group of creatures flat-out obliterated just because they weren't "real" and the ponies couldn't be bothered to try to teach them to control themselves.
** yunatwilight: It becomes even worse when you work in that Pinkie Pie probably can't help being the way she is; she's arguably disabled, showing signs of ADHD at the very least. Considering that the clones were seriously asking questions like "What's Ponyville?" devising a real test for the real Pinkie would have been easy. ("What's your Element?" "Where do you live?" "What's my name?") She even comments that all the Pinkies are identical — when there's a freaked-out Pinkie right there, crying about how she no longer knows who she is any more, behaving completely differently from all the rest! But she doesn't even try. Instead, Twilight devises a test that won't find the real Pinkie Pie... but will find the least disabled one for sure. Being autistic, I found that idea terrifying.
* "One Bad Apple"
** AmicidiBeowulf: The most frustrating thing is how wrong Bab's Freudian Excuse is handled: she showed to be an even bigger bitch than Gilda, not to mention a DirtyCoward who backstabbed the three who were more than willing to be friends with her (bonus points in vileness for one of them being her relative) out of fear of two bullies... when she and the CMCs were outnumbering said bullies 2-1. Of course they're pissed at her, but then Applejack ass-pulls out a last-minute sob-story and they immediately forgive her for all of the abuse. It fails the aesop because the Freudian Excuse is supposed to explain why a character is a Jerkass or is evil, not to be a moral free-pass. If they were informed earlier and confronted Babs about that, resulting in her having a Character Development and apologizing, that would have been a good episode, instead it fails to deliver.
** Ansem Paul: For me the warped Aesop: Kids, if you tell a teacher or your parent all the bullying will instantly cease! Which fridge logic tells you will be immediately broken with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. But it gets better. "Never try to fight back against a bully or that will make you just as bad, even if you've been physically assaulted several times! The adults will handle it, and if they don't... too bad!" I really hope the person who wrote this had been homeschooled or something, because dear gawd, that is a terrible, terrible lesson.
** Fat Pat: The ending of this episode upsets me more than anything else on the show. We just learned that you shouldn't handle bullies by being a bully yourself. So what do our protagonists do when Diamond and Silver show up? Push them in the mud, which we literately just learned not even five minutes ago is the wrong thing to do. A well written ending would have had the the CMC question why Diamond and Silver are so mean and resolve to find out and try to befriend them. Instead status quo is hung on to, even though it defeats to entire purpose of the whole episode.
* "Magic Duel"
** Shmelluloid Studios: Something about this episode just didn't sit well with me. Not the episode as a whole mind you, I liked the idea of Trixie coming back and being a legit threat. But what ended up bothering me was the ending, Twilight's solution to the whole problem. She's angry at Trixie for cheating, wants to defeat her in the name of honor and decency, and what does she do? She cheats to defeat her, using smoke and mirrors, special makeup effects and help from all her friends. And Trixie just suddenly decides to be good because Twilight cheated. Um... hooray?
** Aquamarine Gavial: Trixie's "redemption" during the last few seconds of the episode seems to me to be one of the most insincere and pandering moments (in this case towards the Draco in Leather Pants type of Trixie-fan) in the franchise. I don't like the character much to begin with, but at least in Boast Busters, I can see she got a disproportionate punishment, and for the most part she's a decent villain here. But then there's a pointless subplot about how the amulet is actually corrupting her and, almost literally at the last second, we get a blink-and-you'll-miss-it apology scene. We're supposed to consider it consistent that five seconds of the character acting like a decent pony who made a bad decision would fit with: one episode of her being a ** Miles Gloriosus liar and remorseless bully who suddenly fled town when it became obvious she was a Small Name, Big Ego, and; a second episode where she seeks revenge (for an upstaging she herself set up) in the face of warnings with an amulet that - for all the fuss over its More Than Mind Control properties - essentially did what she wanted it to do anyway. Heck, she was still aggressive even after it was removed and the mind-control eyes went out, by attacking Rainbow Dash with a (weak) Agony Beam. But even with that minimal setup, the Easily Forgiven scene feels so perfunctory, insubstantial (she does nothing to make amends, for example), and different from what went on before, and was so frankly disposable, that it seems like it was added only to whitewash her character in a highly unsatisfactory way, which is what makes it a dethroning moment for me.
** The Castaway Pariah: The way this episode treated Pinkie is disgusting. Trixie doesn't return her mouth even though she restored everyone else and no one protests this, and on top of that the episode acts like everything's okay at the end, even though Pinkie STILL hasn't been cured. It spat in the face of both Pinkie and what the show is supposed to be about. Even though Pinkie helped get her sorry flank back into Ponyville, Twilight doesn't care enough to put her mouth back on at the earliest opportunity. Hooray for the magic of friendship! The fact that Trixie comes back again later on in the show and is portrayed sympathetically doesn't help either and completely put me off from watching the show any longer. Sorry but you cannot have it that a character's problem is casually swept under the rug and then still pretend that this show promotes good messages about friendship. So good-fucking-bye, MLP. I am officially done with you. Time to go watch other cartoons that had some actual thought put into them. Hope the cheap fourth wall gag was worth it, you shitty hack writers.
** AliceTheGorgon: While this entire episode is a slap in the face to Trixie with how idiotic and easily manipulable it portrays her to be, the pièce de résistance comes at the end. In the ending of Boast Busters, Trixie runs off into the night, with a cloud of smoke, loudly proclaiming her greatness. Just as bombastic as ever, and completely undeterred by the night's happenings note . In Magic Duel, it takes what was Trixie's crowning moment of stubborn defiance, and as she begins running off it makes her immediately fall flat on her face. Cementing the episode's depiction of Trixie as nothing more than a buffoon to be laughed at. It would be almost poetic if it wasn't so insulting.
* "Spike At Your Service"
** No Spoilers Plz: We get a rather surprisingly decent build up to what we believe will be an epic showdown rivaling that of the one at the beginning of the episode with this huge timberwolf. And then they chuck a pebble down its throat. That's literally all that happens. The damn thing isn't even on screen for thirty seconds. It's the kind of wasted potential that makes an episode hard to watch more than once.
** Ecthudan: What makes this episode even worse is how at the end the Mane 6 completely panicked when the Timberwolves attacked, even though they have faced much worse threats. I'm absolutely sure that if they managed to take out Discord, Nightmare Moon and deal with the various monsters in the Everfree Forest from the show's pilot, they should also have been able to deal with the Timberwolves easily. But instead, the Mane 6 become completely helpless damsels in distress and it's somehow up to Spike to save Applejack, which I just don't buy for even one second.
* "Just for Sidekicks"
** Trickquestion: After putting up with all of Angel Bunny's typical bad behavior and learning a lesson about letting greed and gluttony overwhelm him (a lesson rather out of character for the honorable hard worker seen in the last Spike episode) Spike absentmindedly eats his last gem, which he had intended to bake in a gem cake. After he had learned his lesson and gone through the wringer. This kind of cruelty being played for comedy may be at home in shows like Ed, Edd and Eddy, but is completely out of place here and goes against everything Friendship is Magic stands for.
** Caellach Tiger Eye: For me, it's the fact that for no good (given, at least) reason, he's not invited to the Crystal Empire with the girls. Even though he was critical in saving it from King Sombra last time. Just so we can have two back-to-back episodes (not that I dislike the idea, but we could've had a better reason than... well, what currently stems as no reason). Jeez Cadance, way to show some gratitude! Show him a little respect, already — Spike deserved to come to the Crystal Empire more than any of the Mane Six besides maybe Twilight!
* "Games Ponies Play"
** Alue14: This is actually the first time I felt sucked during this ep. After almost a whole season, we get to see Cadance again. You would pretty much think that they finally were going to tell us how she became an alicorn or how her youth was besides the foal sitter of Twilight and stuff like that, but nope: They spend the whole episode with Rarity trying to make her fucking ceremonial headdress! Like we fucking care! I haven't felt this before, but it's becoming clearer and clearer that Cadance's role in the future episodes will contain of nothing more than for her to stand around, be pretty and wave her hooves or hand or whatever! I'm beginning to think that Cadance will be like her two aunts. They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot and Fanfic Fuel indeed! Not that there's anything wrong with the latter, of course...
** Kubu: And the plot! By the founders, it's the most clichéd drivel to be ever passed off as an episode of Friendship is Magic. It's just another mistaken identity comedy of errors, and it's not even done well. The plot revolves around the Mane 6 failing to realise that the mare they tour around the Empire isn't the mare they're looking for, but it doesn't work for these reasons: One, why would you send people off to collect a VIP and only tell them that they'll be carrying a floral suitcase? That's not exactly an obscure pattern for luggage. You're just asking for them to mix things up. Two; the green-maned pony has a chicken for a cutie mark. The Mane 6 were given plenty of opportunity to make a note of that, so why did they assume a pony with poultry as a special talent would have anything to do with a sports ceremony? Three; when a character who has been established as cold and stuffy is prancing around the town with excitement, you do not assume she is tricking you; you assume you have the wrong mare. And it never occurs to them to just ask their guest until they've wasted the whole day trying to impress her. So, in summary, the entire setup of the episode relies on smart mares acting like total morons.
** GenkiMan: Something that also bugged me is the mare they mistake for Ms Harshwhinny is she's never given a name, instead the fandom gave her fan names such as "Ms Peachbottom" or "Chickadee". I wouldn't mind if it were just another background pony, but this is a pony we basically spend the entire episode with. Even when Twilight asks her if she's Ms Harshwhinny, instead of saying "No my name is X" she just tilts her head in confusion. Writers, if you're going to introduce a character and have the episode focus on them, at least give them a name.
* "Magical Mystery Cure"
Spaghetti Boy: Honestly, the episode really really made me think "... Seriously Hasbro?" No, it's not because of the whole "Twilight Sparkle is an Alicorn" thing... but I was really unnerved by the singing voices. I know they sometimes have different voices for the voice actors when they sing... but what some other companies (like Disney) understand that Hasbro apparently doesn't is that if it's going to be a musical, the singing voices shouldn't sound like completely different people. Only Pinkie Pie and Celestia seemed to be even somewhat consistent, and even then, it was mostly Pinkie. I know it's not the fault of the voice actors, but come on.
** Therizino: I was mainly pissed at this episode because, like others think, it was rushed. I know that writers are doing their best, but honestly, my main problem is the way they handled AliTwilight: they didn't give us enough input. Practically all the marketing was based around it, and they just shoehorn it in at the last few minutes. I'm not objecting to the design and I'm not objecting to Twi becoming a princess, but I am objecting to them making the fandom worried, because we have no clue what her life is gonna be like: is she gonna live in Ponyville still? Is she actually princess of anything? Is her becoming an Alicorn going to affect her life in any way whatsoever? We have no clue, and in my opinion the writers should have taken the time to answer these questions. I know this is just the beginning of a 3-parter, but still.
== Season 4 ==
* "Flight to the Finish":
Soulful Ginger 17: Personally, this was a So OK, It's Average episode overall, but I'd feel better if I got this off my chest: This would have been a great episode for Scootaloo to earn her Cutie Mark. After all the Character Development she's gotten, she's finally earned it, but nope, because then the Spotlight Stealing Squad loses their gimmick. Come on, one of the CMC earns her Mark, and could be a great assistance to helping her friends earn theirs? There's no way the viewers would like that! So instead as always in this show, Status Quo Is God is invoked. We are now four seasons in, and these girls are still no closer to getting their Cutie Marks than they were when they started. It's like Ash from Pokemon winning a non-filler tournament, I'm getting less and less optimistic about this subplot. Sorry if this is too ranty, but I'm really growing tired of this subplot.
* "Bats!"
** Ezekiel: Not for the first time, this episode features Applejack getting screwed over by her friends and then apologizing for it. Fluttershy is thoroughly wrong in this episode on more than one level and yet the writers choose to use all possible imagery to portray her as being right. She makes multiple claims that neither she nor the audience has any way of knowing are true. Bear in mind, tending apple trees is both Applejack's job and her passion. She has a secondhand account of how disastrous the bats can be from Granny Smith, while Fluttershy admits she has no experience with the creatures. Applejack is not illiterate, so there's no way she wouldn't have studied these pests knowing what a threat they could be. Add to all this, any experts in the audience won't be backing Fluttershy because in real life, fruit bats are extremely destructive and can wipe out an entire orchard, with no long-term benefits to be had. But even allowing the assumption that Fluttershy's statements were true, her advice is still completely impracticable, as she urges Applejack to think of the long-term instead of the short-term. It has been established that the farm depends on all available revenue, to the extent that a modest decrease in profits from cider sales alone would put them under; she can't afford to give up any of her orchard to the bats, and yet that's exactly what she does because apparently putting the farm that keeps an entire town from starving before the comfort disease-ridden tree-killing vermin makes you a bad friend.
** Deadpan29: Adding to the points raised above, many of the benefits listed by Fluttershy would be benefical only to trees in the wild, not a commercial apple orchard. Trees in an orchard are generally planted in specific locations for specific reasons. Having bats spread seeds randomly would be counter productive. Additionally, trees in a commercial orchard are normally grown fron cuttings, not seeds, to preserve a desired set of characteristics. Growing a tree from a seed is a lot of time and effort for a genetic crapshoot when it comes to the fruit the tree will eventually produce.
** Toggaf: I found this to be hands down the worst episode in the series. What started out as an excellently well-presented and believable rift between the group of friends and could potentially have become one of the best turmoils to present in a childrens show was subsequently ditched by using magic. And by magic I actually mean they decide to just brainwash the bats instead by taking away the significant part of their being. What follows is an extremely lazy and dull 12 minutes of Fluttershy flying back and forth. But my main emphasis is how despite presenting a balanced argument on how to treat the bats at the beginning of the episode which causes a rift between the group was quickly resolved by resorting to the morally bankrupt decision of brainwashing the helpless animals.
* "Rainbow Falls"
** Chaos Heart 77: For me the worst part was Spitfire and the other Wonderbolt's treatment of Soarin. They didn't bother to check if he would be okay in time for the race, they just blew him aside in favor of a potentially better flier. So they basically prioritized winning the race over their "friend's" feelings. They, Spitfire in particular, did seem to learn their lesson at he end, but because they came up with that little scheme in the first place, I wouldn't blame Dash if Spitfire (and the Wonderbolts as a whole by extension) became a broken pedestal for her after that.
* "Three's A Crowd"
** HeyMama555: The problem I had with this episode was that it had all this build up that went absolutely nowhere. As soon as Discord arrived, I knew he had to have ulterior motives. Then when the plant was mentioned, I figured that either it would hold some power that Discord wanted, or that there was a specific reason why Discord wanted the two Princesses at the very edge of Equestria. So Twilight and Cadance pull out the plant, have an epic fight with a monster, bring the plant back to Discord... and then we find out that Discord was faking sick and did everything just so he could ruin Twilight and Cadance's day together. Now granted, Discord is a Trickster God, so it's not unlike to pull stunts, but in the past, he at least had a reason, whether it be to break the Element Bearers (The Return of Harmony), to set himself free (Keep Calm and Flutter On), or to teach the mane six about The Power of Friendship (Princess Twilight Sparkle), but here he did it just so he could be a dick and ruin Twilight's day. Even for the God of Chaos, that seems a little childish and pointless.
** Yellow Apelsz: I thought the episode was alright, I wasn't the biggest fan of it but I didn't think it was bad. The only thing that really bothered me about the episode was Pinkie Pie. Yes, she's weird. Yes, she's over the top. Yes, she's hyperactive. But a fucking balloon distracts her from talking to Fluttershy. A fucking balloon is how she's written out of the episode, and her parting line is "I wonder where these keep coming from" or something like that when she fucking saw Discord make it. No. Pinkie is a kook, she is strange, she is absentminded at times, but she is NOT stupid. That alone soured my viewing, and I'm sure I actually would've liked the episode a lot more, despite its flaws, but the way Pinkie was handled in this episode just killed it for me.
== Season 5 ==
* Tanks For The Memories
** Arachnos: In regards to Dash acting like Tank is dying... it seems like the episode might have been an allegory trying to introduce the concept of "coping with death" to the kids but it was... quite poorly executed, to say the least.
Amending Fences
** zoopyDoopy: The real DMOS for me was later on, when Twilight realises it was her turning down going to the party that caused Moondancer to clam up. For me that's a problem because 1. Twilight WAS doing something more important - she went on to stop Nightmare Moon and 2. the episode (in Twilight and Moondancer's reactions) put all the blame for Moondancer shutting down on Twilight. This isn't helped by the fact that Twilight, in all the flashbacks with Moondancer as foals, is never shown as being like her friend, just her classmate. Apart from that one photograph Spike took, Twilight is never shown spending time (or wanting to spend time) with Moondancer outside of class. In these scenes and episode 1, in which Moondancer doesn't even appear (we'll get back to that), Twilight behaves like an acquaintance and not a friend, and her not even being able to remember her supposed 'friends' names says volumes. In other words, the episode makes it seem as though introversion and preferring other hobbies/pursuits to making friends is always wrong, as there will always be that one person who takes it personally and makes their feelings your responsibility even if you were always civil to them (as Twilight was) and never did anything to give them the false idea that you were interested in friendship. Saying Twilight had a reputation as a bad friend feels unearned - a bad friend would be someone who pretended like they were someone's friend and agreed to go to [insert social event here], only to blow it off. Twilight didn't do that. To make matters worse, this party that was a big deal to Moondancer, that she herself threw? She didn't invite Twilight to it personally, all the other ponies did, which made it seem more like the invite was given in passing, rather than how the episode played it (that Moondancer really wanted Twilight in particular to show up). Not to mention, Moondancer had three other attendees all quite willing to be her friend! For her meltdown to be sympathetic I really needed more in the episode between her and Twilight, because as it is it resembles Starlight Glimmer syndrome in reactions/character writing. The intended aesop is obviously well-intentioned: be considerate of other's feelings, even if it's something you think is no big deal yourself, but it's done to the extent that the series is implying you have to take total responsibility for other's feelings even at the cost of your own personal preferences (lone wolf Twilight, if they'd let her stay that way, obviously preferred her own space and books over a lot of studying, which I think is totally fine in moderation and is something the show has tried to represent before in a Friend Indeed). Introverts are often made the bad guy in shows, or have to change fundamentally, and this was just another example of it in how Twilight's old self is treated. The sole saving grace for me was the other ponies reacting more appropriately to Twilight's apology, and the great character animation in Twilight's expressions that show how much her confidence has grown.
* Canterlot Boutique
Noodle Suarez: While as an episode itself, it was mostly decent/alright, but the part near the end where they show the heavier set pony as needing clothes for her size and it's Played for Laughs. What?!??! Can we PLEASE stop using heavy set people as a prop for a bad joke? That was extremely mean spirited.
Crusaders Of The Lost Mark
** fanboy95: It's not that the episode was a musical (though admittedly I didn't particularly care for the songs) or that the CMC got their Cutie Marks as it at least means that the writers decided that their conflict dragged on long enough, but the fact that the episode expects us to feel sorry for Diamond Tiara just because the writers pulled out the "character is bully because she has a mean parent" cliché. First of all, they waited until season 5 to reveal this with no buildup whatsoever. Second, Diamond Tiara (and by extension her lackey Silver Spoon) were shown to be mean towards the CMC entirely of their own volition with no hints of abuse at all, even going so far as to openly mock Scootaloo for her inability to fly. Third, and most of all, the writers used the exact same excuse they did to absolve Babs Seed of any responsibility for her actions and more or less gave only the bare minimum of comeuppance to her as usual despite it being one of her most despised traits. At this point, I can't help but suspect that the writers are getting inspiration from fanfiction.
* The Cutie Re-Mark (Part 1 & Part 2)
** Ferigeras: For the most part I was alright with this finale. I did kind of enjoy the timelines that were showcased (even if they were blatant Fanfic Fuel) and especially all the cameos of the previous villains (Although I would have really loved to see more of Tirek). But it has one critical moment I really despise, and something that in retrospect makes some of the earlier episodes hard to watch. What I consider to be this show's Dethroning Moment is how Rainbow Dash failing to perform her first Sonic Rainboom was this critical to this plot, and what would have happened to Equestria as an effect. Now I do respect the fact that they touched on an early episode the way they did, but what really bothered me was the fact that it's this SINGLE event that the entirety of Equestria somehow depended on... I just can't get behind that. To be fair, they did attempt to explain this as being some kind of "Butterfly Effect", but this was just exaggerating it in the worst way possible. I mean sure, "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" showed how this event linked the Mane 6 together, but for that one friendship to mean everything for the fate of Equestria as a whole is almost incomprehensible... and no, them being the "Elements of Harmony" is simply no excuse as there could have easily been other ponies with similiar devotions if something like this were ever to happen. But really now, according to this finale, if the Mane 6 weren't... the Mane 6, all those villains we have seen would have succeeded in their schemes and all of Equestria would have been devastated in one way or another, which can easily be qualified as one of the most contrived and stupid cases of Evil Only Has to Win Once ever. And let's not forget how it basically implies that the Mane 6 in general are the only things capable of keeping Equestria peaceful. If that was the case, how the hell did Equestria even last this long under such circumstances?
** Tempus22: For me it's Starlight Glimmer's tragic backstory. So her friend got a Cutie Mark and they stopped being friends because of it, which is why she apparently vowed to never make a friend again and became so bitter. Yeah, it's bad, but suddenly losing a friend is something that happens to pretty much every child ever, so Starlight's backstory just looks like a years long petty temper tantrum. Maybe if she'd tried to make friends after it only to get hurt again and again it would've been tolerable, but Starlight's backstory is absurdly weak even by kid show standards. Hell, I've felt worse for Trixie than for her. I don't have an issue with Starlight being Easily Forgiven; turning the other cheek is common in this show and I don't necessarily disagree with that, but knowing how weak her backstory is her redemption just comes across as undeserved.
** Ninja857142: For me, the real reason I think so many fans dislike Starlight is the reason why Starlight stood down: herself. Even when faced with the possibility of destroying Equestria, that wasn't enough to convince Starlight to stop. Instead, she just went and appealed to a Freudian Excuse, and then she flat-out denied the apocalypse, claiming that it was just something Twilight "showed" her (whatever else that could have been). Twilight only talks her down by telling her how she can make things better for her life by making her own new friends who will stay with her. She comes off as only standing down for purely selfish reasons, as opposed to caring about how she's hurting others, or the risk of destroying Equestria and killing everyone! It doesn't seem like a genuine Heel–Face Turn at all, and it completely distorts the idea and point of friendship.
** MightyMewtron: What I hate about Starlight's redemption is how it's really just crammed into the one musical number at the end of the episode. Sunset Shimmer needed the entire sequel movie to redeem herself after her horrible behavior. Twilight refused to trust Trixie after she terrorized a town. Discord still has ponies distrust him five seasons after his redemption arc began. So why is Starlight so Easily Forgiven so fast, and is in fact rewarded for her magical ability by becoming Twilight's student and never punished in any form? The worst part is probably when she returns to her village, and the ponies there welcome her back with open arms, without any of them showing any signs of fear or trauma that would be way more accurate to somebody who essentially brainwashed and abused you into repressing your whole personality for years. The fact that we're supposed to pity her in later episodes for expecting the village ponies to hate her is completely unfair, and anybody who admits that the village ponies would be totally justified for that is brushed off! In addition, her personality feels totally warped from this episode on, which sucks because her ability to manipulate ponies into following her ideology was a really interesting and unique villain concept. They threw that to the wayside for a generic "overpowered magical villain who hates friendship," then threw it all away for the remorseful but far too easily liked redeemed villain.
== Season 6 ==
* The Crystalling Part 1 and Part 2
** Katon Ryu: My biggest problem with this episode is that nothing of the A plot had to happen. I hated the idea of Flurry Heart even before the episode came out and to my dismay the writers did exactly what I feared they would do with her. They made her responsible for the entire problem in the episode by being a baby with bursts of magic randomly exploding out of her. How hard would it be for Shining Armor, who, may I remind you, is an expert at shield magic to wrap her in a protective bubble that keeps her power from exploding out? He can shield the whole of Canterlot from attack, but creating a barrier to protect one baby from herself is too hard? If it hadn't been for Starlight's B plot being entertaining this whole episode would've been irredeemable to me.
* To Where And Back Again, Part 1 & Part 2
** Psyga315: With the wounds of ACW mended, it feels sensible to shift to a new DMOS. No, it's not how Celestia and the others were captured to make Starlight look good; they actually introduced her and fleshed her out a bit unlike what they did with Shining Armor and Cadance. The problem here is that the heroes simply let Chrysalis go. You're telling me that you imprison (or even kill) villains who enslave Equestria under different means ranging from eternal night/chaos to draining Equestria of all its magic, sometimes twice, and yet for the villain who caused terrorist attacks and multiple kidnappings (and if we're accounting comics as canon, the genocide of an entire nation), you not only offer a hoof of friendship (granted, the one who offered said friendship was no saint herself) but when she obviously didn't go for it, just let her go despite knowing full well that she'll be back? There's Turn the Other Cheek and then there's letting a known terrorist linger around. There's an old saying: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
** BobRiddle: Chrysalis takes out everypony but Starlight and...is beaten with no effort at all. THIS is how you end a season after the previous two finales at least had epic fight scenes?!?
== Season 7 ==
* Parental Glideance
** MsCC93: Rainbow Dash (while in a harsh way) telling her parents about their childish behavior, reducing them to tears. While it was harsh of Dash to do that, you can't help but take her side in this. She is completely right in how her parents are too supportive to the point that they act very immature for their age. The thing is, I find Rainbow Dash to to be more mature than her parents because when she cheers for her friends or others, she doesn't behave in such a way. I mean you can deliver a moral regarding loving your parents without ignoring their childish behavior.
** treehugger0369: What got me about that is how easily it could have been fixed—once Rainbow's parents noted how Rainbow's performance at the end was a bit embarrassing, the opportunity was handed to the writers on a platter: Rainbow could have pointed out, more calmly than before, how embarrassing they were being, and agree to let them praise her all they want behind closed doors as long as they promised to tone it down in public, now that they had an idea of how she felt. It would have added maybe 15 seconds tops to the episode (admittedly, I don't know how strict episode lengths are, but there had to be something they could cut here and there to make this work), and it would have made them making amends feel much more natural and believable since her parents weren't as innocent as the episode tries to make you think by the end of it. It also would have added a realistic layer of Parents as People—parents aren't perfect and can sometimes learn from their own kids, which I think is a valid lesson. But nope, they just chose to leave that line as a cheap joke and sweep the hypocrisy under the rug for the remainder of the episode. I actually found this aspect of Rainbow's parents more annoying than Zephyr in "Flutter Brutter"—at least Zephyr learned a lesson and got some kind of Character Development by the end.
* Honest Apple
** Midna: Coco Pommel (or "Miss Pommel", I guess) gets an offhanded reference as the designer of a hideous outfit that Applejack gets to mock. This is the last time she is ever so much as mentioned in the show, aside from an extremely brief cameo in the finale. Screwed by the Lawyers or no, that just isn't how you write out a fan-favorite character.
* Shadow Play, Part 1
** Shamrock95: Put quite simply, this episode has the most glaring and blatant use of the IdiotBall that I have seen not just in this show, but in any other show. Twilight and her friends discover that Starswirl the Bearded and the other Pillars of Equestria sealed themselves in Limbo a thousand years ago in order to imprison the Pony of Shadows, and that there is a way to bring the Pillars back from Limbo. Now, given how intelligent and analytical Twilight is, you would expect her to pick up on the possibility that they may end up also releasing the Pony of Shadows if they release the Pillars, and at the very least try and set up a failsafe. But no—Twilight is so blinded by her Starswirl fangirl side that she decides to go ahead and release them with no regard for the consequences. Surprise surprise, the Pony of Shadows is released, because Twilight—who is supposed to be the smart, intelligent, rational member of the Mane 6—was apparently too stupid and shortsighted to see that coming. This was enough to make me turn away from this episode in disgust, as it is a simply unforgivable case of Idiot Plot. I can honestly say that I was immensely disappointed, and now consider this to be the show's nadir.
Benthelame: Going with this episode (both parts) too albeit for differing reasons. The rules leave me unable to address the problem as a whole and restrict us to moments, so I'm just going to go with the moment the Pony Of Shadows got released. Why? It doesn't do anything substantial. It looks better than most villains that the show has had over the years but that's literally its only strength. I shall elaborate further: In this episode, we find out that Starswirl the Bearded, the legendary wizard that has been mentioned since season one, is alive and what's he doing? He's restricting an evil so big, so powerful, so completely and utterly dangerous that the only choice is to seal himself and his buddies in Limbo along with it to make sure it doesn't destroy Equestria. I thought we were getting the MLP FIM equivalent of Aku here, but nope. The moment the Pony of Shadows is released it sends a few blasts of dark magic at all present, darkens the sky a little, eventually leaves to recover lost power and our heroines are left relatively undisturbed to rifle through books and figure out how to stop him. Literally, there's no interference from him beyond that. The conclusion they come to? Let's seal it away again. You really needed to go home and rifle through old books to come up with that one? Really? By the time they arrive to do it, Our "villain" hasn't even finished "regaining power" (which apparently consists of standing around doing absolutely nothing in a musty creepy place. At least Tirek had the sense to keep draining magic.) and our ultimate solution involves nothing other than "Pull the pony with the insanely fragile feelings and the pathetic thousand year old grudge out of the black gook." Thanks.
== Season 8 ==
* A Matter of Principals
** I Like Robots: So, yeah, I get that reformed Discord is supposed to be a Lovable Rogue and a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, but his behavior in this episode was just plain insufferable.
The worst moment of the entire episode, though, was the ending: Starlight apologizes to Discord, who has done nothing but be a jerkass the entire episode, claiming that she should have approached the situation like a guidance counselor, and promises to make him secondary head mare. So what exactly is the moral here? 'If your feelings are hurt or you feel bad about something, feel free to make others suffer until they relent and give you what you want?'
Other episodes where Discord's antics have gotten out of hand at least have Discord realizing the error of his ways, other ponies calling him out for it (Fluttershy during the Smooze incident), or Discord himself getting some kind of retribution for his actions (him getting sick at the end of "Three's a Crowd"). This one trying to justify such selfish and bratty behavior just left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't hate Discord, but episodes like this really don't help his case.
* The Washouts
** Bobg: When Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash see that Lightning Dust is the leader of The Washouts, Scootaloo has no idea who Lightning is, made clear when she says "You two know each other?". This creates a huge Plot Hole, as Scootaloo knew all about her and told Rainbow's parents about her in Parental Glideance. This gets even worse at the end when we see that Rainbow's parents have joined the Scootaloo fan club, making it clear the writers remember that episode. How the heck did they miss that detail than?
* Father Knows Beast
** Drake Clawfang: What might have been merely a bad episode reached the deepest pits of rage I could feel for the show when Spike pulls the "You're Not My Father" bit on Twilight.
That line transcended the episode and translated to direct anger and disgust for the writer when they assigned Spike that line. Twilight raised Spike, she hatched him, they grew up together, she bathed him, fed him, taught him, disciplined him. She is the only parental figure he has ever known for his entire life, and they consider each other family, as stated in "Once Upon a Zepplin".
Spike's rejection of Twilight as a parental figure in favor of his real father is the cherry on top of an Idiot Plot episode. It's a slap in the face to everyone who cared about Spike and Twilight's relationship and it spits on the past seven seasons spent exploring it.
== Season 9 ==
* The Beginning of the End
** Teleport_Ted: King Sombra's new characterization? Dumbed-down, stereotypical Big Bad Wannabe. Welp... farewell, unique No-Nonsense Nemesis from "The Crystal Empire" and "The Cutie Re-Mark"... and goodbye, Character Development and World Building note from the FIENDship Is Magic and Siege of the Crystal Empire comics. Sadly, this wasn't the only reason why Season 9 became my least-favorite Season; but it's certainly the first one that comes to mind.
* The Ending of the End
** Aj Wargo: Brace yourself for what I consider to be the biggest slap in the face ever, fellow bronies. In a twist so stupid and abysmal... there was no Grogar. It was Discord in disguise using the villains to prepare Twilight to be a good ruler. They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character doesn’t even begin to describe this. For one thing, this goes against nearly everything about Discord- why would he be trying to use these villains as pawns if he knows Tirek attacked him before? Also, there wasn’t that many hints that this was the case- Grogar never displayed any semblance of Discord’s personalty, and they even got a different voice actor, which makes me feel sorry for Doc Harris. The poor guy deserved much better than that. The only hint was a single line line from Discord, but that, in my opinion, was not enough. And, in terms of writing, why would you deny the fans a final battle with one of G1’s best villains? I am personally angry about this because I am a die-hard fan of G1 and was looking forward to a proper final battle. This ruined the finale for me and made me fear for the future of this franchise.
** O_Zone: While the twist does feel like a bit of an Ass Pull, I actually could have been more forgiving of it if not for one small thing; the way we find out it's Discord. The Bewitching Bell takes Discord's powers away from him...you know the same item that "Grogar" told the trio about back in Frenemies? The same one HE told them to retrieve? So basically, Discord inadvertently set up his own downfall not thinking the Trio would use said bell on HIM...his plan could have ultimately still failed without the bell (they could have turned on him another way), and while this wouldn't have save the eventual twist, I feel it would have made it more palpable.
** Javertshark 13: The worst part about the twist is the sheer level of Moral Dissonance involved. Up until the reveal, I was actually impressed that the writers had manged to flesh out the villains and make them somewhat sympathetic, due to Grogar's abusive treatment of them. Then we find out that Discord was using the villains, including a child, as disposable pawns, and we're expected to sympathize with his motives in doing this. Apparently, we're not supposed to care that Discord showed such callousness towards their lives, and we're actually meant to feel sorry for him because the villains he was abusing turned on him. It's a complete double standard, as until this point, Grogar's treatment of the villains seemed to depict him as even worse than they were, but then we're told that since it was actually Discord, it's suddenly forgivable. Even when the heroes call him out, they're only angry that his plan was reckless and put Equestria in danger, with no one mentioning that abusing and manipulating others, regardless of their own crimes, is wrong. It's bad enough on its own, but the fact that he involved Cozy Glow in this makes it downright disgusting. We're actually being told that child abuse is forgivable, as long as said child is evil, and therefore deserves anything she gets. It's irredeemable for the writers, and is easily the most sickening thing I've seen on the show.
** Threedogs123: For me, it's what they do to Cozy Glow, turning a child into stone. So many adults were given a second chance despite also doing awful things, including a mare who enslaved a village and tried to alter the past despite seeing it could result in the apocalypse, a mare who betrayed her country and lead an invasion on it, personally turning three of the princesses to stone and imprisoning civilians in cages, and a reality warping being who turned the land into a CrapsackWorld. All of them far more powerful than a simple child. Even a trio of evil creatures who tried to conquer the world and never actually reformed were allowed to walk around free after their defeat. Yet a child gets imprisoned in Tartarus presumably for life and later turned into stone presumably for all eternity. Nobody ever bothered with a more normal prison with an explicitly not lifelong sentence even in the season 8 finale. They gave her a fucking life sentence instead of anything else. Yet the sirens were allowed to run free. No wonder so many people were pissed about the season 8 finale. The writers had a chance to fix this in season 9, and instead they made it even worse. She was already serving her stupidly harsh sentence in Tartarus before being forcefully broken out and railroaded into committing more crimes with the end result of being given an even harsher sentence suggested by the person who broke her out in the first place, who is allowed to run free. What a horrible miscarriage of justice. Again, we have no reason to believe that it won't be permanent. I don't care what anyone else says, as far as I'm concerned, all the heroes have crossed the MoralEventHorizon by virtue of the fact that none of them objected to this. This ruined the entire series for me, and the fact that so many people say she deserved it disgusts me. I only hope that the comics or WordOfGod confirm that she will not necessarily have to stay in stone for all eternity.
** tvlegend: While I am quite upset with the twist that Grogar is not real, the thing about it that sickens me most is the fact that Discord put Fluttershy, his closest friend, in danger. Let me repeat that. Discord just put his best friend in a situation where she could have been seriously hurt, or even killed, all so that he could give Twilight a confidence boost! If one of my friends was in need of a confidence boost, I wouldn't lock him in a house with a serial killer! Even though Fluttershy isn't my favorite member of the Mane 6 (That honor goes to Rainbow Dash), I'm still quite ticked off that Discord wound up endangering her life through this stupid plan of his!
----
:<small>Back to [[{{ROOTPAGENAME}}]]</small>
| |||